My Fight Begins

Today has been an up and down day and a very long day, so I'm going to keep it short and factual (not a lot of inspiration today).  I found out I have stage 1 cancer - which is really good news.  This means all of the cancer is contained in my cervix and has not spread to any other parts of me.  The bad news is that the tumour is quite large.  So large that the doctors feel surgery is not my best plan of treatment.  So I will be starting chemotherapy and radiation in the next 2 weeks.  I meet with my radiation team on Thursday to make official plans. I will go for radiation Monday through Friday (5 days a week) for five consecutive weeks.  During this time, I will have chemotherapy once a week.  This is still just sinking in.  Based on previous appointments, I was not expecting this.  I had thought surgery was a great quick fix.  But the doctors really emphasized how invasive surgery would be and how long my recovery would be.  They also explained that I would for sure need radiation after surgery, so why go through both if I can just do one treatment plan?   They felt very strongly that radiation (with a little chemo) is the best way to treat the size of tumour I have and the kind of cancer I have (I have a rare, more aggressive kind that is less common).  Apparently my kind responds really well to radiation.   So the secret of what is going on in my body is finally revealed.  I got good news and surprising news.   I'm dreading chemo and radiation, but it will feel good to be DOING something against cancer.  My girls are happy I won't have a long hospital visit.  I'm happy I don't have to recover from surgery.  Hopefully I don't get too sick during treatments.  So there you have it.  It does feel great to know what's going on and what to expect.  Thank you for all of your prayers and care.  We will continue to need these as we move forward.  We do feel so much love from so many people - thank you!