July 07--Glenn Carter was feeling rundown last fall. But he's in sales; those 12- and
16-hour days could take a toll.
Rest didn't help. Seeing a doctor wasn't at the top of his priority list.
Carter's fatigue grew worse and other symptoms began to develop,
including a severe stomachache.
He decided to heed the urgings of his cousin, Terri Jones, to see a
doctor. One of Jones' jobs at People's Health Centers is outreach; she was
persuasive. After several months of increasing pain, Carter said, he was ready
to seek help.
Tests found that Carter had anemia so severe that he needed to visit an
emergency room. At Missouri Baptist Medical Center, a doctor delivered the
news: He had cancer.
"I had nothing to be afraid of," Carter said. "They'd found it, they'd
take it out. My attitude is that I had cancer; cancer didn't have me."
A large mass had grown halfway into his colon. Surgery removed a little
more than a foot of his colon.
"You have to have a strong mind to beat it," he said. "My friends and
family rallied around me."
He even has good recollections about starting chemotherapy in November.
"My first chemo was like a new beginning for me," he said. "Those folks at
MoBap made me feel like I was the only person in the hospital."
Dr. Mohammed Ashraf, staff physician with People's Health, found the
symptoms that sent Carter to the hospital. Ashraf said that unfortunately,
Carter's case wasn't so unusual.
While Carter had ample health insurance, he'd nearly waited too long to
see a doctor -- a common situation for men, and particularly for black men,
Ashraf said.
"They'll wait and wait and wait until they're too far gone," he said.
Many of those patients Ashraf sees are people who have lost insurance
because they lost their jobs, or they feared the co-payment and cost of drugs.
He urges people to visit an area clinic.
"They need to know that they are going to pay now or pay later," Ashraf
said. It could be a $32 co-payment now, or several thousand dollars to a
hospital later.
At People's Health, he said, "If they can't pay, we don't turn them
away."
He sees many people who have allowed diabetes to cause kidney failure,
and runaway hypertension. But others can be even more serious, such as
Carter's cancer.
"It's very sad," he said, "so unnecessary."
Rosalyn Fulton is community outreach coordinator at Peoples Health. She
spends her days and some evenings persuading people to visit the clinic.
Part of her work includes visits to churches and groups and health fairs.
She's spreading the word that back-to-school checkups will be available.
"We do something every Saturday somewhere in north St. Louis," she said.
She's still surprised that many people think People's Health is for poor
people. We have sliding fees for people with insurance or without."
Carter says the end of chemotherapy in June was the beginning of a new
stage of life for him.
"If I'm still here," he said, "it's because Jesus has something he wants
me to do."
He's repaying what he saw as divine intervention in his life by working
with groups that urge men to see their doctors for preventive checkups before
they're in critical condition.
"That's how we are," he said. "We put a bandage over it, or (take)
Tylenol."
Do you know a "How I did it?"
Send submissions to:
Jackie Hutcherson, STL Health Editor
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
900 North Tucker Boulevard
St. Louis, Mo. 63101-1099
E-mail -- jhutcherson@ post-dispatch.com
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