------------------------------------------------------------------------ * G * O * A * N * E * T **** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enjoy your holiday in Goa. Stay at THE GARCA BRANCA from November to May There is no better, value for money, guest house. Confirm your bookings early or miss-out
Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ While about a dozen Goanet argu-pros have been debating whether Santosh is an indecent, mo-f in (to use a traditional American epithet that deserves to be added to the Goanet lexicon of insults) atheist, and a lamebrain pseudo-scientist, daring to question the latest research quoted by Gilbert about cancer operations as indisputable fact and good medical practice, the rest of us 6,990 readers have been thinking . and gearing up to contribute our 2 cents worth. Gilbert was talking about how the latest cancer research about the effect of operations on tumors validates the old kaneos that operations spread cancer. My own experience with the latest research is just the opposite. I learned the hard way that the "latest research" could turn out to be a dangerous myth and is not to be relied on as absolute gospel truth. Heres how my story goes: 1. In July 1991, I went for my yearly checkup and pap test to a gynecologist/obstetrician considered one of the top ones in the San Francisco-Berkeley area. As I was almost 51 and going through menopause, he said that I should be on hormone replacement. I questioned this as I had no bad symptoms except for some mild sleeplessness. I also told him what was already in my medical history, that I was a lifelong migraine sufferer and extremely sensitive to hormones and other medications. He insisted that the latest research showed that it would help me in other ways like preventing heart attacks and osteoporosis. I did report feeling somewhat dizzy as the months went by but he said that I would get used to it and that the hormone replacement therapy had been proved in many studies in the U.S. and U.K. and elsewhere as beneficial to older women. 2. In December 1991, I got a most terrible headache while taking a class. I knew it wasnt just a migraine and asked to be taken to the hospital. I was taken to UCSF (University of San Francisco Medical School and Hospital). The MRI showed that I had suffered a brain haemorrage. I was operated on by their top brain surgeon. No aneurism was found and no apparent reason for the bleed as its commonly called. Incidentally, when I later told my lawyer that I had just had a brain operation, he quipped Did they find one? Goanetters might share the same sentiment..... 3. I was, of course, greatly impressed at all the great medical technology that had saved my life and brain. Others on the same floor as me were either in a coma or in a vegetative state. My daughter, who was herself doing her residency at UCSF said to me, somewhat skeptical of medical science as the total answer, Mom, its your voodoo (prayers and hope) against theirs. 4. After recovery, I was sent to the top neurologist at UCSF who specialized in headaches, especially migraines. It turned out that he had presented a paper at a medical conference not even a year before, cautioning giving hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to women with migraine and advising that certain cautions should be taken because there was a higher risk of stroke in such women. Obviously, my gynecologist was not aware of the latest in neurological research. The UCSF neurosurgeon and neurologist recommended that I stop HRT. I changed gynecologists, naturally. 5. Subsequent research has shown that hormone replacement therapy causes strokes and even heart attacks in many women, not just those with a history of migraine. It has been largely discontinued, I'm told. HRT is also not recommended for women with breast and other gynecological cancers many of which are related to higher estrogen levels. Moral of the story: the latest research might turn out to be a myth. Santosh, in warning us not to rush to judgement and give up operations for cancer just because the latest research says this or that, is not half wrong. My life-threatening situation arose because the gynecologist didnt pay attention to the neurologist. Now, if defenders of our resident Goanet gynecologist, Gilbert, were to pay respectful attention to our resident Goanet neurologist, Santosh, who knows, we may well be on the way to achieving peace and amity on Goanet .. Filomena __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org