My Leep procedure is scheduled for Monday morning. Can you tell how excited I am to go and have parts of my cervix looped off? I've heard that the procedure itself is not really painful so that is good news. I've also heard that smoke is involved. Ummm, I don't know about you, but I don't like the thought of smoke emanating from anywhere IN my body.
My anxiety has lessened a little bit but not completely. I'm still worried, mainly about the biopsy not coming back clean, second only to my fear of the follow-up pap test coming back still showing abnormalities. The problem is, of course, the hpv which will never completely be gone. Once infected, the virus remains in your body, going through periods of dormancy and activity and there's no way to fully rid yourself of it or it know when and if it is activated again. In my reading, the theory is that the virus is more likely to become active during times of high stress (hello, six pregnancies in seven years, including two miscarriages, infertility treatments, working full-time, the husband finishing up graduate school, etc etc etc.) and also during times when the immune system is compromised (hello, six pregnancies in seven years which naturally suppresses the immune system not to mention that in my last two pregnancies I took dexamethasone to help prevent miscarriage along with receiving intravenous intralipids in my pregnancy with Sully.) I am left to ponder if by trying to prevent miscarriage did I put myself at a greater risk to have the hpv become active and reek havoc?
During hard times my default position is to develop a plan. Even for things which are largely out of my control, I still develop a plan in some odd attempt to feel as though I have gained some scrap of control over the situation. For my high-grade, CIN III cervical abnormalities, I've chosen a plan of massive vitamin supplementation. I researched and found that is evidence that taking certain supplements can, indeed, help the hpv to return to dormancy. Despite all the vitamins I took while pregnant, the list still seems a bit daunting.
Here's what my daily regime will look like:
Mixed, natural carotenes (beta-carotene/vitamin A) - 25,000iu
Vitamin B6 - 50mg
Vitamin B12 - 1mg
Folic Acid - 5mg
Vitamin C - 2,000mg
Vitamin E - 400iu
Selenium - 200mcg
Zinc - 30mg
DIM - 400mg
Curcumin - 500mg
Green tea extract - 300mg
It actually adds up to taking more than 11 pills a day since some of the vitamins are impossible to get a high enough dose in just one pill. But, after years of downing pills, and injecting myself with medications, I can certainly handle this.
There are also some recommendations about using Vitamin A, Green Tea and herbal suppositories starting three weeks after having a Leep performed but I haven't made any decisions on those yet.
I'm just hoping that whatever my course of action is, that it works.
2 comments:
Best of luck w/your procedure, hope it is not too bad (I still remember how painful my biopsy was) and you don't have any further problems. It has been 15 yrs since I had HPV, but it is my understanding that your body can rid itself of it completely (unlike some viruses), though you can always be reinfected. Not to scare you, but I only had the biopsy (no LEEP) for mine and had cervical problems when pg. Since I'd never been pg before, it is impossible to know if that (or low p4 or my removed septum, or something else) was the root of my problems. You are already aware that you'll need to be extra vigilant with any future pg, but I know most ppl w/LEEP histories just get MFMs by default and are fine. GL!
Thanks KT. I am worried about if I get pregnant again but trying to take things one step at a time. I keep reading different things about if I can get fully get rid of the HPV or not so I'll talk to my doc about it Monday. I'm wondering if I can get rid of it if the Gardisil vaccine could help me.
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