Ed,

Kudos, too, on your five years.

My urologist told me that "if you are a man, and if you live long enough, you'll die of prostate cancer."

I've heard a parallel thought: "Every man alive will die of prostate cancer unless something else - like old age - kills him first."

--
Mike Kanze

"The greatest threat to our democracy is not from evil or incompetent leaders, but from an electorate with the attention span of a gerbil on crack."

- James Tulip, San Francisco Chronicle (7/25/2007)

"Billzz" wrote in message ...

"La N" wrote in message
news:7ibJi.89565$bO6.40689@edtnps89...

"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
(I've got a VA evaluation pending right now for Agent Orange
determination of squamous cell carcinoma, primary tumor undetermined,
manifested in lymph nodes of the neck. Ten and a half hours of surgery
and 39 sessions of radiation in 2003--coming up on my five year
anniversary in January. And, I wasn't stationed in-country, merely
passed through Danang and Bien Hoa and Tan Son Nhut many times.)


Congrats on your five years, Ed!

As for me, I'm 7 years in remission of a rare bone marrow cancer that is
thought to be caused by, in part, exposure to benzene. Always good to
read stories of other "survivors".

- nilita

Good going. I'm out of prostate and bladder cancer. When I was diagnosed I
went into the Agent Orange Study. The VA gave me a physical and they send
updates quarterly. The presumptive correlation was made so they could get
vets into VA to do the study. But according to one of the latest updates,
it appears that there is no provable correlation. Heres what they said....

"At the end of the 20 years of follow-up, Ranch Hand pilots and ground crews
as a group exhibited no statistically significant increase in the risk of
cancer. Differences by military occupation were inconsistent. The Ranch Hand
enlisted ground crews, the subgroup with the highest dioxin levels and
presumably the greatest herbicide exposure, had a 14 percent decreased risk
of cancer. These results do not suggest that herbicides or dioxin exposure
are related to cancer in these veterans."

This info does not really help anyone who has cancer, but at least it's one
thing to check off the list. My urologist told me that "if you are a man,
and if you live long enough, you'll die of prostate cancer." So it comes,
no matter what the cause. Take an annual PSA test, and at least you'll know
what to consider doing about it.