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North Gwinnett student deals with ovarian
cancer
By
Vivian Heard
Special to GwinnettForum.com
FEB. 6, 2007 -- Twenty-five years ago, having a phone in one's
room was a big deal to a teenage girl. It was a huge accomplishment
and maybe a battle won with the parents. And perhaps a manicure
was allowed as long as it was paid for out of the babysitting money.
The only things pierced were ears, cassette tapes had replaced 8-tracks
and iPods hadn't been dreamt of. A teen's biggest worry was what
to wear on that big date and how to get rid of the pimple that showed
up the day before. The 'C' word was mostly reserved for adults and
certainly never a topic of conversation at the high school dance.
My, how things change.
Meet 16-year-old Meghan Sullivan. Meghan is a normal teen and student
at North Gwinnett High School. In February 2006, she was living
a normal teen's life when she began noticing abdominal swelling,
first attributed to menstrual bloating. But Meghan paid attention
and decided to get checked under the guidance of her parents. "I
had tests, then x-rays and then an ultrasound," explained Meghan.
The news was horrific: the ultrasound revealed a large tumor on
Meghan's ovary.
Dr. Benigno |
The Sullivans wasted no time and sought the best in gynecologic
oncology, and based on referrals, selected Benedict B. Benigno,
M.D., founder of the Ovarian Cancer Institute in Atlanta and director
of Southeastern Gynecologic Oncology. The Sullivans learned that
the Ovarian Cancer Institute is developing the largest ovarian tissue
and serum bank in the world and is dedicated to seeking a diagnostic
test and identifying the causes of various forms of ovarian cancer.
They wanted the best ammunition to battle their daughter's cancer,
and they found it.
In March 2006, surgery revealed her insides were a mess. After
removal of one ovary and her appendix, Dr. Benigno ordered chemotherapy.
He consulted with Dr. John McDonald and the OCI Board on the best
way to treat a 16-year-old wrought with a somewhat atypical kind
of ovarian cancer.
Dr. McDonald |
Meghan explains: "Dr. Benigno found that I had a 'germ cell
tumor,' a genetic condition affecting the reproductive organs."
Her father had been plagued with and survived the same disease 15
years prior. Germ cell ovarian tumors are derived from the egg producing
cells within the body of the ovary, occur primarily in children
and teens and are rare. Knowing this dictated how Meghan's cancer
would be treated.
And so an uncharted chapter in this teen's life began. "I
underwent 12 weeks of chemotherapy," remembers Meghan. During
her chemotherapy, she endured what no16-year-old should ever have
to. She had fever spikes that sent her to the hospital; she had
to have a port inserted due to the difficulty in finding veins to
'stick;' she underwent a blood transfusion when her red blood count
dropped; and she had to have booster shots and blood tests during
rounds of chemo.
Meghan developed a rapport with Dr. Benigno. "I think Dr.
Benigno cares a lot about his patients, and especially about me
because of my age. His daughter is 16, just like me." After
having laparoscopic surgery in July - to ensure the chemo had done
its job - Meghan was given a clean bill of health. "I'll have
CAT Scans and blood tests every month for a year, but I am feeling
good and trying to rebuild myself physically," says Meghan.
Cases like Meghan's are more widespread today. Key is to educate
all age groups about risk factors and symptoms of this cancer that
steals the lives of 13,000-plus women each year. According to Elizabeth
King, executive director of OCI, "With adequate funding, OCI
has the potential to become an international referral center for
anyone seeking information on 'the silent killer.'"
For more information, visit www.ovariancancerinstitute.org.
Sitting down with good book, yes, about our
sewage waste
By
Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
FEB. 6, 2007 -- When Kathy Adams of MTI Whirlpool in Sugar Hill
learned of my historical interest in the Gwinnett sewer history,
she hopped up. "Let me get you a book you'll enjoy," she
said. "It's one we have our people here read."
Brack |
She popped out of her office, retrieved a book, and was back in
ten seconds, handing me "Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization."
Heady material, huh?
Written by good old Mississippi boy W. Hodding Carter, who now
lives with his family in Maine, it is a fascinating treatment about
a subject most of us avoid talking about: human waste and how we
treat it. Yet Carter pulls off this discussion in good taste, and
sometimes good humor, showing how common and important this is as
a problem in the world, how far mankind has to go to conquer this
problem, and even points to ways human waste might even help solve
the world's energy problems.
Whew!
And along the way, he gives us klutzy homeowners, who shudder at
tackling our own plumbing problems, at least a little more understanding
of the business. A principle: "(Waste)….flows downstream."
