I was 35, happily married with 3 kids aged 15, 9 & 7. I hadn’t had a Pap smear since my last baby. It’s something I knew I should do but like all mums, we always put everyone else first and I kept putting it off. Years passed and I finally went to see my GP after suffering years of painful, heavy periods. My GP was concerned, and mentioned fibroids but will wait for results. A couple of days later I had a call and my GP said I had high grade CIN3 and needed to see a specialist at the hospital.
After more testing and a cone biopsy, I was told I had some large fibroids and the dreaded cervical cancer. I felt numb, I literally didn’t feel anything. On the upside they were quite certain they had got it all in the biopsy, but wanted to do a hysterectomy to reduce the chances of it returning. The next time I saw the surgeon all ready to have my hysterectomy the following day, he found a lump inside my cervix and decided to do a biopsy first. Then I got the dreaded call, I’m sorry it’s more cancer. Within a week I had had a radical hysterectomy, and was very lucky they removed the cancer and I had no other treatment. I then had to see the oncologist every 3 months, then 6 monthly and now 12 monthly. I’m 2.5 years cancer free…and still cant believe that it happened to me. I feel lucky and blessed and tell everyone to keep up with your Pap smears…my story could have been so different. Don’t wait, if your due or over due…just do it!