Sunday, January 11, 2009

long (sorry)

I am bummed out this morning... Got the keys to the new place (and found out the property manager called me "whiney" on the phone reference to my new landlord) and I was all ready to pack up and ship out. Until it was ultimately determined by my better half that the snow was too ridiculous to move furniture in. Plan B will be to move out next Sunday morning, and during this week, continue bringing over my boxes of miscellaneous until I am officially OUTTA HERE.

Now in my health realm of life, we got some other stuffs going on. We'll start with the positive. I have started a "Weight Loss Challenge" in my suite at my full time job. The winner will be 5 pounds lighter by 2/14/09 and will win a gift card for shoes! Since I am at an unfair advantage (i.e. I've lost over 30 pounds and I know more about healthy eating/portion sizes/exercise) I have been making little motivational/information papers for them. Week 1 is entitled "Write it before you bite it" and I am teaching the girls about self monitoring what they eat. Week 2 is about moving for at least 20 minutes a day to get into the swing of exercise. Stuff I know already (and that I've learned from stalking all of you) is helping me to spread the word about healthy living as a choice and not as torture. Even if I don't "win" I feel pretty awesome being the health guru of the suite.

And now the bad news. Something that affects ALL women. Something I feel very strongly about, especially as I educate my teen clients about sex, birth control and protection. Something pretty personal, that I hope someone out there learns about and protects themselves. This is getting long...

Tomorrow afternoon, I have to have a LEEP procedure done. Despite my best efforts and even getting the vaccine for HPV (which hurt like a mofo), I have fallen prey to pre-cancerous cells on my cervix. This is not something I am proud of, in fact, it makes me feel pretty awful. People do not realize what epidemic proportions this is, because they down play out there. I believe the stats are on the rise and most women will have at least one abnormal pap in their lives. I am sharing this as a cautionary tale. And because I am scared out of my mind for this procedure and the fact that on top of this worry, I have school starting this week, work and internship, plus a giant move out of this nightmare.

10 comments:

Kristen Mullane said...

I had the LEEP procedure done in August of 2006. One of the things that really surprised me was how many people have had it done. I was a little embarrassed talking about it at first, but found out the more I did talk about it, the more I knew others who had been in my position before.

Even though you had the HPV vaccine, it's possible that you already had the pre-cancerous cells laying dormant in your body. I was told that you can have negative pap results and have HPV, it can just show up later.

Please don't feel awful about this, it's really very common. As careful as we can be, because men can't get tested for HPV, there is absolutely no real way to prevent it. If you have any questions at all about anything - nothing is too personal or gross when it comes to this - please feel free to email me. I would be more than happy to tell you what to expect, what it will be like afterwards, etc.

fattygetsfit said...

Thank you so much for the encouragement. The funny thing is, I used to force my friends to get the vaccine before we aged out the range and then BAM! after I get it, I get the call from my doctor saying my results came back abnormal. I felt like a hypocrite, but at least I urged others to take care of themselves.

I appreciate the tips, you gave me the heads up about the negative results/dormant cells that I didn't know about. I can share that info with everyone I know :-)

Every Gym's Nightmare said...

haha he called you whiney? could have called you something a lot worse, i guess.

most women get the HPV virus, and it usually goes away on its own so they never know. If you happen to get tested while you have it, its scary, but if you think about it, its just bad timing.

kelly turner
www.everygymsnightmare.com

Penny said...

I think our procedures are different over here, but I've recently found out that I also have pre-cancerous cells following a smear and I have to go back for more investigation and further tests in a couple of weeks. I don't think we have LEEP (maybe we have similar?). The docs over here are pretty crap at telling us what's going on and I have NO idea what they're going to do to me when I go in.

I really really hope it goes OK today, thinking of ya....

TA x

Anonymous said...

thinking about you and, while I havent had it done, can count on both hands (and a few toes) womenfriends who HAVE.

**so common**

in a good DONT BE EMBARRASSED AT ALL! way.

hugs,

Carla

Anonymous said...

I haven't had the HPV vaccine, and to be honest, I'm not sure that I'll get it, because I can't see myself with anyone other than my boyfriend, who I trust (although if we break up, I'll be first in line to get one).

My sister has had abnormal cervical cells since her first smear, and has to get that done every 6 months.

And you could be called worse than whiney.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to let you know that my sister had a LEEP procedure done in January 2008 after having a pap come back showing precancerous cells, then a biopsy, then another biopsy. The procedure itself was minimally invasive, and she was feeling fine within a day or two. But she, like you, was pretty freaked out about it. She spent last year getting pap smears every three months, and now has clean bill of health. Her last pap came back completely normal. I said all that to say, yes, it is VERY common, and I think it's just one of those things that women don't talk about, like miscarraige, post-partum depression, etc. Once it happens to you, people come out of the woodwork to say, "oh, yeah, that happened to me too". Good luck, you'll be fine.

fattygetsfit said...

Seriously, I don't know what I would do without the kind words and support from my anonymous blog friends and readers. I can't thank you all enough. It's weird how something like this can really open a door for women to communicate about what's out there. I'm not embarrassed, more happy that something positive can come from something not-so-great.

I'm home now to shave my legs and relax beforehand.

auntie said...

I'd never hear of the LEEP procedure before, but I've had to have a colposcopy done a couple of times because of abnormal pap results and the fact that I have HPV. I don't know how the two procedures compare - I clicked on the LEEP link in your post and just did a really quick scan of some of the info - but anything like that is scary because it's out of the norm.

Also, my doctor recommended that I get the HPV vaccine even tho a)I already have one type of HPV, and b)I'm outside the recommended age range, so don't think of getting the vaccine (which DID hurt like a mother, huh??) as a waste at all. There are so many types of HPV that protecting yourself against any of them is better than nothing at all.

As in most all aspects of life, knowledge is power, so having the procedure and getting the results will ease your mind because you'll know what's next. I'll be thinking about you!

Anonymous said...

Hang in there! (And I'll pretend I didn't read about the "high-intensity electrical current". Zoinks.)