How to Survive Vaginal Cancer (Real Examples)

Two examples below

Sheila R

Sheila R, of Nova Scotia in Canada, had had a hysterectomy so she was surprised when she started getting a discharge. She went to her doctor who prescribed medicines for a yeast infection, which did not help her. Later she started having some bleeding, when to a gynecologist and was, after many tests, diagnosed with stage 2 squamous cell carcinoma of the vagina. She was only 44 at that time, had a 13 year old daughter and a husband who was recovering from a stroke.

She underwent surgery to remove the lymph nodes in the groin area, followed by 25 external beam radiation treatments. It took her five months to get back to work and recovery and healing was slow. She has to go for regular check-ups since then.

Ann Flintoff

Ann Flintoff of Jacksonville was diagnosed with vaginal cancer, she was under the impression that a hysterectomy would take care of it. She did a lot of research and went to the Mayo Clinic because she wanted to live.

She received six weeks of external pelvic radiation, followed by 48 hours of internal radiation delivered directly to the tumor, and chemotherapy. But that was not all. Three years later the cancer returned and this time the doctors removed all of her pelvic organs in a complex surgical procedure called pelvic exenteration.

As her bladder was removed during this procedure, the doctor used a special surgical technique called the Miami pouch which transforms sections of the patient’s own intestine into an internal bladder which she empties using a tube through her abdomen.