Linda, Queen of the Desert
I have run on some
useful guidelines on how to avoid ovarian cancer, or correlatively, who should
worry a lot and who can be a little more relaxed. (But, remember the symptom index.) I planned
to try to be funny. But now I’m just going to spit the information out,
post a picture of Linda, and go out on the deck and brood.
The problem is that a young friend of mine, a guy I have
known for many years and liked extremely, one of the funnier people I have
known – just shot himself. I guess the
signs might have been there, but I never thought anything like this would –
could – happen. When I had to announce
Linda’s death 16 months ago, I ended by saying: Life can be painful, but I
guess it’s worth the effort. I suppose
that’s still true.
Anyway, I ran on these guidelines a few days ago. I imagine they are well known to the medical
community and also to many, if not most, women in the general population, but some of them
were new to me. So:
here are the guidelines. Each of
these (statistically) increases your chance of contracting ovarian cancer.
Jewish
ethnicity
Use of oral
contraceptives for less than one year.
Not having
given birth
Not having
breast fed
A body mass
index > 30
No tubal
ligation
Use of talc
Periods of
painful endometriosis
Polycystic
ovary syndrome
If many of
these apply to you, and/or you have a family history of ovarian or breast cancer,
and/or you somehow know you have the bad genes BRCA1/2 - form
a close, professional relationship with your gynecologist.
Sorry for
being so gloomy. Sometimes it can’t be
helped.
It's a very sad day. He was a very nice person, funny for sure, and he cared. It's unbelievable that he could have done this. Mental illness - not such a fun disease either.
ReplyDeleteWhat sad news about a dear friend. He is gently enfolded in the Eternal Presence
ReplyDeleteSo sad. He was a caring, funny person and will be missed. I am sorry I didn't have more time with him, living so far away. It is hard to think of someone in such hopeless pain that they want to end their life. I truly hope that he has found peace, just so sorry we had to lose him.
ReplyDeleteLinda K
I come back to this, many months later. It still hurts. What could we have done?
ReplyDelete