Sad day...

Ruth · 11-16-2009, 02:55 PM

Today just hit me with a brick. I'm fine but another one of my childhood friends parents died. I grew up in a very small town in Georgia and in a close knit neighborhood. My best friend from the age of 8, Cheri, lived around the corner. And this is my brief story. She was diagnosed 2 months after getting engaged and on her 32nd birthday (adrenal cortical carcimona) and died after 8 months of a horrible devasting fight. I got breast cancer at the age of 36. Go figure two best friends getting cancer in their 30's. Now 3 parents of friends of mine that grew up in the same neighborhood within 1/2 mile radius have died of Multiple Myeloma. One lived across the street from me, one lived behind our house and the other lived across the street from Cheri. It just doesn't make any sense. How could so many people get cancer like this in a tiny little block? We were on well water (well, actually it still is well water but my whole family is out of there) and the well is right next to research fields from the University of GA. They swear that the water was tested and safe in the 70's and 80's but it was fields for pesticides. UGA doesn't test on the fields anymore but I just think that something was in that water. My childhood friends mother died yesterday. Her husband died a few years ago..also of cancer. I am so sad. I can't help but think of Cheri and how much I miss her. My little girl never got to meet my best friend. My best friend never got to have the 4 children that she dreamed of.
Sorry guys...I'm venting. It's just ADC at age 30 is about one in a million diagnosis and MM is about 10K a year. Even me being under 40 and no family history is not that common. UGH. I hate CANCER!
:-( Ruth

Lien · 11-16-2009, 03:16 PM

That Sucks, Ruth. I can't think of any other word to express how I feel after reading your post.

I'm glad you are still here, after 6+ years. You show them!

Love

Jacqueline

Lien · 11-16-2009, 03:17 PM

I meant to write: You show them pesticide sprayers! but somehow erased those words.

Jacqueline

tricia keegan · 11-16-2009, 05:16 PM

I'm so sorry Ruth, I've lost a few friends to this disease and can relate to how you're feeling.
I hope you'll do what I do and just try to remember happier times and memories

suzan w · 11-16-2009, 07:49 PM

Dear Ruth, WOW, a sad day indeed. It sure sounds like a "cancer cluster" to me. There is just so much stuff in our environment that we don't know about. Hope you are feeling better!! xo Suzan

Laurel · 11-16-2009, 07:59 PM

Ruth,

Can you say "Love Canal?"

I am truly sorry for all your pain and many losses. When we look back on our hometowns it should not be with suspicion and fear. Are people still drinking from those wells? Can you say "Erin Brockovich?"

Catherine · 11-16-2009, 10:36 PM

Ruth,

Your family and friends story is way too tragic. I agree, we need to get Erin Brockovich on this. Unfortunately, nothing will bring your dear friends back. Stay as strong as you can. Poop on cancer and all the havoc it recks (sp).

Hugs, Catherine

schoolteacher · 11-17-2009, 07:09 AM

Ruth,

I am sorry to hear about your friends and families. I live in Georiga too. I have wondered if my BC came from pesticides too.

Amelia

Mary Jo · 11-17-2009, 01:32 PM

Hi Ruth....I'm so sorry for this sadness in your life. It's no fun when those days come. Praying today is a bit brighter.

Thanks for sharing your heart with us here. We care.

Mary Jo

v-ness · 11-17-2009, 01:41 PM

i grew up in a small farming town in western massachusetts and all of us high school kids worked either tobacco or cucumbers during the summer (back when kids actually worked and got outdoors). this was in the mid-70's. we were not only exposed pesticides, i also recall trucks driving through town belching mosquito killing spray in the evenings because it's real buggy here in the Happy Valley close to the Connecticut River. i only had 40 classmates in high school and recently found out that 3 of my female classmates had or have breast cancer, another one died of BC, and at least one of the boys died of cancer of some sort.

i remember riding my bicycle down the street and the mosquito spray truck passing me by, never even turning off the big poison sprayers. no wonder mosquitos still don't bite me to this day.

Jackie07 · 11-17-2009, 10:08 PM

30, 40 years after Rachel Carson's "The Silent Spring" brought up the 'environment' issue, we are still seeing (facing) the same kind of nonsense every day!

We were visiting my Father-in-law last week and for three days I felt that I was 'dying' there. He tore up the rat poison pouches that were supposed to be placed 'intact' and disposed when they are 'torn' by the rodent. He placed those poison in three regular 'saucers' in open air thinking that will attract and kill the rodent more effectively.

