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Thursday, February 15, 2007

I just happened to read this and thought I would invite everyone else to take a look then come on back over here and let me tell you a little story.

Go on, I'll wait!

About 4 years ago, I had my very first abnormal pap. I was a little freaked out by it, but I knew people that had them come back this way and it was nothing so I wasn't too bothered. At the time, I had no health insurance so I wasn't really sure just what my options would be anyway. I went to my regular doctor for the pap instead of an OB-GYN for that reason. I knew that he would let me pay when I could.

Anyway, he wanted me to go to an OB-GYN that he knew and have a colposcopy done, which is just looking at your cervix with a very high-powered microscope to check out the abnormal areas. Just so you know, the pap was just a little abnormal, but my doc likes to err on the side of caution. The procedure was going to cost too much so I decided to just go back for another pap in 6 months.

Six months later, it came back as normal. Yay! No worries, we can go back to annual visits. Fast forward to just a little over a year later in early 2005. I still do not have health insurance at this point, but I went back to my regular doc for my annual exam. Abnormal again. A little more abnormal than last time. Still without the health insurance I waited 3 months or so and had another pap. The first one came back with mild dysplasia (I don't feel like htmling, so look it up). 3 months later, I've got sever dysplasia. One small step away from cervical cancer. I'm 25 years old at this point. Fuck the fact that I don't have health insurance, my parents helped me and I went and had the colposcopy done. At the same time, they did a biopsy of several parts of my cervix and let me just tell you, it was a painful procedure.

Several days later the doctor calls and tells me they need to do laser surgery and remove the abnormal parts of my cervix. I'm totally scared at this point, but we schedule the surgery. In April 2005 I go in for the surgery. When I wake up, they tell me that instead of using a laser, they had to do what called a cold-knife cone (once again, look it up) and had to remove a larger part of my cervix than expected but they believe they got it all.

Of course the next month I got pregnant and never dialated at all during about 15 hours of hard labor and I have of course had pap smears every 4 months or so since and only had one come back as abnormal.

I guess what I'm getting at is if I had had the opportunity for a vaccine that could have prevented everything I had to go through and will go through for the rest of my life, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Anyone that has the opportunity to get this vaccine, please do it. I have never been so scared in my life. All I could think was cancer at 25. What will happen to my daughter? Luckily, I'm ok, but the next person may not be.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow....how awful for you to have to go through that. I agree...if a vaccine could prevent it, I'd get one, too!!

Michele_3 said...

Wow- I went through the same thing @ age 23 actually- I had an abnormal pap that came bck- I had dysplasia and had to have the laser surgery as I was in stage 2 of precancer cervical cancer-I know how horrible that pain was! It took me weeks to recover!
I agree, If the vaccine will help-
I definitely recomend it to everyone!
nice to know i can relate with you on this issue as well!
:)

Emma in Canada said...

How frightening. My 19 year old neice has had surgery twice for pre cancerous cells, so I would be all for the vaccine for my 3 girls, especially the 2 related to her. I've not heard of it being used in Canada yet though.

Mamacita Tina said...

Those are awful things to go through and think about. Thank goodness you are alright. I need to read more info about the vaccine. If it honestly does prevent cervical cancer, and there are no side effects, then that's wonderful, and yes I would want my daughter to get it.

evansgirls said...

My oldest daughter is almost 10 years old. I would love for her to be able to get that vaccine.

Lost A Sock said...

Wow that's very scary!!

Kelly said...

Wow...I couldn't even imagine going through that..I'm sorry you did but glad it all turned out ok! Yes I agree...with you and the other poster you had the link to...if the vaccine works...DO IT..to me its a no brainer! Unfortunately..there are ppl out there that will be resistant to anything anyone suggests....those ppl are what I call ignorant!

Happy Working Mom said...

I'm a person with very high morals, and I plan to cram them into my children before they're old enough to refuse them :) One of those morals is no premarital sex, and I'm going to work my tail off to make sure that each of my kids lives by that as well. That being said, I would never, ever, oppose ANYTHING that prevented any type of disease or sickness, much less cancer. I'm really surprised by the ingorance of some people. I don't care if you have the holiest of holy children, there's no reason to not give them the vaccine. That's like the people that don't give their children normal vaccines because "there hasn't been a mumps epidemic in ages"...hmmm, I wonder why? Because everyone is being vaccinated! My sister will graduate from medical school in 3 months, and she and I have had this conversation multiple times, and it's nice to hear the medical side of it all. Doctors know what they're talking about, and to decide not to do something medical (and I'm talking about small things like vaccines and stuff like that) is like telling a doctor that you know more than they do. I didn't go to school for 8 extra years...they did...I think they know a little more than I do. This also leads to making sure that you have a doctor that you trust.

I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of that. Hopefully this vaccine will prevent a lot of girls from going through what you had to go through. Thanks for sharing!

Sherry said...

Yes I so agree with you, the shot is the way to go. I know there is alot of controversary out there about it, but if people knew the emotions and fears that you and others have gone through then they would just SHUT UP!! And if you notice it's mainly the ol farts and guys that protest so much, and tell me WHAT DO THEY KNOW ANYWAY!!!
Sorry you had to go through all that, the fear alone, you health and then no insurance on top of it. You are a trooper and look you are here today.
Keep on blogging, I too was going to stop but as I read more, and write more, hey I like this idea.

Sherry said...

wondering why no bloggers get back to me haha no link, it's www.radsad.wordpress.com House of Misfits

Lucky Gem said...

Okay, first, why was your colposcopy painful? I had one, followed by a LEEP (or cone biopsy) last year, and neither was too bad. A few months later I got pregnant. I'm a little worried about my next pap.
Second, I can't understand why some people don't accept this vaccine. It is very scary to deal with this, I've been there. Even though my doc called them pre-precancerous cells, the word CANCER is still there. You just never know. I know alot of women have to deal with it. That's why I agree with the vaccine. These people who say it promotes sexual activity are crazy. It's all in how you approach the situation. Like I read somewhere, if it were a vaccine for breast cancer, would there be such a fuss?
I almost blogged about this the other day after watching a debate on the Today's Show.

Amy W said...

Good grief. I am with you, I would have the vaccine in a heartbeat.

That Chick Over There said...

This has NOTHING to do with this wonderful post, but since I don't have your email address, I wanted to tell you that you are #26. :)

redmaryjanes said...

I support the vaccine 100%. I think that it is nuts to believe that giving a young girl a shot that could save her life is going to lead directly to sexual behavior.

Dani said...

I agree completely with the vaccine. I mean, I would do anything to protect my children from harm and this make my job a little easier. (At least from the cervical cancer point of view).
The idea that it will increase sexual activity is ludicrous. I mean YOUR job as a parent is to teach them morals. If your child is that easily swayed then you've got bigger problems.

Sidetracked Home Executive said...

My mum died from cervical cancer in 2003. She always had abnormal pap smears and was seeing a specialist. I think she must have missed a pap smear and that was it, she was in stage 4 which is not good. She passed away a little over six months later. So I guess the moral of the story is always keep up with your pap smears they really could save your life.