Showing posts with label Pap smear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pap smear. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Let's talk about pap smears...

That's right.
I said it.

Let's talk about that lovely medical check that all of us women get to enjoy every year - the pap smear. Because as you read this, I'll be getting mine. Like I've referenced before, I got my first pap last year and I was crying even before the doctor even had me undress. I cried during and I cried after. Let's just say I was more emotionally distressed than it physically hurt LOL

Despite my complaining and tears, I decided to do a little more research as to why it's important to get these awesome procedures done and not just to get my yearly prescription of birth control. Of course I hit up my trusty friend Google - and just started with the obvious, "Why is getting a pap smear important?" Here is a couple of reasons that I found yearly pap/physicals are pretty important.

-not every test is accurate
-no one can predict when/if you will develop cervical cancer
-this procedure enables health care providers to detect early precancerous changes in the tissue of the cervix and treat them before they become cancerous
-Between 60 and 80 percent of women with newly diagnosed cervical cancer haven't had a pap smear in at least 5 years
-A woman may need more frequent pap smears if: she has had more than one sexual partners, she has had an abnormal pap smear, became sexually active as a teenager, etc.

After understanding more of the risk factors and preventative measures, I guess I need to take it more serious, buckle down, put my big girl undies on, and take it like woman. Right? Right! So on that note, wish me luck. These are going to be a couple of things I will be thinking of to try and take my mind off of what's going on, even though I know it's for my own good. 

[holding hands]

[summertime & cute flip flops]

[being in a hot air balloon]

[baking yummy cookies]

[watching American Idol with my sweetie later]

[being happy when it's over]

Adios Amiga's, catch you on the flip side - 
have you scheduled YOUR yearly pap?