Save a Life

Save a life.. maybe even your own.

Ladies (and gentlemen, while this isn't specifically addressed to you.. you can pass this along to the women in your life.. wives, moms, daughters, girlfriends.. any female that you care about their health and well being).. please be sure and get your annual pap smear done.

If your monthly bleeding has become unusual.. more frequent or less.. see your doctor. If you're post-menopausal and start bleeding again.. see your doctor.

The doctor may tell you everything is fine .. or you may catch the beginning of a more serious process.

I have a friend who had a sister.. said sister had avoided going to the gyn for a number of years. Guess what? That sister died in 2006.. ON MY BIRTHDAY.. of a gyn cancer. A year later.. I had my diagnosis. I was so scared.

And I have a word for the gyn's and other doctors who do endometrial biopsies out there. I was seeing a doctor who would not give ANY pre procedural pain medication. After having two painful biopsies.. I quit going to the doctor for a couple/three years. This is when my cancer started to develop. IF the doctor had even given 800 mg of Motrin (Ibuprofin) before the biopsy.. the likelihood that my problem would've been allowed to develop into cancer is much much smaller.

Please physicians.. we ladies aren't asking for major pain meds.. just enough to make the biopsy tolerable. I'm still a bit angry over the mistreatment..but in a way it was also a blessing. If I had continued to see that doctor and cancer raised its head anyway... I wonder how callous she would've been treating the cancer??

Save a life.. get your pap smears done.

I try to have mine around the time of my birthday.. easy to remember. Pin it to a date that is significant for you. Anniversary, Graduation, Fourth of July, Halloween (you can go in disguise..lol).. just GET IT DONE.

:::stepping down off my soapbox::::

Gynecological Cancer Awareness Month

September is national gynecological cancer awareness month. Think Peach and Teal (colors representing uterine and ovarian cancer).

I'm really unhappy with the program that was on all 3 networks this past Friday.. StandUp2Cancer. There was NO MENTION of any gyn cancer that I saw. They even had some actor simulate (or maybe it was real) a prostate exam.. not very tasteful in my opinion.. but if they were going to go that far.. why not talk about pap smears and how they can SAVE LIVES!!!

You can email StandUp2Cancer at:

http://su2c.standup2cancer.org/contact.php

or write to them at:

Stand Up To Cancer
1801 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90006

Be sure and praise them for taking a first step in getting the ball rolling.. but admonish them for leaving a whole section of the cancer spectrum out.

I just don't understand why the difference. Are we still afraid to say the words Vagina, Vulva, Uterus, Cervix, Tubes, Ovaries in mixed company? How are they so different that Prostate or Testicular? Except the later belong to men, and the former to women.. and have been sexualized.

In 2004 (the most recent year for which data are available), approximately 73,000 women in the United States were diagnosed with a cancer affecting the reproductive organs, and approximately 27,000 women died from some form of gynecologic cancer

We talk about Breast and Prostate and Colon cancer without blushing now.. why not talk about Gyn cancers too??

http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/knowledge/