Updates and Blossoming Hope

Ok, so I had another appointment with my oncologist today. I had yet another exam, I swear by the time this is done, I'll have zero shame left. Luckily my doctor is very sensitive and understands my anxiety so he has a sense of humor and also talks me through everything he is doing. I've had a few days to process and really sort through everything in my head. I spent all of Saturday sobbing, but now, I'm feeling pretty good.

Essentially, I don't have cancer yet. However, I am concerned extremely high risk for getting cancer. Within the next 3-5 years, I'll be getting a hysterectomy. But, today I received good news! My doctor is optimistic that the hormone treatment that I am on will work and stop the growth of the precancerous cells in my uterus. He expects that with 6-9 months my biopsy with be benign and within one year it's possible that I will be able to carry a pregnancy with the assistance of a fertility specialist, possibly IVF. If that doesn't work, I'll be able to do an egg retrieval and use a surrogate to have a bio baby. Either way, there is hope that someday I'll have a child. It may be a few years from now and it may be a tough to get there, but I have hope!

For those curious what I'm going through, I'm participating in a clinical trial to help out other people with this issue in hopes that hormone therapy in combination with a medicine used for diabetes treatment will change cellular growth and the way glucose is processed on a cellular level which could potentially aid in the fight against certain female cancers and colon cancer! I'm excited to be apart of this because while this is a terrible, horrible situation, at least I know that maybe possibly some good science will come from it.

I am so happy just knowing that someday, somehow, I'll probably get to hold my baby! Until then, we're looking at adoption!

On Tough Decisions and Dealing with Infertility

This is a tough post for me to write because writing it down makes it like... REAL. Which is scary.

I have advanced complex endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial atypia. These are big fancy words for precancerous cells in my uterus. Most women that are diagnosed with this are older, usually premenopausal. And of those women, about 80% of them choose to have their uterus removed to stop it from becoming cancer. I've had a hormone imbalance for a long time and the lack of progesterone and over abundance of estrogen caused this over many years. My doctor explained all this to me, followed by "While a hysterectomy is the most common treatment, there are others. You are a young woman and probably did not see this coming or expect to be facing the loss of your fertility, this is not lost on me."

So, we came up with a plan to deal with this. In approximately 2 weeks, I'll have an IUD (intrauterine device) placed inside my uterus which will place concentrated levels of progesterone right into my uterus. Eventually, I'll stop bleeding altogether. While this is inside me, I will not be able to get pregnant.

Now for the emotional part. Excuse me if I sound cliche. I have always wanted to be a mother. Not just in the stereotypical "all little girls want to have a baby" way, no, I've always wanted kids of my own. I've been working in children's ministry and church for twelve years and I've been an aunt to 3 amazing kids. Long before my first niece came around, I wanted a baby. I wanted a child when I was 17. And I always thought I'd be the first of my parents children to have kids.
And then I was 24 and married and I was so ready, but my husband convinced me to wait a year. Well that year passed quickly between my father getting sick and my new little nephew being born. We started trying the beginning of this year. After 5 months of trying casually, I starting tracking my basal body temperature and taking ovulation tests. All to no avail.

And then yesterday I found out that I wasn't ovulating, I was just bleeding incessantly.

After the news I received yesterday, while a better outcome than cancer, I still have to face the prospect of never having biological children. And that's a pain I never expected to feel.

So after a lot of thinking, I'm pretty sure I've figure out what I'm going to do.
I'm going to do this clinical trial. I'm going to use the IUD. I want to do that for a little while and hopefully go through fertility treatment to be able to do egg extraction. I would conceivably like that have 10-20 eggs extracted and frozen. I will save these for a time when we can afford surrogacy. In the meantime, once we get our house, I'm going to sign up with as many adoption agencies as possible. We will likely adopt before any bio babies come along. I don't want to wait any longer and I've always wanted to adopt so maybe this is God's plan.

Once I've had several eggs extracted, I will proceed with a preventative hysterectomy. I will be menopausal by the time I am 30.

I feel good with this decision but at the same time, I still feel sad at the idea of possibly never holding my biological child in my arms. It feels horrible that the idea of my perfect little blonde daughter that I've always imagined now feels like smoke, completely intangible and with every passing minute, she fades a little more. And it hurts. It hurts so bad. And now everywhere I go, I see all these pregnant women and I feel so angry and jealous and sad.

It hurts. It hurts so bad. I don't know how else to word it other than that. It hurts.

Diagnosis

So today was my first appointment with my oncologist.
First things first, my doctor is great, very optimistic and informative, as well as understanding.
So basically, NOT CANCER, well not yet.
 It has about a 40%-50% chance of becoming cancer. So I'm high risk of getting cancer. It's called advanced complex  hyperplasia and endometrial atypia. Essentially it's still precancerous. We're going to be treating it FIRST with hormone replacement. In about 2, I'll be getting a device implanted in my uterus. I'll be part of a clinical trial to see if this helps stop the growth of the precancerous cells. If that doesn't work, we will proceed with the full hysterectomy. So basically I'm going through treatment to keep it from becoming cancer.

First Post

I created this blog to document my cancer journey. I haven't been diagonosed yet, but told that I have a precancerous abnormality in my uterus.
Let's start at the beginning. If you're uncomfortable reading about menstrual cycles and female reproductive organs, you'll want to stop reading here.
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I have had problems with my cycle for as long as I can remember. I've gone months at a time without bleeding, then I'd bleed for weeks at a time. Well, it got out of control earlier this year. I bled all of February, March, and all but one week in April. I finally sucked up my fear and went to the gynecologist. This set up a chain reaction of issues. I had a severe anxiety attack at the gynecologist's office, which spiked my blood pressure to dangerous levels. I was put on blood pressure medication as well as Xanax for my anxiety. I then found out that my "high blood pressure" was actually caused by the fact that the heavy bleeding had triggered severe anemia. For example, ones hemoglobins should be at a 15. Mine was at a 7. Then after a lot of blood work and an internal ultrasound, it was found that I had an EXTREMELY thick endometrium. So I had to have surgery. The surgery was performed on June 7th of this year. I had a D&C, hysteroscopy, and a myosure. After the surgery, I was assured that everything had gone as expected, everything looked good and that I should start getting my period as normal. It has now been 2 months since I last bled.

Therein lies the bad. I got a call from my gynecologist's office asking to push up my appointment. I didn't want to freak out but I felt like something was wrong. I took the first appointment I could get, June 21st. I'll never forget the date because it was such a hectic time at work with Costco going live. I  knew something was wrong the minute my doctor walked in. She looked solemn. You know the feeling when the room closing in on you and all the air leaves the room. That happened when she told me what was going on.

I have an abnormal growth in the lining of my uterus. Right now they're calling it precancerous. I've been referred to an oncologist. I'll be seeing him on July 8th. I've also been referred to a fertility clinic because it's likely that they might have to take my uterus out, meaning that I'll never be able to carry my own children.

I sobbed for 2 days.

Now I feel completely numb.

I also have to lose a lot of weight because the extra estrogen in my fat cells is helping the abnormal growth, grow even more.

So a lot will be changing with me in the next couple months. In the mean time, I sit trapped in my head because I feel completely isolated.