: : home     : : reviews     : : days gone by     : : who?     : : contact     : : nobel reading project     : : photos    

13 september 2002

by request

I was checking my stats recently. As of this past month, LionessDen.com has received 2 million page hits. There's a reason I'm telling you this.

Lisa wrote to me today. She and D. want me to share something with however-many-of-you-are-reading today. I don't suspect I'll ask this too often, but today, I hope that all of you who are reading will forward today's post to a friend, a pack of friends, a girlfriend, your mom, or anyone who cares about them. I don't think that much I write here is very important, truth be told. Today is.

Awhile back, I wrote to you guys about another blog that I've been following for over a year now. It's one that D. writes primarily for friends and family, but I think also for his wife, as well as their daughter.

It is the most sustained love letter I've ever read.

Several ago, D's wife was diagnosed with cervical cancer. After a radical hysterectomy and examination of the surrounding lymph nodes, doctors saw that the cancer had not spread. Shortly after a six-month checkup a couple of years later, however, his wife began experiencing severe pain in her right side. Tests showed a mass in her liver, a metastasis of the previous cancer. This manifested itself three years after the hysterectomy.

I've never met D. and his family. He had been reading the Den for awhile, and contacted me through the site one day, sharing the URL of his own blog. Since then, I've read each meticulous entry. They detail everything from the different types of chemotherapy they've tried, the reasons that this must be treated as cervical rather than liver cancer, the radiation, the days after. The return to work. The family holidays. The trip to Ireland. The list of coworkers who donated vacation and sick time to her for treatment and recovery days.

And now, the help of hospice workers, and the seemingly endless list of friends, family, and coworkers who stop by to visit and maybe watch a Steelers game. Because that, D says, is "what it's all about. Enjoying life."

This is what they want me to tell you: ladies, get your annual pap smears and pelvic examinations. Start getting them the moment you turn 18, or when you decide to become sexually active. Add it to the short list of most important things you tell your daughters before they leave home. Better yet, take them to their first exam.

Bottom line, pap smears save lives. It's one of the few medical tests that you don't hear people debating, because it works.

If you don't have health insurance, most medium- to large-sized cities have clinics or Planned Parenthood offices at which you can get your pap at a very low cost, or on a sliding pay scale. Need a reminder? Sign up for yours at My Health Test Reminder.com. Finally, for clear information about the pap test itself, visit the College of American Pathologists.

And from Lisa:

"I would hate for anyone to go through what my brother, sister-in-law, and my niece as well as our family and friends are having to go through. [My sister] is a beautful person, and a wonderful addition to our family."