Vegas, baby!

80 to 90% – that’s my 5 year survival rate. Sure, those odds sound awesome when you’re in Vegas. Hell yeah! Put $500 on black! Pull that slot machine! But when it’s your survival odds – they don’t sound so awesome.

Sure, the odds could be worse. And I could get hit by a dementia-suffering dude while driving on the highway which always has the potential to make my 1-day survival rate approximately zero. But still. They could be a hell of a lot better. Especially when coupled with a 35% chance of recurrence in the next year. I’m not so jazzed about that either. But honestly, at this point (2 days before surgery) I’m feeling pretty damn good. Call it acceptance, call it denial, hell, call it Shirley if you want – but I’m good. Really. I got this. I’ve come to terms with all the possibilities – all clear on Thursday, bad news on Thursday and I need chemo and radiation, and the possibility that I’ll have to wrestle with this ugly beast again in the not so distant future. I think it’s because I know no matter what happens, I will not be in that 10-20%. Not. Going. To. Happen. I know that. And knowing, boys and girls, is half the battle.

Apologies for the long delay between posts for the 2 or 3 people that are bothering to read. Been a little busy what with the running off to Vegas to get married, and spending time with my wonderful mom who flew out to visit/help out after surgery. Kinda been busy living and whatnot. So when last I left, I had been referred to a new doc who seemed to know his stuff. Mostly. We went ahead and scheduled a colposcopy (coating the cervix in an acetic acid to highlight abnormalities, then using a magnifying machine to examine it), an endocervical biopsy (ECC) and an endometrial biopsy. Me being a smart chicky, went ahead and did some research on those. Let’s just say that if you believe everything you read on-line, an endometrial biopsy causes agonizing pain equivalent of Nazi medical experiments. (If you’re offended by that, then you should read more stories from women on how their doctors treat them. Seriously.) While I wasn’t looking forward to the tests, I found myself wanting the date to hurry up and arrive so I could figure out what in the world was brewing in my lady parts.

Biopsy day. Light breakfast followed by lots and lots of motrin. And then one more motrin for good measure when I got to the doctor’s office. Just wanted to be prepared for getting carved up. Whee hoo. He strolls in to the room to chat and go over the procedures, and only mentions 2 of the biopsies – the one he doesn’t mention is THE test for my test results – the ECC. Hmmm. I remind him that we need to do the ECC as well. He hems and haws and I finally put my foot down and demand it. He had to tell the nurse to prepare one more specimen jar. Seriously? He wasn’t going to do one of the mandated freaking biopsies for my test results. Guess he wasn’t an expert on my test results after all. Shocking. Ok doc, let’s get going and get this over with.

Now before I start this next section, in my defense, I was hopped up on a large amount of motrin, adrenaline, stress and fear. It wasn’t until afterwards that I realized that my doc was a bigger moron than previously thought. So cue biopsies. Cervical biopsy – ow. That kind of pinched. Ok. Endometrial biopsy – OH. DEAR. GOD! This should never be done to women without massive amounts of drugs. Sure, it was over in about 30 seconds, but seriously. Do something that causes that much pain to any random dude and it would immediately be a medical standard to prescribe oxycontin and xanax beforehand. But womenfolk? Nah – suck it up. (All the old male doctors that make the rules have decided that this doesn’t hurt and doesn’t require painkillers. Bullshit.) And last but not least, the ECC – owie. More owie than the cervical biopsy, less owie than the endometrial biopsy. But it took a lot longer, and at that point, I wanted to go curl up with a heating pad, more drugs and large amounts of bourbon. Finally finished with the biopsies, the doctor proceeds to look at the floor and tell me the results would be back in a week or so. Then he proceeds to practically bolt from the room. Me finally being a smart-ish chicky, ask him how things looked – because had he done the procedure properly, he would have seen any abnormalities. He mumbles something about seeing a fibroid tumor, and THEN bolts out of the room. Hmmm. Odd. Now on to why I now think he’s a moron – remember that biopsy that involved an acid wash and a big machine to closely examine abnormal cells? Yeah. He didn’t do the wash. He didn’t use the big machine. He just randomly took a biopsy. Idiot. I’m still furious about it now – how many women has he missed pre-cancers or cancers on because he didn’t bother to do the test properly? And yes, I will be having a little chat with my insurance company about him. It’s just not exactly on the top of my priority list right now. But I will get to it. Honest.

So tests done – now the wait. The wait is the worst part of all of this. I don’t care what diagnosis you get – the wait sucks. Your imagination can have all kinds of fun tormenting you in all the copious amounts of spare time you have wondering what the doc will say. And yes, you can try to keep yourself busy and have people tell you not to worry since worrying won’t change anything and to try not to think about it. Bullshit. You will think about it. And even when you don’t want to think about it, your subconscious will be having a field day. Trust me on this. Thankfully, I only had a week to worry – and the worrying wasn’t really too bad this time. It was my first abnormal pap ever, after all. I assumed it was some abnormal cells that they could just remove, or worst case a few pre-cancerous cells that would require a little more in-depth removal, but still fairly easy. Piece of cake.

