The first message that she was dying came by bicycle. Sean Patrick rode up the steep trail on Smuggler Mountain, Aspen, Colorado, on a cool, pre-fall day in 1995. She had spent many summer afternoons biking through the Aspen groves, enjoying the late sun shining patchwork on the trail. Normally energized from the strenuous workout and her daily 15- to 22-mile rides, Patrick was shocked when she became so out of breath that she had to get off the bike to avoid throwing up.

“It was radical,” she says. “I couldn’t get up.” At first she thought she had over trained or suffered from exhaustion from too much traveling. Confirming her ideas, Patrick’s doctor suggested that she slow down and get a hobby. “If you can’t’ slow down,” he said to her, “I can always give you a prescription for Valium.”

After weeks of still not being able to ride or rock climb—her favorite sport—Patrick returned to her doctor, who did blood work, but found nothing obviously wrong. He told her not to worry. It wasn’t until 1997 that she finally found out that she had a rare form of ovarian cancer called Micropapillary Serous Carcinoma. After the late discovery, Patrick endured seven surgeries and, at one point in 2001 after being flown to a hospital via flight for life, doctors told her she wouldn’t live past six weeks.

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Patrick did live, and she says, in large part it was due to her experiences in the mountains. She was strong from regularly biking and lifting weights, and she was mentally balanced after decades of rock climbing. The wilderness and leadership skills she gleaned in places like the Rocky Mountains prepared her for the greatest challenge of her life—surviving that six-week ordeal in the hospital.

While on her deathbed in the ICU, a doctor inserted a blood gas line in her body, and it hurt like hell, she says. “I snapped and got angry, and at that moment I came back into my body.” She likens the feeling to being really scared after a rock climbing fall or when she has been stuck on the side of a mountain on a ledge in a thunderstorm. “I would get scared and then angry, and that would act as a catalyst to get moving. I knew if I did not keep moving in the face of my disease that I would not make it.”

Since her extraordinary recovery six years ago, Patrick continues to move rapidly forward. Not only does she still climb and play in the mountains—she topped out on the Grand Teton after 22 hours of climbing through blizzard conditions in 2004—but she also decided to make it her mission to raise awareness and money for the cancer that almost killed her. “My life’s goal is to prevent as many women as possible from going through what I experienced,” she says.

In the last few years Patrick has helped create an ovarian cancer website for the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, and she regularly travels around the country on speaking engagements. Patrick’s crowning achievement is the non-profit HERA Foundation (Health, Empowerment, Research, Advocacy), which she created in 2002. She organizes Climb For Life events around the country and in Mexico, which bring women and men together to rock climb, do yoga, watch climbing slide shows and films, and, most importantly, learn about and raise money for ovarian cancer.

Friend and Climb for Life volunteer, Deanne Pranke says that Patrick’s climbing events have been incredibly inspirational for thousands of people. “Sean has brought ovarian cancer out in the open and empowered many women such as myself to take charge of our health and educate our loved ones and friends about this kind of cancer.”

Adds Patrick, “The need for perseverance forces women to reach deep inside themselves when they feel like they can’t go further. The lessons you learn from climbing and taking care of yourself in the wilderness translate into successful life strategies on a day to day basis.” In fact, Patrick has never seen a sport as empowering as climbing is for women. “Often when I’ve seen women get to the top of a route in the gym, the transformation on their face is phenomenal,” she explains.

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Sean Patrick’s wide smile greets the climbers as they stream into the third-floor room of REI Denver, spring 2004. Running her hand through a shock of white blonde hair, she says she’s nervous when speaking publicly, but her voice is steady and vibrant as she talks about ovarian cancer and the HERA Climb for Life REI Road Tour (now in its third year), sponsored by REI, Black Diamond, and HERA. She speaks to the audience with the fluency of someone who possesses a vast knowledge of the disease and the politics surrounding it.

After her diagnosis, Patrick became a “research maven,” reading everything she could find on the subject and hounding doctors all over the country. With her energetic and insistent attitude, she’s penetrated the wall of scientific jargon to understand her disease. What she learned inspired her to reach out to others.

Since its inception, she says, the foundation has provided doctors with research grants; provided seed grants to a number of small communities, which have allowed them to offer immediate assistance to aid patients with travel, hotel rooms, and childcare while they are undergoing treatment; and established awareness programs throughout the United States.

Patrick has also convinced thousands of women and men to work with her. Among those women are famous alpinist Kitty Calhoun and Salt Lake City, Utah, resident Hillary Silberman. Both women worked with Patrick to create a video highlighting the HERA Foundation and ovarian cancer.

