Hi everyone!

Well, last night I got the bad news; I have cervical cancer. It's in
situ, which is as far as I can tell better than some alternatives.
They've already done a cone biopsy and LEEP. On the 11th, I have an
appointment with an oncologist to talk about the next step.

My gynecologist suggested that, because it looked like they got nearly
all of it, my husband and I (yesterday was our six-month anniversary;
what an anniversary present!) may have a year to try for a child. I'm
really wondering how much doing this will increase my chances of
dying, though. One of my oldest friends has already offered to be a
surrogate mother for us if we wanted to do IVF, which to me is the
most incredible gift I've ever been given.

This is especially scary for me because my dad died of colon cancer
just over a year ago. It's funny - six months ago they were checking
me for colon cancer and esophagal cancer, and I had neither and
thought I was in the clear. This whole process has been quite shocking.

I am hoping that people on this board can give me some assurance that
this is not a death sentence. I know what the statistics say, but on
the web sites most of what I see are the stories of people who aren't
surviving, not the stories of the people who got through it OK.

- Nikki