Help Bonnie, of Verdant Vivariums, beat cancer!

Tomorrow I am going in for my 5th surgery battling cervical cancer. My last surgery was 3 years ago and was supposed to be the final surgery. I had a radical trachelectomy which removed most of my groin lymph nodes along with my entire cervix, upper vagina, and lower uterus. They got all the cancer, but unfortunately I developed adenocarcinoma again, this time in my upper vagina and uterus. We won't know how extensive the cancer is until tomorrow, but during my PET scan the other week it showed my uterus is full of tumors, and the largest 4 cm tumor was glowing. The current plan is for another open surgery with a full hysterectomy, partial vaginectomy, removal of ovaries and fallopian tubes, removal of the intestinal covering, and explorative surgery to see if anything more needs to come out. During my last surgery they relocated my bladder and shifted other things around, so this will be a fairly high risk surgery since they will be carving my organs out of scar tissue while trying to avoid excessive organ damage and blood loss. Best case scenario, the adenocarcinoma is confined to where they know for sure it is currently and hasn't spread very far, that they can get it all with surgery, and that I don't need radiation. Under that scenario I spend about a week in the hospital and have a 2 month recovery. Under the worst case, well I don't really want to go down that rabbit hole unless I have to but I imagine things will be significantly more difficult. The biggest struggle I have currently is that after the plant market crash, about 90% of my nursery's income has been from me traveling and doing shows, and I won't be able to do those while I still have a large incision and am unable to lift things. I've tapped out anything I had saved up, first with the last cancer surgery, then being rear ended twice the following year, once by a drunk driver with no insurance and a week later by a guy on his cell phone who was severely underinsured. The deer going through my windshield a year and a half ago didn't help either. I know everyone is hurting financially right now so I really hate having to post this, but for any of my friends who have been asking for help I could definitely use it to try and keep my nursery afloat while I recover.

Update: 3/27

Surgery took about five hours, not the three he was hoping for. The incision is a lot longer than it was originally supposed to be, my old scar is horizontal hip bone to hip bone, this one is vertical and was only supposed to be up to the old scar and not really visible but the incision actually runs from groin up to my belly button. He was apologizing for it but I said I'm already covered in scars, not like this one will matter.

I did end up with organ damage, everything was so encased in scar tissue he ended up cutting a hole in my bladder trying to peel it all off. He sewed that up and put stents in, originally just for the surgery but now I'll have them for six weeks and will need another minor surgical procedure to remove them. I also need a catheter for at least two weeks to let my bladder rest. They also removed my uterus and about an inch and a half of canal. They were keeping me on a clear liquid diet which was just torture given I had to already fast the two days before surgery. I talked them into letting me have real food for lunch so now I'm on a low fiber diet to try and keep inflammation and irritation down since he said everything left in my abdominal cavity is pretty angry. He removed the lining covering my intestines and put it down lower where all the incisions are to bring more blood flow to the area to make it heal faster.

We had agreed to leave one ovary unless the cancer had spread dramatically, but he said both my ovaries were covered in masses and just looked terrible so he ended up taking them both out. This is throwing me into full blown instant menopause so I was having hot flashes today, he's going to start me on HRT once I am discharged. He's pretty sure he got everything but we won't get the official lab results for another 7-10 days. The number of IVs they have me is kind of comical, two in my left arm, I had one in the right forearm, and also had one in my neck where all that gauze. The nurses and doctors here are amazing thank goodness and I am receiving excellent care. Thank you to everyone who has posted, messaged, or called the past week, I really do have amazing friends

Update: 4/9/2024

I have to wait 5 weeks for the kidney and bladder stents to come out, then a few months to have them heal, and then I will unfortunately need 5 weeks of radiation.