I'm Back!!!!

What a crazy two weeks for me. We had an wonderful time with my brother and his 18 year old daughter (my niece). The 3 of us all have had WLS. Brother 5 years ago, niece 3 months ago, and me 2+ years ago. So interesting to see how differently each of us eats. We were on the go constantly. Walked thru museums, art galleries, tourist attractions, malls. Swam once or twice a day. So really got in lots of exercise. Just after they got here, we heard from my sister. She has endometrial cancer (uterine cancer). She will have surgery at the end of this month (complete hysterectomy). They feel it is stage 1 cancer, but will not know until her surgery whether or not it has spread. I was amazed to learn that this cancer often has no symptoms. Also this cancer does not affect pap smear results either. Last week Hal had kidney stones. Very painful, but doing fine now. So the last couple of weeks have been filled with wonderful times and stressful times. Would you send positive thoughts/prayers out for my sister, I would really appreciate it. I know that I won't be on the boards as much for a while, but I definitely will be checking in. Please keep up the weekly check ins, and I hope more of you will participate too. I rode the exercise bike 5+ miles yesterday morning then worked out in the pool for 30 minutes. Trying my best to lose some more weight, but my body isn't cooperating like I hoped it would. Eating less carbs, drinking lots of fluids too. Know I can break this plateau, just going to take time. Mary

Mary I am so glad that you are back and that your visit went well with your family. What is your sister's name? I will call my family and friends to put her in their prayers as will I. Just keep us updated on your sister's progress. Everything will work out. From what I understand there is a test but you have to ask them to perform it each time you go in for a pap. Alot of women don't know this and no one tells them. You are truly motivated and your motivation keeps me going. Please check in and share with us every now and then. Love Ya Annette

Annette, Prayers are greatly appreciated. My sister's name is Karen. The test you are referring to is the CA 125 which is a blood test. It is NOT a diagnostic test tho as commonly believed. It is a tumor marker which tells the doctor whether or not current treatment is working. There have bot LOTS of e-mails floating around about it, but it again is not used as a diagnostic test as many believe and as is stated in the e-mails. This CA 125 is used for ovarian as well as uterine cancer according to the American Cancer Society. Here's the info about the test that was on the Urban Legion site .... CA-125 is what is known as a tumor marker; it is used primarily to track the effectiveness of treatment for women who already have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It is also used, along with transvaginal sonography and regular pelvic exams, to screen for cancer among women determined to have a high risk of developing ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, CA-125 is an unreliable cancer screen. It returns a high number of false negatives (some ovarian cancers do not raise your CA-125 levels) and false positives (many benign conditions elevate your CA-125 levels). Furthermore, studies indicate that CA-125 is even less reliable at detecting early-stage cancers than late-stage cancers. The email indicates that Carolyn Benivegna's CA-125 levels were elevated, but it also says that she was diagnosed with Stage III cancer. There's no way to know if her levels would have been noticeably elevated before her cancer progressed to this stage. She advises us, based on her own experience, to rely on CA-125 as a regular screen for early-stage cancer. But she offers no evidence that CA-125 is effective at that stage; even her own cancer had progressed past it by the time she was tested. None of the following organizations recommend routine CA-125 screening for asymptomatic women who are not at high risk for ovarian cancer: American College of Physicians, the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, nor the American Medical Women's Association. I won't be completely gone from the site I promise. I will continue to post, just probably not as often the next 2 months. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up so no one would worry about me. Mary