According to Silberman, making the video and volunteering for HERA changed her life. Silberman’s mother died in 2003 from ovarian cancer, and she says that she felt helpless in the face of her mother’s illness. “My involvement with HERA gave me the tools to work with to deal with my mother’s death as well as people to connect with who understand where I’m coming from.”

By being involved and being proactive, Silberman explains, she has done something positive for others by presenting them with information. “I have also done something positive for myself by beginning to think about what I needed to do to protect myself and get early detection.”

With cancer affecting most of the female members of her family, Silberman is at a high risk for contracting the disease, although she doesn’t currently have it. Her nurse practitioner tried to convince her not to worry, but Patrick and the Climb for Life events convinced Silberman to follow through on her own to seek the medical services she needs for early detection. “The feeling of strength, perseverance and tenaciousness that climbing engenders made me not give up when professionals were telling me not to worry.”

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As with most female-specific diseases, says Patrick, ovarian cancer has typically been ignored by the medical industry. Despite the fact that it kills women of all ages and more women than all the other gynecological cancers combined, many doctors are ignorant of its symptoms and think the disease affects only the elderly. This, explains Patrick, partially results from the medical field’s traditional focus on men and male-specific diseases.

For example, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that “although coronary heart disease (CHD) causes more than 250,000 deaths in women each year, much of the research in the last 20 years on CHD has either excluded women entirely or included only limited numbers of women.”

Additionally, doctors treat women different than men in hospitals. According to a fall 2001 study published in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, “women’s pain reports are taken less seriously than men’s, and women receive less aggressive treatment than men for their pain.” Also, women were “more likely to have their pain reports discounted as ‘emotional’ and therefore, ‘not real.’”

“I have had several experiences with this kind of dismissive treatment by both male and female doctors,” says Patrick. “It is a flaw in how medicine is taught—women complain, men don’t, so they take men’s complaints more seriously. To get the best treatment, you have to find a doctor—male or female (one is not better than another in being more empathetic)—that sees you as a person and not a statistical group.”

Although Patrick seeks to change the way doctors view ovarian cancer and other women-specific diseases, she believes it’s more imperative to encourage women to take control of their own health. Ovarian cancer is not a silent killer, she says, “the disease has symptoms, and it’s important that women are made aware of what they are. Women who go to the doctor with gastrointestinal symptoms must make sure that ovarian cancer is ruled out.”

Through climbing, Patrick believes that women can be taught to stand up for themselves. Not only do these events teach women self-reliance, but they are also “places where we can turn our passion for climbing into a passion for making a difference.”

“I think success in climbing no matter what level you climb at—5.4 to 5.14—translates to successful life strategies,” Patrick says. “I want women who are empowered by the mountains to take this back into everyday life, and as it relates to the medical community, I want them to trust their intuition despite their doctor’s contention that they may not have a problem. In climbing and in life, trust yourself.”

For more information on ovarian cancer and the HERA Foundation, please visit the HERA Foundation Website at www.theherafoundation.org. Climb For Life events are held regularly around the country. The next 2007 event will be held in Boulder, Colorado. Registration has started.

Lizzy Scully
Writer
lizzy@girlsed.org

To find out more about registering or volunteering for the June 15-17, 2007 event, please visit: http://www.climb4lifeco.kintera.org/.

“I wanna be one less, o-n-e-l-e-s-s!” Is this song permanently lodged in your brain? Do the words “Tell Someone” have new meaning? You have pharmaceutical company Merck to thank. These slogans are from its commercials aiming to raise awareness about the link between HPV and cervical cancer and Merck’s HPV vaccine, Gardasil.

Before this connection was discovered, we didn’t know what caused cervical cancer and the only way to know you had it was through a pap test. Kim, 43, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1993. Throughout her treatment, there was no mention of HPV and it wasn’t until years later (after beating the cancer) that she realized the cause. “I didn’t even know HPV caused cervical cancer until I saw those commercials; my doctor didn’t even tell me when I had it,” Kim says. “I had never even heard of HPV until the commercials and I read an article about it and said, ‘Oh, I guess that’s what I had.’”

Many women don’t know much about HPV until it affects them, even though as many as 80 percent will acquire HPV at some point in their lives.

In a 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey, only 40 percent of women respondents had heard of HPV and less than 20 percent knew it could lead to cervical cancer. Think back to 2005, before the commercials worked into your consciousness, how much did you know about HPV? Probably nothing, which is scary, considering about 10 women die from cervical cancer in America everyday, according to the American Cancer Society.

