New Beginnings

My mother has been bugging me (in the nicest way) to start writing about all that I am going through right now and with all that has been going on, this has been the first day that I have had the energy and drive to even write these words. I wondered whether to continue on one of my existing blogs or to start with this one which I had created some time ago but never put anything into. Today when I logged into my blogs, this one seemed to be waiting for me. So here I am. We'll see how far I get with it.

On about the 15th of February this year I was told that I have uterine cancer. I had the biopsy and it came out positive (which has always seemed strange to me to have a positive cancer test result. I promise you it is one of the most negative I have ever received). Just over a month later on the 25th of March I went in for surgery - hysterectomy. It was to be a three to four hour surgery but resulted in 9 hours of surgery and the discovery of tumors all over my abdomen as well as positive result (there is that word again) for ovarian cancer also. Along with the hysterectomy, they removed my appendix, my omentum, parts of several lymph nodes, tumors on my diaphragm and 4 inches of my colon.

Stage 2 uterine cancer, stage 3 ovarian cancer. Just like that. It started with a long lasting sense of general illness. General malaise.I went to the clinic three times, started various antibiotics and so forth for a flu, UTI, so forth. During the third visit the doctor on call thought she felt a lump in my abdomen and called for a CT scan. They told me to see the gynecologist. And so forth.

Now it is almost 4 months since the surgery and I am halfway through with my chemotherapy. I will be filling in more details and impressions as I continue (hopefully) to write all this down, but I wanted to get the basics out there. A framework to start from. It has all been so overwhelming and strange and educational (for lack of a better word). I have a lot to fill in but for now at least I have made a beginning.