Re: Atom Bomb

[Guest guest]

Lottie,

This is very interesting! My former father-in-law did research with

the Navy in the Bikini Islands in the 1940s when and after they

dropped the atomic bomb there on the Bikini Atoll. Not only was he

working collecting specimens of plant life on the islands within

days of the blast, but he was on a Navy ship at sea way too close

(in my opinion) when they actually dropped the bomb. He, of course,

died of cancer 30 years later including bladder cancer, esophageal

cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer. No leukemia, though. One

of his specimens (a huge manta ray) is in the sonian.

I have pondered and wondered and pondered some more what might have

caused my leukemia. The only thing I can think of is that when I

was little, I was a sun baby--I absolutely loved being outside in

the sunshine, and while there are only a few months out of the year

here in Seattle when it is really sunny, when I was a little girl, I

was outside every single day during those sunny months, for many

hours. I got DARKLY tanned to the point where my pediatrician told

my mom to limit my sun exposure. I wonder if that could have

anything to do with it? Sun exposure is a type of radiation,

right? Who knows. It is a mystery to me and between that and

pesticide exposure when trying to kill off blackberry bushes in my

yard about 20 years ago, I guess it is a tossup!?

Gleevec still holding me steady at 600 mg/day, and no detectable

Philadelphia chromosomes in my bloodwork. Got my bone marrow biopsy

pushed back another 3 months--doctor says Dr Druker has modified

requirements for that and it is something like every 2 years or

something as long as everything is in remission. I am not big on

remembering my numbers, but just note when the doctor says " fine "

or " not fine " ! So far, FIne and Dandy are the words for me!

Hugs and best wishes to all, I've been lurking around the list

regularly, just not posting too often. Having a workup for sleep

apnea (I get to sleep overnight in the hospital with a bunch of

electrodes on--yippee!) and also trying to start the South Beach

Diet to lose 50 pounds. It is just really HARD. It seems like too

many things physically work against me, metabolically, but I am

determined that the weight is coming off one way or another!

Vicki

>

> Dear ,

> I am so sorry to hear about your father. I remember the war

very well and remember the island of Enowetok (I don't know if that

is the right spelling either). My cousin was on a gunner on the

first plane to bomb the island of Japan. His plane never returned

and was never found. I remember being in chemistery class learning

about splitting the atom, but we didn't know they had developed a

bomb.

>

> I know a man whose father was captured by the Japanese in the

Pacific theater and brought to Japan to work as a slave in the

Mitsubishi factory. Our forces dropped one of the atom bombs there

and he was of course affected by the blast. The war ended and after

he went home, his wife gave birth to this man who was born with

lobster claw hands, only 3 fingers on each hand. I asked him what

ultimately happened to his father and he said he died of leukemia.

I am telling you this because you said your father died of cancer,

and we just in the past few days talked about inherited leukemia and

other possible causes. By the way, all of the actors who made a

movie where the land bomb was exploded all died of cancer,

Wayne was one of them. In this particular case, the father probably

had something that affected his reproductive organs and at the same

time, had an altered a gene he passed on to his son. I have no

scientific answer, just a guess. It is a common thing that everyone

has a friend or family member who died of cancer. Let's hope to

change those stats and everyone can die a natural death after living

a long and fulfilled life.

> Blessings,

> Lottie

>

>