Guest Post - One Tweet Saved my Life.

Today I have guest post by a reader. She shares an important story. Read it, and if need be, make an appointment. And if you are a blogger and have written about this topic, please feel free to leave a link in the comment section.

How do you explain to Mrs Woog that her tweet saved your life?

Every woman should (MUST) go through this.. atleast every three years.

Some go through it once and think that's it.

Some go through it every year.. one of those people is me.

Yes that's right. I have a papsmear every year! I hate it. But it is a must.

Due to family history with Cervical Cancer, I have been going for papsmears every year since I was 18. 

It happened to me last year.

I know that if I hadn't read a tweet just over a year ago, I would not where I am today.

14th February 2012, Mrs Woog tweeted that her latest post was available to read, Do Not Fear the Papsmear. That afternoon I tweeted to Mrs Woog and thanked her for reminding me – I'd arrange one with my appointment on that Thursday. 

Before I went to the appointment I twittered: "off for my #smear today!! I am looking forward to taking my pants off and showing my bits to a stranger before my wedding day!!"

I missed my 6 week checkup papsmear in June 2011 because it was lady month and I had had papsmear while pregnant with my second baby at 18 weeks due to an abnormal papsmear the year before - it came back normal. I was putting it off as I was organising my wedding. 

With only a few weeks before my wedding, I decided to 'get it out the way' before I forgot about it again. Simple 5 minutes in and out. Forget about it until next year.

I was out buying the underwear for my Wedding dress - 3 weeks before my wedding, when I received an urgent phonecall from the doctors surgery.

The Dr welcomed me into her office.

Sat me down.

Told me that I was due for a papsmear (it was flashing on her computer)

I informed her that she gave me one last week.

"Oh yes – its here and yes I have the results… Oh.." she said.

OH OH??? OH NO is all I could think in my head.. a million things going on already in my head right now (I could list them – Renovations, Wedding plans, MasterS’s leg diagnosis, Toilet Training MissC, House a mess and never seem to get on top of putting clothes away etc etc – the usually Mummy thoughts)

OH is not what I need right now! I'm about to get married!

But Oh is what I got and the results were:

The results: (Medical Terms used here)
High Grade Squamous Intrapithelial Lesion
Microscopy: Endocervical Component – Present
Abnormal cells are evident indicative of CIN III and concomitant human papilloma virus infection.
Small numbers of dysplastic cells are present and in addition there are metaplastic cells showing reactive atypia.
Recommendation: Colopscopic evaluation is recommended.

Non Medical Terms (explained to me by a doctor friend):
Think of your cervix as a circle.

• Inside the circle are very few abnormal cells.. This is CIN I
• Inside the circle there are quite a few abnormal cells.. This is CIN II
• Covering the whole circle are abnormal cells.. This is CIN III – Pre-Cancerous
• Abnormal cells penetrated through the circle and into the blood stream this is Cervical Cancer.

Plus throw in a few other cells that don’t belong in my Lovely Lady Bits.. that I can’t explain what they are.. but all I know is that it’s not good!

So I have CIN III – Now that they have found this information out – they can do something about it – Biopsy, Colposcopic,  Laser Surgery and they will zap those abnormal cells before the penetrate into the skin!

All this happened within a year. This is not normal.

I locked it up in a box and threw away the key.. there was nothing I could do until I had my appointment with the Gynocologist at the end of April. I had a wedding to attend to. Mine!

April 27th came. I had a long wait ahead of me at the hospital. My husband came with me and sat next to me while we waited, and then I was moved to another waiting room, and then to another waiting room where I got changed into a lovely outfit with no back - wearing.. no knickers.

It was quite a quick procedure. I had the LLETZ procedure (also known as LEEP). This is where they remove the abnormal cells from the cervix with a heated wire loop. He said from the results, it is clear that I have HPV CINIII and that they need to be removed asap.

He said they are going to do the coloposcopy to find the abnormal cells and then do the LLETZ procedure, as it is clear these cells aren’t mild and would go away on their own, like most abnormal papsmears. It is important that they remove these cells before they develop into cancer.

It took about 25 minutes and it wasn’t uncomfortable.

I walked out relieved, the ordeal was over.

The checkup papsmear 6 months later - the results came back normal.

I am about to have my yearly papsmear checkup - where I hope it will be normal again. Then I will have yearly papsmears for the rest of my life (just like I have been doing since I was 18).

Mrs Woog saved my life.

I met Mrs Woog last week (I flew from Perth to Sydney for the Digital Parents Conference) - I tweeted to her the week before - "How do you thank someone IRL who saved your life #cervicalcancer #Iwillcry".

I walked up to Mrs Woog - I had tears rolling down my cheeks as soon as I saw her. I showed her my tag which had my name on it and burst into tears. I unlocked that box I had been keeping locked up for the last year.

Mrs Woog, my name is Yvette and you saved my life.

Thank you.

My husband thanks you, my children thank you and the people who messaged me after they read my posts about my Papsmear journey last year, also thank you, for reading my posts about what happened, made them go and get a papsmear and save their lives.

Written by Yvette Bowyer – Little Bento Blog