There are women who develop cervical cancer who have only had one partner and women who have had several partners. Discovering the link between a virus and cervical cancer is extraordinary, but it shouldn’t lead people to believe those who develop cervical cancer were reckless with their sexual health. Here are some facts about HPV and cervical cancer the 30 second TV commercials don’t include-but you should know:

1. What are the ways I can get HPV? HPV can be contracted through almost any sexual contact, sometimes even oral sex. Condoms decrease the risk by about 70 percent, but since any genital contact can spread HPV, the skin not covered by a condom puts you at risk. Most people with HPV show no symptoms. This means that practically anyone-from your husband to your one-night-stand-could pass along HPV.

2. What strains of HPV cause cervical cancer? There are about a hundred different types of HPV, but only a few cause cancer. Most cases will clear up on their own with no treatment. Gardasil protects against types 16 and 18, which cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, and types 6 and 11, which are responsible for about 90 percent of genital warts cases.

3. How can I protect myself against HPV and cervical cancer? Condoms can help protect against HPV and the Gardasil vaccine will be a big help against it as long as you don’t already have the strains that cause cervical cancer.

The American Cancer Society outlines other risk factors for catching HPV and developing cervical cancer as well. They include smoking (which weakens your immune system), having sex at an early age, many sexual partners, a partner who has had many partners, sex with uncircumcised males, HIV or Chlamydia, poor diet or family history of cervical cancer. Doctors say women will not develop cervical cancer without first contracting HPV, so the best line of defense is to not get HPV at all.

4. What’s the deal with the HPV vaccine? Gardasil was approved by the FDA for girls aged 9-26. They recommend getting vaccinated before you’re sexually active, since the longer you wait the more likely it is that you’ll already have HPV. The vaccine is given as three separate shots over six months and costs $360, not including the cost of the doctor’s office visit. Most insurance companies cover the costs, but check before you are vaccinated. Merck also has a plan for qualified women to be vaccinated for free. So if you’re uninsured or your insurance doesn’t cover it, talk to your doctor about this program. Many Planned Parenthood centers also carry Gardasil and the price will depend on your insurance coverage.

5. I’m over 26, can I still get vaccinated? As of right now, Gardasil is only approved for women aged 9-26, so your insurance company most likely won’t cover it if you are older than 26. Further testing is being done for other age groups so in the future that might be expanded. Talk to your doctor if you are over 26 and still interested in being vaccinated to find out if he or she will vaccinate you.

6. I already have HPV, so Gardasil won’t help me, right? Actually, there are many strains of HPV, so, even if you know you already have it, talk to your doctor because you can still get protection from the other cancer-causing strains with Gardasil.

7. I’m only sleeping with one person. I don’t need to be vaccinated, do I? It’s not a bad idea. It’s entirely possible that your husband or boyfriend could pass HPV on to you from a previous relationship. Also, I know we hate to think of these possibilities, but Gardasil can be helpful if your partner cheats on you or if you are raped by someone with HPV.

8. What’s the downside to Gardasil? There are some negatives to this vaccine that you should consider. First, there may be side effects such as pain or swelling where you were injected, nausea, fever or dizziness. However, the side effects are pretty rare. Also, since the vaccine doesn’t protect against all types of cervical cancer, you still have to get regular pap tests (so no saying goodbye to your yearly gyno appointments). Gardasil also does not protect against any other STDs, so protection is still very necessary during sex and it will not clear up an existing infection of HPV or cervical cancer. The high cost of the vaccine can also be a problem so be sure to talk to your insurance company and doctor to find out how much it will cost before you’re injected.

In the end, it’s up to you to weigh the pros and cons of the HPV vaccine, but hopefully now you can do so with a little more information than a Tell Someone commercial provides.

This article was originally published on http://www.savvymiss.com, a free website community dedicated to connecting, empowering and informing women everywhere. SavvyMiss.com features articles on dating, love, careers, fashion, health, beauty and important societal issues. Members also use message boards and blogs to build relationships with other members.

The surgical procedure to remove the bladder is known as a cystectomy and is usually performed as a result of cancer of the bladder. You can also have radiation and chemotherapy treatment which is used to treat bladder cancer. If the cancer is in the muscle of the bladder then surgery is performed to remove it.

