Please take a moment to read information shared from a dear friend of mine suffering from an illness related to HPV.  Randie has battled different kinds of cancer and her latest is attributed the virus.  She would not have shared this personal journey if not convinced that many of us are not aware of how easily this virus can be contacted.  We’re asking you to pass this information on to anyone you care about.  It’s that serious……

It never starts with a trip to the oncologist’s office.  Once you’re there, you pretty much know your fate.   Rather, it starts with something stupid, something routine, something…mundane.  A chest x-ray, a dental cleaning, a urinary infection, a yearly physical, or the thing called the pap smear.  Three times.  That’s how many of those bastards have lead to cancer for me.  Three times.

The first time, I was twenty seven years old.  I was a baby.  I had babies…two of them.  And the doctor said to me flat out, I was going to die.  He told me to “make my arrangements”.  What the hell kind of statement is that to say to anybody?  Make your arrangements.  I had a level four cancer cervical cancer, and I beat it.  For fourteen years I never had any signs of recurrence.  For fourteen years. 

Then, I had my routine pap smear.  Routine.  Yea, right.  Nothing routine about year fourteen.  I had a small purple speck.  Like a freckle, but not. I wanted to doctor to remove it.  He thought it best to biopsy it.  Something called vulvar cancer.  I had a vulva?  Soon enough I was in surgery not once but twice and by the time the doctors were through I had lost both my inner and outer labia.  That was another new term I added to my vocabulary.  I thought all those parts were just known as the vagina!  Who’d have thunk they weren’t!

Somewhere in all the mess of cancer diagnosis number two, my husband left.  Left as in, left the marriage. One day he was there, one day he wasn’t.  Just like my labias.  One day they were, one day they weren’t.  You learn quickly to move on.  I also learned at this point that way back when I had the cervical cancer, I had HPV.  HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that nearly 80% of all sexually active adults will have at some point in their life.  So many people have it because there are almost 100 strains of it.

However only four really cause any problems.  For most people they will pass the virus out of their body in time or suppress it from doing harm.  However in people with crappy immune systems, they don’t.  Plus those four strains that cause problems?  Two of them can cause cancers in women…specifically gynecological cancers.  That’s right; cancers of the vagina, the cervix and the labia.  They can also cause cancer in the perineum (the area between the vagina and the anus) and they can cause anal cancers.  The other two strains can cause genital warts.  Nice stuff, huh?

Even nicer, there isn’t a real test for HPV.  Women can be tested when they have a pap smear done if it is requested, however there is no test available for men, and because the virus can be anywhere on the skin condoms are not a sure protection against it.  They help, but you can still get it even if they are used properly.

Throughout my second bout with cancer, even though it was a gyn cancer, I tested negative for HPV. (I had pap smears every three months following the cancer, and HPV testing with each one.)    So my doctors knew that it wasn’t causing the second round with the big C.  Then one year later, I tested positive for HPV and I also had a positive pap smear. That was just weeks ago or maybe days, things have been fairly crazy since.

I was called into the oncologists’ office for further biopsies.  Cancer was found on the remaining labia, the perineum, and in the vagina.  I began chemotherapy within a day of the biopsy results.  I have had three treatments with another thirty-three to go.

I asked Dorothy if I could use her column to ’soapbox’ for a moment and she graciously agreed.  I plan to be a three time cancer survivor.  Of course I wish I didn’t have to be a cancer survivor based on a virus.  HPV can kill.  With this last round, I was re-infected with a new strain.  A nine month monogamous relationship left me with an STD because there’s no test for the man and basically no symptoms for him.

My body doesn’t fight things off like other people’s do because I am immunocompromised with an autoimmune disorder, however that shouldn’t leave you not knowing what this can do to you.

When you get your next pap smear, ask for an HPV test to be run.  If it comes back positive, your doctor will know to watch you closely for cell changes.  If you have young daughters, get them vaccinated against HPV.  Most importantly, inform yourself.  Dealing with cancer is difficult enough; dealing with it three times really stinks.  Losing body parts because of it, is even worse.