The Gandalf Downstairs: Part Nine

(Part Eight: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-eight.html)

When it comes to breasts, vaginas, uteruses, ovaries and cervixes – they’re magical, complicated things that we shouldn’t be nervous or ashamed about when it comes to looking after them (even take a second right now to try say them out loud – I take comfort in reaffirming that they aren’t bad words).

As fabulous as the efforts of all to commemorate Pink October, it has come and gone. The message of early detection has come up time and time again but, still, people fall through the cracks because silence falls across business houses and private spaces once again. But there are so many services and so much information available all year round. Sure, it takes setting aside time, setting aside resources and setting aside fears – but it’s worth so much more to go before anything starts to hurt than wait for pain to set in.

I know science is way behind and that sometimes it feels like squeezing blood from a stone to get an answer out of a nurse or doctor, depending on their experience and temperament, but give it a go. You are important and you deserve to be well.

Or at least that’s what people tell me to tell you J

(From the Beginning:

http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-one.html)

The Gandalf Downstairs: Part Eight

(Part Seven: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-seven.html)

I did go home and cry – but I good cry. A happier cry. A less scared and nervous cry. As awkward as it was having a doctor talk throughout a check-up does help. It also helps when they walk you through what they’re going to do and what’s going on. I had had to little of that in 3 weeks. All I wanted to do was release all my nervous, anxious energy and it just so happened to fall out of my eyes.

I may be pretty anxious most of the time, but this time I was just stubborn enough to follow through and I’m sure that’s what more people need to do. If you have a pap smear, go back for your results. If doctors find something while you’re seeing them for something else, go for your follow up.

Heck, as I found out it’s enough just to call the clinic with the right dates and numbers to refer to and you can get an answer over the phone. I had a nice nurse check my number and my file who read my report number back to me.

“And then put one N at the end,” she said.

“N?”

“Yes, for normal.”

“Oh, okay. Cool. That’s good news.”

I laughed awkwardly, we exchanged pleasantries and I went about the rest of my day.

I know it’s hard to not be intimidated by medical stuff. I know the public health system is frustrating and slow and painful. I know that you get sick with something new every time you go to the doctors (I managed to pick up a cold that left we struggling to use my nose for 4 days after my time waiting around). But it doesn’t matter how hard.

There are so many easy excuses to brush off a check-up and there are so many circumstances where going to the nearest health centre is actually a mission and a half – we need to keep ourselves well and those around us well.

If you have a daughter, a sister, a mother, an aunt, a friend or whoever – support that woman in your left to get herself checked (and, of course, everyone else!).

(Part Nine: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-nine.html)

The Gandalf Downstairs: Part Seven

(Part Six: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-six.html)

My name was called, I strolled into consultation room 1 and was greeted by what turned out to be a very talkative doctor. I’d spent most of the week obsessing, nervous and planning a list of questions to figure out what was going on. I didn’t get a chance to ask anything as the doctor dived headfirst into an in-depth look at cervical cancer.

Apparently, having a ‘colpos’ or colposcopy is used more commonly for those who are at risk of cervical cancer. I’d describe it as vagina-scope because I’m not the one with the doctor learning. They look at your insides to check the area, see what’s going on and all that good stuff. As I mentioned earlier, my pap smear results had not yet come back so I had no idea if I was at risk. All I knew was that my cervix had a little friend that needed seeing to.

So, back I was on the table. Only this time it wasn’t just a table and it wasn’t just any old hospital type bed. There were little gliding footpads on the end of the bed. Between the doctor and nurse, we had a quick chat about my tattoos. He asked me about my job and we talked about that as O shuffled myself down the bed to set myself up and brace for the speculum.

But this time it wasn’t put in any old how – the doctor encouraged breathing, relaxing and pacing everything so by the time it was in there was no pain. I kept counting my breathing out of fear of any resurgence in pain but I probably didn’t have anything to worry about.

Throughout the exam, we talked about my work.

“So, what do you do?”

“I work for a women’s media NGO. So, I… um. I write a lot. Mostly about women.”

“Why?”

We discuss gender imbalances in the media in Fiji and globally.

“So you should write about this, then.”

“Mhm.”

“People don’t get their pap smears done. When they do, they don’t come back for their results. It’s important.”

“Yeah. I’ll try.”

We also talked about how small my friend living in my cervix was – apparently only 1mm tall. The doctor looked around, asked me if I wanted it out.

I said yes.

“You sure?”

“Um. Yes? You’re the doctor – should it come out?”

“I’ll take it out.”

“Okay.”

Out it came, I was plugged up and it was done. The little polyp apparently looked benign, my insides were a-okay and I left ready to put everything behind me.

 

(Part Eight: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-eight.html)

The Gandalf Downstairs: Part Six

(Part Five: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-five.html)

I had a lovely doctor inspect my bits, checking around to confirm that – yes – the polyp was still there. I lay there on the medical bed, feet tucked almost the back to my bum, nervously clutching my underwear and trying to breathe through the pain of having a speculum in.

