Weighing the possible good

I wasn't going to post about this, but based on reactions I have received since I shared this news with some of my friends, I have decided to go ahead and post about it. Maybe it will do some good. Maybe it will save someone's life. With that in mind, this is part of the email that I sent after my call from the doctor on Friday.

There is a possibility that I have endometrial cancer. I am going Friday for an ultrasound to check the thickness of the lining of my uterus. I have cells that showed up in my pap smear that absolutely should not be there because

1) I am over 40 and
2) because I have had an uterine ablation surgery.

I should hear from the doctor next Monday, the 17th. Hopefully, it is nothing to be concerned about. If I do have cancer and it is in the early stage, then I would have a hysterectomy and possible radiation. There is an excellent survival rate at this stage (90 - 95%). Of course I have done some research on it and found this:

In the United States, cancer of the endometrial is the most common cancer of the female reproductive organs. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 41,200 new cases of cancer of the body of the uterus (uterine corpus) diagnosed in the United States during 2006. Most of these occur in the endometrial, the lining of the uterus. The American Cancer Society also estimates that about 7,350 women in the United States will die from cancers of the uterine body during 2006. The chance of any women being diagnosed with this cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 38.

I'm not worried or concerned, nor am I a person to sit around and dwell on "what ifs". But that is a pretty high rate of occurrence to me. 1 in 38 women. If this is something that can be initially suspected through a yearly pap smear, I urge you to not put yours off.

So, please make sure that you - or your wife - or your daughters - or your mothers - get their yearly exams. Thanks.

Since I hit the SEND button, I have had almost a third of the people I sent it to me reply that they have NOT had a Pap Smear as they should. I'm sure the number is higher than that because I haven't heard from everyone and already there is almost a third who haven't. Some have not had one for years. But they assure me that they will be scheduling it this week. So maybe I have cancer, maybe I don't. Maybe this whole thing was just so that I can make others aware of the frequency of this cancer and the need for regular pap smears. Maybe it will prevent someone else from letting cancer spread through their body. I don't know - but then there are lots of things I don't know.

While you are at it, you could just schedule a mammogram too - that's what I did. Just make it one big fun day for yourself. Take a friend along. Go shopping. Go out to eat. That's what I'm doing.

If you pray to God and would like to make this a matter of prayer, I would appreciate it. Please pray that God's will be done in my life and if I do have cancer, I handle it in such a way that will bring Him glory.