This WWII veteran and retired high school principal somehow is fond of any kind of chemicals that 'kills'. Over the years (21 since I've joined the family), he has used different kind of chemicals to kill crikets, flies, fleas, roaches, and now rats. Somehow he refuses to 'winterproof' his doors and windows which is the root source of all these problems.

Because it does not affect him - just like those fatty dishes that had caused the cardiovascular disease of both my late Mother-in-law and my husband - he thinks it could not possibly be harmful to others. "It won't hurt anything!" Well, it is his house. And he wonders why fewer and fewer people had come to visit...

tdonnelly · 11-18-2009, 03:56 PM

Burbank IL-Wells 1959 Metro. Sanitary Dist. -Jan Stahulak (Angel Sister of BC) (J. Hayes-neighbor-thyrd disease-me as well.........
Chicago Water - Lake Michigan
Worth- 10421 SW HWY Lot 1x-Serious Contamination throughtout Trailer Park, Highland Ave., Lloyd Drive, 111st-Randy Keller our water of Worth is not OK........
Wisconsin/Walworth-Salt for Hardwater very unsafe for all of us to drink-I can only have bottled water.

I too belive this Epidemic of BC is because of our Unsafe Overpolluted Drinking Waters. IN WI-Too many gas fumed boats etc............

Hello to our Politicians..........Is anyone paying attention.

Tami

Ruth · 11-19-2009, 06:18 AM

Thank you all for posting ~ it makes me not feel so alone. The families have tried to get someone to notice what appears to be a cancer cluster (CDC; Ga environmental non-profit groups) but with all the red tape and paperwork, attorneys its almost as if you need an Erin to come to town. The good news it seems that whatever happened in the 70's didn't seem to pass to new people moving in the neighborhood or didn't seem to have any effect on pregnancies/birth defects etc later on. All of the people that we have lost were original home owners or at the time young children that moved there then. I am so very thankful that my Mom seems to be just fine. I found out this week that two other people passed away...young...that lived on the next street over that I didn't realize. They moved out in the 80's but with the latest talk of another cancer death these two were brought up by mutual friends. One was a girl my age thats family moved there in the 70's that died of BC in her late 20's. I didn't know. And another father that died of a rare form of leukemia. So even though I was pretty convinced something didn't seem right, I am really convinced now.
Thank you all. I try to be positive as much as I can but the news of Renee's mom's death just sent me in a unhappy state. :-(
Love you all ~ Ruth

Soccermom · 11-22-2009, 11:10 AM

I am so sorry Ruth,,,
sadly there are many such "clusters" this one of interest was just online today..
http://news.aol.com/article/official...water%2F778556

and this one where my SIL and DIL live in Fallon Nevada..
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_ho.../20086111.html

and then the Camp LeJeune cluster...
http://www.tampabay.com/news/militar...cle1013675.ece

We are we doing to our planet????????
Marcia

Brenda_D · 11-22-2009, 11:40 AM

I live on a street that's only a block long. On this street, in the last 20 years,
there have been at least 8 people that have had some kind of cancer, and 6 of those have passed away from it. I don't know that's it's related at all. One family had 4 of those (lung, testicular,throat ca, breast) and one of others was related to the first family(lung ca). One family included my aunt who died from lung cancer, but she smoked for something like 50 years. Her husband died from colon cancer, but his mother also died from it and she didn't live anywhere near here.
It sounds like a cluster, but I don't think it is?

Lien · 11-22-2009, 02:32 PM

There could well be other causes. Like a gene defect running in a family. But in Ruth's case, I think she is probably right. I am so sorry!

My best friend is a dermatologist. She is convinced there's a cancer link to the environment. We live in the Netherlands, one of the most polluted area's in the world. It's one big river delta, really, and upstream from us are the German Ruhrgebiet, an industrialized area, the Rhine with it's Swiss pharmaceutical companies and the Meuse, with factories all the way into France. On top of that, we have two of the largest ports in the world: Rotterdam and Amsterdam. We have petrochemical plants, we have to nuclear plants and we are big on hothouses. Our water is polluted and it costs a fortune to purify it. Our air is filthy. 1 in 3 people develops cancer during their lifetime. But you know what? We are one of the happiest nations in the world. Now go figure!

Jacqueline