It began in November 2005. I was having abnormal bleeding and passing huge blood clots. I knew something wasn’t right because who bleeds everyday and something isn’t wrong? So I went in for a pap smear and my gyn saw immediately the 7cm tumor looking back at her. She immediatly did a biopsy and two weeks later my world was turned upside down. I began my chemo and radiation treatments in December of 2005. In January I had my first surgery. Chemo was ruining my veins, so I had a port put into my chest. That is a site where the IV hooks up to instead of having to use your veins. I received chemo once a week and radiation was everyday. My doctors were trying to shrink the tumor in order to do surgery. Then my next surgery was for a uterine implant that would aid in the internal raditation I was to undergo next. So very painful, I must tell you. I would receive external radiation 4 days a week and internal on Friday’s and chemo once a week. Finally in February, I was able to stop everything due to the tumor shrinking. March 28, 2006, I had a radical hysterectomy. That means everything is gone including 1/2 of my vagina. I thought that I was out of the woods. They even took lymph nodes and the cancer hadn’t spread. In may I found blood in my stools. No big deal, it’s probably a hemorrhoid. Wrong! I was immediately scheduled for a colonoscopy to figure out what was going on. My doctor couldn’t even get in 1/2 way. Radiation had obstructed my colon and could back up at any time. I underwent surgery again on October 16, 2006 for a colon resection. Two feet of my colon was removed and I had a colostomy bag for two months. During the same surgery, my doctor also corrected a problem I was having with my right ureter and right kidney. He had to reimplant my ureter into my bladder. I went home after four days in the hospital one of those days was spent in the ICU. I had a catheter for two weeks which cause a major UTI that I didn’t even know about until a month later when I ended up in the hopital in Huntsville, Al. I went up to see my mother for the Thanksgiving holiday and had a fever and didn’t know it. Come to find out I had kidney failure and was septic due to the UTI from the catheter because of the surgery. Such a vicious cycle. I was down to 120 lbs. Now that may sound good to some of you, but remember, I’m 5’10. I looked like dawn of the dead!! Not good. So, I finally had my colostomy bag removed (such a happy day!) and started gaining weight. I just had my port removed a week ago. So, that was a finalization for me. I am so happy to be able to share my story. I hope that this was an encouragement to you and please whatever you do, get your annual pap smears!