Subject: If Women were in charge.....
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 151029 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru
--------------------------------------------------
......I have often thought that if women were in charge of breast
cancer research ... there would be A WHOLE LOT MORE emphasis placed
upon research for the prevention and/or avoidance of breast cancer,
than, as now ... research on post operative chemo-therapy or
radiation treatment that is so enriching to the drug companies.....
The likely result would also be ... at least a few dollars for research
concerning EMF as a possible cause or contributing factor....
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)......
rbeavers@llion.org.......
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
EMF-L web-site can be found at:
EMF-L archives can be found at:
..................PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFITS..................
.........DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST??????...........
_________________________________________________________________
12:04 PM ET 09/12/99
Photos Help Breast Cancer Patients
By GEORGE STRAWLEY=
Associated Press Writer=
HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) _ All the women bear the scars of breast
cancer, some slight, others extensive.
Almost all pose with their tops off to give a realistic picture
of what surgery has done to their bodies. When they do, they smile
for the camera.
Such are the images in ``Show Me: A Photo Collection of Breast
Cancer Survivors' Lumpectomies, Mastectomies, Breast
Reconstructions and Thoughts on Body Image.''
In the book distributed among organizations that help
breast-cancer patients, 23 volunteers share their experiences,
including photos of themselves, for the sake of other women who
face life-altering decisions about breast cancer.
Members of the breast cancer support group at the Milton S.
Hershey Medical Center and a few patients from outside the group
conceived, wrote, edited and posed for the publication. Their goal
was to share the kind of personal experience that can only be
passed from one breast cancer patient to another.
``We don't pull any punches and make this sound rosy and
sweet,'' said Vicki Gingrich, who underwent a mastectomy in 1991.
``But we really wanted women to understand that we're OK with
this.''
The photographs in the book show a college adviser, an artist _
even an assistant in the governor's office.
One woman advises patients to ask a lot of questions, even
repeatedly. A second reports that her scars are fading after three
years. A third says she opted for reconstructive surgery because
she found it uncomfortable either to wear prostheses or to go
without them.
``Don't hesitate to gather your family, your friends, and God
and his angels around you'' is the advice of Nancy L. Shelly, a
library cataloguer.
The book's intended readers are contending with such questions
as whether to have a mastectomy or a less-invasive lumpectomy, or
whether to undergo reconstructive surgery. A lumpectomy involves
removal of a malignant lesion from the breast while preserving its
essential anatomy, while a mastectomy requires removal of the
entire breast and neighboring tissue.
Sometimes medical circumstances all but dictate which procedure
doctors use. But in other situations, patients may have to balance
issues like risk of recurrence against appearance and physical
comfort.
The book had its genesis about 2 years ago, when longtime
members of the support group noticed that newcomers typically were
frustrated that they could not see what lumpectomies and
mastectomies would do to their bodies.
The predicament was familiar to the group members, who likewise
found themselves with surprisingly few sources of information about
what they would look and feel like after treatment. One group
member recalled hunting through the texts and sketches of medical
journals for information.
``These women were saying, `Show me, show me. I need to see
something,''' said Francoise G. Hultzapple, who underwent a radical
mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.
Some doctors may offer photographs showing the effects of
surgery, but the black-and-white shots usually illustrate isolated
torsos and fail to indicate how the whole person will look, the
group members said.
Patients who have already been through a procedure often end up
taking a newcomer aside and quietly showing the results of her
surgery.
The photos in the book are in color against a bright blue
background. Other sections provide brief explanations of procedures
written by doctors or affirmations meant to help patients stay
emotionally strong.
``We did not want to show just a torso. We wanted women to see
that we as a group were living beyond breast cancer,'' Hultzapple
said.
Each woman featured in the book offers a short account of her
illness and surgery, often with the comments of her spouse or
partner included. On the facing page for most of the subjects are
four photographs taken by a Hershey Medical Center photographer:
one in clothing selected by the woman, one in a white T-shirt and
two with no top.
The book is being distributed through the women's health center
at Hershey to support groups, hospitals, breast-care clinics,
medical organizations and patient libraries, all of which may lend
it to those who need to see it. The group members are hoping the
restrictions on distribution will ensure the book is used for its
original purpose.
Hultzapple said she took the book to an international conference
on breast cancer in Canada recently and found the audience at the
conference ``hungry'' for the book.
A private donation helped the support group and the medical
center produce an initial run of 2,000 books. A second printing is
in the works.
Doctors can give patients a good idea of what will happen
through drawings, pictures and a list of patients willing to talk,
but the Hershey book looks at several procedures within one volume,
said breast cancer surgeon Dr. Angela M. Soto Hamlin.
Hamlin, whose practice is near Harrisburg, was not surprised
that women who had been through the procedures would pose for the
book.
``One of the things I found in dealing with women with breast
cancer is that there's a tremendous sense of being able to help
each other,'' Hamlin said. ``They really are gifts to each other.''
___
EDITOR'S NOTE: Further information about the ``Show Me'' book
may be obtained by calling 717-531-5867 or sending a fax to
717-531-2041.
_________________________________________________________________
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com