{"id":38671,"date":"2021-03-25T14:25:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T20:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=38671"},"modified":"2022-01-31T14:24:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T21:24:08","slug":"precancerous-cells-one-womans-warning-not-to-delay-a-pap-smear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/precancerous-cells-one-womans-warning-not-to-delay-a-pap-smear\/","title":{"rendered":"Precancerous cells: One woman\u2019s warning not to delay a Pap smear"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"Kelly
Kelly Brassette with her daughters, Katie and Ally, and her daughter’s friend. Diagnosed with cervical cancer, Kelly’s message now is to not ignore warnings of precancerous cells or delay your Pap test. Photo courtesy Kelly Brassette.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kelly Brassette is living in the moment, not for tomorrow, not for the day the COVID-19 pandemic ends, not for someday. She lives now.<\/p>\n

At 47, she knows that time is a diminishing resource; there\u2019s always less of it to waste. And so she strives every day to enjoy the now and to let her husband and two daughters know that she loves them. Dearly.<\/p>\n

For those of us who aren\u2019t part of her family, she has another message: Don\u2019t ignore your doctor. And women, don\u2019t skip<\/a> getting your Pap smear, like she did.<\/p>\n

Precancerous cells found after childbirth<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer, Kelly knows it\u2019s far too late to rewind the clock. If she could, she\u2019d take it back to 1999 when she was pregnant with Ally, her youngest child. Back then, truth be told, she didn\u2019t get along with her obstetrician. When he sent her a letter in the mail saying she had pre-cancerous cells, she ignored it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I was a kid, 24 or 25 years old, so you just put it in the drawer and it doesn\u2019t exist,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cI should have gone back to him and I didn\u2019t go back to him, so that\u2019s on me. So what I would say is, get your checkups and listen to the doctor and if you ignore it, it\u2019s not going to go away, it\u2019s just going to get bigger.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Eleven years later, in 2010, Kelly knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just bleeding all the time, and I am not a doctor person, I never get sick, I don\u2019t get colds or strep \u2013 nothing. So to just go to the doctor was tough, but I did.\u00a0 My gynecologist, I think he knew instantly, but of course, he had to verify his suspicions. He said, \u2018If you get the postcard everything is good. If not, I’ll be calling you, and we\u2019ll go from there.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The risk of cancer is real<\/strong><\/h2>\n

She had cervical cancer. A radical hysterectomy was scheduled, followed by a second surgery to remove her ovaries. After those surgeries, doctors believed there was no evidence of disease and she was, by all accounts, in remission, though there was always a possibility that the cancer could come back.<\/p>\n

\"Kelly
Kelly Brassette with her family on Bali, an Indonesian island. Photo courtesy Kelly Brassette.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the stinker,\u2019\u2019 Kelly said. \u201cYou just need one little cancer cell to escape, and that\u2019s that.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Several years later, Kelly began to feel bad. She had pain in her abdomen and trouble eating. When her husband, Paul, mentioned during an appointment with a doctor that Kelly had a growth on her belly button, the expression from the physician changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018You need to go to the lab right now.\u2019 Kelly recalled. \u201cIt was a Sister Mary Joseph<\/a> tumor, and that\u2019s not a good sign.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Her daughters, Katy and Ally, were 21 and 15 when she learned the cancer had returned with a vengeance. Dr. Dirk Pikaart, her gynecological oncologist, delivered the bad news that she had Stage 4 cervical cancer that had spread to her liver. There was no way he could give her an exact timeline<\/a> of how long she would live. He explained that data indicates that the sooner a person is diagnosed, the better their chance of survival.<\/p>\n

That was in 2015, and each day since, she\u2019s been purposeful about how she spends her days, who she spends them with, and her legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sounds weird, but cancer has brought so many positive things,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cThe expectation for everyone around me is that you have tomorrow. But I don\u2019t have that, so every day is important.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

After the diagnosis, she and Paul, whom she had been married to for only a few months, decided the only thing they could do was just get through it. The first step was getting through six weeks of chemotherapy. Kelly did not want to lose her hair. She believed that if she lost her hair and looked sick, it would consume her. She and Paul researched \u201ccold caps<\/a>,\u2019\u2019 a technology for cancer patients that helps avoid loss of hair.<\/p>\n

\u201cChemo was eight hours; it was all day. The cold caps were minus 30 degrees to minus 40 degrees, and we would walk into chemo with two coolers full of these Cold Caps,\u2019\u2019 she recalled. \u201cWe must have looked a mess, and I had maxi pads on my hairline so I wouldn\u2019t get frostbite<\/a> on my forehead and on my ears.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The cold caps worked, and Kelly retained her hair.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was phenomenal because when I looked in the mirror, I just saw me and that was good. That really helped, and I think for the kids\u2019 too,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

