Seven years have passed. Nothing like being a cancer survivor to teach me to pay attention to details. A now routine annual pap smear with my doctor results in being sent to have a colposcopy to screen a suspicious cell mass.

The results of the pathology report: Diagnosis - vaginal cancer.

This immediately returned me to the emotional trauma of the diagnosis of cervical cancer in 1986. Specters of the endless midnight prowlings before my hysterectomy in 1987 and its effects on my family and life returned full force. Sleep becomes elusive. Closing my eyes immediately engages a real life soap opera in my mind with myself as the tragic heroine. Self pity at its nth. Sickening and disturbing.

Discussing alternatives led to my being referred to the wonderfully compassionate woman oncologist, Dr. Dianne Miller, who has been my medical partner ever since.

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