Dear all - I received this from the DH of a dear friend and wonderful lady. We became acquainted with Marg and Charlie through the orchids and over the years they grew to be some of our favorite people. They wrote a great series of very carefully researched books with detailed meteorological information for several families of orchid species. She was such a terrific lady that the best I can do for her is send this on:
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2003 6:40 PM Subject: Marg's passing I promised Marg that I would write the following and get it out to as many peope as possible. I have had it checked by the surgeon's nurse, so it is medically accurate. Please pass it on to anyone you think it might help sometime down the road. For those who do not already know, I�m writing this to notify all friends, relatives, and the people with whom my wife, Margaret Baker, has known or corresponded and traded thoughts and ideas with over the years or might have known in the future that she recently passed away after a fairly short but hard battle with Endometrial cancer. This is a little-discussed, only slightly researched cancer that we found to be a particularly nasty form in this nasty family of diseases. Before she died, she asked me to notify all her friends and people she has worked with about this cancer. She wanted me to inform them about the things we learned a little too late to help her, but we hope they might help others to protect themselves somewhat in the future. Endometial cancer is especially nasty because none of the normal GYN exams that women routinely get do much if anything to detect it. Consequently, it has usually progressed to stage 3 or 4 before it is discovered. We have been told that it is the fourth leading killer of women in the country, probably because it is normally detected so late. A Pap smear she had taken a short time before the diagnosis failed to indicate any problem, as did an ultra sound taken after she had felt a lump in her abdomen. A follow-up CAT scan did indicate a slight problem on one ovary, and this was all that was shown by the normally used methods for what was revealed by surgery to be a tumor so large that it filled her entire pelvic area, with numerous smaller tumors scattered around the abdominal area and a 3 lb. tumor on the omentum across the upper abdomen. Our first indication of the real problem came after the ovary problem revealed by the CAT scan drove us to search out a gynocological oncologist to go in and take care of this slight problem on the ovary. He did a CA125 test and took an endometiral biopsy. Neither took more than a few minutes and was no more painful or intrusive than a normal Pap smear. They did, however, reveal cancer cells in the uterus and would probably have given an early warning if administered when she had gone in for her normal GYN exam a few months prior. She informed our family doctor that she will come back and haunt him if he ever again settles for only a Pap smear and does not go the short extra step to give those two tests which, although normally not given, at least provide a chance for an earlier detection in this nasty, fast-growing killer. I hope that this summary of what she discovered about the disease will help somone out there so that they do not have to go through what she has experienced during the past seven months. I�ve been told that these tests are particularly important for any woman who had endometrial problems when she was younger. So please, don�t hesitate to ask for these tests, or at least discuss them with your doctor. Charlie Baker -- Charles Baker [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.orchidculture.com --- [This E-mail Scanned for viruses by Onlinemac.com] --- [This E-mail Scanned for viruses by Onlinemac.com] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
