I’m Jess and this is my story
Diagnosis
It all started in December 2015, 3 days before Christmas when I was told I had Cervical Cancer.
I never expected to hear something like this. The day my doctor called she had already booked me in with an Oncologist at the Mercy Hospital for Women the next day. I was in shock and very scared.
I was told I had Adenocarcinoma cervical cancer, the rarest one. I had two options and they both bought me to tears and both meant complications with having children.
I had an operation booked in for January 2016. I was nervous, terrified and very emotional.
Treatment
Next stage was PET scan to see if I had any more cancer in my body and then off to surgery.
While I was in recovery my surgeon came into my room to tell me the pathology results, it was not good news.
The cancer had been found in my lymph nodes.
This now meant that I couldn’t ever give birth and I had to go through 6 weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
At this stage I was exhausted, emotional and seriously ready to give up.
IVF
My next operation was going to be a radical hysterectomy.
My partner and I had just days to discuss children. We both wanted children so our only option now was IVF. This was just another thing I had to start processing. During the initial consultations with my IVF doctor they said I would get around 15 – 20 eggs from my ovaries based on my age and wellness.
After an 8 day cycle I went in for my egg collection. I got 4 eggs in total. My heart stopped when I found out. My entire body started to shake, I had never had anxiety before but I think I had an attack. The disappointing news just kept coming. I spent that entire day in bed crying, I couldn’t move, eat, drink and I just wanted to be in a dark room.
Chemotherapy
The next operation was February 2016, complete radical hysterectomy meaning at age 27 I was also going to be going through menepores followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
The radiotherapy and chemotherapy started in March and finished in late April 2016. The entire process was exhausting.
Anyone that has to go through this is such a remarkable person.
Work
I went back to work after 7 months in July 2016.
It was not the same, the time away had made me think about what I really wanted in life, what makes me happy as an individual, what’s important to me and what mark do I want to make on the world.
This is when Pink Boots Hire started
