(no subject)

[chrissysue.livejournal.com]

My pap smear came back abnormal.

Should I be concerned? I go back in on Nov 18th for that..vinegar thing..

Comments

[taldragon.livejournal.com]

what vinegar thing?

and it depends why your pap smear was abnormal, which is something for you to discuss with your GP or nurse ;)

[geminigirl]

There are diferent grades of "abnormal" and so while it's cause for some concern, it's not on the scale of OMGTOTALFREAKOUT.

Abnormal pap smears can be caused by all kinds of things...BV or yeast, HPV, having a pap during menstruation, having sex in the 24-28 hours prior to the pap smear, or all kinds of other things including just cells growing oddly because sometimes cells do that.

Reserve the total freakout until after the colposcopy.

[chrissysue.livejournal.com]

Haha, thanks.. :)

[sagefemme11.livejournal.com]

Beautiful.
The second entry saved me some finger work.
Precisely, yes, I concur.

Three days prior to the colposcopy:

NO SMOKING (Yes, that includes all smoking)
no excess drinking
plenty fluids (8-12 glasses/day)
no sex
no douching (ever, BTW!)
lots of garlic
2 cups of highly-cultured yogurt (like Stonyfield Farms) per day
sleep/rest plenty

Send white light to your pelvis and center it around that sweet cervix of yours. Good luck!

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

And an hour before, take some Tylenol to help with the cramping afterwards.

[chrissysue.livejournal.com]

Cramping?! :(

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

If the doctor sees any areas of concern, they'll take a biopsy of the area to see what kind of cells are there. I've had 2 colposcopies, with one of them the biopies were like slightly more painfull paps, with the other it was a little more painfull than that. It all depends on where the area is, and how much they take.

It's not massively painfull, but there was cramping after both of mine, and the nurse recommended taking the Tylenol before the procedure. I forgot to the second time, and I was pretty uncomfortable for awhile.

Did they tell you anything about what the pap showed? Did they mention dysplasia, LSIL, HSIL, anything like that?

[geminigirl]

No one mentioned to me to take anything for pain before mine, I had the procedure and didn't take anything for it. I think if I'd gone back to work, I might have, but I had the whole day off.

I had two spots biopsied with mine, I was tired and nasuseous after, but I suspect that was due to stress more than anything. I went home, ate some soup and ice cream (comfort food) and went to sleep for a few hours. I could have gone back to work that afternoon, but I'd arranged for the whole day off, not knowing what the experience was going to be like. It's unpleasant, but I've experienced worse.

[chrissysue.livejournal.com]

Killer, thanks for the tips.. :)

[bleppo.livejournal.com]

I've had three colposcopies and a LEEP procedure. I think the colposcopies depend one who does them. First one I had hurt like hell, second one, not so much. I remember completely grossing out my ex, when I went to the bathroom that evening, and exclaimed loudly, "Holy shit! It does look like coffee grounds!" It's just scabs, as you probably already know.

LEEP isn't so bad (it's what comes next if two colposcopies come back weird). The procedure itself is pretty painless (though having adrenaline injected into your cervix isn't all that fun -- that's really the worst part), the after stuff is pretty nasty, and feels like it goes on forever. Basically, you've got black stuff coming out of you. For days. I felt a bit like I was purging some evil demon.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

I have my third colposcopy in 2 weeks, then I'll have caught up to you. I had the LEEP after the first colposcopy, though. My gyno has done all of them. The difference for me seemed to be where she biopsied.

I made the comment that the coffee grounds stuff looked like Grey Poupon. It's from the stuff they put on it to stop the bleeding after the biopsies.

I was totally knocked out for my LEEP, which pleased me to no end. And, yeah, the black stuff was WEIRD.

[bleppo.livejournal.com]

Wow. I had figured the LEEP would be worse than the colposcopy. They knocked you out? Really??

I remember when the told me they were about to inject the adrenaline. I think she said, "ok, now your heart's probably going to start pounding in a minute." For some reason, I thought, yeah right. But, having that going through my veins with my feet in stirrups was no easy feat. I think the nurse had to hold my legs down.

Woowee. Good times.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

Yup. I was given general for my LEEP, because the doctor said something about the possibility of needing to do laser surgery (I have no clue what she might have done). They put me out before doing anything, including the local.

Of course recovery time was still longer than for the colposcopy, and I was pretty uncomfortable during it.

[solestria.livejournal.com]

What is a LEEP procedure?

[bleppo.livejournal.com]

http://www.universityobgyn.com/leep.htm

[skeptictank.livejournal.com]

It could easily be nothing. My poor friend worried and worried for weeks about hers being abnormal and it turned out to be nothing.