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Updated: 05/03/2012 |
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Vice Director
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Dear member or visitor,
Is
it time for you to act?
Much
has happened personally since my last message was posted
to this site. I want to comment very briefly on one
event. This is not because it happened to me, but,
instead, because I suspect there are others in the
population who like me failed to take simple, preventive
action early enough. I am a reasonably intelligent and
educated person; however, I was careless; even even
arrogant in my approach to preventing a common killer
from getting me. It nearly did. My comments are
intended to jolt any others similar to me into action.
I am
happy to say that I am now classified as a cancer
survivor. I am very chagrined to have to admit that
getting into this category was more because of my
failure to use the intelligence our good God has given
me and good luck, than my intelligence. I should never
have let myself get into the position of
becoming survivor -- or worse -- nearly a victim.
I am
in my mid-70's and had never had a colonoscopy. I was
always too busy and the procedure was sufficiently
inconvenient for me to choose to take the time to have
one. A few weeks ago I met a widow whose husband had
died from colon cancer. When she learned I had never
had a colonoscopy, she got on me like fat on a hog to
get one.
I
did and, to my surprise, I had one polyp that needed to
be removed surgically. Two others were simply scraped
off. After "further review," the ruling in the exam was
upheld. In addition, it was shown the polyp was an
early stage cancer. How could this have happened -- to
me?
What
could have been a simple see-it, scrape-it-out,
go-home-and-live-normally situation if the test had been
done a year ago became a go-to the-hospital,
have-surgery, stick-around-the-hospital-for-several-days
and go-home-and-recover-over-the-next-few-weeks
situation. Hospitals are pretty nice places these day,
but all-in-all, I would have preferred staying at home
and operating my station.
I
was lucky to have had the polyp found when it was. Had
I not been diagnosed when I was, I could have died of a
perforated colon within year -- colon cancer a couple of
years later.
My
message is to readers of middle age and over. Be
smarter than me. Get this simple test done at the time
and on the schedule your physician suggests. Don't put
it off. Ask me. As you can see, I have become a
self-appointed poster boy for the cause and will be
happy if just one or two formerly-inactive people get
off their duffs and get tested.
What
does this all have to do with Amateur Radio, one may
ask? Thanks to being tested and treated, II now have
several more years of hamming ahead of me to enjoy.
This would not have been true if I had not had the
test. I owe my future life to the friend who goaded me
into doing what I knew should be done but had not yet
done.
Incidentally, I was in the hospital for six days, came
home two days ago and feel relatively great. What can
be accomplished through modern surgery is somewhat
amazing.
73,
Jim
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