As I spend my days exploring & taking walks amongst the flowers in the grassy common area near the house, I am acutely aware that I am one of the lucky ones. I am under a team of world-class gynaecology & oncology doctors here in Cape Town, and they are going for a cure of this disease with no recurrence. A radical hysterectomy was what was suggested in Zimbabwe to treat this cancer and I would have had to wait months to get booked in for one. The cancer had already spread to lymph nodes, making it a stage 2 cancer, so a long waiting period and a radical hysterectomy would have actually been an eventual death sentence for me.
I want to talk more about what causes cervical cancer and how you can avoid it. I can see how so little is known about HPV and cervical cancer, it's really embarrassing to talk about, but not knowing these things is how I have ended up here so it should be talked about. In my quest to help others get an early diagnosis and prevent what I am having to go through, I feel it is important information I can’t skip over. Raising awareness can give you choices, and knowing you have choices is empowering.
1. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally (and unfortunately much more common in Africa) and can be cured if diagnosed at an early stage and treated promptly.
2. Cervical cancer is caused by long-term infection with certain types of high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV). If left untreated, it causes 95% of cervical cancers. Typically, it takes 15–20 years for abnormal cells to become cancer.
3. If you are sexually active, you can get HPV, even if you have had sex with only one person. It can be passed on by skin-on-skin touching during sex so condoms may not offer full protection against getting HPV.
4. In most cases, HPV goes away on its own within two years without health problems. But when HPV does not go away, it can cause problems like genital warts and cancer. It can also take years for HPV symptoms to present and often people don’t know they have it or have had it, so it’s difficult to know where it came from or when.
5. Vaccination against HPV and screening and treatment of pre-cancer lesions are effective ways to prevent cervical cancer and are very cost-effective. Your Well Women check-ups should include a Pap smear, HPV testing, a physical pelvic exam and a good look at your cervix. Pap smears don’t always find 100% of abnormal cells and don’t detect HPV, which is why it’s important to test for HPV infection. Your gynaecologist or doctor should be physically & visually checking your cervix and surrounding areas to feel for any lumps or bumps that shouldn’t be there.
6. Treatment for HPV in the cervix means any precancerous lesions need to be removed. There are different options for this depending on the size of the precancerous lesion and your doctor’s preference.
It’s been a traumatic experience and continues to be as we hurry up and then wait at every stage. I could go on and on about doing your check-ups but if this worked then we would all have done them and be HPV and cancer-free but here we are, myself and other strong, capable, and intelligent women I know are in the same situation. You can read more about HPV in the links below.
All I can say is from my own experience is:
1. Not doing your women’s health checks is going to put a lot of strain on you and your family. It has taken me away from my home, husband and children for months on end with no clear date for return yet.
2. Not doing your women’s health checks is going to put a strain on all your relationships. There is a lot of worry and upset and this can take its toll on everyone around you.
3. Not doing your women’s health checks is going to cost a lot of money. Even with medical aid coverage, the costs keep rising and rising to now treat stage 2 cancer. And most medical aids are not going to cover the costs of flights, accommodation, or your salary. It’s really really expensive.
4. Not doing your women’s health checks is going to affect the chance of you having a baby in the future and in some cases bring on early menopause which also creates its own set of issues.
5. Not doing your women’s health check-ups is going to involve a lot more very boring and lengthy admin than if you had got things seen to sooner. Yawn…
6. Lastly, but probably most importantly, make sure that your doctors and gynaecologists are doing the correct screening procedures for any cancer. Ask your friends, your family, your doctors and anyone who may know where and how you should screen for cancer. Research the cancer you are concerned about and how to go about screening for it.
It is quite serendipitous that the biggest breakthrough in cervical cancer treatment in 20 years coincided with my diagnosis, so this is the treatment plan I am on, it is quite a sophisticated approach and the outcome looks very promising. You can read more about this breakthrough in cervical cancer treatment and the “death of pap smear testing” in the links below. I will be starting the next set of 6 rounds of weekly Chemo with 15 minutes of daily radiation in the next week or so to hopefully get rid of this baddie for good. I will also continue to walk amongst the flowers on the Rondebosch common and be grateful for how lucky I am to have caught this in time. I will keep thinking of ways I can help others get early diagnoses for cancer. As I have mentioned before early detection is key and there really should be more awareness about cancer that it’s not difficult to treat if found early.
Thank you to all of you who have contributed, read my posts, and shared the love. My oncologist says most cancer patients continue to work as occupational therapy and it is important for mind, body and soul during this time. This will be my work and my way to make a contribution to my family and Victoria Falls on my path of recovery and healing - I can't think of a more inspiring way! If you do want to contribute you can "Buy me a coffee" :)
If you can't contribute that's also OK! Please keep reading, take care of your body, go home hug your family and be grateful for every day you have together.
Love,
Kel
Helpful link to explain more about HPV https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/human-papillomavirus-hpv/hpv-5-things-all-women-should-know
More about the biggest breakthrough in cervical cancer treatment in 20 years
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-67192441
More about the death of pap smears as cervical cancer screening, I am not the only one with missed cancer cells from pap smears.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-64373964