For the Ladies

So, enough about me. Let's make today's post all about you, Ladies. I'm going to explain in more detail my situation as a way of imploring - begging - urging you to dutifully get your preventive care testing LIKE CLOCKWORK.

Some of you may have heard that the old guideline of annual pap smears has changed. Here's the straight scoop on the new guidelines from the National Cancer Institute:

According to the new ACOG guidelines, women aged 21 to 30 years should be screened every 2 years using either the standard Pap test or liquid-based cytology. Women 30 years and older who have had three consecutive negative (i.e., normal) cervical cytology test results may be screened once every 3 years with either screening test. 

So, I had had a string of normal pap smears, the most recent of which was a year and a half before I saw an OB/GYN in my new city in late September. I actually went because in my state you have to have a prescription from a physician to get a mammogram, and of course, being over 40, those are suggested to be conducted annually. It, too, had been a year and a half so I was getting nervous that I should get screened.

My mammogram was great - perfectly normal! But the first week of October I got a call from my OB/GYN's office saying that my pap was abnormal... and not just a little abnormal but VERY abnormal. They set an appointment for me to come back in two weeks later for a more invasive procedure to look at the cervix. A polyp was found, and a biopsy was taken. On October 31, waiting to board an airplane, I received a call from my doctor with the dreaded words "It's definitely cancer."

I had followed all the rules. Lived excessively healthily. No family risk of cancer. Zero symptoms. And yet had I waited the recommended 3 years between Pap Smears, I shudder to think what I might be facing now.

And of course, being the overachiever I am, it was not just a typical cervical cancer. Oh no. It was exceedingly rare. The tumor had the pathology of a digestive cancer - mostly likely colon - called signet ring cell adnocarcenoma. There were no estrogen or progesterone markers at all. And so, physicians began an very invasive hunt through my body to make sure that the cancer had not started somewhere else and already spread. They examined every millimeter of my esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, intestines, appendix, gall bladder, ovaries. In the end, thank God, it was a primary tumor in the cervix, Stage IBI, and at the end of this treatment plan I'm told I have a 90% chance I am completely cured.

One other note. cervical cancer can be largely eradicated through the widespread deployment of the HPV vaccine. I implore those of you with daughters to carefully examine the benefits of giving them this vaccine to prevent the most common and widespread risk factors for cervical cancer. For me, it would not have changed anything given the pathology of my tumor (non HPV-related) but anything you can do to help your girls avoid the absolute shock of receiving a cancer diagnosis and subsequently enduring a challenging treatment regimen is something to seriously consider.

So back to making this all about you. Please get your annual screenings. Endure more frequent pap smears if you possibly can. Don't miss a mammogram. Have a colonoscopy when you are 50. And listen to your body. You don't have to wait until these milestones if you are feeling like something isn't right.

As I went through several sedated procedures to get to diagnosis, the nurses preparing me had of course studied my chart and had a million questions. Did you have symptoms? Do you have family history? When did you last have your pap smear?  After told them the answers, every single one of them said to me,  'I'm calling my doctor to schedule an appointment today!!"  PLEASE do me a favor, and do the same!!