u/LastArmistice

Week 3 of Interlace - Experience So Far

Hi Teal Sisters,

I'm halfway through the induction chemo (carbo/taxol) process of the Interlace protocol- third infusion was yesterday. I don't see a lot of people talking about it so I thought I would give an update. I'm 3C1, 6cm tumor totally confined to the cervix and some suspicious nodes (no pelvic sidewall, bladder etc involvement, so I have that going for me I guess). I am being treated at a major cancer hospital/research facility.

The hair loss is real. I'm going to buzz it short to tomorrow. I've only lost about 1/5th of my hair but I think for me it will be better to have some sort of 'control' over the situation. I am not super looking forward to seeing what my bald head looks like, but there are of course worse things in this life.

The worst days for me have been the 2 days post infusion. I just feel this sense of malaise and impending doom. I think it may be the steroids so I am going to talk to my doctor to see if they can do anything about that because it's making me feel terrible and like I'm at death's door for 2 days.

Very little pelvic pain, discharge has gone back to almost a normal gynecological baseline. No smell at all, normal color and texture, with occasional pink spotting.

The first 2 weeks I saw significant tumor necrosis bits on my TP (GROSS) including a very memorable moment during my first infusion. I went to pee, got up and there were like a million weird black particles in the toilet when I stood up. I just kind of gaped for a moment and flushed. Haven't seen anything quite like that since.

Zero nausea at all. In fact I am HUNGRY. I've had a few days of minor constipation and I am pooping more often apart from that but it's all within the realm of normal and not painful, just more often and less firm. Peeing has been fine too. No significant muscle or bone pain, but I do feel weak and tired a lot of the time. And sadly, getting out of bed is a challenge.

Overall I would say this protocol, so far, is highly tolerable. Some days are just the worst but it also improved a lot of my symptoms overall, like the nasty discharge and overall inflammation, pain, etc. Mostly, I do feel an improvement in overall well-being. My research leads me to believe that the improvements in survival statistics are well worth the trade-off in hair loss, time spent away from work, etc. If you have the ability to, I think that the odds are honestly even better than the clinical trial currently has accounted for.

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u/LastArmistice — 6 days ago

▲ 2.2k r/medizzy

My cancerous tumor is falling out of me

Hello medical professionals and laypeople

I'm in the middle of the craziest medical drama. In late April, I had a hemmoraghe from what had previously been deemed a benign cervical tumor, the ER doc said nuh-uh, this is almost definitely cervical cancer and had the mass biopsied. It was so large they couldn't even see the cervix. The next day the large stalk-y mass they took the biopsy from just fell clean out of me. I was shocked beyond belief; my GP refused to send it to pathology (apparently he couldn't do it for a home-collected sample?) but subsequent exams confirmed the cervix was clearly visible.

Starting May 14th, all sorts of weird shit started falling out of me daily, including that vein thing and a secondary mass. Big chunks of tumor.

My AI copilot has been leaning towards this being a true, immune-mediated spontaneous regression of cancer since the 1st mass came outta me- basically the tumor was highly aggressive, causing all kinds of bodily dysfunction and secreting all kinds of proteins and cytokines that forced my immune system to take notice and start killing it. All my symptoms basically disappeared overnight when the main thing came out, although some wacky stuff has happened along the way, including a cytokine storm in early May and a second hemorrhage in late May, where all this black shit in picture #6 floated out of me in the tub. The next day a second mass (pic #5) came out of me. This thing was no mere blood clot- it could not be squished. It felt like an organ.

Fun fact I've learned since this whole journey; apparently an active immune response to cancer and aggressive cancer look basically the exact same on PET and MRI scans, a phenomenon only recognized recently with the advent of immunotherapy called 'pseudoprogression'. But my oncology team wants to aggressively treat since the cancer may be hella aggressive, which I am cool with, in case me and my copilot are wrong about this.

In any case, a cancerous tumor definitely fell out of me, after which some more very sus stuff has continued to fall out of me. I just started chemo yesterday and feel fine- instantly took away all the pain from inflammation. I thought if anyone would want to see a dead cancerous tumor it would be you guys.