It took ages before people got any inkling that perhaps there was
a direct connection between the way we dispose of human waste and
how healthy people are. Yet even this is not the case in many parts
of the world to this day. For India, for instance, in 2004 only
232 of 5,003 towns and cities had a sewer system. "The remaining
4,771 towns' citizens mostly use dry latrines (such as chamber pots),
or more often, nothing at all." In India, 600,000 "untouchables"
still work daily to empty dry latrines
and privies, usually tossing the contents into the local stream
or river.
Carter gives insight into several ways the world has reacted to
the disposal of human waste.
- Remember the moats around castles, put there for defense purposes?
It wasn't mere water in the moats. It was primarily a dumping
ground for human waste, in effect, a cesspool. No wonder the attacking
Hagars of that day didn't swim the moat!
- Plumbers are often the butt of jokes, though we all anxiously
call them on emergency to rescue us. No wonder they get paid so
well, for we need them badly. Without them, civilization would
be much more messy.
- Carter explains why the plumbing world is moving to "P"
traps, rather than "S" traps, and how every trap needs
venting.
- An Indian has invented a superior flush toilet that uses less
than a half gallon of water, with no mechanical parts to break,
which could revolutionize treatment of waste.
- Scientists at Penn State are seeking to perfect a method to
use wastewater to metabolize organic matter…and create electricity.
Already perfected in the lab, the system promises to get rid of
waste, use it as a constant source for power, and create energy!
The good news of "Flushed" is that mankind is getting
better at treating its human waste. People are finding even new
ways to tackle the problem, and perhaps give us even more benefits
than we ever thought possible about our daily bodily functions.
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Bringing up subject just before spring training
Editor, the Forum:
Isn't Ted Williams still the greatest chemically-unassisted hitter
of all time?
-- Marshall Miller, Lilburn
David
Snell speaks to Chamber breakfast on Feb. 9
David Snell will speak at the February 9 Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce
seminar, "Success Lives Here." The seminar will be at
the Sugarloaf Country club at 7:45 a.m.
Snell, vice president and corporate secretary of E.R. Snell Contractor
Inc. of Snellville, is being presented by Mike Runyan, broker, with
Atlanta Real Estate Specialists. The event sponsor is the Gwinnett
Business Journal.
Snell is a former chairman of the board of the Gwinnett Chamber.
Suwanee Police offer
teens ride with PRIDE program Feb. 24
The Suwanee Police Department will offer Georgia Teens Ride with
PRIDE, a two-hour parent/teen driver education program, at 9 a.m.
Saturday, February 24, at Suwanee City Hall. PRIDE (Parents Reducing
Incidents of Driver Error) is designed to help diminish the high
number of crashes, injuries, and deaths involving teenage drivers.
A registration form is available online at www.suwanee.com
or by contacting Sgt. Elias Casanas at elias@suwanee.com
or 770/945-4607, ext. 327. This class tends to fill quickly; space
is limited and applicants are accepted on a first-come, first-served
basis. The deadline for registration is Friday, February 20.
Winter
joins Brand Mortgage Group as vice president
Winter |
Terra Bullock Winter has joined Brand Mortgage Group as a vice
president. Winter will focus on expanding the operations and offerings
of the growing mortgage business, a subsidiary of Gwinnett's oldest
locally-owned bank, Brand Banking Company.
Brand Mortgage Group, opened last year to provide comprehensive
mortgage financing options for personal and business needs, expands
the mortgage lending services the bank has provided for years.
Winter joins the Brand Mortgage Group from previous employment
with Opteum Financial Services, BB&T and Sun Trust in the metro-Atlanta
region.
Winter, who has an MBA degree from Brenau University and a BA
degree from The University of the South, is also a graduate of Leadership
Gwinnett (class of '99).
A native of Gwinnett and active in her community, Winter is chair
of the annual support committee for the Gwinnett Hospital System
Foundation and serves on the board for both the Gwinnett Children's
Shelter and the American Red Cross. Winter, married with a young
son, lives in Lawrenceville.
Two Gwinnett school
counselors win state recognition
Two Gwinnett school counselors are being recognized as 2007 Georgia
counselors of the year. They are Kelly Cowart of Meadowcreek Elementary
School and Brent Henderson of Norcross High. They will be honored
at the State Department of Education February 8.
Through collaboration with faculty, early learning agencies, the
United Way and area businesses, Cowart developed a "KinderCamp"
program to prepare more than 40 incoming kindergartners for the
transition to school, while their parents attended daily "lunch
and learn" sessions. Literacy backpacks boosted the students'
literacy exposure and stoked their eagerness for the start of the
school year.
