1994_10 Insight October 1994

              	
•
IN FOCUS
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO
October 19,1994
INSIGHT
Breast cancer risks
targeted this month
Christi Fuller
INSIGHT
Shirley Combs knew something
was wrong. She had a history of
fibrocystic breast lumps that came
and went. This lump, however,
felt different.
A mammography verified her
suspicion. A surgical biopsy confirmed her greatest fear.
She had stage-two breast cancer.
The cancer had spread to her
lymph glands.
This diagnosis was made May
21.1991.
"I thought I was going to die,"
said Combs, 48. "They gave mc
five years to live if I didn't do anything about it."
Combs chose to fight. She
elected to have radical
mastectomy and chemotherapy
following her surgery.
Combs said the mastectomy was
"like a death."
"It's a part of you that's gone.
It's just like losing an arm or a
leg," Combs said. "I view life totally different now and I value (it]
every day. My kids and family arc
more precious."
According to a recent report by
the American Cancer Society, one
in nine women will develop breast
cancer in their lifetime.
More than 46,000 women die annually from breast cancer. If detected early, a 92 percent survival
rate is possible.
This month is ihe 10th annual
National Breast Cancer Awareness month.
The event is sponsored by 17
nationwide health organizations.
Sponsors encourage people lo
wear pink ribbons lo show support for the cause.
"We really want to stress the importance of early dctection,"said
Mary Jo Perry, an American Cancer Society representative. It is
important to detect breast cancer
in the early stages to increase a
woman's chance of survival and
recovery.
Self magazine is the originator
of the pink ribbon. In an article
from this month's issue, the maga
zine reported that when many
women find a lump or bump, they
freak out.
"The thought that we may have
to make some decisions and exercise some choices only makes
everything worse. Yet this is the
precise point when we can do a
lot toward ensuring the best possible outcome, if we understand
what is going on in our breast,"
the article said.
The American Cancer Society
recommends women ages 20 to 40
have monthly self-exams in conjunction with clinical examinations every three years. It also
recommends that for women who
are at least 40, clinical exams
should be done every year along
with annual mammograms.
Among the events planned for
Breast Cancer Awareness month
are free mammograms to low-income women and discounted
mammograms for others.
The Fresno Art Museum is exhibiting an installation by Barbara
Hammer, entitled "8 in 8," which
explores the psychological impact
of breast cancer.
The installation addresses the
ways contemporary American society and women deal with breast
cancer.
Part of the exhibit consists of
video monitors lhat display eight
different siories of women who
have dealt wilh breast cancer. In
order to activate the videos, visitors must find the cancer node in
the silicone breast models situated
in front of each screen.
Christina Borg, volunteer coordinator for the museum, said ihc
response has been favorable*
"Some children on a school field
trip were very moved by it," she
said.
The silicone breast models help
people deal with their inhibition
of touching the breast, even their
own. Borg said.
"8 in 8" is part of an exhibit
called "New World Disorder"
which consists of different installations from 13 women artisls.
The exhibit will show through
Nov. 6.
Matt Soby/INSIGHT
Simple solutions to complex problems will never solve the
immigration question. Students in the Free Speech Area
demonstrate against Proposition 187.
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Phobias can take many forms
INSIGHT
Fear dominates 10 percent of the
U.S. population. This percentage can
also apply to the college population.
Phobias are compulsive fears of a
situation and are highly treatable.
"These irrational fears cause a person to be overly cautious in a situation where the fear doesn't fit the
experience." psychologist Craig
Harlan said.
He said it is better to deal with the
fear. With most college students, the
problem lies with social phobias.
"College students can be afraid lhat
they will not make friends or that
they will not make it to graduation,"
he said. "This feeling of 'unreality'
is unreal."
Psychiatrist Debra L. Kotler cited
examples from the most common
types of phobias: social phobias, specific phobias and agoraphobia.
Social phobias are fears of being
embarrassed or humiliated. They are
also an inability to perform public
speaking. The person may develop a
habit of stuttering or become anxious
about what he will say.
