If leaflets could make anything better I would already be well on the way to recovery. You find yourself reading them as much for comfort as for information. The fact that they produce such leaflets indicates that this is all kind of normal, happening to lots of people, an everyday occurrence. Imagine having something so rare and frightening that there was no leaflet to explain it to you.
This post is about to become an object lesson in getting that unusual bleeding checked out. Pretty much the entire of my menopausal symptoms has been unusual bleeding, so this was my problem. Things had been progressing much the same over the last however many months since I last posted, random intermittent periods, some lengthy, some long gaps. Then in June I got a letter inviting me to come for my cervical smear test. Then I started bleeding, so I put it off. And I carried on bleeding. And then it went on a bit longer. It faded in and out a few times but was mostly continuous until the end of August when we came back from holiday. The beginning of September (17th) I finally made an appointment and saw the nurse. When she gave me the 'Can you give me the date of your last period?' question I explained to her what had been going on. I thought nothing more about it but a week later I got a call from the surgery inviting me to make an appointment to discuss it with the doctor. (28th September) She listened to the same description and then did an examination. She said there was a polyp on my cervix and she wanted (because of my age) to refer me to the hospital for further investigation. Like with the breast lump it was one of those 'get an appointment within two weeks' things. Later that week (1st October) Monkey and I were in the Arndale in town on my day off when a nice young man from the hospital called. He said they had a cancellation and could I come in that afternoon.
So a few hours later I found myself at St. Mary's with a camera up my nether regions, having a hysteroscopy. It was actually quite cool to get to see the inside of my uterus, and in hindsight nice that I got to see it before they took it away. She removed the polyp and they took a biopsy and she said that although the wall of my uterus was a little thickened and I had a small cyst on one ovary everything looked fine and that I should make an appointment to come back in 3 months. I went home, feeling reassured. The letter came from the smear test people and everything was normal.
Then the following Friday (9th October) the young man called again while I was at work and said there had been a mistake and I needed to come back for my test results. I said to him, oh no, I was told to come back in three months. He said he had an appointment for me the following week, and when I tried to say that it was not convenient because I would be at work he told me it was urgent.
That was the first time I cried at work.
I tried very hard to be calm and rational but the next week was not much fun. As you might imagine stuff went around my head. Thursday 15th October I left work early and sat for over half an hour past my appointment time. Then the consultant I had seen the previous week, plus a nurse specialist, sat me down and told me that I had endometrial cancer. It was a relief to have it said out loud, because once the worst has happened you are in a far better place to deal with it. Then she said I would be coming in for a total hysterectomy within the next month. This includes the removal of the cervix, fallopian tubes and ovaries. Because the cancer is hormone based they are taking away the source of oestrogen completely to help ensure it does not recur. It is very small and early stage. They will not know until after the operation but they are fairly confident that it will be contained within the uterus and that I should not need any further treatment. I was then referred on to a gynaecology oncology specialist and saw one doctor who is on the team on the 28th October, though she will not be the person doing my operation. She gave me their first available appointment, so I am due to be admitted on the 24th November.
So here is the message: unusual bleeding - go to the doctor, especially any bleeding after you are official post-menopause. Pay attention to your body, take care of yourself, catch it early.
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