Cystectomy is considered a very aggressive treatment option and may not be the best option for everyone. Those who have superficial tumors may respond better to a more conservative treatment. A cystectomy is considered a major surgical procedure and the patient is put under general anesthesia. There is a small incision made on the lower abdomen.

The ureters are found, tied, and cut. The ureters connect the bladder to the kidneys, so cutting them frees the bladder for the removal process. The bladder as well as other associated organs are then removed. In male patients the prostate is removed along with the bladder. In women patients the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, and part of the vagina are also removed with the bladder removal process.

The bladder of a healthy person collects urine from the kidneys for excretion at a later time. When the bladder has been removed the doctors must come up with a new method to remove urine from the body. In many cases a small portion of the small intestine is removed, cleaned, and tied at one end to become the form of a tube. After this the other end is then used to form a stoma, which is an opening through the abdominal wall to outside the body. The patient is required to wear a bag to collect the urine.

Before the procedure is performed a member of the medical staff will discuss the entire procedure and can tell the patient where the stoma will be on their body and what it will look like. The patient will also get all the information they need on how to care for a stoma and bag. Counseling may be discussed and there may be a period of fasting required as well as an enema.

After going through a successful operation the patient will be given fluid based nutritional drinks until the intestines begin to function normally. You are also given antibiotics to prevent infection of the incision area. When a person’s organs are removed it means that there will be major lifestyle changes after the procedure.

After this procedure women are infertile as a result of the ovaries and uterus being removed, but it is more common for women to have a cystectomy are postmenopausal and are far past their child baring days. Men are impotent because the nerves that control penis erection are cut during the removal process of the bladder.

The patient must be fitted with an external bad that connects to the stoma and is used to collect urine. These bags are usually worn around the waist and are easily hidden under clothes. It may take a while to get used to wearing a bag but since there isn’t a bladder urine is excreted when it is produced, which is continuously.

Article by Sven Ullmann, who runs Deserved Health - information on health for you and your family. Read more about Cystectomy Bladder Surgery. Get our health newsletter.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer can appear months before the cancer is found. Unless a woman is getting the tests that would reveal the cancer these symptoms many times wont be diagnosed. This alone is one of the problems with detecting ovarian cancer in its early stages. The symptoms of ovarian cancer are quite often dismissed due to the fact that they can be rather benign.

Stomach swelling and digestive problems for instance which are common symptoms of the presence of ovarian can be easily dismissed and ignored. Stomach problems are something everyone experiences at various times in their life. Ovarian cancer afflicts more than twenty-two- thousand women annually in the U.S. If caught in the early stages this cancer is treatable as goes for many other cancers.

If detected in its early stages, before it has spread from the ovaries a woman has a ninety percent chance of living for at least another five years. Unfortunately, less than twenty percent of ovarian cancer is detected in its early stage, Due to the fact that the symptoms of ovarian cancer don’t involve the ovaries themselves the cancer many times can be overlooked as tests like stomach imaging can overlook the ovaries.

This is not to say that every time a woman gets a stomach ache or pelvic pain she should dash off to be tested for ovarian cancer. In cases where problems are persistent though researchers have concluded that ovarian cancer should be considered. If tests have ruled out other causes than tests for ovarian cancer should be performed. Ovarian cancer is a relatively rare cancer in women, it afflicts a small part of the general population and makes up a small percentage of the cancers afflicting women in general.

For the woman stricken with this form of cancer the statistics mean nothing though. So it appears from research findings that women have to take a greater part in the detection of this disease due to the nature of the symptoms and the elusive nature of this disease and with early detection so imperative in determining the survival rate of women afflicted with ovarian cancer.

If tests have ruled out other causes for the symptoms than tests for ovarian cancer should be performed earlier in the diagnosis process. A womans early response to the persistent symptoms related to ovarian cancer can be the key to her survival. New research has discovered that ultrasound and the CA125 test were many times not effective in detecting ovarian cancer in its early stages even in women already at high risk for developing the disease.

Women at high risk include women with a family history of the disease and women predisposed to it due to genetic mutations that can make ovarian cancer more likely. Of the two tests the blood test has shown to be more effective in finding ovarian cancer but it can sometimes give false positive results. Statistics are not good for the early detection of the cancer so other means must be developed it seems.

Experts agree that more research is needed in the area of detection of the disease as this seems to be so critical in determining the survival rate for ovarian cancer. The symptoms will always be the same though so for their part women must make themselves more aware of this cancer and its early detection. Tracking the symptoms can only be of help. Keeping an accurate record of your early symptoms and being persistent during the evaluation process can be the difference between surviving and not surviving ovarian cancer.