Kelly works as an autism and significant support needs coach with Academy School District 20. She says her co-workers and leaders in the school district have been phenomenal. She counts her blessings every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids, they keep it real. There have been so many things that have happened, and they don\u2019t let me wallow,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cThey don\u2019t let me use it as a crutch. You know how great kids are. They\u2019re like, \u2018Mom, come on. You\u2019ve played the cancer card plenty of times \u2013 get over it.\u2019 They say it with love.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Kelly knows that her cancer is not going to go away. She has a CT scan every three months, and she hasn\u2019t had chemotherapy since December 2019. She said cancer has helped her rekindle a relationship with her brother who, before the pandemic, visited every three months or so from California.<\/p>\n

Dr. Pikaart, who has been a gynecological oncologist for 11 years, said each person he cares for has a different experience when battling cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is interesting to watch people as they deal with the diagnosis of cancer and the phases of going through it, and whether they are curable or not,\u2019\u2019 Pikaart said. \u201cI\u2019ve noticed that cancer patients get a different window on the world, or different perspective so to speak, and I think I\u2019ve learned a lot from patients like Kelly over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey realize what is really important, and they see life differently because they are forced to deal with the fact that they\u2019re not going to live forever. Most of the time, when a person is forced to do that, they figure out what\u2019s really important in life and it\u2019s usually not what a lot of us are concentrating on. It\u2019s not our material possessions and having this or that \u2014 it\u2019s more about and family, relationship with God and those around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s valuable to pay attention to some of these patients and watch their growth and maturity as they go through it. I have the privilege to do that quite often.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Pikaart says there is wide variability on how people do after being diagnosed with cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people like Kelly who live way beyond the median survival rates described in studies,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cStatistics are often misunderstood. The way I explain it to patients is that the median survival is not how you will do, but how the average person in the same situation does. Most patients do end out near the middle of the curve, however, the reality is that half of the people do better than average. Our goal is to treat aggressively so that you end out better than the average or above median survival rate. We want patients on the far end of the curve or beating the odds.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The longer a person survives the more options they may get over the span of their treatment and lifetime. In the past couple of years, we\u2019ve had some breakthroughs in immunotherapy that has become available for cervix cancer patients.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Kelly is certainly getting farther and farther on the end of the bell curve.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is beating the odds,\u201d Pikaart said.<\/p>\n

\"Kelly
Kelly Brassette with her daughters. After Kelly gave birth to her youngest daughter, she ignored a letter from her doctor telling her she had precancerous cells. Now her message for others is to not delay their Pap smears. Photo courtesy Kelly Brassette.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cervical cancer screening<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Pikaart says screening for cervical cancer is paramount and has helped reduce deaths as a result. He added that human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines may help to reduce the rate of cervical cancer as more and more people become vaccinated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think about Kelly, if we could have prevented her from ever needing to come see me, it would\u2019ve been the best-case scenario,\u2019\u2019 Pikaart said.<\/p>\n

Kelly says that what is important now is sharing as much time with family as possible. She advises people to make a list of what is important to them and to work on that every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have made so many lists, what is important, bucket lists. What do I want to do? How do I want to be remembered and once you see it you can kind of go off that,\u2019\u2019 she said. I think that I have changed. Cancer has changed me a lot \u2014 not that I was a bad person, but I think I was maybe more selfish or self-absorbed, and so to do that soul-searching of how do I want to be remembered?<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be kind, and I want to be remembered as just a good person, so that\u2019s kind of reshaped me, it reshapes everything.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

She knows she will miss some of her girls\u2019 milestones, and it is why she has a calendar and is filling little boxes with mementos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to miss their weddings and their babies and all those things,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cSo instead of letting yourself go down that path, because it\u2019ll tear you up, I got little boxes and I\u2019m filling them up with 25 years of gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I got those little envelopes and letters, so what am I going to say on their wedding day? What am I going to say? I\u2019m just planning ahead. I\u2019ve knitted little baby blankets and those things. It\u2019s just stuff but it makes me feel good. And then when they\u2019re opening it, they can remember.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kelly Brassette is living in the moment, not for tomorrow, not for the day the COVID-19 pandemic ends, not for someday. She lives now. At 47, she knows that time is a diminishing resource; there\u2019s always less of it to waste. And so she strives every day to enjoy the now and to let her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":38673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[28,49,9073,32,212],"class_list":["post-38671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-cancer-care-oncology","tag-cancer-treatment","tag-gynecologic-cancer-treatment","tag-gynecology","tag-womens-care"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPrecancerous cells: One woman\u2019s warning not to delay a Pap smear - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Her doctor told her of precancerous cells after childbirth, but she ignored the warning. 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