On 3/20/2009
desparatemum wrote:
Hi,
2 weeks ago I had my first pap smear in 4yrs the results showed abnormal cells and says this is very unusal for someone who is 44yrs old
My doctor wants to do an endrometrial biopsy.
I been reading on the internet and I'm frightened because I have had stomach and pelvic pain for a while, even feeling faint when i eat.
In the summer i got shingles and a month ago my groin area became inflamed and blisters developed on my legs and lumps around my vagina.I also feel tightness of my chest and find it hard to breathe at times.
I am really worried as they say if abnormal cells appear in pap smear and they prove to be cancerous then the cancer is well advanced.
Has anyone got any advice or has experience of similar symtoms?
I really worried and driving myself crazy.
Thankyou for reading this and for any experiences/comments you can share.
Hi. Try to take a breath and relax. I know the thought of having cancer is very scary, but you've not been diagnosed with it yet so don't start thinking you have it until you actually hear from the doc that it's so.
Some of your symptoms can be related to other things. I have a niece that had many of the same symptoms you have been having (in fact, she had them all except for the abnormal cells in her pap).
Because of the blisters and and being so inflamed around the groin and vagina she had gone to the gyne repeatedly for many different tests and they couldn't come up with why.
She went to Mayo Clinic to have tests done there with their gyne department too. They did tests and sent her for additional tests on other parts of her body and come to find out she has an allergy to gluten!
Gluten is basically found in your wheats (like breads, pastry, etc.; however, it's also on your shredded cheeses because they put a coating of it to keep the cheese from sticking too). There are so many different kinds of foods that contain gluten. You can do a web search to find lists of them.
Try to keep track of what you are eating and see if you have your break-outs after eating those foods with gluten in them.
Since my nieces diagnosis of this allergy, I have 2 very close friends that have gone through similar situations and they have since been diagnosed with the same thing.
They were diagnosed much quicker because I was able to tell them about my niece so when they went to the doctor they asked for tests to see if they had it also.
One friend doesn't have it quite as severe as the other and my niece; however, the other friend has it so badly that she's ended up in the hospital a couple of times because she couldn't breathe! She was at a party where they were fixing hamburgers and she requested a burger with no bun and asked for them to not use the same utensils on her burger that has touched a bun because she is so bad.
Come to find out the person cooking forgot and put her burger on a bun and then remembered and pulled it off and put it on a plate by itself. Too late, it had been on the bun and she didn't know it. She ate it and within 1/2 hour she was on her way to the hospital.
Doesn't sound like a fun thing to have; however, beats the pants off of having a cancer diagnosis.
As for abnormal cells with your pap. That can be tons of things, including a false positive too.
Just make sure to follow up with the gyne, start getting those paps yearly to stay on top of things (don't be like my dad's girlfriend who never had a pap in her life until she started having problems last month at age 66 and now they find stage 3b cancer on her ovaries...something they could have gotten much sooner if she'd been going to docs for check ups).
If it were me, I'd also check in with another doc and ask for whatever tests they do to see if you have that gluten allergy too. Your symptoms, like I said, are exactly what my niece and 2 friends have had...all the way down to the "shingles"...which actually turned out to be related to the allergy too!
Good luck, hang in there, and God's Blessings!