I don’t remember there being too many questions.

I only remember a cotton pad splattered with blood and I was ready to faint. Instead, I was referred to another doctor for a different type of examination described only as a ‘colpos’. What’s a ‘colpos’? I had no idea and I still barely know.

I shakily got up once the speculum was out again, a date and time was scribbled on the back of my referral card and then I was off to a meeting, trying to start my work week. I had no idea if the polyp was out. I had no idea what had just happened.

I cried a little in the cab to Nabua.

I tried to focus for the rest of the day.

I updated my mother on Viber.

I texted my supervisor about the follow up.

I just wanted the day to end.

And it did. And I was home again. But before I knew it, it was Thursday and I was back in the Lancaster Ward.

My first time there, it was full to the brim with mostly much older women, the majority of whom were visibly married. There were few children. Come Thursday, around 10am, babies were everywhere.

A tiny baby shrieking, a small baby gurgling and a few toddlers pulling themselves across the tiled floor, licking benches and playing with wall switches. There was a different air about the place – a far busier one. This time, my name wasn’t called until after 1pm. I was starving and hadn’t gone to the bathroom since the morning. My anxiety coupled with the fact I was alone this time deterred me to seek out a toilet in case my name was called and I missed my spot.

The doctor who has seen me on Monday, on his way out to what I assume to be lunch told me I was up next.

(Part Seven: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-seven.html)

The Gandalf Downstairs: Part Five

(Part Four: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-four.html)

5 weeks for the results of the test but only 2 weeks till the follow up – I was dazed, confused and a bit emotional. My plans for the rest of the day was to spend it at the USP Library, furiously studying, and drop by the office to film. Turns out I had a fancy newly discovered companion to join me on my adventures in life – and then there was me trying to find the humour in it all and hoping I didn’t have to pay extra bus fare for it.

By the time the follow up check came around, I’d already shared the horrific experience of my first pap smear with anyone who stopped long enough to listen. I figured I had a duty to let people know how important getting checked was.

I’d also decided that I’d like to use the word vagina as often as possible.

Vagina. Vagina, vagina and vagina. You’re welcome.

Anyway, along came that fateful Monday. Before 8am, there I was again – outside the Wellness Clinic, ready to pick up my referral note from the doctor who has stood in the doorway of the examination room to spy a look at the Gandalf Downstairs.

I had to wait about 20 minutes before receiving the stapled note and heading off to find the Lancaster Ward. I had my partner with me – because there was no way I was going to go see a doctor without some emotional support – and at the ward we sat for almost 2 hours before my name was called.

I was a little tired and a lot nervous when it came time to go one-on-one with a new speculum. I’d somehow lost a bit of weight in the 2 weeks that had passed and I was ready to be told the little finger wizard was going to come out.

(Part Six: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-six.html)

The Gandalf Downstairs: Part Four

(Part Three:

http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-three.html)

 

So, for the next few minutes, I just try and breathe and not have a panic attack about the strange woman weeding around my downstairs while my parts are well-lit. Then she has something else to say.

“Oh, I can see something!”

Oh. She can see something. The mystery continues!

“I’ll just get the doctor.”

The nurse hardly just gets the doctor. She abandons the theme of mystery for full-blown horror and calls out the door:

“Doctor, just come.”

Oh god. The door is open. The door is open. I know we’re halfway down the hall and the nurse is standing in the doorway but the. Door. Is. Open. I am not prepared for this vagina viewing party I seem to have been tricked into attending. Why, Jesus – why didn’t you invent nurses who realise that some of us are not emotionally ready to show our cervixes to the world?

“Oh, yes – I can see a polyp just at 11 or 12 o’clock,” the doctor says from the doorway.

Okay, it’s fine. Don’t panic, don’t move. There is still a speculum involved.

The nurse decides she’s going to explain. Kind of.

“Don’t worry – they’re usually not cancerous. Sometimes it just causes problems with conception.”

Soon after, the swab was done, the speculum removed and I was told they’d be setting up my referral. A shaky legged me slid off the examination table, made sure what I wanted to wear was on and I walked out of the room. The nurse didn’t initially want me to walk away with a set referral date but the doctor insisted.

(Part Five: Coming Soon!)

The Gandalf Downstairs: Part Three

(Part Two: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-two.html )

 

She circles something on the health card that looks like something you get people to pledge money on before a walk-a-thon. I try not to react – if there were set answers, just ask me all of them! Jeez. The multiple choice questions like ‘why do you take the pill’ are supposed to be the easiest ones aside from answering yes to all of the above examples of ‘a family history of x, y and z (a.k.a. 101 things you could die from or not die from because health science is complicated!)’

