31

Herald & Lantern 9 February '83

Health Watch

by Dr. Robert G. Beitman

* Mary Lou and Tom thought of themselves as basically healthy persons. They never had any major illnesses, Mary Lou’s pregnancies were not problematic and they saw no reason to see a doctor on a regular basis. Mary Lou’s breasts had always been "lumpy” and she never thought that her mother's cancer death had any significance to her own

health.

OVER THE COURSE of the next year Mary Lou Nelson died. Further study found that her cancer had spread to the lymph nodes under her arm, her liver and her bones. Cancer detection had been too late to save Mary Lou; the cancer was too wide-

spread.

For the first four months after her diagnosis, while she could still travel, Mary decided to tell the world her story. She began lecturing to groups throughout the state, as well as appearing before the media

Just before she died. Mary Lou Nelson asked that her story be told whenever the opportunity presents itself. At 45 years of age, when she passed away, it is likely that she died needlessly of breast cancer. She left four children of various ages and a husband, Tom, who shares her concern that the

story be told.

I first met Mary Lou, as I am calling her, though (t is not her name, during my training as an internist in Philadelphia. She came in complaining of pains under her left arm. The medical student who saw her first was concerned about possible heart problems. AFTER TAKING a careful histoiy, doing a few cardiac tests, and giving a thorough physical exam, I found her problem obvious. Mary Lou was suffering from breast cancer of sudh an advanced stage it had spread to the lymph nodes

under her arm.

Beer, Wine Bill-

(From Page 30)

licensed restaurants than they would in most smaller family restaurants. " Miller has pledged the support of his council, which represents 300,000 to 400,000 older citizens throughout New Jersev. RECENT EDITORIALS in the Asbury P6rk Press have endorsed our position as a "reasonable relaxation of alcoholic beverage control laws.” t’he Camden Courier Post has stated that "If one restaurant in a community is allowed to serve beer and wine with its meals, all restaurants, upon payment of a uniform fee, should be allowed to do the same." It should be noted that S1863/A1969 are supported by the New Jersey Chamber of

Commerce.

In order to clarify the issue, several sections of S1863

are provided:

1) Permits will be issued only to full service restaurants that have the capacity to serve full course meals, that have a table seating capacity of at least 35 persons, and are operated principally as a restaurant. 2) Fast food establishments will not be eligible for permits, 3) Permit holders will be allowed to serve wine and beer for consumption wuh a meal served to seated patrons by restaurant personnel between the hours of 11 a m. and 11 p m each operating day 4) Fees for such permits will be paid as follows: Each municipality shall be paid the same fee as paid by a full class "C" lice.ise holders plus the state shall receive an annual fee of $500 (which shall be dedicated 50 percent to the ABC, 25 perceft to the Dept, of Transportation, and 25 percent to the Division of Travel and Tourism). The permits will be issued by the municipality IT HAS BEEN STATED by the New Jersey Licensed Beverage Assoc.'s political action chairman, William Jerlat, that creating a special permit would increase underage gambling and prostitution The Licensed Beverage Assoc, would also have you believe that should S1863/A1969 become law, 30,000 new outlets for alcohol would be created and that the result of this reform would be a serious loss of business to licensed restaurants, taverns, and package goods stores. In response to these statements, the actual number of new permit holders will be 2,000 to 3.000. In many communities only one or two will be created. The sole purpose of the legislation is to allow New Jersey's restSurants to serve the customers they already have and to operate according to industry standards. The restrictions of this legislation make it impossible to operate a tavern-type business, and licensed restaurants will continue to maintain the wide advantage they now hold concerning hours of operation, method of serving, and product which can be

served

There are provisions in the.legislation \yhich allow per mit holders to purchase their wine and beer from package good stores which will more than offset any losses caused by elimination of BYOB. In Kentucky, the most recent state to allow beer and wine for restaurants, there has been no decrease in the value of a full liquor license Tb THE CHARGE of temperance and underage drink ing, as stated in the Camden Courier-Post, it seems quite hypocritical when "coming from people who make their living serving or selling alcohol." To Jerlat's comments concerning increased gambling and prostitution. I ask that common sense prevail upon your judgement of those remarks. We strongly urge you to support this legislation. The upgrading ot our county and state restaurants can only imporve our position in the tourist market and will be beneficial to all businesses in C&pe May County. We ask that you take the time to make your position of support known to the Chamber office in order that your Chamber can officially endorse this necessary and long overdue

reform.

Craig Garrabrant i« owner of Garrabrant's Sea/ood Restaurant in North Wildwood and South Jersey director of the Garden State Restaurant Association.

