ANA Discussion Forum
AN Community => AN Community => Topic started by: LoriW on October 22, 2006, 09:54:31 pm
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I put this post out last week and am sort of shocked that I only got 3 replies.  I changed the subject line to see if that would make a difference. I really thought I would get some feedback on 3 employees being diagnosed with AN in less then 2 years. Anyone else see anything like this?ÂÂ
Hey All,
Lori, from Arizona.  It's been awhile since I've been to the site. ÂÂ
How do you like these odds? 3 people in less then 2 years, diagnosed with AN.  We all work at a Nuclear Power Plant, which employs maybe 2500 people. We have all been out here 15+ years. I've been out here for 21 years. Pretty freaky, huh? I had my tumor removed on 12-14-04 and still clean. Sometimes I wonder because my balance gets pretty bad. I gave this site to my new compadres.  Hi Guys!
Has anyone been to the site Zazzle.com?  Type in the search box, Brain Tumors. You can actually order t-shirts. I have the "I had brain surgery, what's your excuse?" shirt, plus Brain Tumor Survivor. I figure people look at me and wonder what is wrong with me, I just wear one of my shirts and that explains it. Cure Brain Tumors is on the back. Check the site out, you can also create your own shirts.
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That is unusual to have so many ANs in one place. Wonder if the cause for them will ever be found.
Glad that all is still well with you.
Jean
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I'm waiting to see what this last person finds out from his doctor. I surely want to look into it a little more.
Thanks for the reply!!!!!
Lori
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Loriw,
Pretty weird. SO many in the same place. Wouldn't that be interesting to find that somehow it is set off by something enviornmental. I have pretty big power lines behind my house. Still a contraversal subject.
Keep us posted on this
Patti UT
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You bet! Anyone else work at a Nuclear Power Plant in the United States?
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Lori,
 It really does seem a bit unusual for that many people to be afflicted in a certain place in so short a time. What are the odds of aquiring this condition that we hear all the time? 1 per 100,000 people or so? Something to mull over indeed!
  Be careful how you go about it though! You may end up like Karen Silkwood. Remember her?
 Paul
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I love my job and would never do anything to jeopardize it. I have 21 years in and 18 more to go. I am going to start keeping track, just in case our odd increase.
lw
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That's a good idea. Just remain vigilant at this point.
Paul
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I've read about what our doctor called "cluster groupings" of tumors. Where a small area has a higher then average amount of a particular medical problem. When my husband was diagnosed with a tumor
(at the time of diagnoses it wasn't clear as to the type) he asked us where we lived exactly. Turns out about 25 miles from us a very small town had a "cluster" of brain tumors going on.
Maybe google or another search engine has some information of clusters.
Just a thought
Best to all
Raydean
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I wonder if the odds of getting an AN is out of wack. Since I was diagosed on June 22, 2006. I learned that three of our salesman had immediate family members who had AN's and I have three friends who had family members who had them. Now, that's seven people counting myself and I didn't even try. I think these little buggers are more common than we think.
GO CARDINALS !!!
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Several years ago my brother moved to a new housing development and within one year SEVERAL children developed Juvenile Diabetes, including both of my nieces. Childhood lukemia also started popping up and all within a 3 miles radius. Turns out the homes were built on an old military dump site and the soils proved highly toxic.
I am starting to question the 1 in 100,000 odds of getting an AN. Since I was diagnosed in 1998, I can't begin to count the number of people I have met or someone knows that has or had an AN.
Cheryl
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Hi everyone
This might be slightly off the subject but a few weeks ago I saw a program on TV about radiation and my ears pricked up when they mentioned a town in Iran called Ramsar which has the highest natural radiation in a habited area in the world ! This was news to me . I worked in Ramsar for about 6 years in the seventies in a casino before the revolution .There were
hot springs which myself and many colleaques bathed in several times . The highest radiation there is 260msv where as
workers in nuclear industry are only permitted 20msv . Having said that there is no evidence of any more cancers or other ill effects as a result . I just got to thinking what the statisctics for AN s might be (if any) since the population there was only 2000 ! I thought that it was more but many people had summer villas there since it was a popular resort which might have made it seem  more at the time.
