I'm so sorry to hear that you've had a recurrence. I'm not a doctor, but the area that"lit up" on your PET scan is almost certainly the same type of tissue as the polyp that was removed from the same location. It seems almost impossible that they could have gotten a clean margin (removed the entire tumor plus adjacent tissue) during an office polyp removal. Do you have the pathology report on the polyp?

The goal of the internal radiation treatment (vaginal brachytherapy - VB) is to kill the cancer. But as Helen experienced, often in this situation they also do a different type of radiation treatment called external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). EBRT involves many more treatments and has more side effects than VB. (VB has very few side effects in most women.) But it might be worth asking about.

I agree about the apathy. "Perfunctory" and "lackadaisical" were the words that came to mind when I was dealing with my "care team" this week. (Both the "care" and the "team" parts of that are pretty questionable.) Not sure whether it's because they're overworked or just can't be bothered. But you definitely have to advocate for yourself.