cancer slayer » at risk

combating the stigma of cervical cancer

garciagyrl — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:16:01 +0000

Since last month, Tamika Felder has been putting in a lot of overtime hours. The 34-year-old TV producer and on-air talent spends her days prepping guests, handling contracts and overseeing shoots, but after hours is when she begins the job she most passionate about — cervical cancer advocate.

Felder, founder of the advocacy organization Tamika & Friends, has been working nonstop since the start of 2010 to raise awareness about cervical cancer.

Tamika Felder (left) speaking at one of her foundation-sponsored events.

Her main messages: cervical cancer is preventable and it is not a result of promiscuous sexual behavior.

When Felder was diagnosed nine years ago, there was little information about cervical cancer and even fewer resources. She’s been on a mission to change that ever since, sharing information about necessary screenings and preventive practices.

That involves two tests that have proven highly effective in combating the disease: the Pap test, which checks for changes in the cells of the cervix before cancer develops, and the HPV test, which is used to detect the presence of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, the sexually transmitted virus that is the primary cause of cervical cancer.

There are more than 100 types of HPV, and 30 or so are spread through sexual contact, including oral sex. It’s so common that nearly all sexually active adults will become infected with some form of the virus during their lives, but most will never know it because it usually clears up on its own.

“We are all exposed to HPV at some point,” says Felder. “Some of us just don’t have the immune systems to fight it off.”

Within the last 30 years alone, the number of cervical cancer deaths has declined by 74 percent due to increased use of the Pap test. And in recent years, the vaccine Gardasil has proven successful in preventing HPV in young women who have not been exposed to the virus, although it has seen it’s fair share of controversy since hitting the market, mostly because of reported adverse side effects.

Yet, despite the advances, about 11,000 women will be diagnosed with the disease this year, and about 4,000 will die. Early screening and detection is crucial, particularly for sexually active women between the ages of 20-24, the population most likely to be infected. The American Cancer society recommends that women begin regular cervical cancer screenings about three years after they become sexually active.

“Most women with cervical cancer don’t show symptoms,” says Dr. Beverly London, a GYN in Jacksonville, Fla. “Some have bleeding after sex or a bloody or watery discharge, but it’s a pretty asymptomatic disease. It’s a slow-growing disease that is highly treatable when a woman gets a Pap test regularly.”

That’s information that Felder passes along to the thousands of women she meets as part of her cervical cancer campaign. It’s also information she wishes she’d been armed with when she was in her twenties.

Felder, who had no symptoms, originally scheduled an appointment to see her doctor for a boil under her arm. While she was there, the doctor recommended that she have a Pap test. It had been years since she’d gotten one, she admits, “for two reasons: I didn’t have insurance, and I had body-image issues.”

Two weeks later, when the results of her test came back, Felder was told she had advanced cervical cancer. Not long after her diagnosis, she underwent a radical hysterectomy to remove the tumors, followed by eight rounds of chemo and 16 rounds of radiation treatment.

“I thought I’d leave the appointment with the doctor telling me I needed to lose weight, not that I had cancer,” she says.

Scared and in shock, Felder says she remembered another friend, Catherine Tyler, who had a similar story.

Tyler, a marketing manger for AT&T, had been diagnosed in 1994, at the age of 25. At the time, she was a senior in college, was in a monogamous relationship, and she’d just been accepted to grad school. When she went to see her doctor after suffering pelvic pain and irregular periods for several months, she thought she might be pregnant. Like Felder, it had been years since she had seen a GYN and had a Pap test, but she considered herself pretty healthy.

“My mother wouldn’t take me to the doctor for a Pap or for birth control pills, only because she was old-school,” says Tyler. “She felt that if I wasn’t having sex, then I didn’t need a Pap smear because it was invasive. And if I was having sex, she wasn’t going to get me birth control pills because she saw it as a license to have sex.”

Tyler was in fact pregnant with her daughter, Sydney, who is now 16, but she was also diagnosed with cervical cancer.

After seeing a family oncologist, she had a partial hysterectomy and immediately started chemo and then radiation. It was a difficult regimen, she says, but she was determined not to put her life’s plans on hold. After giving birth, she attended grad school, baby in tow, and continued her treatments while she studied. She also began talking to young women about the disease, including her daughter.

Catherine Tyler and daughter Sydney

“I think about girls like me, girls whose parents never talked to them about sex and yearly exams,” Tyler concludes. “I didn’t know any better. I tell my daughter and the other girls I talk to that anyone can get HPV. I wasn’t having sex in high school, and I don’t want them to think this disease comes from being promiscuous. There’s no education around it, which means there will be more cases. There are too many 21- and 22-year-olds with the virus. More education will lead to lower numbers. We’ve got to get the word out.”

