HPV: Not just causing cancer in women

My otherwise lovely, concerned and excellent doctor said my colposcopy and biopsy wouldn't really hurt either, so I went to the appointment by myself, even though I could have had someone come with me (and in fact bumped into one of my friends in the doctor's waiting room who would have been glad to stay with me). Instead, it was insanely painful and I cried like a baby. They had a nurse come in to hold my hand. A few weeks later, I had to have the LEEP, under anesthesia in the hospital and my parents came to take care of me.

Turned out I was fine (thank God).

 

Ah yes, that's the step before cryotherapy. You didn't have to go the whole nine yards?

 

You should have said 'don't worry, this won't hurt' and then kicked him in the head.

 

That's the Leep procedure, correct? Where they take a little wire loop to ya? That's what the wife went through to get rid of abnormal cells. Never heard HPV, though.

 

No ... LEEP and cryotherapy are different ...

http://lib-sh.lsuhsc.edu/fammed/atlases/leep/leepind.html

 

After the biopsy, the results came back OK. So now, I guess I didn't go the whole 9 yards. I didn't know there was more. My intense admiration for you and Dyno and anyone else who had to have more done...because that was enough to scar me for a while.

 

IJAG didn't have the cryotherapy ... and from what I read the Leep could come before the cryotherapy. I'm probably wrong, though, I'm completely out of my league on this subject and I have no idea why I keep posting ..

 

Hi. This is called not knowing what you're talking about. Right wing groups -- preeminently Dobson's Focus on the Family -- succeeded in blocking the vaccine from being approved by the FDA FOR YEARS, and now that it has been approved, are actively opposing state legislatures from including it with other vaccines required for kids to go to school.

This is a vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. The fact that every single girl in America doesn't get this shot at age 11 or 12 is a staggering testament to the negative impact that the nexus of right-wing reactionary politics and religion have had on our nation.

It prevents cancer. They'd rather risk cancer among their daughters than stop demonizing sex to them. They're fucked up in the head.

And the cost, by the way, is $120 for the shot, and that's at retail. If every state legislature did what they ought to, and included it with the other vaccines we make children get before they go to or move forward in school, the economy of scale would bring that price down in half again.

 

Many sleepless nights and many tears shed ...

 

Very well put, Zeke. Thanks.

 

1. Zeke, there are 3 shots, generally. You're aware of this?

2. Frankly, I could give a shit what Focus on the Family says and so could a lot of Christians. It's not Jesus, got nothing to do with religion, but Republicans, conservative groups. Be smart enough to separate them.

3. And that's beyond the point anyway. Anybody who can afford this vaccine - can get it. Ditto for all kinds of health programs that save lives. That's why I favor universal health insurance. The real story here is that a drug company has a vaccine, makes money hand over fist, and still won't reduce the cost of it. Merck won't absorb the cost or defray it. Mandating the vaccine would reduce the cost of it, but it'd miss the point. It should cost nothing.

 

You should give a shit what Focus on the Family says, given that wide swaths of the country think it speaks for Christians, but keep deluding yourself that everybody thinks it's just conservative groups trying to keep this vaccine from being mandated. That wing of conservatism is so intwined with certain groups of Christians that they cannot be told apart.