Hello
I just wanted to share my experience and knowlwdge to help others. Yes it is very scary/frightening and rightly so.
In 2016 i had an abnormal smear showing HPV and low abnormal cells. When i went to the colposcopy they could not see anything and sent me away for my next smear. Four years later (i missed a year due to personal trauma) my smear test came back with HPV and high grade abnormal cells.
like others i was very worried and did a lot of reading around the topic, i did not understand how it was not dealt with before.
At the Colposcopy i was asked to allow trainee doctors to watch, i refused as I did not connect with their bed side manner and i was anxious enough. The nurses and dr were ok. The dr put in the first solution and could not see anything, they placed a large amount of iodine to see if this would show anything, still nothing showed up. The dr informed me that he was going to do a biopsy. I had four local injections, nealy fainted twice, after this i had cauterisation, this took a while in order to stop the bleeding. I was advised by the nurse of a discharge and given a sheet with aftercare information to follow.
For me it was the after effects, i felt as if i had been kicked in the groin, felt shaky, sick, dizzy, lethargic and tearful. It hurt to laugh and i did not poo for 10 days! It hurt to sit down for long periods of time, and the smell of the discharge was not very nice. Towards the end of the first week, i felt like i wanted to push out from my womb and ended up having diarrhoea that burned its way out! It took two weeks to stop feeling the above, i am still recovering but slowly getting there (it's now 12 days after)
Some women do view it as ok and recover easily/quickly, others do not. We all will react/feel/see events differently so please remember your experience is unique to you.
My experience at the hispital was one of care but my recovery is difficult. All we can do is ask questios, research a little, so that we are aware, follow the advice, make sure we have lots of rest, hugs, support and love around us. I was lucky to have a dear friend to support me. I hope this has helped rather than scare.
Sending heart felt care to all x