Mary Lou Nelson’s moral: "Believe in early detection - it could save your life’:” MARY LOU was ab solutely right—methods exist for detecting breast cancer at a stage ejirl) enough to cure more than 85 percent of patients. The most important of these methods is free and is something each person can \ do for his/her own self. (Yes, men are susceptible to breast cancer too. although rarely). This most important method is the "Breast Self Exam," which involves a methodical monthly examination of the breasts. Next week’s column will bea how to do it column, explaining this technique in clear, easy to follow terms. Every 15 minutes a woman dies of breast cancer in the United States. It is the leading cause of death in women ages 40 to 44. Risk increases with age; 75 percent of breast cancers occur under age 50. Under age 35 the risk is minimal. Breast cancer under the age of 21 is extremely rare THERE IS a group of Women who should, from an early age. have continual monitoring for breast cancer These women are at high risk of developing breast cancer as a result of their family history. Close blood relatives of breast cancer pa tients ( i e their daughters, sisters, maternal aunts pod nieces) are two to three times more likely to get breast cancer than women whase families are free of this disease. Additional risk factors to keep in mind include: Women who begin . Menstruating unusually eanJTln life and those who enter menopause late (after age 55). This in creased risk is believed to be associa ted with hormones WOMEN W HO have their first baby before the age of 30 are at a lower risk of breast cancer than those who stay childless or give birth after age 30. Women who have a non-cancerous breast disorder called "fibrocystic disease' (lumpy breasts) may be more likely to develop breast cancer than women without the condition. DIET IS ALSO an important factor, for the consumption of foods high in saturated fats is directly associated with increased rates of breast and other forms of cancer in Americans. All women over the age of 50 are considered to be in the high risk group. The best test for breast cancer detection is a painless. low-dose X-ray called a mammogram The American Cancer Society's 1983 recommendations call for all women above the age of 50 to seek annual screening for breast cancer by a bi manual exam from their physician, and a mammogram Mammograms at younger ages may be recommended by your family physician in special high risk cases. Each of us 1 can ensure that Mary Lou Nelson did not die in vain. Discuss troubling symptoms with your family physician as soon as they appear and. make time for your annual mammogram and monthly breast self exam. Next week’s column will be an in-depth description of the breast self exam for you to clip and save.

Good Reading by Owen Murphy

(All of the books reviewed In this column are available at the Cape May County Library.) REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST by Marcel Proust Proust’s long master piece has remained a mystery for many people who cannot bring to it the concentration that it requires. For those who can. the rewards are great. The following Proustian nuggets will give you some idea of the gold that an attentive reader can mine in Remembrance of Things Past. Some people, either from lack of energy or else from a resigned sense of the obligation laid upon them by their social grandeur, remain moored like houseboats to a certain point on the bank of the stream of life; and they Abstain from the pleasures which are offered to them above and b^low that point, that degree in life in which they will remain fixed until the day of their death. WE CAN NEVER be cer tain that the good fortune which comes to us too late, is altogether the same as that good fortune, the want of which made us at one time so unhappy. There is only one person who could decide that — our ego of those days. Hejs no longer

with us and were he to reappear, no doubt that would be quite enough to make our good fortune n - whether identical or not —

vanish.

In many moments of our life, we would barter the whole of our future for a power that is. in itself,

insignificant.

It is the terrible decep-

tion of love that itttpgins by engaging us in play not with a woman of the exter nal world,-but with a pup pet fashioned and kept in our brain, the only form of her, moreover, that we have always at our disposal, the only one that .we shall ever possess, an artificial creation to which, by degrees, and to our 9#) hurt, we shall force the real woman into resemblance.

AN HOUR IS NOT mere

ly an hour It is a vase filled with perfumes, sounds, plans, and climates What we call reality is a certain relationship between these sensations and the / memories which surround"'

us at the same time I can think of nothing

that can so effectively as a kiss, evoke from what we believe to tfc a thing with one definite aspect, the hundred other things which it may equally well be, u| since each is related to a view of it no less

legitimate.

FOR MAN IS that creature without any fixed age who has the faculty of becoming, in a few seconds, many years younger, and who. surrounded by the wall of the time through which he has lived, floats within them, but as though in a basin the surface-level of which is constantly changing, so as to bring him into the range now of one epoch, now of

another

(Most nten) ... know themselves well enough to have observed that in the presence % of the most divergent types of woman, they felt the same hopes, the same agonies, invented the same romances, uttered the same wordis, to have deduced, therefore, that their sentiments, their actions, bear no close and necessary relation to the woman th(ey love, but pass by her, spatter her, surround her. like the waves that break upon the rocks We are all of as obliged, if we arc to make reality endurable, to nurse a few little follies in ourselves

Bring a friend. Donate Blood

together. +-•

| W|. . . ....... ....

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