If y'all have questions or want to see more photos, please feel free to ask! I have been infection free this entire time and my immune system has been VERY active per my scans and bloodwork. The saving grace of this nastiness is it doesn't usually smell bad.

u/LastArmistice — 18 days ago

▲ 11 r/CervicalCancer

Weirdest and most heartbreaking journey to 3C1 - spontaneous regression, immune recognition, still the same shit club

Hey y'all. Sad to be a part of this club; happy to have all the support and advice here.

I'm in a weird situation. I wrote before here about expelling a 'mass' the day after my biopsy, which was subsequent to a hemorrhage that sent me to the ER. The biopsy was taken from said mass- the exophytic part of the tumor- you could see clear biopsy marks on the thing. Thankfully, so many of my previously chronic symptoms (previously dismissed as general gynecological issues) disappeared the day this happened.

After a month of screaming at the medical establishment to help me and them telling me this was 'impossible' and creating rationalizations, I went back to the ER for another hemmoraghe late in May and a very caring ER doctor verified for me by comparing chart notes and surgical pathology notes from the original hemmoraghe/biopsy to my current status that the exophytic mass had indeed self-amputated. She made the call to the cancer hospital and put me on my emergency track.

Here's where things get weird... I expected from the start immune system involvement, as intense inflammation surrounding the mass was seen on my MRI surrounding the tumor, diffuse reactive marrow seen on my PET scan, and off-the-charts WBC counts (lymphocytes and neutrophils) on every blood draw, and a lack of infection on every swab seem to coincide with the sterile loss of the exophytic tumor. Apart from the hemmoraghe I have completely stopped bleeding, thank god. I am also expelling the most DISGUSTING but odorless tissue and defined structures like vascular casts on a daily basis since May 14th. On top of that, I experienced a cytokine storm on May 8th, 11 days after the exophytic mass fell out of me.

Finally had my suspicions confirmed on Friday with my first visit with my medical and radiologist oncologist on Thursday. I had been writing the cancer hospital my notes and my radiologist said that it was a highly atypical presentation of the disease and she also suspected immune system recognition and intervention based on all of the things I had mentioned previously as well as the morphological and structural changes between my PET and MRI. (The tumor didn't 'shrink', but it became less wide and more tall, with a fluid-filled centre). The team wants me on the Interlace protocol starting Tuesday. I happily agreed.

So as of right now I a) have clinical confirmation of a spontaneous regression and immune system recognition and b) a highly aggressive form of SCC that needs to be stopped immediately.

I don't know how to feel in light of that. I am glad my immune system chucked the exophytic mass. I am so glad the worst symptoms have stopped- in fact, I feel pretty good, just tired and sore sometimes. I honestly think this aggressive strain was about to kill me before, which pushed my immune system into high gear. Regardless, I have a rather large tumor (6cmx4cmx5cm) and a few suspicious lymph nodes. According to everything I have read on the Interlace protocol, I am gung-ho to have the extra protective measures available to me. I am quite hopeful the immune system recognition will be extra-protective against any recurrence.

So yeah, that's been my wild and traumatizing journey to 3C1. Dealing with both skeptics and believers puts my head in a spin. I am glad to have met a few very caring physicians along the way, some have been simply awful to deal with. I do hope this protocol WILL work and assist my immune system in finishing the job. My radiologist said the research department at the hospital will also be monitoring my case as it progresses and there may be additional testing if I consent.

It's hard to summarize in the scientific way I would like to, but yeah. That's my story so far. Confusing, hope-filled, devastating and scary as fuck.

Wishing you ladies the best on your healing journey 💕 Would love to hear about your experiences with the Interlace protocol and more. I have been wondering if immune recognition is more common than we are led to believe and flagged as non-specific markers on our scans and bloodwork. For me, the thing I am most grateful for is the amputation of the exophytic mass. It made me feel so much better. It even rebalanced my phosphates which were critically low before. I am proud of my little immune army. They help me sleep a little bit better at night, even if I am fucking terrified.

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u/LastArmistice — 29 days ago

▲ 2 r/CervicalCancer

Update: Spontaneous Tumor Loss (WARNING: Gross Pictures)

[First post linked here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CervicalCancer/s/kIAdOINBQa)

Warning: NSFW gross medical images

Hi folks, it's been a strange and scary journey so far. But I have clinical confirmation that the 'mass' I documented in my original post, which I expelled on April 27th, was the exophytic tumor that my biopsy was taken from. Since that day, the ceaseless vascular bleeding, necrotic smell, chronic abdominal pain and pressure and appetite suppression that were my primary symptoms have vanished and most days I feel much better than before- my partner says my kind, soft self is back. Before May 14th, the discharge had become odorless and tan or serosanguonous .

