I was extremely lucky in my case as the PMP was only picked up on an ultrasound scan I was attending for an overactive bladder. There was a shadow the doctors initially thought was a cyst. Following appointment after appointment at Clatterbridge Hospital and Arrow Park Hospital to diagnose this, 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. I was finally referred to The Christie Hospital in Manchester where straight away doctors diagnosed it as PMP. I was told I would need a full hysterectomy as well as gall bladder, appendix, tissue behind my abdomen scraping of my liver and maybe bowel all removed and then a hot chemo rinse (HIPEC).
Having just turned 28 with no children yet, I chose to keep my womb and my left ovary and underwent hormone treatment and had my eggs frozen before to the operation.
The operation was successful and I cannot thank team at the Christie and my amazing family enough for their skill hard work and on-going support, It was so strange being told I was going to need surgery when I felt fine! I was so lucky it was caught so early on in an unrelated scan!!!
I was up and out of hospital after a week and a half and went on to run my first marathon in 2014! I am a year and a half into my 5 year follow up stretch, where I have a CT scan every 6 months to ensure the PMP does not return.
In case you missed it...
I knew that I didn’t have textbook appendicitis but does anyone really have “textbook appendicitis”?
I cried as I was driving home from my doctor’s appointment. Then I picked myself up when I got home and googled “low grade mucinous appendiceal neoplasm” because I needed to know everything about this new enemy. That’s when I found the term pseudomyxoma peritonei.
I was diagnosed with pseudomyxoma peritonei, but it wasn’t
So little is known about this cancer and I’m sharing my story in the hope that I can find someone else with the same diagnosis.
The top of the paper read “Carcinoma of the Appendix”
After my ruptured appendix was removed, the surgeon said the operation “took a little longer, it was messy in there.” For the follow-up, he called me in earlier to give me the bad news.
This is me 100 percent. I was pregnant with my very first child during it all!!!