Is this Sex Virus a blessing in disguise?

I SEE MY DISEASE AS A BLESSING

By Cheryl

After I left work on a hot, sunny Thursday in July, planning to return on Monday.HPV Testing was not on my mind. I am a riding instructor, and I was in my busy season, and my job had never been better. I had never been so happy in my 40-year career. My riding program was thriving. I had a full roster. Even more, I had a waiting list. I could get extra hours working in rodeos or holding a day camp. I loved my boss, my co-workers, and my customers. Hell, I loved my job. My dad once told me that if your passion is your job, you never work a day. STD Tests were not even known about. And that was how I felt; I was living the dream.

I finished my last lesson and left to have a cyst lanced the next day. I taught another lesson in December. My mother was the one who heard the news from the HPV doctor first. Sitting in disbelief and anger, she tried to absorb the news of STD cancer in her child. We had lost my father to this terrible disease, and it was just too much, too soon. My husband sat beside her, trying to make sense of it all, and he, too, felt betrayal and anger. They had many questions, but the doctor retreated behind a locked door, and the questions would remain unanswered.

It was Terminal

It was cancer. Specifically, it was vulvar cancer. A rare cancer that no one in their 50s should get. I had an HPV Variant Test and was being watched closely. I had Pap STD Home tests every six months and cervical biopsies. The funny thing is, the cancer never went onto the cervix, but it was there all the same. It sounded dirty. I called my father’s cancer doctor. He treated completely different cancers, but I knew I would feel safe with his advice. He looked at my CT scan and met with me.

It was very serious. He began to describe the things that might be done to combat this cancer. He described that there would probably be radiation and maybe chemotherapy. Then he wondered if there was lymph involvement. He wondered if there would be radiation implants and described the many surgeries that I might have to go through. I broke down, and my mother broke down. A friend in the room later admitted having the feeling of someone describing “gutting a fish.”

The prayers

We all stood in the waiting room and prayed. We prayed for a miracle, a total healing. The report came back, and the STD cancer was contained. I would be going to Barnes-Jewish Hospital I, where they treat and HPV Lab check this type of cancer all the time.

I prepared for the trip in odd ways. A friend took me to their Wednesday night prayer meeting. I was anointed with oil. Most of the congregation came up and laid their hands upon me and prayed for me. I kept hearing someone to the back and to the right of me thanking God for pulling the cancer off me, even as we were praying.

Our dog groomer got me a special daily devotional book for patients; it became my lifeline. My mother-in-law brought me a blanket made for me by a lady who did not even know me!

My job had prevented me from hiding my illness. I had riders, and I had to make explanations. The news was out. There was an outpouring of prayer– daily cards saying everyone was praying. Friends called and offered to help with the pets. They offered to stay with me and drive me to appointments.

The community came together.

Strangers sent books and gift cards for gas and medical supplies. I felt ashamed that when these things presented themselves to me before that, I had said that I would pray and not step up better. Then I felt awed that children were praying for me daily! I felt blessed!

I remember the first time I set foot in the STD Cancer exam Centre. If it has to do with cancer, they have it. If it is cutting edge, it is there. Some windows run in a curve and extend upward about two stories high. I found myself sitting by these windows between treatments many times. And think the person who designed the centre was a Child of God. So, I sat looking out those tall windows and past the high buildings, which were so tall my cell phone would hardly work. I had no service, but God had me on His call plan. He and I often connected in that place where a mere human had thought I would want to see the sky and that I would need sunshine to stream on my face.

Ringing the bell

There is a rail that opens to the radiology department below. I later learned that it is open, so you can hear the sound of the HPV treatment bell ringing, the bell that the patient rings at the end of their treatment. The bell became my focus, walking in and walking out every day. Each day, the door passed the bell and back out the door. Longing for the moment that I would ring it. I did ring the bell! I remember ringing in and praising God while I did it! And I still remember friends and family coming to watch me ring it!

I have been in complete remission from HPV and Cancer for two years, and I am grateful for a cancer that opened my eyes and my heart to a new day. Now, I look at my cancer as a blessing. I live each day to the fullest. Moreover, I am broken from the HPV Swab Tests and treatments, but I am repairing my body, and I am grateful.

I know two things: God will hold you tight and never leave you. He was right there at each chemo, radiation and STD Urine treatment. And two, you are only as strong as your friends and family holding you up!

SHARING MY STORY TO ENCOURAGE OTHERS

By Laura 

In October 1992, at age 36, the STD doctors diagnosed me with cervical cancer. They discovered it during my routine annual gynaecological exam. It was a shock as I had no symptoms. So, I was immediately referred to the oncologist for HPV Home tests. Due to my size (I was about 100 pounds overweight), it was decided that I should have radiation therapy. Not the hysterectomy and or chemotherapy options.

Several days later, I began a six-week course of radiation therapy. Every weekday, laid on a huge machine. It rotated around me and shot 6″x 6″ square doses of radiation through my lower body. This was followed by a hospital stay, where a steel apparatus with cobalt radiation was inserted inside me. It was a crazy-looking widget, which I nicknamed “Satellite Sputnik” when I saw the X-rays. It remained there for three-and-a-half days.

Treatment options

Naturally, I could not have visitors with all that radiation flying around. However, Nurses could only stay in my room for a couple of minutes, and then they were wrapped in heavy lead protective vests. However, I wondered how I could survive with that much intense radiation. But thankfully, I did survive.

It has been over 20 years now. And I’m THRILLED to be alive. But it did not come without damaging HPV health consequences found by frequent tests. The host repercussion was that my vagina was seriously shortened (despite post-surgery treatments). And a few years later, scar tissue was discovered in my bladder, and on several occasions,

It required surgery to remove it.

By 2009-unbeknownst to me-my bladder was in such bad shape that I wasn’t able to eliminate all urine when I went to the bathroom (frequently!), and it began backing up into my ureters (the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder). However, over the years, my kidneys were gradually poisoned. However, I slowly became very ill and was eventually diagnosed with radiation cystitis of the bladder. My urologist said simply that my bladder was “kaput.” It is now the size of a walnut and hard like weathered leather, not soft and flexible like it should be. And I was put on an indwelling Foley catheter 24/7. It is very uncomfortable and damages the inside of my bladder.

Later on

Last year, I was diagnosed with chronic and acute kidney disease, stage 4. And they inserted stents into my ureters to keep them open and let urine flow unimpeded. Hopefully, this will slow the steady march to needing dialysis and, eventually, a kidney transplant.

All these STD Panel Testing problems, a few lesser ones, are the direct result of my having had radiation treatment for cervical cancer. I know that medical science has greatly evolved and that the doses of radiation given today are much smaller. Still, I am sharing my story to encourage others to get tested regularly and avail themselves of the HPV teeenage vaccination Test that might help prevent this from happening to them.

A final note: I was never given an HPV Type checkup during my treatment days, and by the time I finally knew enough to request one, it was a decade later. By that time, I tested negative for the virus.