Unacceptable!

9/23/2010 Nothing has changed. . . I haven't blogged in a couple of months because I've been in Haiti/Columbia for a month of that time (see some pics!). I go out of the country to get a new perspective on dealing with the problems in the mission fields of Rome, GA. Amazingly By far, the most challenging thing I've ever attempted is trying to get decent health care for our women in Rome, Georgia!

Two years ago I said “Cervical cancer is entirely preventable and the majority of women who get this disease have not had a simple pap smear in the previous five years. In Georgia, “only” 120 women died last year from cervical cancer. It should be unacceptable in Floyd County, which has the highest per capita number of doctors in the state to see one single case of invasive cervical cancer. Yet, we continue to see vast over-screening and over-treatment for insured women and under-screening and long waiting lists for pap smears for those women most at risk for cervical cancer." But, I came home from Haiti and called a patient of the W.O.R.T.H. clinic to see how she was after her cervical cancer surgery--she hadn't had it yet. When she did have her surgery (2 wks ago) she learned it was inoperable. Unacceptable!