A teacher in training at CSUF developed a fear of public speaking after she took a class with an overly
critical professor.
"This professor would sit there taking notes and criticizing what the student was doing or how she was performing. The student would always
get anxious before going into this
class," Kotler said.
With many phobias, a person learns
to avoid what she fears. In this case,
the woman dropped out of the class
and school for the semester.
"This fear prevented her from getting her teaching credential and from
going on to a career that she wanted,"
Kotler said.
The patient in this case overcame
her fear after Kotler gave her small
assignments to confront her fear.
"I had her start by preparing and
presenting a lecture in front of me.
Near the end of her treatment, the
woman had to go in front of the clinic
where I was working and act as if she
was a teacher in a real classroom."
she said.
The audience acted like unruly students, throwing things, and in the
back sat a person who acted like a
critical professor.
' "Every time she would stutter, the
'professor' would make a face. If this
woman could get through this, then
she could get through any classroom
situation," Kotler said. "She went
back to working with that overly
critical professor she had taken in the
beginning."
Specific phobias are anxieties
caused by exposure to a specific
feared object or situation. This causes
the person to avoid what they fear.
A specific phobia case dealt with a
woman who had a grasshopper phobia. When she was little, she lived in
the South where it was muggy and
hoc One day her brother was out collecting grasshoppers in ajar and decided to chase her around the yard
with it.
"She got into the family car and
rolled up the windows as fast as she
could. She wasn't quite fast enough,
though. Her brothers threw the grasshoppers all over her," Kotler said.
The grasshoppers were in the girl's
hair and on her clothes and were spitting a tobacco substance.
"She was extremely traumatized by
those grasshoppers, and that fear debilitated her into her adulthood. Most
people wilh fears of grasshoppers can
function normally, but she couldn't,"
Kotler said.
The woman was unable to walk
across campus to certain classes because she was afraid that a grasshopper would jump in front of her.
The patient was desensitized and
See PHOBIAS, Page 11
The perfect body in spite of risks
Maria Machuca
INSIGHT
Kate Moss. 19, who weighs 98
pounds is one of the world's most
photographed models.
According to the Time magazine.
Moss was blamed for prompting
aneroxia among admiring girls.
However, to have the ideal body
shape is not the only reason for
people becoming bulimic or
anorectic.
Oiher factors such as social pressure, physical, sexual or psychological abuse, dysfunctional families and
low self-esteem are strong factors
lhat influence eating disorders.
Cynthia Osborn, a University
Health and Counseling Center nutritionist, said an estimated 10 percent
of the total college student population suffers from anorexia or bulimia.
Out of those students identified with
anorexia, 95 percent are women.
She added, "It is difficult to iden
tify the exact number of people suffering of anorexia or bulimia because it is embarrassing for most
people to admit it."
Osborn said that some people
struggle with pressures from parents, friends or spychological problems. It makes them feel that they
cannot control the situation. "Then
they feel that the only thing they
can control is their body." she said.
According to Marie Dunford,
professor of food science and nutrition, women suffering from
anorexia starve themselves to the
point that they can actually die.
She said that anorectic people
have different problems, such as
losing extreme amounts of fat and
muscle mass, lowered body temperature, and have growth problems, including several different
medical problems which eventually cause death.
People classified as bulimic are
the ones who eat as much as they
want, but before the calories are consumed by their bodies, they induce
themselves to vomit by doing excessive exercise or using other kinds of
laxatives.
Dunford said that bulimic people
develop problems with their teeth,
gastric intestines and psychological
problems.
People with bulimia can lose their
teeth because of the acids disolved
with their vomit.
"About 30 to 50 percent of the
people with anorexia also suffer
bulimia," Osborn said.
"People go through long periods
without eating at all, and when they
finally eat, they purge because they
are afraid of gaining weight," she
said.
Dunford said lhat weight is not important but body composition is important.
Statistics show lhat an estimated average of body fat for non-athletic.
ollege age is 13 to 16 percent for
males and 22 to 25 percent for females.
