My Summer of Cancer

This post appears in the 161st Carnival of Healing at Interesting Observations.

Nine years ago I was diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is probably the only cancer that is “catchable”. It is a very slow growing cancer, which can develop over ten or even twenty years, out of the HPV or Human Papillomavirus. According to the Centers for Disease Control approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with HPV, and another 6.2 million people become newly infected each year. At least 50% of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, 11,070 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in the U.S.

Cervical cancer is one of the only cancers that is curable, if caught early enough. A simple annual Pap Smear will detect cervical cell changes, which can signal early cervical cancer. In spite of easy screenings and high cure rates, approximately 3,700 women die each year from cervical cancer. I was almost one of them. I think my story is fairly typical, which is why I choose to share it. I live in a very small town in a very rural area in West Texas. When my son was about 6 weeks old, my beloved OB/GYN moved away. Lots of women in my area routinely travel the 170 miles to “town” for a doctor day, including mammograms and pap smears. I had every intention of finding a new doctor there and making the annual trek myself. Except that I didn’t. Time just slipped by. Eleven years of time, to be exact.

I started having terrible trouble with non-stop heavy bleeding. One evening, after a particularly serious bout, I could not even stand and had to crawl down the hall to the couch. My son was scared, my then husband was scared and I was scared. A new female doctor had just moved to town and opened her practice so I made an appointment and went to see her. Several tests later, I got the dreaded “you have cancer” call. Let me tell you that nothing is like that call. It’s one of those things you remember every detail of forever. Then, of course, you pull yourself together and move forward. For me, moving forward meant moving to the big city for a summer for treatment. My mom flew out and stayed with me for the duration. I had a long summer of treatments including daily radiation. The treatments themselves weren’t too bad but the loss of personal privacy was pretty hard for me to take. Nonetheless, you do what you have to. I ended that bad summer with a radical hysterectomy. The treatments were completely successful. My doctor later told me that my cancer was so far along she wasn’t sure at the beginning if I would make it and considers me one of her personal success stories. I certainly owe her my life.

Not only am I writing this to encourage, insist actually, that you get your yearly Pap smear, unpleasant as that is, I am also writing to encourage you to have yourself and/or your daughters vaccinated with Gardasil. Gardasil is the only cervical cancer vaccine that helps protect against four types of HPV, two of which cause 70% of cervical cancer cases, and two others, which cause 90% of genital warts cases. Gardasil is for girls and young women ages 9 to 26. I understand there is some resistance to this vaccine although I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is. Gardasil is not about sex on any level. It is about a vaccine that can help prevent a disease. I only wish I could have had this shot when I was younger and avoided my summer of cancer. If you don’t get your daughters vaccinated and they end up with cervical cancer, how will you explain to them why you didn’t get them vaccinated?

Although I clearly feel very strongly about this subject, I would really welcome everyone’s comments. I would especially like comments from people against the vaccine so I can perhaps understand the reason for not having it.