cancer slayer » being your own advocate

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.

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.

CAT scan queen

garciagyrl — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:57:20 +0000

CAT scan machines: no fun and possibly dangerous?

The test used to detect cancer may also cause it. Little surprise there. In yet another one of life’s twisted schemes, the things that help us often turn out to be the things that hurt us.

According to recent reports, radiation from CAT scans is higher than previously thought and could be linked to increased cancer risk.

The cruel reality, though, is that for cancer patients — especially newbies like me — CAT scans are a regular part of life.

I get one every three months.

And when my doctor wants to gauge how well a drug is working.

And whenever my CA-125 — a protein found in ovarian cancer cells — is high.

And when I feel especially sick.

And, well, all the damn time.

Even for those in remission, CAT scans are a necessary part of staying cancer free. Generally, the protocol is a CAT scan every three months, then every six months for the first five years after treatment ends, and then once a year. Cancer and CAT scans go together like chemo and collapsed veins.

So what caused investigators to raise the alarm now? The report cited two reasons: Over the last two decades, the number of patients undergoing CAT scans has increased dramatically, from 3 million in 1980 to 70 million in 2007. That’s a heck of a lot of X-rays. Enough to cause concern within the medical community.

Equally alarming, the study noted, are all the unnecessary scans that have been going down. Allegedly, they’ll lead to 29,000 new cancer diagnoses this year, most of which will result from scans of the abdomen and pelvis — the only kind I get.

I’m starting to wonder what’s left in the world that isn’t potentially cancerous. From medical procedures to microwaves, there seems to be an unlimited number of cancer-causing agents.

Not long ago, I was talking to a professor whose book I’m editing. He’s a pretty fit 70-year-old who has been running marathons and eating healthy for the better part of his life. We met for lunch in Manhattan to talk business, and he couldn’t decide what to order. When I suggested that he try the smoked salmon salad, which I get all the time, he told me it was filled with carcinogens. Something about the smoking process, he began to explain, but I promptly checked out of the convo, because I eat smoked salmon all the time.

In fact, on a trip to Alaska in July, I’m sure I put away several pounds of the fatty, unctuous fish. Should I consider eliminating that, too?

Nah.

I’ve concluded, salmon fishers will be happy to know, that I should no more give up the foods I love than I should my quarterly X-rays. In my case, the benefits of both surely outweigh the harm.

And although that’s not true for the thousands who might be diagnosed with cancer as a result of radiation exposure, until some new and improved method of finding and monitoring malignant tumors is discovered, we’re left with few options besides limiting the number of scans we undergo.

That’s certainly my plan for 2010. Because as per my last X-ray images, I have no visible signs of the disease, which means I won’t be the CAT scan queen for much longer. The number of appointments I’ll have next year that involve exposing my organs to radiation should max out at two tops. And that’s fine by me. I’m more than happy to renounce my title.