Article by Sven Ullmann, who runs Deserved Health - information on health for you and your family. Read more about ovarian cancer symptoms.

Symptoms of genital warts - If spotted early enough and treated, can reduce the chances of developing cancer of the cervix.

Symptoms of genital warts can be many and varied and can even be mistaken for another disease. This is especially true hpv genital condition hasn’t manifested itself in the form of physical warts. It must be noted that even though HPV is not curable as of yet, it is easy to find a cure for genital warts.

What Are The Symptoms of Genital Warts?Like many other STDs, HPV infection often does not cause symptoms. One study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) reported that nearly half of all women with HPV had no noticeable symptoms. However, in many cases, small, hard spots (easily visible to the eye) can develop within three weeks to three months after exposure.

In women, these warts can occur on the lips of the vagina, inside the vagina or even around the anus. Anogenital warts may cause itching. Women also develop cervical warts, which are flat lesions unseen in their early stages.

Some other symptoms may include:

• Cauliflower-like appearing growths around the anus or genitals
• Increased dampness or moisture in the area of the growths
• Itching of the penis, scrotum, anal area, or a vulvar itch
• Increased vaginal discharge
• Abnormal vaginal bleeding (not associated with a menstrual period) after sexual intercourse

You may have all the symptoms of genital warts but still not have any physically on your genitals. One possible reason that symptoms of genital warts are mistaken for something else is that the warts can be almost invisible to the naked eye.

In these circumstances, your physician will take your symptoms into account and use a number of methods to determine whether you have genital warts. One of the most common is to dab a small amount of acetic acid (vinegar) on the suspected area infected with warts.

The symptoms of genital warts may also be missed if they occur within the vaginal walls. In this case, the symptoms could be of another disorder called yeast infection. That’s why it’s a good idea to seek immediate professional help when the signs of genital warts are detected.

Getting the most accurate diagnosis for the symptoms you are displaying is vital, the last thing you want is self diagnosing yourself, and the likelihood of you being wrong is high, and then treating yourself for a completely different condition. This can have further repercussions, in that using the wrong medication to treat a disorder can let your body become used that medication, rendering it useless when you will need it the most.

The flipside would be to ignore the symptoms of genital warts and leaving the condition untreated, leading to even more serious conditions such as cancer of the cervix. An even more worrying possibility is that if you have recurring genital warts symptoms, it could be a sign of cervical cancer or even HIV- AIDS.

Therefore the seriousness and the urgency of a proper checkup when you display any of these symptoms is paramount. You will then be able to receive the correct treatment needed to help you get rid of genital warts.

It must be noted that even though you can find a cure for genital warts with the right treatment ad fight off the symptoms, the underlying virus, the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) cannot be cured. You will have to rely on your immune system to help fight the HPV virus.

Kalwant Rana is A Freelance Writer For http://www.CureForGenitalWarts.com. Learn About Natural Cure For Genital WartsAs Well As Other Genital Warts Treatments That You Can Apply At Home.

Cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women worldwide. It is also one of the most preventable types of cancer.

Cervical cell changes are often caused by a sexually transmitted virus called the human papilloma virus or ‘HPV’. Most HPV infections will clear on their own once the immune system has dealt with it,and not lead to cervical cancer. Often, a woman infected with HPV will never know that she has been infected.

When a woman goes for her annual Pap test, the changes in the cervix are detected. A doctor is not usually alarmed by slight changes, as this can be caused by irritation or inflammation of the cervix, and will recommend retesting in 6 months. If, however, the changes do not revert back to normal, further testing is required to deal with possible precancerous tissue.

As long as regular testing is done, precancerous cells can be removed usually with no long term problems for the patient. Thankfully, truly invasive cervical cancer takes years to develop, but it is best to have it treated as soon as possible for peace of mind, and to avoid complications down the road.

Call your doctor if you have any of the following symptoms, as they may be a symptom of cervical changes or cancer:

• Vaginal bleeding after sexual intercourse

• Pelvic pain

• Pain during sexual intercourse

• Unusual vaginal discharge

• Abnormal bleeding or spotting between menstrual periods

Do not be afraid to tell your doctor anything that concerns you. It is your body and you have a right to protect your health. They’ve heard it all before, please don’t feel embarrassed!

Ingrid Tiessen writes about health and lifestyle issues, and has undergone treatment for cervical dysplasia. To learn more, visit her blog, http://cervdysplasia.blogspot.com/