My hysterectomy for cancer was considered curative – is it normal to feel nervous about a recurrence?
Jax, Massachusetts, USA: My gyn-oncologist told me my radical hysterectomy was curative in close to 95% of cases. He also said that recurrence was most likely in the first eighteen to twenty-four months. I haven’t passed that watershed yet and believe me, every abdominal twist and twinge feels scary to me. The best I can say about this is that it doesn’t surprise me that I would feel cautious; the whole experience is a horror show and it feels pretty natural to feel wary. My answer is to keep my medical team apprised of anything that feels ‘strange’ and to trust their judgement. This is where having a doctor you feel confident with is so important! Katie, California, USA: My lymph node involvement puts me at a high risk for recurrence and, since I was followed so closely, it seemed that my doctors almost expected me to relapse. I got a certain perverse satisfaction out of proving them wrong every three months, but I still was very fearful at first. One year after treatment was complete