For more information on cervical cancer, go to TamikaandFriends.org.

adoption madness

garciagyrl — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:22:41 +0000

Last week, I had dinner with a friend who goes to Haiti often and is headed back any day now to lend a hand.

I jokingly told him to bring me back a baby, but I was serious about mothering a child from Haiti, or any country for that matter — if only folks wouldn’t judge me based on my medical records.

Okay, so it hasn’t happened yet. But more than likely it will.

As part of my quest to adopt a child, I’ll have to answer questions about being a cancer survivor, and rightfully so. But regardless of how well I recover, or even if I battle the beast and win, my medical history is going to be problematic. As one adoptive mother I reached out to wrote me in an e-mail, “The biggest obstacle is your health.”

Yeah. No kidding.

I found out a long time ago that being a cancer survivor would be a huge strike against me when it came time to adopt a kid, and I was a bit irritated by her need to state the obvious. The adoption agencies worry about how long a cancer patient is going to live and whether we’re fit enough to be parents.

And it’s not just ovarian cancer patients; it’s all cancer patients. I heard of a woman with thyroid cancer, which is highly curable, having to wait years before she was allowed to adopt. Granted the five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer patients — about 46 percent — isn’t as encouraging as thyroid cancer or even breast cancer, but when I read that figure, I interpreted it as somebody out there is beating the odds.

A lot of somebodies actually.

The reality is that cancer is becoming a chronic but manageable disease for many. Yet when it comes to adoption, survivors are discriminated against despite that fact that other ailments are more pervasive and equally life-threatening. More American women, for example, die from heart disease each year? A healthy cancer survivor (no, it’s not an oxymoron) should no more be given a hard time regarding adoption than someone who’s at risk for heart disease or someone who’s overweight.

Furthermore, there are conditions like depression that negatively affect child rearing more than cancer. Take for instance a family friend who battled bipolar disorder all his life. He stopped taking his medicine two years ago and shuttered himself in his apartment until he starved to death. He was healthy in almost every other respect. He just couldn’t triumph over the demons in his head.

I’m not arguing that this is the fate of everyone battling mania and depression, but those with ailments that severely compromise their cognitive abilities aren’t forced to come clean. In many cases, you’d never know.

And that’s exactly why this entire adoption process is dubious. Some folks can mask their issues, while others like me are forced to wear them for the world to see. Or, more accurately, to read.

Doctor’s visits, medical records, chemo treatments — they’re all there to be accessed by whoever will decide whether I should be allowed to adopt. I’m not suggesting that they shouldn’t be, but I wouldn’t be trying to be an adoptive parent if I thought I was physically unable to take care of a kid.

I have no plans to adopt by myself, which might make my situation a bit more palatable. But my sweetie and I haven’t even started the process and already people are talking to me about the difficulties ahead. That’s no reason to quit, though. In fact, it will just spur this cancer slayer on.

health care hangover

garciagyrl — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:22:29 +0000

Watching the health care bill make its last rounds is like being at a New Year’s bash a few hours too long. At first, it’s all fun and excitement. But after the height of the celebration, when all the optimism of what’s to come has grown faint, it feels like a big, fat drag.

I was all hyped, for example, about universal coverage. As far as I’m concerned, there are times when the government has to ensure that resources are distributed equitably. And health care is just one such issue.

No matter, though. When conservatives cried foul, the president quickly ditched the idea for the seemingly more palatable public option, which was in and then it was out, and then it was in again and now it’s out.

Who can keep up? It’s difficult to figure out which reform is actually part of the reform. And am I the only one who feels like the entire debate has gone from energizing to energy draining? These days, health care reminds me of last week’s hangover: heavy, tiresome and short on fun.

In the latest non-progress surrounding the bill, the Senate race in Massachusetts is closer than Democrats expected. The party is in danger of losing its majority, which it needs to push health care legislation through. A surprise win for the GOP in Ted Kennedy’s old seat would no doubt be a setback for the Dems. In turn, that would likely delay the bill further, which translates into critical setbacks for me and many others.

You see, I’m one of those Americans who would be denied insurance coverage because of my preexisting condition, even if I pay for it out of pocket. My medical history sends up clouds of black smoke to carriers. But under the new health care bill, discriminating against folks based on health conditions would be illegal.

In the interim, a program like Medicare could offer a reprieve for people in my situation. Under the new bill, Medicare will be expanded to include Americans with serious diseases under the age of 65. These measures, however, take time to implement, and a languishing bill is only exasperating matters. According to a piece written by DNC Chairman Howard Dean, most Americans wouldn’t see the benefits of the bill until 2014.

A lot of good that’s doing for the uninsured or underinsured today.

The latest news out of Washington is that there will likely be another version of the health care bill before lawmakers agree on one. I’m feeling like they’ve had one too many already.