|
When we moved to Alaska 20
years ago we drove the Alcan
Highway with our youngest
child who was 5. Someone
said it would be a good idea
to wrap up several little
presents & at the end of
each day she could unwrap
one ... for good behavior or
a treat, I suppose. We
lived in Glennallen for 6
years and then moved to
Valdez. What I want to
share with you today, is
an end of story
of someone who has been in
Alaska about as long, if not
longer. She also lived in
Valdez the past 4 years or
so, but before that she
lived in Kenny Lake. She
told me about her house and
it was about as she said,
substandard by most people's
view, but not a-typical for
many rural areas. She got
by on just a little, but
always had a smile and wore
that brown hat.
When I
met Sue 3 years ago, it was
at the end of a special
church service. The speaker
had 'nick named' her
'horse-whisperer' ... that
she had a gift for leading
young people in the right
direction and letting them
think it was their idea.
She was very giving and
liked to be with friends.
Almost everyone was Sue's
friend. She has 3 children
and a couple of them really
like school. She died Sept
29, 2004.
In
getting to know Sue, she
shared lots of things,
little by little. I
strongly suspect that she
was harmed even before her
birth by a chemical such as
2-butoxyethanol
.
She told me that at 5 years
old she was being taken to
the emergency room of the
hospital for
horrible headaches
...
horrible
HEADACHES
....
that her mother died of
kidney cancer. I saw her
have one of those headaches
& she turned so
pale.
If
there were effects from
2-butoxyethanol, you are dealing
with
a chemical which targets several
organs/glands - body systems
simultaneously. Which shows
up first is sort of irrelevant
First
cancer she had was rectal
skin cancer. Her death
certificate will say she
died of
liver
cancer
.
However, I was told she had
brain tumors at
the time of death, too.
Prior to that a thyroid
ailment with resultant
kidney
stones. When her
oncologist was checking her
out that month, I said,
"Sue, ask your doctor to
test for whether or not you
have too many immature red
blood cells." He did and she
did have too many that were
immature. His comment,
"Well, what do we do with
this information?" I asked
her to have the doctor look
back and see if there was
trace
blood
in urine, but she
died before we found out if
another clue of
2-butoxyethanol poisoning
were there.
I don't
have any medical background;
however, since someone in my
family was harmed by
2-butoxyethanol by working
on
the
Exxon Valdez oil spill
cleanup, I
developed an interest in
knowing more about this
chemical. It causes
hemolytic anemia, the info
says, but I haven't seen
anyone diagnosed with it
yet. Actually it looks just
like Chronic Fatigue Immune
Dysfunction Syndrome or
'gulf war syndrome'
A
recent news article
has expressed concern over 3
soldiers dying after
'flu-like' symptoms with
swollen, liver & spleen and
organs shutting down. These
are also part of the pattern
of what 2-butoxyethanol will
do. This is a teratogen, a
pesticide, a poison, an
endocrine disruptor chemical.
It can harm the unborn and
children of these often are
born prematurely and/or have
low birth weight. I would
suspect
SIDS
could even be part of what
this chemical does.
It
targets the liver, it
targets the kidneys, all
glands,
the
blood,
the
immune system and the
central nervous system,
too. In Sue's case her
liver cancer did not respond
to chemo-therapy, nor
surgical removal of the
tumors. At the end of her
life her liver was very
swollen, and her legs, too
... she could hardly walk.
But she had no thought of
dying.
I
remember when she first met
me. She came over and said,
"Diann, I feel so drawn to
you." Now, looking back, I
see that she has helped me
understand more of 'the
pattern' of this chemical's
harm. The pattern was
certainly there, although I
don't know in exactly what
form she came across it:
some prior to birth? Some
of her own exposures? Maybe
even some second hand
exposures?
What a
loss to us all. To have
lost Sue
|