Osborn said that people cannot trust
the high weight tables, because they
are very inaccurate.
'These tables don't consider body
composition, genetics, or where we
carry our weight," Osborn said. "The
tables are for the average of larger
populations."
She said that many of the models
we see on magazines or fashion programs are genetically born that way.
"However," she said, "the majority
of us can't look like that.
"We have been bombarded with the
ideal of body shape, but it is going to
change; we don't know when, but it
will," Osborn said.
According to Dunford, treatment
for individual sufferers of anorexia
or bulimia takes about two years or
more to overcome.
"The treatment involves both physical and psychological problems," she
said.
She added, "It is ditticult to men-     «■« «»" *"~ "" — ——- — —>      —«-»- -e r	
Painful wrist injury puts life on hold
INSIGHT
A paralyzing pain shot through her
hand. The numbness in her fingers
became unbearable, and she started
dropping things.
Two years ago, Becky Youngs, staff
director of the Academic Senate, was
diagnosed with having carpal tunnel
syndrome in both of her hands.
Youngs is one of thousands of
Americans who suffer from carpal
tunnel syndrome a painful condition
caused by repetitive hand movements. The syndrome typically
strikes women between the ages of
29 and 62, said Kent Yamaguchi, a
Fresno hand surgeon. The condition
is common in computer operators,
pianists, butchers and post office
employees who sort mail.
Repetitive wrist injuries compose
more than half of all annual occupational illnesses. Repetitive wrist injuries Ijke carpal tunnel syndrome
cost businesses and industries about
$7 billion annually, according to a
Time magazine report.
The carpal tunnel is located at the
center of the wrist. It is a narrow tun
nel containing tendons and a major
nerve. When the tunnel becomes inflamed and swollen from repetitive
tasks such as typing, the hand and fingers can become numb.
Other symptoms of carpal tunnel
syndrome include burning or tingling
in the fingers and wrist pain that can
radiate up the arm. According to
Yamaguchi, pain is sometimes more
pronounced in the early morning and
at night.
Those with arthritis, a heart condition, diabetes or thyroid disease are
more at risk for acquiring carpal tunnel syndrome, he said. Often, swelling from pregnancy can cause carpal
- tunnel-like symptoms.
Youngs said she would often wake
up in the middle of the night, because
the pain was so pronounced.
Diagnosis is a long process. Youngs
said. She went to the doctor several
times before she found out that the
muscle spasms in her back were related to carpal tunnel syndrome.
The past 16 years of computer
work, taking minutes at meetings and
collating packets were taking its toll
on Youngs' hands.
She had surgery on her left hand n
December 1992. The following
month, she had surgery on her right
hand. After four weeks of recovery.
Youngs returned to work. Now, she
uses a wrist splint for work when her
hands bother her.
Surgery is often dictated by ihe
amount of nerve damage, said Judy
Shehadey, employee health nurse at
Kaiser Permanente in Fresno.
"That's not what you want to do,
but it's sometimes necessary to relieve the discomfort," she said. "It
can be a temporary relief. It's always
best to prevent lhan to gel to the point
where you need surgery."
Yamaguchi estimates that he performs about two carpal tunnel surgeries a week. Surgery costs about $1.
000.
During surgery, the carpal tunnel is
cut in half, allowing for a release of
pressure on the nerve. Usually, a patient has a four-week recovery pe
riod. Most patients return to the same
job they held before the surgery, and
it's not uncommon for a patient to
eventually have surgery on both
hands, he said.
Youngs, who is also the chapter
president of the California School
Employees Association, said the organization is encourgaging staff on
campus to order wrist rests through
their respective departments.
"In the long run, it saves the university." she said. Wrist rests cost
between $8 io$ 14 at local software
stores.
Although federal and state agencies
have not issued work standards for
cumulative trauma disorders like carpal tunnel syndrome, there are guidelines for employers to use to try to
reduce the number of cases, said Ed
Mills, industrial hygiene consultant
See INJURY, Page 11
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