I went back in time to when Gary was first diagnosed with Parkinson's. If you remember, that was in 2006. For about 3 years, I spent an enormous amount of time reading and finding out what PD was, but I also cared about why and how it develops.
Not surprisingly, the same bad actors that can lead to damage in the brain region called the substantia nigra, one area where dopamine is produced, also appear to cause cell damage elsewhere in the body leading to the possibility/probability of abnormal cell division, ie cancer.
Gary, like all of us, had a hand in his own death. Some of the factors in developing Parkinson's Disease will sound familiar to those who inquire nervously about their personal risk factors for cancer.
Obviously, Gary could not control most of the indecent exposure he had to toxins, but his choice of occupation and the place he grew up in were certainly culprits.
So here is a novice's attempt at answering WHY Gary had to get Parkinson's in his 40's and Pancreatic Cancer at age 55.
Being from the upper midwest- Exposure to farm runoff, both field and feedlot contaminating ground water and the airborne pesticides sprayed over large areas where we lived and Gary worked. He was a carpenter and got to work in the great outdoors of SE South Dakota. We lived on land surrounded by farms and farmers who took minimal care to spray their fields with herbicides and pesticides on calm days. The herbicides killed many of our own trees. These chemicals also entered our lungs.
Living with a smoker- Hugely important, Gary never smoked. Never. But he did live in a house with a smoker and we know the damages it can cause. No, I'm not blaming his dad for killing Gary. Who didn't grow up in a house where smokers lived and never went outside to spew their poisonous gases? It was the 60's man, smoking was KOOL! But, for Gary and possibly we who are reading this, that second hand smoke may be one of our own death cards.
Choosing Carpentry as a career- Gary could make anything out of wood. He worked in a lumber yard and started buying his own power tools while in high school. What kid does that, but one who loves woodworking? He started breathing in the carcinogenic sawdust- yep, sawdust is a biggee, when he was a teenager. Add to that the lumber and plywood he cut was treated with chemicals and glued with adhesives, all sending their dangerous molecules down into his lungs and into his eyes and skin.
Homebuilding/Cabinetmaking/Tilesetting- We tend to think of these as 'wholesome' occupations. They are not. The mostly men who perform this work are exposed to countless toxic materials. I did not say hazardous, I mean toxic; in other words, known to cause damage, rather than just potentially causing damage.
Again, lacquer, thinner, adhesives, preservatives, stabilizers, color tinctures, metalic additives are in just about everything we use to build and furnish our homes. The simple act of laying a laminate floor or just opening the plastic covering of the box is exposure to toxins! Think of all the years of exposure to truly deadly materials Gary's body endured. Here's something I found to illustrate what happens:
A toxic chemical may cause acute effects, chronic effects, or both. For example, if you inhale high levels of solvents on the job, you may experience acute effects such as headaches and dizziness which go away at the end of the day. Over months, you may begin to develop chronic effects such as liver and kidney damage. The delay between the beginning of exposure and the appearance of disease caused by that exposure is called the latency period. For example, the latency period of lung injury after exposure to nitrogen dioxide gas may be a few hours. Cancers due to chemical exposure have very long latency periods. Most types of cancer develop following a latency period of many years after a worker’s first exposure. The length of the latency period for chronic effects can make it difficult to establish the cause-and-effect relationship between the exposure and the illness. Since chronic diseases develop gradually, you may have the disease for some time before it is detected. It is, therefore, important for you and your physician to know what chronic effects might be caused by the substances with which you work.
Living in Southern California-I just heard on today's news that EPA is tightening the standards for soot. Guess where the 7 counties that won't meet the standards are: of course its Southern California. When Gary moved in January 2003 to Colton, CA, he did not know that his apartment in Colton was in the dirtiest air quality areas of the US. He was living in the midst of the largest diesel train yard in the country. Its called a "Diesel Death Zone". For 2.5 years Gary walked every evening in the dirtiest most dangerous air one can put into their lungs. Gary also worked in the high wind, high dust area of Fontana. More pollutants blowing in from LA and the port of Los Angeles, and from those semis hauling all that Chinese shit through the Inland Empire to Wal-Marts in the rest of the U.S.
So my dear Gary was doomed. But why him and not me? Like the explanation above about toxic chemicals, most of us are in a latency period. Some of us may live now or have lived near a busy freeway, this is also known to be a risk factor. Even the microscopic pieces of rubber worn off of the cars that speed by are breathed in by the people who live and work by these roadways. Its all a matter of degrees of exposure.
The type of pancreatic tumor Gary had was unusual even amongst pc tumors. It was not seen as a threat. It was a cyst. But given all of his risk factors, it should not have been brushed aside. We need doctors who really care to learn the whole picture of their patients. This means they must listen to us and we must make them listen when we tell them about our history.
I read back at this post and reflect on all the nasty stuff I have been exposed to and even worse, what we exposed our sons to by living in newly built houses all the time. I see cancer as more and more a real threat.
Also keep in mind that our 'system' of care is not meant to cure cancer. Have you noticed that all the cancer centers talk about is cancer TREATMENT, not cures? Treatment is where the money is, not in cures. That's a whole 'nother topic though.
Lastly, don't believe the crap about pancreatic cancer being rare and therefore not worrying about it. Pancreatic cancer is the only cancer which is actually ON THE RISE. It currently sits at the #4 killer spot but will move to be the #2 killer behind only lung cancer in just 6 years.
Of the leading cancer killers, pancreatic cancer is the least funded. It is the least studied. It is the least understood. It is the only cancer that has no screening. You are currently about 99% sure of dying if you are diagnosed with it and you will be joining an ever larger crowd of its victims in the future.
How's that for not being fair.
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