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I don¡¯t like change. But sometimes you have to be willing to make one in order to survive.

That¡¯s what I did. I¡¯m a small town girl who¡¯s lived in southern Mississippi my whole life. And except for one trip to a resort in Mexico, I haven¡¯t travelled more than about 500 miles away from my little Gulf Coast town.

Then I came to MD Anderson for cervical cancer treatment in November 2016. Before then, I¡¯d never even been on an airplane by myself. And it was scary, going from my small town to the fourth largest city in the country without my husband. I never thought I could do it. But I did. And today, I am cancer-free.

My cervical cancer diagnosis

I was originally diagnosed with stage I cervical cancer in January 2014, after experiencing heavy vaginal bleeding. Three years earlier, I¡¯d had a procedure called an endometrial ablation, in which the lining of the uterus is destroyed to reduce the severity of a woman¡¯s menstrual flow. It worked at first. My periods were very light for a long time.

Then I started bleeding heavily again, and I thought, ¡°Oh, no. We¡¯re not doing this.¡± So, I went back to my ob/gyn to schedule a hysterectomy. I wanted this taken care of. But she performed a pelvic exam and noticed some abnormalities in my cervix. A Pap test and a biopsy both came back positive for cervical cancer. So instead of a hysterectomy, I had seven weeks of chemotherapy and 35 radiation treatments at a facility near my home.

Later that year, a PET scan showed a suspicious-looking lymph node in my pelvic area, so I had another round of chemotherapy. The following year, the abnormal lymph node was still there ¡ª and getting bigger. I had a third round of chemotherapy.

When my local ob/gyn suggested a fourth round of chemotherapy in 2016 and suggested that perhaps I needed to focus on the quality of my life rather than the quantity, I decided to call MD Anderson.

From a clinical trial to a cure

I spent a week in Houston, and discussed the possibility of a clinical trial with my MD Anderson care team. But my lymph node had to be biopsied before I could participate, and my surgeon, , decided it was too risky. The node was too close to my aorta in a very veiny area, and the biopsy needle would¡¯ve had to go through my intestines to reach it. Dr. Gupta didn¡¯t want to risk nicking my bowel or a blood vessel. The clinical trial was out.

I worried we¡¯d have to wait for the cancer to spread somewhere else before we could finally biopsy it and move forward. But , had another plan in mind. One of the first things that came out of her mouth was ¡°cure,¡± and that was a word I hadn¡¯t heard in three years. So, I decided to do it.

My cervical cancer treatment plan

Dr. Klopp¡¯s treatment plan called for chemotherapy, external radiation and a type of internal radiation called brachytherapy. I had to stay in Houston for eight weeks to do it, so I packed my bags and got a temporary apartment. I was pretty nervous. On my first day in town, I discovered the key to my new place didn¡¯t work. So, there I was, alone in Houston, with three bags of luggage, groceries on the way, and no idea how to get inside my apartment. I almost left and got on a plane heading home.

Luckily, people in Houston are amazing. The shuttle driver I¡¯d gotten to know during my previous visit offered to stay with me until the complex manager could sort out my key issue. And the other patients I met at MD Anderson were so encouraging. Some of their success stories were so unreal. After a while, I didn¡¯t really see them as patients anymore. I saw them as hope.

My cervical cancer treatment side effects were nothing I couldn¡¯t handle

I finished my treatments in March of last year, and I¡¯ve shown no evidence of disease since June 2017. Today, all I have is a little residual bone pain in my hip. But it¡¯s nothing I can¡¯t handle.

I thank God every day for giving me the opportunity to go to MD Anderson. It was overwhelming at first, but a few days of discomfort are worth enduring to be cured.

I¡¯m convinced that if I¡¯d gone straight to Houston after my initial diagnosis, I wouldn¡¯t have had to go through the four rounds of chemotherapy I did. So I tell people, ¡°Even though you¡¯re scared and it¡¯s not home, go to MD Anderson first. It¡¯s worth trying something different.¡±

Because what is your life worth? The truth is, you can¡¯t put a price tag on that. And if you go to MD Anderson, one day you¡¯ll be able to look back proudly and say, ¡°I did that.¡± Because I did. And if I can do it, anyone can.

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