{"id":469379,"date":"2026-10-18T04:22:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T04:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/469379\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T04:22:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T04:22:27","slug":"cervical-cancer-survivor-why-i-trust-ut-md-anderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/469379\/","title":{"rendered":"Cervical cancer survivor: Why I trust UT MD Anderson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you know that stress<\/a> scale that ranks traumatic life events? Like the death of a close family member or a major illness? Well, I had three of the top five life-altering events all at once during the summer of 2011.<\/p>\n

The first stressor was my younger sister dying of colon cancer<\/a>. The second was parenting three kids under age 5 alone because my husband had just started a new job in South Carolina and we were in the process of relocating. The third was when I found out I had two types of early stage cervical cancer<\/a> \u2014 at the same time and in the same spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverwhelmed\u201d doesn\u2019t even begin to describe how I felt. I was emotionally and physically exhausted. All I really heard after the word \u201ccancer<\/a>\u201d was the \u201cwah wah wah\u201d of the adult characters speaking in a Peanuts cartoon.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, my gynecologist referred me to UT MD Anderson for my cervical cancer treatment<\/a>. They really protected and guided me when I needed them.<\/p>\n

Trusting my care team to determine the best cervical cancer treatment<\/p>\n

My sister Angela was seven years younger than me. I did her hair, fixed her lunch and got her on the school bus when we were growing up. So, when she died, it almost felt like I was losing my own child. Helping her through the last two weeks of her life left me emotionally spent.<\/p>\n

I was physically drained from unexpected breakthrough bleeding<\/a> before my diagnosis, too. All the while, I was caring for three young children, marketing our current home, purchasing a new home and getting ready to move to another state.<\/p>\n

Normally, I am a very high-energy person. I run marathons and am super active. But I fully leaned into my dedicated husband to tie up every loose end and accepted support for our everyday needs.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have the capacity to discern the multiple options being presented. So, when it came time to figure out my cervical cancer treatment, I put my faith in God. I looked at gynecologic surgical oncologist Dr. Michael Bevers<\/a> and said, \u201cI am a mother, and I need you to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He heard me. And, that\u2019s exactly what he did.<\/p>\n

Straightforward guidance was just what I needed<\/p>\n

The pathology report<\/a> from a biopsy<\/a> showed I had both poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma<\/a> and a large-cell neuroendocrine cervical cancer<\/a>. Both types of cancer<\/a> were present in the small growth on my cervix.<\/p>\n

To treat them, Dr. Bevers recommended a radical hysterectomy, followed by five weeks of chemoradiation<\/a> and a course of brachytherapy<\/a> under radiation oncologist Dr. Anuja Jhingran<\/a> that overlapped with six rounds of chemotherapy<\/a>. He said, \u201cLook, if we can get out ahead of this thing, I really think you stand a good chance of living a long, healthy life.\u201d<\/p>\n

I appreciated Dr. Bevers\u2019 clear and straightforward approach. It was exactly what I needed \u2014 not a bunch of different alternatives to consider and analyze myself.<\/p>\n

Cervical cancer treatment from people who truly cared about me<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have the bandwidth to question anything. But I trusted Dr. Bevers\u2019 expertise 100%. So, I did everything he said. I started my cancer treatment<\/a> in November 2011 and finished everything up by February 2012. By God\u2019s grace, I\u2019ve shown no evidence of disease<\/a> since then.<\/p>\n

Going from non-stop to full stop brings immeasurable anxiety<\/a>. Dr. Bevers and his staff were incredibly kind and understanding. He and Dr. Jhingran worked very closely together to help me balance everything, so I could keep caring for my kids while my husband was 1,000 miles away.<\/p>\n

Various doctors, nurses and other care team members<\/a> guided me on how to navigate the unrelenting nausea<\/a> and intestinal<\/a> sensitivities I experienced. It was a fully integrated team effort to ensure I could get the nourishment I needed<\/a> to keep going.<\/p>\n

I will always be grateful to Dr. Bevers\u2019 APRN<\/a>, Misty White. She is the most caring, compassionate and encouraging person I interacted with during my treatment. There were also many other staff members who made sure I didn\u2019t feel alone. Small gestures, kind words and simply showing up make a big difference to someone who is at their lowest point.<\/p>\n

My kids are now 17, 19 and 20. I am active, healthy and cancer-free. I feel really fortunate to have been treated by people who truly cared about me and really listened when I told them what I needed. In return, they gave me clear, reliable guidance I could trust.<\/p>\n

Request an appointment at UT MD Anderson online<\/a> or call 1-877-632-6789.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do you know that stress scale that ranks traumatic life events? Like the death of a close family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[113434,1145,1142,159575,1146,56,58,57,159574,75671,1148,2822],"class_list":["post-469379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-brachytherapy","tag-caregivers","tag-family-friends","tag-gynecologic-clinic","tag-health-vigilant","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-neuroendocrine","tag-patient-caregiver-stories","tag-patients","tag-survivors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}