Oh, there’s an issue with your appendix. We’ll need to get another surgeon across to remove your appendix. There seems to be a tumour-like growth on your appendix and there is mucous leaking around your abdomen.”
I am so grateful for the grant from Pseudomyxoma Survivor which I received. It has helped me financially during such a difficult time.
For me, it all started with blood in my urine and an increase in the size of my stomach. In retrospect, I could feel the mucin moving when I walked. Now I’m on ‘watch and wait’.
Four years ago, I had to give up my ticket to watch the London Olympics to go to a hospital appointment and be told I had PMP and had only ‘a few months’ if Basingstoke could not offer me CRS and HIPEC. Now I’m in Rio!
On February 2nd, 2011, my appendix burst and I had an operation in Burton-on-Trent. I was 36. On March 7th, I received a letter from the hospital saying I’d missed a follow-up appointment for a suspected case of PMP. I hadn’t received the original letter and just what was PMP? I looked it up on the internet.
After an elderly relative was admitted to hospital with gallstones and, after researching her symptoms online, I was convinced I had the same problem. I pestered my GP to refer me for an ultrasound which eventually showed I had no gallstones, but “a fair amount” of fluid around my liver.
I was diagnosed with PMP aged 32, after many months of stomach pains, bloating, constipation and irregular periods. After numerous trips to my GP, which led to an ultrasound and eventually a CT scan, I was told I had a nine centimetre tumour on my appendix which had burst and leaked cancerous mucin into my abdominal cavity.
My original symptom was an ‘irritated‘ bladder — it is difficult to describe but the closest I can come up with it that it felt like it was vibrating all the time. In March 2010, after several months of bladder discomfort and many trips to my GP, I was referred to the genito-urinary clinic at my local University hospital with suspected bladder prolapse. Eventually, this lead to a diagnosis of pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP).
CT scans showing the cyst getting bigger with each scan and a final scan showing fluid in my pelvis, the doctors thought I had a burst cyst. An MRI scan showed the fluid still there after 2 months where it should have been absorbed by then should it have been a cyst. The Christie Hospital in Manchester where straight away doctors diagnosed it as pseudomyxoma peritonei.
I feel great. I was worried about catching colds and things without my spleen but I’m as healthy as I was before. My son and husband have caught colds but I have not which is normal for us. I have caught a sickness bug from my son since surgery but I recovered quickly with no problems and again compared to what I’ve been through, it felt like nothing.
I was 59 years old when I was diagnosed with pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) and it took me eight months to get a diagnosis. My scan showed a “fog” or liquid around my liver and my spleen.
For well over a year, I noticed my belly steadily getting bigger though I didn’t seem to be eating any more than normal. I of course tried dieting a few times but when I didn’t lose weight I gave up pretty quickly!