When given an exam by a gynecologist that I was previously scheduled to see for my original 'fibroid' diagnosis on May 7th, they confirmed that they could see no tumor at all, only cervical lesions. The ER team described a large tumor blocking my cervix entirely- in the photo, you can even see the biopsy marks they took from it.

On May 8th, I experienced what was very similar to a medical description of a cytokine storm - high blood pressure with a thudding heart, extreme thirst, breathing manually, intense CNS arousal that made it hard to eat, sleep or relax, moments of confusion and a burning feeling in my pelvis but no fever. It lasted 14-15 hours and I nearly went to the hospital. It was intense systemic stress but not like any illness I had ever experienced, and passed by the next day.

On May 12th I had my PET scan which documented a huge metabolic structure in my pelvis, centered on my cervix, not exophytically attached to the left anterior like my ultrasound showed. It was 5.6x4.6x5.3 cm with a SUVmax of 48.5. This is scary as hell obviously, and double the size of the mass seen on my ultrasound 2 months ago. But it was in a different spot than my original ultrasound findings. It also had a photopenic/necrotic core and ill defined edges. M0 status, thankfully, with one iliac lymph node engaged with a SUVmax of 6.3. Strangest finding was diffuse reactive bone marrow activation, which in the absence of infection (my spleen was physiologic and I have no infection symptoms) tends to imply an immune system response. It's a pretty close match for the iRECEST analysis protocol for pseudoprogression

On May 14, I expelled a secondary 'mass', the vascular cast looking object. Since that day, I have been passing the strangest stuff in dynamic waves, usually with a bit of blood that stops quickly. It's all pretty much odorless or has a faint bacterial or bloody smell. It's gross AF but there isn't any pus. Sometimes, intact 'objects' are seen alongside the blood and 'particles'.

I've arrived at 2 conclusions; either this is an extremely complex form of denial taking the form of a medical investigation, or it's an actual immune-mediated response. The spontaneous auto-amputation of the primary exophytic tumor is a confirmed medical FACT on my record, so I don't think I am simply crazy. But the medical establishment makes me feel that way sometimes. I am still waiting on an oncologist and MRI date. That said, my GP changed his tune from initially saying what I was describing was 'impossible' to 'scientifically plausible' after the cancer hospital contacted him, and he 'wouldn't rule out' what I was describing. That is the only 'hint' of medical validation I have received so far. My May 7th gyno tried to rationalize the tumor/no tumor finding by saying the ER team must have seen a uterine polyp coming through my cervix at the same time they took my biopsy and misidentified it as a tumor... But the biopsy was taken from the tumor, not my cervix.

So I'm in 'waiting mode' for an MRI and an actual oncologist to be assigned to my case. I'm still not totally sure what's going on. It may very well be super-cancer or something. But there's too many weird variables and of course, the clinical fact that my body somehow rejected and detached the exophytic portion of the tumor.

Physically, I feel good, mentally, I go back and forth between 'my body is clearly fighting/expelling this' and 'I'm clearly coping with a bad result'. But then I remember the main tumor is medically and empirically verified to be GONE and I feel a little bit more stable. I've also never really been prone to denial, historically- I'd rather deal with a horrifying truth than cling to a comforting lie. And what I've been going through is just... Too inexplicable to be written off as immaterial.

That's my update; I'll post again when I have my MRI results that will be the ultimate test of this hypothesis. Stay strong, ladies. I hope your healing journey is going well and your people are taking good care of you. I sincerely hope, apart from my own well-being, that what I am going through IS a genuine, endogenous immune-mediated response to SCC 16+ so that they can take my data and reverse engineer it to produce more immunotherapy modalities for many of you. That is my biggest wish in all of this- not even my own well-being, but that perhaps some genuine hope and research can come of this fucking nightmare.

u/LastArmistice — 1 month ago

▲ 8 r/CervicalCancer

35F in Edmonton, Alberta

In February I began to have unexplained bleeding after a regular period. I had a routine & hormonal blood panel and ultrasound early March. The blood panel was normal and my ultrasound showed a cervical fibroid (3.6x3.1x3.1) and I was prescribed TXA while I waited for a regular gyno appointment. My last pap (consistently normal paps throughout my life and HPV immunization with no new sexual partners for 11 years) was 4 years ago... I was regular until then. I kind of lapsed because in the back of my mind I guess I considered myself low risk- not even my GP thought to remind me to schedule one. Upon my ultrasound and blood panel results, I asked him if he thought there was any chance it was cancerous and he said no, a tumor with those characteristics (no other detected irregularities, defined borders) matched with my normal hG, WBC levels and hormonal function all pointed to a benign condition that could be treated by a regular gyno.