Regards Kat ÂÂ
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I work for a city of about 800 employees....and I have a co-worker that had an AN removed 3 years ago that was 2.8. I think it's just a coincidence, nothing about the city as we've always worked in different buildings. So 3 in 2500, even though it's more than the 1:100,000 odds, doesn't seem too weird. I, like Cheryl, have run accross what seems an amazingly large number of ANers not on this forum.
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Very unusual.. In planning for the AN symposium next year in Philly, I wanted to inquire to the ANA about updated stats for AN's, since it seems that recently, not only are they not as rare but also noting younger folks increase in numbers as well.
BTW, for the symposium, I'm planning on a shirt that says... "I don't have an AN, I really am drunk!" :)
xoxoxo to you all.
Phyl
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to make that more believeable you'll need to walk around with a martini glass in your hand and a sign that reads shaken not stirred LOL
I know in my area near the military base a few years ago they had cluster illnesses that they attributed to dumping grounds and power lines. I don't recall an's but lukemia and something else. I have only heard of about 3 adults with an's locally and my son has a girl in his class who had an surgery a few months after mine. You would think they are causing environmental factors that might go with our genetic dispositions? Hmm...any reasearchers out there????
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This thread reminded me that when I had my five weeks of fsr, four other poeple with whom i worked were also undergoing treatment at the same time at that hospital. One had bone cancer for 10 yrs and was in palliative care; one had leukemia and was undergoing yet another treatment session; one was having treatment for non hodgkins lymphoma; and i was being treated for my An. In addtion to us, another colleague died from a brain tumour a while back. Another passed away from cancer not found until three weeks before passing. Another had a brain tumour which left her unable to work and as i recall she had vestibular problems too. Yet another had an op for a brain tumour. ( i never did hear exactly what kind of brain tumour the others had)...and they all left work.
There are other instances of colleagues leaving due to "health reasons", not always clarified but rather hushed. I personally find it rather more than coincidental that almost all of us worked in the same wing of the building. It makes me wonder , of course, about some environmental component.
Then again, who knows, maybe it was a "cluster" with no common reason.
An interesting thread. Thanks.
Windsong
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I met with my ENT last week, and he told me he was currently treating 3 patients, then later, my neurosurgeon told me he removed 2 tumors the week before. Considering how sparsley populated it is in my neck of the woods is, I was surprised, considering how "rare" these are supposed to be.
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A couple of things to keep in mind. We also live in a very small community. Doctors in a major city will often be treating patients a great distance away. We traveled to Seattle which is only a hundred miles from my little town of 3500 people. But in his waiting room there were people from as far away as Montana and Alaska. Doctor's being busy may not mean a above average number of AN's within your community. It may well mean that the Doctor has built up a well known practice and patients are willing to travel to the best.
The other thing is once any of us has a particular medical problem, we become much more aware of it on a more consious level. Our awareness rader is on. Sometimes it may seem like a community has more AN's then the norm such as my small area. But in reality when talking to the known ANers it turned out Chet had his treated in 97, another person in 2000, and the third a different year. If we lump all ANers regardless of diagnoses year together it makes the pool of people larger and rareness seem even more common . Just as this forum has members spanning
30 plus years, our communities also has fellow Aners that may span many years.
Hope everyone has a great day
raydean
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I know of 4 people in my subdivision that have had ANs. :o
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In my town of about 5500, there are three of us that I know of.
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I was reading somewhere that not only cancer, but cardiovascular disease were virtually unheard of at the turn of the last century.
Diet? Lifestyle? Environment?
Paul
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Wow!  Thanks for the replies, never thought of clusters.  I will definately check into that.  :)