What I wasn’t prepared for was for my phone to ring a week later at 7:00am. Who the hell calls someone at 7:00am?!?! Oh. This one thing the doctor did right. He called me literally as soon as he got my results. Endometrial biopsy – clear. (Yay!) Cervical biopsy – carcinoma suggestive of endocervical adenocarcinoma in-situ, micro-invasion cannot be ruled out. ECC – adenocarcinoma in-situ. Shit. My brain heard ‘carcinoma’ and whispered ‘cancer’ for the first time. Needless to say, I was too numb to ask any questions. I thanked him and immediately went and curled up in bed with my man who got the pleasure of waking up to me crying on his chest telling him it was cancer. Awesome.

After much, much time spent on google, I learned that adenocarcinoma in-situ is kind of a pseudo-cancer. It’s cancerous cells, but they haven’t really spread anywhere – they’re localized on the surface mostly. Some doctors don’t even consider it a ‘real’ cancer – it’s a shadowy thing that is somewhere in between a severe pre-cancer and cancer. So that was ok. But the crappy part is that even with adenocarcinoma in-situ, a hysterectomy is the standard of practice for treatment. Oh, and the other crappy part is the fact that it’s aggressive, fairly uncommon and likes to skip over healthy cells by traveling through the glands to pop up wherever the hell it feels like it. It has no standard pattern of growth or spread. So drastic measures are always taken when it rears its ugly head.

As much as learning that sucked, I would give my left arm (not my right one – I need that) to go back to just being diagnosed with adenocarcinoma in-situ. Looking back, it seems like such a cute, cuddly little thing. Yup – universe still not done screwing with me yet. But luckily, the universe (and TriCare) eventually got one thing right – my next doctor.

2 days until surgery. 2 days until hopefully hearing that I’m cancer-free for now. 2 years of checkups every 3 months, 3 years of checkups every 6 months. After that, I’ll officially be cancer-free. I can’t wait to see 2017. It’s going to be fan-freaking-tastic.

  1. Nicole Lewis LaMain says:

    Hey Samantha!
    Funny that I should find this in my google obsession. *lol* This is “completed” from the health board. I hope you are doing well after your surgery. I am still checking everyday for you update and I am thinking about you.

    • samiam0403 says:

      Well hi there, Nicole! I don’t know why, but I think it’s hilarious that you found my blog after we’d chatted on the other website! I need to get back there and update soon, but I have the energy to do about one thing a day. Today I’m finally getting around to a blog entry, so maybe I’ll update the board tomorrow. 🙂 I hope you’re doing well! Still keeping you in my prayers!

  2. Lori Riley says:

    Hello Samantha, it’s Lori (Todd) Riley. My mom, Mary, forwarded your mom’s email to me. I was diagosed with endometrial cancer last year, September 13th will be the one year anniversary of my hysterectomy. You’re right, that endometrial biopsy was painful! I still remember laying there with tears rolling off my face, trying to pretend I was tough enough to handle it. They are pretty sure all my cancer was contained in the parts they too out. I still had three weeks of radiation, just to be sure. Sorry you had so many problems with your doctors. Mine were super great!! I’ll keep reading your blog. Thanks for writing it. Wishing you all the best.

    • samiam0403 says:

      Hi Lori! Thanks for reading! I’ll keep posting so you’ll have more to read. 🙂 Wow – so sorry to hear of your cancer diagnosis, but glad to hear you had great docs and that they’re confident they got all of it out. 3 weeks of radiation just to be sure? Yikes. I’m hoping to avoid all of that. Here’s hoping that you continue to be cancer-free for the rest of your very long, very healthy life!

  3. Stepanie Rohr says:

    Hey Sam. See, you do have a few people reading your blog! I understand where you were coming from on the biopsies. I had an endometrial biopsy done before i had my ablation done. I remember biting my tongue to keep from shouting the F-bomb, then saying I’d never be able to handle giving birth to a baby! Hope the surgery went well and the you have a speedy recovery. Looking forward to your next post. Take care!

    Stephanie

    • samiam0403 says:

      Hi Steph! Yay! Thanks for reading! Man, those biopsies are a joy, huh? It kind of amuses me that I just had major surgery, and not once in the hospital did I feel the kind of pain I did from the biopsy. *sigh* I hope your biopsy and ablation took care of whatever problems you were having – I didn’t know you had to go through all of this fun stuff as well. New post for the blog is coming soon, by the way. 🙂 Take care!

  4. Marilyn Hunt says:

    Hello Sam! I know you probably don’t remember me but your mom is my Aunt. The last time I saw you were a baby! I just wanted to tell you that I am praying for you and placing you on my church prayer list! I’ve told your mom to keep in touch with me to let me know how you are doing!
    God Bless,
    Marilyn

    • samiam0403 says:

      Hi Marilyn! Thank you so much for the prayers. I really do appreciate them. I’m sure my mom will stay in touch and let you know how things are going. So far, so good! I’m still surprised we haven’t seen each other since I was a baby! I promise I go to the reunions when I can! 🙂 I hope you’re doing well, and thank you for reading!

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