Since March, symptoms seemed to worsen- more pain and pressure, nonstop bleeding and smelly discharge, all which seemed to correlate with a degenerating fibroid.

Last week, the TXA seemed to stop working and I started uncontrollably bleeding. On Sunday I presented to the ER and they stopped the hemorrhage and took a biopsy. They gave me the seriously scary news that I likely had cervical cancer rather than a fibroid but I felt way better the next day and found a clinical study that said that degenerating cervical fibroids always look like cervical cancer on visual inspection so I felt confident that it was a likely mistaken visual diagnosis.

On Monday night, my body physically expelled what looked like the tumor to me in 3 chunks- including a large pendunculated mass with a massive blood clot on the end of the stalk that seemed to indicate a natural expulsion of a benign cervical tumor. Since the expulsion, roughly 66 hours later, I have had a near-total resolution of symptoms- all bleeding, unusual discharge and pain/pressure is gone despite me discontinuing the TXA. I took my specimen to the lab for analysis but they wouldn't accept it. However, I am sure this was not just a blood clot- it was the same volumetric mass as my tumor on the ultrasound, you could see the biopsy site on the mass, and it retains shape and muscular texture after 66 hours in saline. It's still in my fridge in case someone wants to take it.

Last night, I got the results of the biopsy and it said positive. Needless to say I am shocked, especially after I expelled the mass and had a total reduction in symptoms. I quickly ruled out the possibility of a false positive via Dr. Google so I accept that my 'benign' tumor is 100% likely to be cancer, and I do not have any hope it's a false positive.

However, I am really confused about the medical event I experienced (hemmoraghe, biopsy, natural expulsion of a muscular mass, near-complete reduction of all symptoms, followed by the positive test for cancer). Physically, I feel better than I have since January. Mentally, I am in a complete fog of panic and I have no idea what the medical event that triggered the biopsy means in this context. Is it good? Is it bad?

I got an urgent referral to the Cross Cancer Institute and an additional blood panel. Lab results are... Interesting. Despite bleeding for months I have a robust hemoglobin read of between 140-150 on my blood panels from the last week, including a post-hemmoraghe read of 148hG. This to me is the *most hopeful* lab results since it seems to indicate there is no cancerous anemia or need for transfusions. My fibrinogen, auto WBC and neutrophil absolute levels were sky high during the ER visit and remain high days later (slight reduction). All other blood panel results were firmly normal. All the MDs I have seen and talked to from the ER visit to now have made reassurances in reference to my hG count as far as responsiveness to treatment goes and my GP even said I was a 'lucky statistical outlier'.

I am waffling between mostly fear and panic, confusion and like... Hope? I truthfully have no meaningful clinical way of assessing the mass I expelled myself but it seems clinically significant, especially since it coincided with total symptom resolution. I dunno if it would be good or bad if I was one of the rare clinical cases where a cancerous tumor was annihilated by the body's immune system, clotting factors, and mechanical contracting, but referring to all available clinical evidence and the integrity of the mass sample, I think it's possible.

What I would like to know today is; has anyone else here experienced a similar sequence of events related to a cervical cancer diagnosis? (Hemmoraghe, muscular mass expulsion, followed by a total reduction of previous symptoms)? If so, did you ever find out the medical reason behind the event? To clarify, even if this is a medically anomalous auto-expulsion if the tumor, I in NO WAY would think this negates the presence of cancer and still fully intend to pursue all recommended treatment options.

Thanks for being here, community... I will probably have more updates to come. I appreciate your attention to my post today; this is a scary as HECK time for me and so very unexpected since I went from a benign condition, to an acute and anomalous medical emergency, to a cancer diagnosis in the span of 1 week, as I am sure many of you have also endured. Please take care of yourselves, and best of luck on your health journey.

