I love to tell people that one of the blessings of living in Northern Virginia is that we drive to the east to find museums and drive to the west to find farms. I’ve blogged before about our membership in the CSA (community supported agriculture) program with Great Country Farms, but last week we joined [...]
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You know that friend who is perpetually thin and jogs every day and talks about her runner’s high? Yeah, don’t you hate her? Okay, well, I’m your fat friend who has has started a walking program and now talks about endorphins and secretly obsesses about when I can get my next four-mile walk in and [...]
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The words weren’t entirely unexpected, and yet they still punched me in the gut. “You, my dear, have diabetes.” I looked at my endocrinologist somewhat blankly. I knew this was coming, and yet, the words fell down around me like individual blocks of cement. I. Have. Diabetes. I. Have. Diabetes. Ihavediabetes. Diabetes. Dammit. The family [...]
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I’ve compared the sudden discovery of pre-cancerous cells and pronouncement by my doctor that I needed a hysterectomy to a tornado whipping through my life. Unlike a lot of people who find themselves in this situation, I was not gradually building up to this diagnosis due to complaints of symptoms that then led to a [...]
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I have been a long-suffering wife putting up with JavaDad’s sleep apnea. He often forgets to put on his CPAP mask or sometimes manages to snore in spite of it. Imagine my mortification when I shared a hotel room with a girlfriend while at a conference and she told me I snored and made strange [...]
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I have rejoined and dropped out of Weight Watchers so many times, I feel like I should wear dark glasses and a big floppy hat when I go back to rejoin. My inability to see it through has nothing to do with their program and everything to do with the lack of balance in my life. But like an old friend, Weight Watchers is always there for me.
I joined Weight Watchers the first time my senior year in college, while I was already on tv as reporter and anchor and had to watch every pound carefully. I remember quite vividly buying a toaster oven so I could cook frozen grilled fish fillets in the sorority annex. This, by the way, did not go over well with my sisters. Fish smells are even worse than burned popcorn smells.
I’ve been a member in four states and across a span of weights I won’t even confess to you. I have become thin on the plan, but have never managed to stick around long enough for the honor of making “lifetime” (I’ve moved, gotten too caught up in work, or whatever). But bless the organization and the people, not once have I ever felt like they roll their eyes and say, “Oh it’s HER again…”
It’s been a week. I’ve muddled through it. It hasn’t been nearly as painful as usual. And I’ve lost 2.9 pounds. That’s with the big floppy hat and sunglasses on.
I just may win the pool at Loser Moms after all. More importantly, maybe this year, I’ll finally make “lifetime.”
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My family has always called me a night owl. My college roommates would concur. My children have actually come in and yelled at me for keeping them awake (or waking them up) by typing in the middle of the night. In my California days, I consulted with a nutritionist who said I had the most whacked out Circadian rhythm she’s ever seen.
I don’t sleep well at night.
There are different types of insomnia, but essentially there’s the kind that means it is hard to get to sleep and the kind where you fall asleep but once you wake up, you can’t go back to sleep. I have both of those. Yeah, it’s a b*$ch. And I’ve had it all my life, as near as I can tell. It gets worse if I am worried or anxious about something. And even worse if I’m sick or having any sort of pain. Pregnancy was a ton of fun!
If I am allowed to, my best hours of sleep are when the world doesn’t want me to — between 7am and 10 am. And my most productive hours are between 10pm and 2am. Not really a terrific schedule for work or a mother. So I cope. And I sleep very little, something I’m used to.
But sometimes my body really rebels and I get virtually no sleep. The clock keeps going by and I watch as it is 3am, 4am, 5am, 6am, my mind and body tensing as I know I will be a grouch with no sleep, and yet I know the day is about to start. This week has been one of those weeks.
Over the years I’ve talked to various doctors about it, who sort of shrug their shoulders, tell me to exercise more, cut out caffeine, maybe prescribe a sleeping pill. This is the year I’ve decided I can’t live this way any more. This is the year I’m going to hunt down someone who really understands this kind of a problem and helps me find a better way.
Because I love interacting with all my West Coast friends on Twitter and Facebook in real-time. But I’d love a “normal” night’s sleep more.
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If you knew how to prevent more than 4,000 women from dying from cancer this year, would you take action? By the end of this post, you’ll know the answer. And this post is not just for women — men, I urge you to read this so you can be educated enough to make sure the women in your life (that means wives, DAUGHTERS, mothers, aunts, sisters, yes, even grandmothers, best friends — any woman in your life) are following the new health guidelines for screening and preventing cervical cancer.
January is National Cervical Cancer Awareness Month and the Pearl of Wisdom Campaign to Prevent Cervical Cancer is helping spread the word via a web site and pearl pins it hopes women will buy and give to their friends as a way to open conversation and as a reminder of the steps needed to screen for and prevent cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide. In the U.S., the American Cancer Society estimated that in 2009, 11,270 women would be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,070 women would die of the disease. Many more women will lose their fertility or experience pregnancy complications as a result of treatment for cervical cancer or cervical disease.
High-risk strains of a very common sexually transmitted infection called human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer. And if think you have never been exposed or never will be exposed to this, keep in mind that the Pearl of Wisdom Campaign says that 3 out of every 4 adults have had HPV at some time in their lives and the Centers for Disease Control say, “Approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with HPV. Another 6 million people become newly infected each year. HPV is so common that at least 50% of sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.” Everywhere I’ve researched the number, it has ranged between 50-80% of the population being infected with HPV at some point in time.