Last summer Cowart spent three weeks in Mexico to learn more about
the culture and language to better serve Meadowcreek's Spanish-speaking
students and families. She uses a small-group reading program to
help Hispanic girls reading below grade level to feel more capable
in the classroom through literacy achievement.
As the counseling department chair at Norcross High School, Henderson
developed innovative guidance programs and further developing existing
services. He works with rising eighth graders as they learn more
about academic and extracurricular programs.
Henderson has streamlined the registration process for new students.
With the designation of a Counselor of the Day, he ensures that
the counseling staff has fewer daily interruptions as one colleague,
on a rotating basis, assumes responsibility for speaking to walk-in
parents, handling crises, and consulting with faculty and staff.
Ron Ring joins Street
Smarts as senior project manager
Ring |
Ron Ring has joined Street Smarts, Inc. of Duluth as Senior Project
Manager. Ring is a veteran of 30 years in professional engineering,
and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. Ring has
managed major highway design and management projects from coast
to coast. A former resident of Marietta, he now lives in Lawrenceville.
He is married and has three children, who all live in Metro Atlanta.
Founded in 1990, Street Smarts provides planning and engineering
serices to the public and private sectors for the transportation
field. At present the firm has a staff of more than 90 and operations
in Georgia, Florida and Texas
Walton's Operation
Round-Up awards $25,000 in Gwinnett
Walton Electric Membership Corporation‚s (EMC) Operation Roundup
Board awarded more than $40,000 in grant money to local charities
at their first meeting of 2007, including $25,000 in Gwinnett.
Operation Roundup gives customer-owners the option to round up
their electric bills to the next dollar, using the extra change
to fund commendable efforts in the counties served by Walton EMC.
Among the recipients:
- The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia was granted $5,000 for their
mobile pantry program.
- The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation received $2,500 to send children
with this disease to Camp Oasis.
- The Dream House for Medically Fragile Children was given $10,000
for their Family for Keeps program.
- The Gwinnett Community Clinic received $5,000 for their patient
drug and medical supply program.
- Housing and Economic Leadership Partners (HELP) was awarded
$5,000 for their comprehensive housing program.
- An invitation: What
Web sites, books or restaurants have you enjoyed? Send us your
best recent visit to a restaurant or most recent book you have
read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus
what book you plan to read next. --eeb
Governor
McDaniel build Capitol, started Georgia Tech
Henry
McDaniel served one term as governor of Georgia. His enduring
accomplishments as governor include the construction of the state
capitol in Atlanta and the establishment of the Georgia College
of Technology (later the Georgia Institute of Technology).
McDaniel |
Henry Dickerson McDaniel was born in Monroe in 1836. McDaniel moved
with his family to Atlanta at the age of 11 and in 1856 graduated
from Mercer Institute (later University) in Macon, where his father
had once been a professor. After a year of studying law, he was
admitted to the state bar and began practicing in Monroe with his
uncle.
McDaniel enlisted in the 11th Regiment of the Georgia Infantry.
Rising to the rank of major in the Confederate army, McDaniel, on
the retreat from Gettysburg, was seriously wounded by a shot in
the abdomen and was captured by Union forces. McDaniel spent the
remainder of the Civil War hospitalized and imprisoned in Ohio.
After the war McDaniel returned to his law practice in Monroe and
married Hester Felker, and Hester McDaniel were married for 60 years.
They had two children, Sanders and Gipsy.
McDaniel did not fully enter public life until his election to
the Georgia General Assembly in 1872. Two years later he entered
the state senate and served for three straight terms there.
When Georgia governor Alexander Stephens died in office in 1883,
the president of the state senate, James Boynton, became acting
governor. Boynton immediately ordered a special election to fill
Stephens's term. With the Democratic Party's nominating convention
deadlocked between Boynton and A. O. Bacon, journalist Henry W.
Grady proposed that a special committee select the nominee. Grady
hoped to keep Bacon out of the office and pushed McDaniel's nomination.
McDaniel became governor and was elected for a full term in his
own right in 1884.
McDaniel improved the state's finances and greatly reduced Georgia's
bonded debt. Pushing both industrialization and inexpensive, laissez-faire
government, he watched over a period of growth and relative calm
in Georgia's history. After leaving the governor's office, McDaniel
spent the rest of his life practicing law in Monroe.
Mankind can be pretty
shabby about those prophecies
"Man has an incurable habit of not fulfilling the prophecies
of his fellow men."
-- British Commentator and Author Alistair Cooke (1908-2004),
via Roy McCleary, Dacula.
Send your thoughts, 55-word short stories, pet peeves
or comments on any issue to Gwinnett
Forum for future publication.
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is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible
social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett
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