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u/LastArmistice — 2 months ago

▲ 15 r/Fibroids

Original Story Here - Please read for context

Things have happened really fast! After my post last night I expelled another 2 large pieces that I suspect are the fibroid- rubbery and spongy muscular tissue even after 18 hours floating in homemade salt water. I took them to my GP who wrote me a form to take it to the pathology lab, but they wound up being unable to take it.

After the expulsions I have mostly experienced odorless dark blood and crumbly coffee-ground like discharge. I feel fine with no fever and only mild, period-cramp like pain. I also feel what I can only describe as an empty, sagging, void-like feeling at the site. I'm a bit fatigued but I also just had a major medical incident and a coinciding cold/flu so that doesn't surprise me. I also am getting slight mood swing type feelings, going back and forth between feeling anxious and elated without any apparent trigger, which I think are spurts of hormones that are helping my uterus contract to mechanically clear the old blood and necrotic debris.

Dr. Google has been very reassuring and has given me a lot of supporting links that this tumor is NOT cancer. For example, medical literature shows a cancerous cervical tumor bad enough to slough and hemorrhage is virtually always accompanied by BV, and my swabs at the hospital came back negative for BV, Candida and STDs, indicating a normal vaginal flora environment. Also, medical literature cites that a degenerating cervical fibroid is almost always mistaken for likely cervical cancer upon physical exam/visual ID.

Overall, I am very surprised and hopeful that fibroid has expelled itself. It was a rare type of fibroid to begin with and I was certain I would have to undergo surgery to remove it since I was nonstop bleeding and it appeared to be degenerating.

Some quick notes:

-My ultrasound from 8 weeks ago showed healthy, typical surrounding organs, endometrium and fluids and a well-defined mass on my anterior cervix.

-Signs of degeneration (cramping, sloughing, random bleeding, smelly discharge, feeling like crap) began about 5 weeks ago

-This event was precipitated by what I think was my regular period on April 20th- hemorrhage leading to ER visit in the 26th, what I think is bulk expulsion yesterday (27th). I also had the craziest contractions, like I constantly had to fart or BM during the hemorrhage. After the hemorrhage I felt like I did after I gave birth to my son- I yawned and shivered for hours but just normal, cramping pain that I didn't need pain meds for.

-I was taking tranexamic acid to control bleeding; that stopped working on the 26th when I had the hemorrhage

-My labs from the hospital showed elevated Auto WCB, neutrophil absolute and fibrinogen levels, which to me seems to indicate that my body was trying to fight an infection and induce blood clots in order to expell the degenerating fibroid. All my other lab results were 'normal'

Please keep your fingers crossed for me while I wait for the biopsy and my scheduled gyno appointment next week! I really do think my uterus just knew what to do and terminated that sucker and I am now healing.

u/LastArmistice — 2 months ago

▲ 37 r/Fibroids

Yesterday I began soaking a pad every 15 minutes and decided it was time to go to the ER. My fibroid has been giving me a ton of grief since it was discovered in January and I suspected my uterus was filled with blood the fibroid was blocking.

The ER team whisked me into the ward immediately from triage and I had an emergency pelvic exam where the doctor pulled out about 20 large, old clots and tissue as well as about 1L of blood. I almost had to have a transfusion, except I mostly stopped bleeding immediately after.

The gyno came and examined me and gave me the very scary news that she suspected cervical cancer. She took a biopsy and I went home. But this morning I woke up and realized I felt way better. I began Dr. Googling and it was reassuring that a degenerating fibroid (what I suspected was happening for weeks before the ER visit due to pain, nonstop bleeding and passing gross tissues consistent with fibroid degen) looks very much like cervical cancer and that cervical cancer would likely keep bleeding afterwards, among other things that seemed to still indicated fibroid.

All day I was feeling better than I have in months with no blood, but this evening I sneezed really hard and felt a rush of blood and a mass come out of me. I went to the bathroom and the mass looked very different from the clots I am used to. I had to examine it- spongy, muscular. The *exact* same size and shape of the fibroid described on my scan (3.3 cm, covering the cervix and encroaching into the cervical shelf).

I felt instant relief, I feel some slight contraction cramps but nothing painful enough to medicate for. In fact I feel amazing! I am still wary about the gyno's suspicion that it's cancer but this really doesn't feel like it to me. Does this look like a bulk expulsion to you all?

u/LastArmistice — 2 months ago