Emily’s Story

Site created on April 26, 2023

In 2018, I started bleeding horribly every time I got stressed, and it just got worse year after year. My doctors wanted to put me on birth control, but it didn’t help. In the fall of 2022, I started hurting and it was just getting worse in my lower abdomen, and I thought I perhaps had a cyst in my ovary, since it runs in the family. So through circumstances that could only be through Jesus, I found a woman who specializes in PCOS patients and who had a high pregnancy rates. Wesley and I have been trying everything for the past 7 years to have children, so we made an appointment with hopeful hearts. January 5th we had an ultrasound, which showed I had what they thought were fibroids. They scheduled surgery for six weeks out, and February 23rd, we went in thinking we’d get it out and everything would be great afterwards. During the surgery, they realized it was polyps, and my endometrium lining was way too thick for someone my age, making them realize I’ve never actually had a period, and I am 31 years old! So after staying the night (due to blood issues and low iron), they had put a rush on my biopsy, and right as soon as they were discharging us, we got the news that not only did I have cancer, I had a very bad, very rare cancer that usually only effects women over 60. I would lose my uterus, and things were going to be happening fast. Two weeks later, we had our oncology appointment, and she gave us some hope that another lab said it was actually a different cancer, and we possibly might be able to keep my uterus and possibly have a baby. After some testing and an MRI, they realized it was the original bad cancer, and they would need to do a full hysterectomy, as well as taking out the fat tissue between your organs and your skin, and my lymph nodes. During the robotic surgery, they discovered a nodule on my pelvic floor that turned out to be malignant, and she has no idea how it got there and the MRI and CAT scan didn’t see it either. After the biopsy, they realized the fatty tissue was malignant as well, but did not spread to my lymph nodes (praise Jesus), making this a stage 4 cancer, and the tumor in my uterus was almost 12 CM big. My uterus had to be taken out of my stomach, leaving me with a 6” incision on my stomach. My uterus was three times the size of a normal one! No wonder I’ve been in so much pain! So where we stand now, is that the cancer is super aggressive, and we are doing 6 rounds of chemo every three weeks and three days in a row, followed by radiation. We have one shot to hit it as hard as possible, because the cancer will come back more than likely in the next five to ten years, and will probably take me out, although there might be a possible chance of immunotherapy in the future, it isn’t a for sure. It’s been quite the roller coaster huh? Try living it! I like roller coasters, but this one’s the least fun I’ve been on!

Newest Update

Journal entry by Emily Carmichael

So happy to be done with this phase of fighting cancer, but so appreciate these wonderful beautiful nurses that have taken such good care of me! I wish Night Shift could have been here!
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