The line of questioning continues for a while. She’s eventually done, writes a few things on a blue card and hands it to me explaining my results would be ready in 5 weeks. Then off to the examination room.

Films and TV have taught me gynaecological exams take place with the examined woman sitting with her feet in some stirrups in a fancy chair, draped in white. For my first pap smear, I got a wooden table, draped in white, with a gooseneck light at the end. That was layer of confusion number one.

“Take off your undergarments and then lie down up here,” goes the nurse.

What is an undergarment, how much do I take off, do my put my head on the pillow and where do I put my things – all new questions, popping into my head simultaneously. I ask none of them.

I take off my underwear, shove it into my bag and put the bag on the chair next to exam table. I lie on the table. I get asked to scoot down. I do so. A bit more. Okay. Right.

“Okay, just move your skirt up.”

How far? I don’t ask. I just guess. Turns out that’s ok.

“How long have you been sexually active?”

I answer. Nurse gets a speculum or, as I was calling it until I googled it about 5 minutes ago, ‘that clampy lady part opener’. Now – a speculum is a scary thing if you aren’t expecting it. You can never fully prepare yourself for your lady parts to meet metal in this way (especially since, oh – I don’t know, sex toys are illegal so inanimate objects in that area is a foreign concept altogether). She uses speculum, she checks and apparently she needs a bigger one. Why? Who knows! The nurse appears to be carrying on like mystery is part of the whole experience.

 

(Part Four: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-four.html)

The Gandalf Downstairs: Part Two

(Part One:

http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-one.html)

“I was hoping to get a pap smear,” I probably half-whispered. I don’t know who I had to hide this ‘secret’ from – the first woman had been taken into a counselling room and the other has gone back outside.

After checking in with the nurse on my details, I was whisked into a tiny room mostly containing a huge table. The paint was coming off the wall directly opposite the small chair between the table and the wall that I had squished myself into. The nurse went to get my records. I fidgeted.

She came back and we went through my details because someone who knows how many years ago didn’t fill in my allergies or family medical history. After being weighed, the nurse checked my blood pressure as nurses usually do.

“Your pressure is high,” she warned.

Here’s the thing here – I don’t know what that means. I see the numbers on those fancy automatic arm squeezing blood pressure machines and it’s just numbers to me. I never took biology. I don’t know what a good reading looks like. My brain rattled off a couple of responses before the words fell out of my mouth and all over the floor, desk and walls.

“Well, it is my first time getting a pap smear and I also have test Thursday and a major postgrad assignment due Sunday and I still have other work things to do including having to go into the office to do some filming with some of my colleagues and my mother is away again which means the house is kind of quiet but we use less electricity which is good but I guess oh I don’t know I guess I am just feeling a little nervous I suppose maybe just a little.”

Did I mention I get anxious? I get anxious. The nurse acknowledges my ramblings but didn’t really seem to hear me, thank god. We go back to filling out my records.

“Do you take any contraceptives?”

“Yes.”

We have a small aside about her confusion as to the brand, make and model of the pills I take before continuing with her data entry.

“Why?”

“Sorry?”

“Why?”

“…um?”

I’m trying to come up with an answer that will lead to the least amount of judgement. I’m torn between ‘I don’t really want children yet’, ‘I’m scared of pregnancy’, ‘I like making a regular period’, ‘I like spending $20 every 4 weeks just for the heck of it’ and ‘because I can and I want and I feel like it and maybe just because’.

“To delay pregnancy?”

“Yep. Yes. Mhm. That one.”

I don’t know if my face is red but I feel stupid.
 

 (Part Three: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-three.html)

The Gandalf Downstairs: Part One

I’m a pretty anxious, tired and stubborn young woman at the best of times. That said, I am privileged, educated, employed and supported by family, friends as well as (more or less) the health system.

Somehow, it still took me months to actually take myself to get a pap smear done. Supposedly, you should get your first at 21 making me approximately 3 years late. I did all the usual ‘adulting’ beforehand – checked my work calendar, found out if I needed an appointment at the clinic I was planning on going to, took the day off work and made it happen.

It was early. Just on the nose of 8am. I’d not had to get up to go to work, but there I was – at the Women’s Wellness Clinic first thing Monday morning.

There were 2 other women there. The first one had gotten there before me and the second had just arrived after I had. Woman number one was leaning on the nurses’ counter, chatting about what services she was looking for, I imagine. Woman number two hung around outside for a bit before coming in and picking up a number. I spent some time looking around from my rickety plastic seat.

Amongst the stapled pamphlets and pink ribbons, there was a plain sign printed on A4 and pinned to the notice board - ‘Pap smears 8am to 12pm, Monday to Friday’. I contemplated taking a picture and sending it to everyone on Viber just so they knew – but before I could decide whether to whip out my phone or not, another nurse had emerged and called me over.

(Part Two: http://commaopinionated.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gandalf-downstairs-part-two.html)