Back on my soap box...watch out!

 You're probably wondering why all of sudden I getting back on my soap box.  Well, first and foremost, I don't feel as if there is a lot of cervical cancer awareness out there, and I want to do all that I can to change that by starting with educating those closest to me.  Secondly, there have been reports in the news lately, about how there is research out there and doctor's saying that women only need to get PAP smears every 2 or 3 years.  I don't agree with this, but also don't have a lot of information on why they are saying this, only what this article has to say. 


http://www.livewellnebraska.com/article/20111020/LIVEWELL01/710209884/-1#pap-smear-can-be-less-frequent

I feel it's partly because insurance doesn't want to pay for yearly exams.  But because of the lack of information out there I plan to talk to my oncologist about this and get his opinion and thoughts.  Once I do, I will definitely share those with you all.  Lastly, tonight on the NBC Nightly News there was a story about how boys aged 11-12 should start getting the Gardasil vaccine and not just girls anymore.  It was very interesting so I thought I would share it with you all too.  


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#45023967


HPV is one of the leading causes of cervical cancer.  Although it was not the cause in my case...remember back to my post on how I am that little percentage that no one knows why I even have cervical cancer!  Frustrating as hell!  Even though it wasn't the cause, this is just my way of giving back and hopefully raising awareness and preventing cervical cancer.  Among those aged 15-49, only one in four Americans has NOT had a HPV infection.  For those of you who aren't good at math, that's THREE out of FOUR Americans have had an HPV infection.  Most often HPV produces no symptoms or illness, and so a person who has been infected may never know about it.  The virus can remain in the body for weeks, years, or even a lifetime, giving no sign of its presence. HPV infection may produce warts, lesions, or cervical abnormalities after a latent period of months or even years. Most people who are infected with HPV never know it; their virus does not call attention to itself in any way. In most cases, a person is diagnosed with HPV only because some troubling symptom drove him or her to a doctor or some abnormality was revealed in the course of a routine exam.

So how does HPV lead to cervical cancer, well...first of all, an abnormal Pap test can be caused by factors other than the presence of a high-risk HPV type. When a Pap test comes back as "abnormal," it means just that: Under the microscope, the appearance of a few cells in this sample differs in some way from the classic appearance of healthy, intact cervical cells.  The difference in these cells could be due to local irritation, a non-HPV infection, a low-risk HPV type, or even a mistake in the preparation of the cell sample.  As long as women are getting yearly Pap tests, cervical cancer is almost always prevented.  In those cases that it is not, there is an overwhelming majority of cases, in which a truly abnormal Pap test is due to pre-invasive disease.  Follow-up tests such as colposcopy and biopsy can help evaluate the abnormality and remove any potentially malignant cells. If further treatment is recommended, the patient and her physician usually have several options to consider, and time in which to consider them as cervical cancer is usually caught in the early stages.  Even supposing that a woman went untreated after repeated abnormal Pap results, she still would have the odds on her side, because only one out of four cases of cervical lesions will progress to cancer if left on its own. And treatment is almost always successful in preventing cervical cancer if the abnormal cells are found in time.  BUT this very effective system of protection can work only when each woman takes responsibility for the first step herself, by having a Pap test at regular intervals. According to the National Cancer Institute, about half of women with newly diagnosed cervical cancer have never had a Pap test, and another 10% have not had a test in the past five years.  THEN there are the "me's" out there or the "me" I feel like!  Having done everything right and still somehow ending up with stage 2B cervical cancer that no one can answer "why me?"  It definitely frustrates me reading all that I do on cervical cancer and writing all of this to you because NONE of it applies to me and my cancer.  BUT, at the same time it makes me feel better sharing this information with all of you because I don't feel like people are educated enough on cervical cancer, I know I wasn't!


Lastly, a lot of people have asked me about where they can find cervical cancer shirts, pins, ect.  I have found one site that has a lot of great items.  Here is the link:

http://www.zazzle.com/cervical+cancer+gifts


Thank you for reading my rants while I'm on my soap box and all of your constant support!

Love,
Meighan