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valarltdI ramble a lot, I know. I get distracted. And sometimes I slow to have things click. But this morning, in the shower, it all came together.
(and I couldn't post because I had to meet with the special ed coordinator for Dollface about her reading assessment)
****
Anyway, I'm talking about HPV. Gentlemen, you may want to skip on down the f'list. These mysteries will only discomfit you.
****
So, bad pap smear this year. Squamous cells, minor lesion, possible major lesion.
I do the proper thing and go in for a colpopscopy. Not bad. It shows nothing.
So now I have a LEEP to do. While having an electrode shave off the outer layer of cervical cells doesn't sound like great fun, it beats the hell out of coning. According to Dr. H, they used to shave the WHOLE CERVIX into an inverted cone to get the bad cells. Mom said they used to freeze the lesions as well.
There are times when I wonder if the witch-hunters just took up gynecology instead.
So, where am I going with this?
Bun got an HPV innoculation while she was at the dr. (and will get the two other injections as well)
My insurance covers it, and the FDA finally approved it.
She is going to have her risk of a bad pap reduced by about 70%. With great good fortune, she'll never sit on a table and hear a dr say "We're going to run an electrode all over your cervix and remove a layer of cells. It won't hurt."
There are groups who said this vaccine should not be made available. They claim it will encourage promiscuity. They are angry at the notion they need to innoculate THEIR pure and innocent daughters against an STD. They are angry--their rhetoric implies--because women who have sex DESERVE to die of cancer, and removing this threat of death will make more people have sex.
14,000 women in the US, and 500,000 worldwide will be diagnosed with cervical cancer this year. Tens of thousands more will have abnormal pap smears.
4000 women in the US, and about 275,000 around the world, will die of cervical cancer this year
The vaccine doesn't stop all of it. But it could reduce those numbers to 4000 (170,000) diagnosed and 1300 (92,000) dead.
I'm trying not to be one of the 14,000.
And I'd rather my daughters not be part of it as well.
(and I couldn't post because I had to meet with the special ed coordinator for Dollface about her reading assessment)
****
Anyway, I'm talking about HPV. Gentlemen, you may want to skip on down the f'list. These mysteries will only discomfit you.
****
So, bad pap smear this year. Squamous cells, minor lesion, possible major lesion.
I do the proper thing and go in for a colpopscopy. Not bad. It shows nothing.
So now I have a LEEP to do. While having an electrode shave off the outer layer of cervical cells doesn't sound like great fun, it beats the hell out of coning. According to Dr. H, they used to shave the WHOLE CERVIX into an inverted cone to get the bad cells. Mom said they used to freeze the lesions as well.
There are times when I wonder if the witch-hunters just took up gynecology instead.
So, where am I going with this?
Bun got an HPV innoculation while she was at the dr. (and will get the two other injections as well)
My insurance covers it, and the FDA finally approved it.
She is going to have her risk of a bad pap reduced by about 70%. With great good fortune, she'll never sit on a table and hear a dr say "We're going to run an electrode all over your cervix and remove a layer of cells. It won't hurt."
There are groups who said this vaccine should not be made available. They claim it will encourage promiscuity. They are angry at the notion they need to innoculate THEIR pure and innocent daughters against an STD. They are angry--their rhetoric implies--because women who have sex DESERVE to die of cancer, and removing this threat of death will make more people have sex.
14,000 women in the US, and 500,000 worldwide will be diagnosed with cervical cancer this year. Tens of thousands more will have abnormal pap smears.
4000 women in the US, and about 275,000 around the world, will die of cervical cancer this year
The vaccine doesn't stop all of it. But it could reduce those numbers to 4000 (170,000) diagnosed and 1300 (92,000) dead.
I'm trying not to be one of the 14,000.
And I'd rather my daughters not be part of it as well.
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Re: I need a wild applause icon.
Date: 2007-01-30 04:20 pm (UTC)Oh yeah. Believe me, that was the last time I went to that hospital's clinic. For *anything*. (The icing on the cake was I had to have my colposcopy "observed" by a number of medical students. As if such an experience isn't unpleasant enough.)
And good luck with everything. *hugs*
Re: I need a wild applause icon.
Date: 2007-01-30 04:37 pm (UTC)Also, most states have a patients' bill of rights that allows you to choose whether you are observed by a crowd of strangers or not. I usually do, because I'm not really modest (modesty went away when I had my baby) but you should have the right to say NO. Rawr.
Re: I need a wild applause icon.
Date: 2007-01-30 04:45 pm (UTC)I think if I was more on the ball at the time I would have said no. Not because I'm overly modest myself, but just because this was something I wanted over and done with as soon and as calmly as possible. Having to be on display was not something I was in the mood for at the time.