Here's to preventative care.

Please excuse me for a moment while I talk about my insides ...

I am very fortunate to not have health issues.  Aside from childhood allergies that have all but gone away, it's rare for me to be sick.  I hardly even feel side effects from medication or get seasonal  hay fever symptoms.  Like I said, pretty lucky.

I believe in preventative care.  Before last year, that was purely a philosophical stance.  Women's care and health screenings have been a hot topic of discussion and political fervor recently, and more than ever I believe that everyone should have access to routine exams.  Things happen, things pop up when you least expect it.  It certainly did for me.  After ten years of nothing but clear exams, my doctor found high grade dysplasia on my annual visit.  One year, two colposcopies, and three additional paps later, nothing had changed.  Yesterday I went in for a leep procedure that (hopefully!) eliminated all of the pre-cancerous cells.  We'll know for sure in a couple of weeks, but my doctor is confident that everything will be fine.

post-op, loving pain killers

It's been nerve-wracking and scary.  It would be for anyone, but it has been especially disconcerting given my complete lack of medical history for this sort of thing, for any sort of thing.  What has helped me most has been the ability to share my experience with several people and find out that this is actually really common for women my age to go through.  It has been a huge comfort to be able to talk about it.  So many people have had these procedures, these same sort of test results, and it's really made me appreciate having people out there who can relate.  It's really helpful to me and for my family to know I'm not alone, and that everything has gone exactly according to procedure.

This has done nothing but reaffirm my believe that all women should have access to these sorts of tests.  I am doing just fine today (thank you, percoset!) because this was caught early and treated aggressively.  This is my PSA: preventative care is the best care.

Here's to health!