Re: It's That Time Again
- From: "conwaycaine" <conwaycaine@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 17:06:02 -0400
"The Highlander" <micheil@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:bbb5050d-6629-47a0-9da9-d0629cfa050a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Aug 4, 7:26 am, "Adam Whyte-Settlar" <ador@ble> wrote:
"conwaycaine" <conwayca...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message<Snip>
You are dead on right, Highlander.
And your dear wife had not a clue what was about to befall her.
I know you have shaken your head over that many a time.
But what a caring thing to do, the notifying of those others who might have
been at risk.
The average poylp (the high risk variety) takes about five to six years to
turn cancerous.
Which is why having them cut out every three years or so practically
eliminates the possibility of colon cancer.
GET THE COLONOSCOPY, ADAM
All it takes is eating a decent diet.
Not entirely true. Colon cancer killed my wife and we discovered that
it was an hereditary strain of familial polyposis (polyps that run in
families) that has been in her mother's family for more than 200
years. It is particularly common in Ripley, Yorkshire, UK. and her
mother's family came from there as part of a group of 1,000 Yorkshire
farmers who settled in Nova Scotia in the early 1800s to take up a
grant of land. Ominously, my wife's mother's maiden name was Ripley; a
niece of Ripley of "Ripley's Believe it or not".
I wrote to the University of York to ask for information about Ripley
and polyposis and the return letter said tersely that it was
practically epidemic in the area.
A specialist who flew out from Montreal to meet and examine her, told
us that she was the 13th person to carry this strain that he had ever
met. It's very slow growing and he suggested that she had probably had
it since she was 18 or so.
Because her family tree was very extensive, my wife suggested that we
contact some several hundred families who potentially carried the
strain, which we did, thanks to our doctor who let us use his
letterhead and the health authorities who helped with mailings,
postage and tracking down of addresses.
About half replied, many sending photos of children, typically saying,
"these are the lives you've saved!" Others phoned and one lady even
flew up from Miami to visit us. The other half never replied, but
hopefully some of them took the letter seriously and showed it to
their physicians as the letter suggested. Our kids are checked
annually, but so far no one has been affected. When my wife lay dying,
she said that doing all this made her feel that her death was not
wasted. I told her there must be hundreds of people, including those
not yet born whose lives she had saved and that she had done a great
thing which our little family and many other families would never
forget.
.
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