From: KathyWUT@aol.com
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 1995 13:08:50 -0400
Subject: A Good Reason

A third piece from me.  Please feel free to save it and print it in the
future.  PLEASE send me a copy of the issue you print it in.  Thanks.

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A GOOD Reason for a Mammogram
Sara and I had heard the statistics and read the articles: "Lesbians are at a
higher risk for breast
cancer".  "Lesbians don't see their doctors enough."  "Lesbian Health Care
Needs Are Being
Ignored"

We talked about it off and on since we met three years ago; I would give Sara
a hard time about
never having had a pap smear or a mammogram and she would say she knew she
should.  She
had good reasons for putting it off: she didn't have a gynecologist and
didn't know which one to
go to, she worked full time and would have to take off work, it was such a
hassle making an
appointment. Besides, getting undressed and putting her legs up in stirrups
for someone, or
having her boobs squished in some machine, wasn't Sara's idea of fun.   She
doesn't care for
doctors and hospitals and she REALLY hates needles.

Like I said, Sara had good reasons for putting it off, even though she's a
"downwinder" (born and
raised downwind of the nuclear tests of the fifties) and had never had
children, so she was at
high risk. She knew she should do it.   She WOULD.   SOON.    REALLY.
   Besides, she was
only thirty seven (then thirty eight . . .  thirty nine. . .), not even forty
yet, so there wasn't really a
hurry to do that stuff yet, right?

Then she got laid off from her job of fifteen years and she lost her
insurance.  Suddenly she had
a REALLY GOOD reason not to get it done, it would cost too much.  She would
wait 'til she had
insurance.  I have insurance, but my company doesn't have health insurance
for same-sex
partners, so I couldn't get insurance for Sara.  We probably could have
afforded the
mammogram and pap smear, but what would we do if she had something wrong with
her?  It was
easy to put it off, to say "later."

Well, Sara's forty now and she finally found a good reason: a large lump in
her right breast.  She
finally made that appointment, finally had a pap smear and a mammogram. Now
we're both
getting very familiar with doctors and hospitals and Sara is going to have to
get over her problem
with needles.   Sara had a lumpectomy and next week she starts five weeks of
radiation.  The
doctors recommend chemotherapy, but Sara has decided not to do that.  It
would only increase
her chances by 10%.

The statistics, the articles, the news stories have new meaning for us now.
 We saw a public
service announcement on TV the other day about how important mammograms are
and we just
turned and looked at each other. It's funny,  . . .  those reasons we had for
putting off the
mammogram and pap smear suddenly seem so lame, so feeble.  How long had the
tumor been
growing?  How much earlier could we have caught it? Will the delay cost Sara
her life?  There
are questions we may never have answers to . . .

Here are some questions for YOU:

Do you have a doctor and do you have regular check-ups?

If you're a woman:
Do you have a gynecologist?
Do you have regular pelvic exams?
Have you had a pap smear or mammogram?
Do you do regular breast self-examinations?

What are YOUR reasons for waiting, for putting it off?  Do you think your
reasons are good
enough?  Take it from Sara: quit waiting for a GOOD reason to do it.  Just do
it.  Now.

			#End