Author Topic: How do you like these odds?  (Read 9985 times)

LoriW

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How do you like these odds?
« on: October 22, 2006, 09:54:31 pm »
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? 

Hey All,

Lori, from Arizona.   It's been awhile since I've been to the site.   

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.

Jeanlea

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2006, 10:12:39 pm »
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
translab on 3.5+ cm tumor
September 6, 2005
Drs. Friedland and Meyer
Milwaukee, WI
left-side facial paralysis and numbness
TransEar for SSD

LoriW

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2006, 11:01:46 pm »
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

Patti UT

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2006, 11:04:10 pm »
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
2cm Rt side  middle fossa  at University of Utah 9/29/04.
rt side deafness, dry eye, no taste, balance & congintive issues, headaches galore
7/9/09 diganosed with recurrent AN. Translab Jan 13 2010  Happy New Year

LoriW

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2006, 11:07:47 pm »
You bet!    Anyone else work at a Nuclear Power Plant in the United States?

Crazycat

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2006, 11:12:49 pm »
Lori,

 Ã‚ 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!

 Ã‚   Be careful how you go about it though! You may end up like Karen Silkwood. Remember her?

 Ã‚ Paul
5cm x 5cm left-side A.N. partially removed via Middle Fossa 9/21/2005 @ Mass General. 
Compounded by hydrocephalus. Shunt installed 8/10/2005.
Dr. Fred Barker - Neurosurgeon and Dr. Michael McKenna - Neurotologist.

LoriW

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2006, 11:19:38 pm »
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

Crazycat

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2006, 12:16:04 am »
That's a good idea. Just remain vigilant at this point.

   Paul
5cm x 5cm left-side A.N. partially removed via Middle Fossa 9/21/2005 @ Mass General. 
Compounded by hydrocephalus. Shunt installed 8/10/2005.
Dr. Fred Barker - Neurosurgeon and Dr. Michael McKenna - Neurotologist.

Raydean

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2006, 04:25:58 am »
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

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

TT

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2006, 08:08:55 am »
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 !!!
2 cm AN - right side
Diagnosed 6/22/06
Retro. procedure performed on 8/24/06 / SSD
Dr. Peter Smith & Dr. Robt. Backer
St. Johns Hospital - St. Louis, Missouri

matti

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2006, 09:21:06 am »
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
3.5 cm  - left side  Single sided deafness 
Middle Fossa Approach - California Ear Institute at Stanford - July 1998
Dr. Joseph Roberson and Dr. Gary Steinberg
Life is great at 50

kat

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2006, 09:35:00 am »
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  
2.2 cm AN diagnosed July 2004 . GK at  the Royal Hallamshire
Sheffield UK in April 2005 2nd MRI in December 06 showed signs of the AN shrinking and MRI in FEB 08 showed no change . SO FAR SO GOOD .

Gennysmom

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2006, 09:51:15 am »
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.   
3.1cm x 2.0cm x 2.1cm rt AN Translab 7/5/06
CSF leak 7/17/06 fixed by 8 day lumbar drain
Dr. Backous, Virgina Mason Seattle
12/26/07 started wearing TransEar

ppearl214

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #13 on: October 23, 2006, 09:58:07 am »
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
"Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness", Capt Jack Sparrow - Davy Jones Locker, "Pirates of the Carribbean - At World's End"

Battyp

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Re: How do you like these odds?
« Reply #14 on: October 23, 2006, 07:38:59 pm »
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????