ANDRA “ANDREA” WILSON was 25 and pregnant when she learned she had cervical cancer.
She was shocked and scared for her life and that of her unborn child, but was mostly worried about her two young sons, who were five and six at the time, growing up without their mother.
Wilson, 54, recalled she was three months pregnant in 1997 when she started bleeding profusely. As she lived in Diego Martin at the time, she went to the Port of Spain General Hospital emergency room and was seen immediately.
She said she was given a Pap smear and received the frightening news that she had stage one cervical cancer that very same day.
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, there are five stages of cervical cancer.
Stage 0 is precancerous and describes abnormal cells that do not spread beyond the surface of the cervix. Stage 1 is a small cancer between five millimetres and two centimetres deep.
In Stage 2, the tumour grows outside the cervix and the uterus but not into the walls of the pelvis or the lower part of the vagina. In Stage 3, the cancer spreads into the lymph nodes or the tumour grows into the lower part of the vagina and the walls of the pelvis.
If the cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it is considered Stage 4.
“I was scared. At that time I didn’t know I could get cancer at such a young age. I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink, I ate like normal. I didn’t know much about the cancer and was confused, so they sent me to counselling.
“But then I learned both my mother’s and father’s side of the family had cancer, so it could be family-related.”
She joined the gynaecological clinic at the hospital and later, got a letter to go to the St James Medical Complex to begin cancer treatment. She started radiation treatment in April that year.
She said although she was worried she would lose her baby, which she did in June 1997, she was more worried about the children she already had.
“I didn’t necessarily lose the baby because of the radiation. Remember, I was already bleeding a lot, so I knew I was going to lose it.
“I was sad, but I was more thinking about my two children that living. If I go, I know my mother and sister, my family, would see about them, but I’m their mother. I want to be there to see about my children and live to see them grow up.”
She underwent two months of radiation and several months of chemotherapy, which she had to stop because it made her hand swell painfully at the insertion site. She said she could not use the hand for months, and was put back on radiation.
She spent about a year in treatment and was very weak. But some time after, she was told the cancer was in remission.
Unfortunately, that was not the end of her troubles.
[caption id="attachment_1132259" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Andra Wilson shows off her cancer walk participation medals at her home in Greenvale Park, La Horquetta.[/caption]
Wilson went into early menopause and began bleeding from her anus. Her blood count was very low and she was so weak she often had to use a walking stick, and had
