Ladies beware

Subject: Ladies beware
From: Megan L
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 02:35 PM

Breast threads seem to crop up quite regularly around here, but I hope no one minds if I Issue a warning. GET THEM CHECKED. In Britain you stop getting an invite to attend for a mamogram at the age of 60 (I think). Just a few weeks ago a friend of mine who was over the age heard the team were going to be in our area - she has been checked regularly since this was brought in and this was the first year she had fallen over the automatic invite. She made an appointment, Thank God she did a tumour was found and the biopsy was not good so this week she is having a mastectomy and will begin other therapy. Thankfully because she has been regularly checked it was still quite small and the doctors are very hopefull.

The lump could not have been detected by manual checks so if you get the oppertunity to get a check Take It, mudcatters are to special to lose.

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 03:16 PM

Don't forget the other end either - I know it's embarassing and not very nice, but a smear is a good thing to do... I'm waiting for an appointment because they have just found a load of scar tissue that wasn't there after the caesar I had 4 years ago..... Maybe it's new, maybe I just got a nurse who (literally) went that little bit further.

And you guys, prostate cancer is on the increase too - next time you feel like a fondle, have a proper sqidge and see if there is anything *extra* there.....

LTS

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: Wesley S
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 03:22 PM

And while you're at it - check out those testicles. You don't want to lose even one of them. We can't all be Lance Armstrong - he was luckier than most.

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: kendall
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 03:30 PM

the best thing you can do for your prostate is zinc and saw palmetto. Saw palmetto shrank my prostate back to normal. No Spaw, it didnt shrink anything else!

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: Gervase
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 03:57 PM

Liz, mny dear, how intimately do you think we chaps fondle ourselves if we're going to self-diagnose a dodgy prostate?!

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 04:08 PM

Also tomato and tomato products, i.e. pasta sauces etc. are good for a healthy prostate.

Anyone know how important, or not, pap smears are after a hysterectomy?

katofftosqidgesomeballs!Oh, Roooogggg...come back, honeeeeeyyy

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: Wesley S
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 05:42 PM

Kat/Katlaughing - Do I dare ask how you plan to apply those tomato products to help out the prostate???

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 06:06 PM

I have, I do, and I will. Just went through a 18 month period of checking all every 6 mos because of one bad smear. All appears OK, now tho. Thank goodness. I was sick of "ALL" every 6 mos.................but we are lucky to have the tech to catch this stuff. Not a fun way to go. Have lost several friends to breast cancer. AND, BTW------MEN can get breast cancer, too!!

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: Mbo
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 06:29 PM

Yes, Montell Williams had breast cancer...now he has MS.

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: DougR
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 07:08 PM

WesleyS: is it apparant? A tomato juice enima!

DougR

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 07:32 PM

You guys are baaadddd!! **BG** I heard it on NPR, some doc was saying that in a study of men who had included tomatos and tomato products as part of their usual diet, i.e. eating them, the rate of...well you, know ...it was lower or some such...I just know I am glad Rog eats a lot of the darn things...and it is tough enough for him to get sqidged (love that word!), let alone weather any designs on his little button with anything like what DougeR suggests!**BG**

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 11:07 PM

I' still trying to figure out how to do a Pap smear after a hysterectomy... do they leave the cervix, um, behind? Pardon my ignorance if touching on sensitive subjects. And I have always believed that the weekly breast check need not be done by the woman all alone in front of her mirror (as per common instructions), why be boring about it... the prostate check too could be interactive, to leave a word in its old meaning...

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 11:14 PM

Yep, it's okay to ask, good lord, I think we've *touched* on everything else in the threads.*bg* Sorry to sound so dumb, but I just asked Rog (hey, I was young and stupid and intimidated by docs at the time, okay?!) and he says, since they did it vaginally, I have no cervix left, as they stitched it closed once i was spayed. Hmmmm...maybe that answers my question, except there have been docs who havesaid "Gee, you don't need this so why am I charging you for it and putting you through it>" Wankers!

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 11:22 PM

But, they do sew the top shut so that there is not an opening directly into the abdominal cavity, don't they? The cervix/uterus is all that is there to protect the abdominal cavity, is it not? Where is DocElle when we need her...........

Sorcha, who is also way too ignorant for her age!!

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 12:47 AM

Arrgghhh..I should know all this! You are right, Sorcha. Thanks for asking, I've found some answers. Would've been nice back in 1979 to have an easily accessible Internet. Here ya go...not for the squeamish, perhaps:

"The doctor cuts through the vaginal wall to expose the ligaments and blood vessels that surround and support the uterus. (Ligaments are fibrous tissues that help support organs and hold them in place.) The doctor detaches the ligaments and blood vessels from the uterus and ties the blood vessels so they will heal and not bleed. The doctor then removes the uterus by cutting it off at the top of the vagina.

"The doctor attaches the ligaments from the uterus to the vagina to hold it in place. The doctor may repair the walls of the vagina by sewing together the ligaments surrounding the vagina (near the bladder and rectum) that may have stretched due to age or childbearing. The doctor attaches the vagina to the repaired ligaments and sews the top of the vagina closed."

If any of you ever have this done, ask questions of your doc's other patients who have been though this. My doc was a good soul, but not very adept...left lots of scar tissue which had to be cauterised from time to time, to kill off the nerve endings which caused a lot of pain. My recommendation is to not have it done at all if you can help it...they will also tell you there is no basis to the weight gain rumour. Do NOT believe them. I was part of a master's thesis at Smith College and she found it was a universal problem, which most docs universally denied or dismissed. My own told me it was all in my head, that I went from 105 lbs to 145 lbs in 3 months after and then some.

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: Hollowfox
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 11:17 AM

I worked in a cytology lab (that's where they send the pap smears) in my checkered youth, so this much I know: a sample is taken for loose cells from both the vaginal wall and the cervix. A separate swab (think Q-Tip cotton swabs) is used for each. Get the tests, folks. They're a lot less uncomfortable and a lot less invasive of your tender young bodies than the cures. Why give a disease a head start?

Subject: RE: Ladies beware
From: GUEST,campfire
Date: 29 Jul 00 - 01:53 AM

Kat -

My doctor told me after my hysterectomy that I should still have Pap tests at least every three years to check for vaginal cancer. The weight gain thing MIGHT- I don't know - depend on whether or not the ovaries are also removed.

Dawn