There are hundreds of strains of HPV, about 40 of which cause forms of cancer (include cervical, oral and anal cancer), and MOST forms of HPV are asymptomatic to the naked eye. In other words, most people are completely unaware they’ve ever been infected. Most HPV infections heal on their own, but some do not and cause cells on a woman’s cervix to change and become abnormal. This can cause cervical dysplasia, and if allowed to continue to change, may cause cervical cancer.
However, with proper screening, cervical cancer can be prevented. And the Pearl of Wisdom people also say vaccination is part of the solution — which I will treat separately in this post.
Screening: Pap Test AND HPV Test
The highest form of routine screening for cervical cancer is a Pap Test AND an HPV Test. A Pap test only looks for abnormal cells, so a woman can get a “normal” Pap test while an HPV Test can reveal that there is HPV present. If your HPV test is positive, it does not mean you have abnormal cells or cervical cancer. It just means that you have HPV and that your healthcare provider will want to follow you more closely to see if that HPV infection clears on its own, or develops into abnormal cells.
Although both tests combined is the most cautious way to screen, recent guidelines came out from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that recommends Pap tests for women ages 21 to 29 every other year and then Pap test and the HPV test for women 30 and older every three years. The reason for waiting until after age 30 for adding the HPV test has to do with avoiding overly aggressive treatment of HPV infections that may clear on their own at a period of time in a woman’s life when the treatments — which can lead to infertility — may do more harm than good, based on what I understood from a conference call with Dr. Marie Savard, ABC News medical contributor and author of “Ask Dr. Marie: Straight Talk and Reassuring Answers to Your Most Private Questions
The Pap test and HPV test are done at the same time from the same sample if you do a liquid (“thin prep”) Pap test, so do request it at the time of your scheduled Pap test.
Preventing HPV at the Source
Okay — I’ll admit that when I first started my blog, the following sentences were not part of what I envisioned I’d be saying, but it is information you need to know: HPV is spread through skin-to-skin contact. Which means that it does not necessarily require intercourse. And that a condom does not necessarily prevent it because surrounding skin may carry the virus.
I am not anti-vaccine, nor am I the type of a parent to automatically follow the vaccination protocol without question. I research things and I am a bit leery of relatively new vaccines. With all the commercials for Gardasil, I did not understand why this vaccine was practically being crammed down the public’s throats and why at such a young age for girls. After talking to the Pearl of Wisdom people (who are a non-profit group, not a front for a vaccine company) and Dr. Marie, I am understanding it a little more, although I have not made a personal decision on where I stand on the cervical cancer vaccines yet. There are two now — Gardasil, which vaccinates against four types of HPV and Cervarix, which vaccinates against two — each of them vaccinate against the two most common types of high-risk HPV, 16 and 18, which are said to cause about 70% of all cervical cancers. HPV vaccinations are approved for girls as young as age 9 up to women age 26 (according to the Gardasil site). Because the vaccines do not prevent ALL high-risk HPV infections, they do not completely eliminate the risk of cervical cancer, and so these girls/women should still be screened to prevent cancer.
Vaccines are always a hot topic of debate. I recommend researching the pros and cons for yourself when making the decision about whether to vaccinate your daughter as this particular vaccine has generated a lot of passion online. Neither just take your doctor’s word nor fall for scare tactics — read, research and come up with a decision you are comfortable with.
What You Can Do
The Pearl of Wisdom Campaign to Prevent Cervical Cancer is trying to reach at least 4070 women (the number of women estimated to die of cervical cancer in 2009) this month and get them to the take the Pearl Pledge. It’s really easy:
Are you ready to take action? Let me know by commenting below.
Giveaway! The Pearl of Wisdom Campaign is providing 5 pearl pins to my readers — I’ll select the readers from those who comment through midnight January 22, 2010 ET and use random.org to help me choose the winners. To be eligible, you will need to provide your email address so I may contact you to let you know you are the winner and get your snail mail address so they can send you your pin.
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Disclosures : I am not a doctor nor do I have a medical background. Any medical information should be discussed with your doctor, I relied on information provided by the Pearl of Wisdom Campaign, Dr. Marie Savard, the Centers for Disease Control, Gardasil, Cervarix and/or their web sites and reported it to the best of my layman’s understanding. Your specific health should be discussed with your personal doctor. As part of participating in an informational conference call with Dr. Marie Savard and the Pass the Pearl Campaign representatives, I received a copy of her book for more background information — which I found informative and useful, but did not impact my decision to write this post or what to write. I have linked to her book using my blog’s Amazon Associates link. Purchases made through Amazon affiliate links on this blog yield a small referral fee. This applies to all purchases made on Amazon regardless of whether the product the consumer purchased was mentioned by me or not. The consumer’s purchases are confidential; I don’t know who has purchased items using my blog’s Amazon Associate links.
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Today I realized a long-time goal, and I hope, someday, somewhere, will help someone.
I joined the national bone marrow registry(also called the Be the Match registry)! I’ve always wanted to do it, I just never knew how, and thanks to Devra of Parentopia, I learned about a local marrow drive to help Jonathan Hauptof Maryland, and it took me very little time to zip on over to Reston and get not only myself, but JavaDad too, registered!
It was very easy — a swab of the cheeks — no pain involved! And the feeling of doing so selfless was exhilarating! Not to mention being able to check off a life goal! Now, hopefully I’m a match to someone who needs it, whether it is Jonathan Haupt or someone else.
I will write more about this later, I am off to a pre-BlogHer meetup. But I couldn’t wait to get out the word about more drives Jonathan’s family is holding, including a virtual one — visit this link for details: http://teamhaupt.org/marrow-drives/
Know of other drives going on? Link them or include all the details in the comments section.
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