The result I was dreading

The results of all the tests come back clear, all except one.  It is the result that I was dreading.  There is something shown up on my cervical smear test, a preliminary diagnosis of cin3 otherwise known as severe diskaryosis or cancer in situ.  It is still considered to be pre-cancerous cells but needs treating urgently.  I am told that ttc MUST be put on hold until this is treated.  I refuse, if I get pregnant then treatment will have to wait.

I don't have long to wait for my appointment for a colposcopy.  When I get to the hospital it is confirmed that I am not pregnant.  The doctor checks my history and notes that I had laser treatment for pre-cancerous cells discovered after my 1st ever smear test when I was 18 years old.  I ask him if treatment will affect our chances of having a successful pregnancy, he tells me that in most cases it has no effect at all.  He offers to just take a small biopsy and send it for testing before I am given treatment, or I can be treated today.  I decide that if I have got to be treated it better be today or I will probably chicken out and not come back.

The doctor performs the colposcopy, he tells me that what he is seeing is definitely cin3 in most places but in one small area he can't be sure if its not something more sinister.  He tells me that he is going to use a loop diathermy to cut away the affected tissue, he is removing just over a third of my cervix.  This is sent for testing to confirm the diagnosis.  Ttc is now on hold until I heal, this takes nearly 10 weeks.

I receive a letter from the hospital with the results of the tests.  It confirms the news that deep down i already knew, stage 1a1 cervical cancer.  Fortunately it is confined to a very small area and the doctor removed it all with the treatment I've already had, I just have to go for an MRI scan to check that it hadn't spread to the lymph nodes.  Three months after my colposcopy and treatment I am given the all clear.  I have to have a repeat colposcopy in six months followed by another smear test six months after that, then i will have to have annual smear tests for the next ten years rather than having them every 3-5 years.