What to expect

The interruption of the urination sounds just like what I have--a cystocele.  I had a pessary put in but found it much too painful to have taken out and cleaned every 3 months (I never had kids--it might be different with you or with different shapes of pessaries).  Before my cancer surgery, I was coughing or sneezing and then wetting my pants a little.  I went back to the pessary after cancer surgery, put up with it for a few months, and then decided the pain just wasn't worth it.  I no longer have the leakage problem.  At one point, before my surgery, I started getting some irritation from the pessary, and the doctor prescibed Trimo-San cream, which has estrogen in it.  A couple of weeks later, I started bleeding.  I checked out a website I used at work and found that the cream could cause bleeding.  I passed it off as that.  I didn't want to have to go back and get another painful pessary change.  When I went back again in three months, I mentioned it then.  That was how my cancer was found.  The doctor said the dose of the cream I was on wasn't a high enough amount of estrogen to be causing the problem.  He had a tech. do an ultrasound on me.  She saw something and went and got him.  Then I had a transvaginal ultrasound and the doctor identified a big polyp.  He said it would most likely be benign.  I'd had one ten years before that was.  This one wasn't.  I turned out to have stage IVb UPSC.  I also had a watery discharge.  I kept using Monistat thinking it was a yeast infection.  It would get better and worse again.  It actually had a bad, kind of fishy smell.  The doctor never seemed to notice it at my pessary changes, so I thought it was just my imagination.

I had heavy periods all my life, but they were worse in later years.  I passed a lot of clots and felt silly running to the bathroom at work so frequently (every hour on my worst days).  I wore both a tampax and a pad in case I leaked. 

As far as the urinary retention goes, I try to sit on the john for a while so I get as much urine as possible out.  I used to work with a woman who had previously worked in a urologist's office.  She told me that keeping urine in the bladder too long just collected more bacteria.  I've found a trick over the years.  I find that if I touch or tickle myself on my tailbone when trying to urinate, more urine comes out.  Sometimes I have to do it mulriple times to get it all out.  I assume I'm stimulating some nerves related to relaxing the bladder.  Try it and see if it works for you.

Joditd said:

Was it like a weird Smell....

Was it like a weird Smell.... like not sweet and not sweaty but almost a mixture? 

how to describe it, especially since it was 6 years ago. It wasn't foul but weird Is a good word. When I first noticed it, I immediately remembered a patient with endometrial cancer I had cared for many years ago.  I couldn't say if it was the same odor but my primal brain must have known. 

Please ask questions about the saline biopsy.  That is not the true way to diagnosis this cancer.  My oncologist thinks a D/C would be better.

On a personal note, I had mucus flowing with blood.  Sorry for the TMI, but I KNEW something was wrong.  It was a good indicator that it was cancer.  

He explained that during a biopsy of the uterus, they can't possibly get the whole thing and it is possible to show a thickened endometrium with polpys or fibroids and then have cancer brewing somewhere else.

I had pre cancer in one spot and actual cancer in the other.  When my original gyno biopsied my lining, she just took it from the wrong section.  If she had gotten the bad part, I would have been diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma grade 1, right on the spot.  Instead it took a total hysterectomy to find out.

Other thing: saline biopsy for me just didn't work.  Too painful because my cervix was closed.  They said it was because I never had children.  Personally I don't trust the biopsy process, but if given the choice for accuracy, I think it should be done during a D/C.  This is just my opinion based on what happened to me.

Good luck!

Karen

the mucus had bloody streaks in it and there was so much, I messed myself at the gym.  Went running off the treadmill to the ladies room.  It also happened at home where I ruined a pair of jeans.  I never had this happen before so I knew something in my heart was not right.

The D/C is more drastic.  But you have to go for surgery for that.  It's a quick surgery.  Takes less than one hour.  I know because I had 3 of them until they found my cancer!  The saline to me is just by looking at the ultrasound and targeting a spot.  Which spot?  Is it the right one?  The accuracy of a D/C biopsy (because the uterine lined is scraped is more accurate) about 90 percent.  At least they came up with Pre cancer.  Little did I know, it was already cancer stage 1 brewing in the background.

Hopefully all you have are some fibroids or polyps.   Then you can put this behind you.

Best of luck!

Karen

tell your doctor EVERYTHING...

I was having the heavy mid-cycle bleeding like you describe---the clots and so much blood...I bled in the hallway at the school I work at (thank goodness the kids were in class)...literally a trail of blood...

I gained weight and no one could figure out why. I exercise 5-7 days a week doing spin class and yoga and burning more calories than I took in but I continued to gain weight and my primary care doc and endocrinologist could find no explanation (both thought it might be thyroid)

changes in bowel and bladder habits can indicate disease so please tell your doctor...I did not have those symptoms but my friend with ovarian cancer did...

there is an excellent chance it will all be ok but leave no stone undturned and give your doctor as much information as you can so he/she can rule out any cancer...

I have stage4b UPSC...after hysterectomy, chemo, and radiation it looks good for me...my last PET scan was very good and my radiology oncologist was beaming with happiness when he showed it to me...

there is hope!

but first you have to know what you are dealing with...

good luck!!!!

you are welcome.  You couldn't find a better bunch of women on here to be of help and knowledge.

Joditd said:

Thank you for all your

Thank you for all your suggestions and help. Trust me I am going to ask.  I go back and forth with one minute telling myself it will all be ok and the next imagining the worst. Thank you all for being kind and helpful! 

Even if it is polyps, I had a D&C done in 2004 and they found polyps and everything was ok.  Then in 2011 I was bleeding after menapuase and antoher D&C and had a tumor and more poylps which lead to a total abdominal hystorecomy.  Had I know know what I would go through in 2011 in 2004 I would have done the hystorecomy in 2004 an dpulled everythign out then.  But who is to say that I would not have had another type of cancer.   Good Luck and keep us in the loop. trish

joditd - it is hard to know what the best advice is.  I was diagnosed on January 2 (the one year in my entire life I didn’t eat pork and sauerkraut for good luck on January 1st and see what happens - cancer diagnosis|-).  

Another piece of advice - if the hospital tells you a significant other can spend the night after your hysterectomy take them up on it.