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Letters to Editor

 

I noted your article on oral cancer (Summer 2001, USC Health) with great interest. I am 83 years old and an oral cancer survivor. It was back in 1977 that I began my “fun” with oral cancer, including biopsies, scrapings and 25 cobalt radiation treatments. Dr. James Helsper at California Hospital told me that I was going to have tongue surgery. I ended up with a tongue that is fastened down to the bottom of my mouth. Helsper told me that I should have the left jaw removed also. I declined. However, he was right: The cancer showed up in the jaw with a lot of pain. So the jaw was yanked out, but I am still here. I am an avid health and vitamin character. I have spoken to over 1,000 school kids on the horrors of smoking. I am an American Cancer Society volunteer. My only oral complaint, other that it takes me an hour to eat a meal, is loss of taste and smell. I am able to use an upper denture with seven teeth. I can bite down on my right lower jawbone. With that article, spread the word! I see too many cigarette butts lying around on sideways and gutters. People have to learn the hard way. The hard way ain’t easy. H. Singer Los Angeles, CA	I get furious when I read that everything on God's green earth that is bad was "caused by” smoking. As a lifelong (76 years) non-smoker, you wouldn't expect that, but as an engineer for The Aerospace Corporation, I know about scientific proof. Epidemiologists have never bothered to prove medically that smoking causes anything. What they do is run a sample opinion poll based on the assumption that smoking kills and publish their "cigarette deaths" as if they were really deaths caused by smoking, when they are really estimates from the assumption. I want to see the reports that prove smoking causes mouth cancer as a result of lab tests that depend on experiments proving how and how much smoking causes mouth cancer, not opinion polls that result in estimated deaths! C. I. Klivans Redondo Beach, CA
I would appreciate if future writings would be about the Koch or T-pouch. Not enough is ever written about this. I have had a T-pouch for 3 years now. It was not completely successful for me, I still have to catheterize, but I am alive. V. Ursino San Pedro, CA	Regarding your Summer 2001 issue, I thought the articles focused on men’s health issues too much. You need to have more women’s issues explained. D. White Washington, DC
The articles most helpful to me do not include a multitude of medical terms. Because I have no medical background, I find myself just reading words when so many medical terms are used. “Healthoughts” are one of my favorite sections. E. Mingirulli Los Angeles, CA	Your publication is always interesting and informative, well put together and written at the right level. The Winter 2001 is an excellent example of that. Keep it up! T. F. Sneed Camarillo, CA
Your publication has improved greatly and is now on target. Keep the writers writing for the readers, not for just health care professionals and other writers. A. Rose Los Angeles, CA

 

 

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