Sinda the Wonder Cat

This is my 16 year old kitty, Miss Sinda. She thinks I am her sleeping platform - sometimes I wonder if our pets know that we are sick - she has been sticking to me like glue for the past six months or so...if I sit down, she is at me feet - if I lay down, she's perched on my hip - ouch! No wonder I wake up in the middle of the night - and I thought it was arthritis pain! It is just a 10# cat.

This is where some of you (men-folk mostly) may want to "get off" Toooooooo much information...Try jumping to this blog, it is really cool - http://mightyillusions.blogspot.com I don't mind :-)

Many people have asked me what my symptoms were. Mostly it was spotting, and a reoccuring of periods after a 3 or so year break (let me tell you, that was a pain in the butt! - and expensive - I had to go out and buy all that "stuff" again - holy cow, when did they go from putting 26 tampons in a box to putting only 20? - and the price certainly didn't go down - those things must only cost about 3 cents a piece to make) I have since found out that in 90 percent of cases, there is abnormal uterine bleeding, ranging from insignificant staining to a hemorrhage - which, like I said - my body was whispering to me, I just wasn't listening. Hopefully I can spread the word to enough women, that if the "subject" comes up in casual conversation, you'll tell your friend to get it checked out! Also, remember what I said yesterday about the weight thing - women who are 50# or more overweight (guilty as charged...) are TEN times as likely to get uterine cancer as you skinny ladies. (has to do with fat & estrogen - boring mostly - I'll let you look it up on the internet yourself)

I did find out that "well defined cells" are considered Grade 1 and these patients have the best prognosis for recovery, and generally don't require any chemo or radiation. That will probably only be necessary if they find problems in the lymph nodes in my abdomen or if the depth of the cancer cells in to the lining of the uterine wall is to great.

That said, the following info is from www.womenscancercenter.com

"Screening for uterine cancer is not as satisfactory as screening for cancer of the cervix because of the inaccessibility of the uterine cavity. Pap smears detect only a small percentage of endometrial cancers. There have been studies of other screening methods that can be performed in the doctor's office, with several showing the benefit of using endometrial biopsies to screen high-risk women who have no symptoms. This procedure is associated with some discomfort, (discomfort, my ass - your eyes practically bug out of your head - but it only hurts for a few minutes) however, and may not be cost-effective in the absence of risk factors. A uterine sonogram (ultrasound) maybe suggestive of uterine cancer if the lining of the uterus cavity demonstrates increased thickness. Routine annual screening for women without symptoms is not recommended."

So, don't think that you need to go without a pap smear (it catches other stuff), but don't go running out and think that you need a biopsy until they have done an ultrasound (which I also had done in March of this year - ) By the way, I had an "irregular" pap smear a couple of years ago, (I was spotting that day) but when they did another pap smear two months later - no problem found (I was also not spotting at that time) Hmmm.

Tomorrow is the day that they are going over my files at the Cancer Care Alliance in Seattle. They said they'd call on Friday to let me know when my appointments are. I'll keep you posted.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about AFLAC. It is going to save my bacon (at least keep us out of the poor house) It is pretty sad when, after being told you have uterine cancer, your first thought is not "How will I get through this, will I recover?", BUT, "Oh, shit, how much is THIS going to cost!"

This sassy fellow is Mr. Neelix - and the bain of Sinda's existance....

Good night.