WOMEN'S CORNER : REASONS WOMEN DELAY THE TREATMENT OF UTERINE FIBRIOD

A recent survey published in the Journal of Women’s Health indicates that women often delay treatment for uterine fibroids, sometimes for years. According to the survey, 42 percent of black women delay seeking treatment for fibroids more than four years, as do 29 percent of white women.
Uterine fibroids are benign tumours in the uterus that affect approximately three out of every four women over their lifetime. They can have significant negative effects on a woman’s quality of life. Symptoms include unusually heavy menstrual bleeding, excessive pain, cramping, and even fatigue. These symptoms can affect women’s productivity at work, cause them to miss out on recreational activities with friends and family, and even confine them to bed for days each month. Why, then, do so many women wait to seek treatment for their uterine fibroids?
They think the symptoms are normal
I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids earlier this year. I had been suffering from all of the above symptoms, but in talking with other women I’d come to believe that heavier bleeding and more painful cramping were normal as one approached menopause. Having passed age 40, I just assumed my symptoms were typical and that I should tough them out until menopause arrived.
It wasn’t until my doctor gave me a questionnaire that I even mentioned my symptoms, and even then it wasn’t to complain. I just circled the appropriate responses to indicate, for example, how heavy my bleeding was and how severe my cramps were on a scale of one to 10. After looking over my answers, my doctor suggested I come back to be checked for uterine fibroids.
They can’t get a diagnosis
I was lucky. I never had to go from doctor to doctor searching for a diagnosis. As soon as I mentioned my symptoms, my doctor was proactive in getting me checked for uterine fibroids. According to the survey above, 41 percent of women had to see two or more doctors to get a diagnosis, and five percent had to see at least five doctors.
They want to preserve their fertility
The most-common treatments for uterine fibroids are hormone-blocking drugs, birth control pills, or a hysterectomy. All of these options render a woman infertile, either temporarily or permanently. A woman who is trying to conceive would not likely choose any of these options to address her uterine fibroids. Unfortunately, fibroids can sometimes negatively impact fertility or even cause miscarriage, but women with fibroids are usually still able to conceive and carry a child. The desire to build a family often trumps the need to deal with a non-life-threatening but painful condition like uterine fibroids.
They are afraid of surgery
Uterine fibroids are the leading reason hysterectomies are performed in the United States. In fact, that is the option I chose to treat my own fibroids, and I have been happy with the results. After my recovery, my quality of life has been much better without the pain and heavy monthly bleeding the uterine fibroids caused.
But going under the knife is a big decision. It is expensive, it typically requires general anesthesia and at least one overnight stay in the hospital, and even done laparoscopically, the procedure does require several weeks to fully heal. With few proven alternatives to a hysterectomy, many women who want to avoid surgery simply don’t seek treatment at all.
 Hope for the future
Various other means of treating uterine fibroids are being studied, including embolisation, laser or radio frequency treatments, freezing, surgical removal of just the fibroids, and focused ultrasound. Recurrence of fibroids is a possibility with all treatments other than hysterectomy. But the results could be promising for women who hope to preserve their uterus.
 Talk to your doctor
If you have unusual menstrual symptoms, speak with your doctor. Uterine fibroids are treatable, and the symptoms can be relieved. Also, the symptoms associated with uterine fibroids can have other causes, such as gynecologic cancers, which should be ruled out. Do not ignore unusually heavy bleeding or significant pelvic and abdominal pain, thinking they are just a normal part of aging.
Source DI

SHOCKING : FIFTH CYCLIST KILLED ON LONDON ROADS IN JUST NINE DAYS:

cyclist has died while travelling on a London road this morning becoming the fifth person to die in just nine days and the second to be killed in a cycling accident in the last 24 hours.

The unnamed man died in hospital at around  04:00 GMT this morning after the collision with a bus at the junction of Whitechapel Road and Commercial Road in Aldgate, east London, at around 11.30pm last night.
The man was treated on the roadside by the London Ambulance Service but died in hospital at around 4am today, Scotland Yard said. The male driver of the bus was treated for shock at the scene.
The accident brings the total number of deaths this year on the capital's roads to 13, compared with 14 in 2012.
The death followed that of a woman in her mid-20s who was killed in the morning rush-hour yesterday on the Bow roundabout in east London. Police were called to the scene following reports of a lorry in a collision with a cyclist.
The cyclist was believed to have been travelling in the same direction as the lorry - travelling west along the A11, entering the roundabout to turn south towards the Blackwall Tunnel - when the collision occurred.
Police added that the male driver of the lorry stopped at the scene and there had been no arrests.
Following the deaths London Assembly Green Party member Darren Johnson said: "The mayor's (Boris Johnson) failure to make roads safer for cycling in the last six years is the reason we are having so many tragedies now.
"In the past decade, the number of cyclists in the capital has almost trebled and it is absolutely vital that we continue to invest huge sums of money into improving cycling infrastructure and making it as safe as possible."

GROSS LIABILTY MINDSET: Oduah admits approving purchase of N564m cars

Minister of Aviation Stella Oduah yesterday admitted approving the purchase of 54 cars for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) which is outside what was approved by the National Assembly in the 2013 budget.

Oduah who testified on the third day of the investigative hearing by the House of Representatives committee on aviation into the purchase of armoured cars worth N255 million said due process was followed in the procurement.
Oduah arrived venue of the hearing at exactly 11:37.am against the 10.am directed by the committee on Wednesday. She had cause to leave the venue for about ten minutes barely two minutes after her arrival.
She said the vehicles were provided for in the NCAA 2013 appropriation approved by the National Assembly and that the cars were not bought for her but for operations of the agency.
But the lawmakers insisted yesterday that they only approved N240 million for 25 vehicles in the NCAA’s 2013 budget. In the NCAA 2013 budget approval document of the National Assembly obtained by Daily Trust, the provisions for operational vehicles were Toyota pick-up Hilux, five units; Toyota Corolla, 10 units; Toyota Landcruiser, five units; Toyota Hiace bus, three units; security inspection vehicle, two units for safety/security purposes and inspection of perimeter fences, all at the sum of N240 million.
Oduah who took more than 30 minutes to present her position said: “In the last few weeks, I have received all sorts of bashings in the media. Many persons have also arisen to my defence. Many have abused me, some out of genuine sense of outrage that I allegedly spent the sum of USD1.6 million of government funds to purchase for myself 2 bullet-proof BMW for my personal use.
“There was nothing in the approved docu-ments reflecting my name, when the budget was being made. At no time did I ever request for any vehicle from the NCAA. It was the agency that had the need and made the request to the federal ministry of aviation.
“After the purchase on a 3 year lease financing arrangement, the vehicles were never delivered to me. The vehicles were also not registered in my name but that of the agency. All I did was to approve the request of the agency doing the needful as evidenced by my minutes on the letter dated 15th April,” she said.
Oduah added that, “on the procedure for the lease arrangement for the acquisition of the vehicles, let me reiterate that from the records available to me, it would appear that the NCAA followed the due process required. I have been made to understand that there exist no guidelines issued by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) on lease financing.”
But the BPP in its submission to the committee last week said due process was not followed in the procurement process as the transaction did not come to its notice.
First Bank Plc also told the committee on Wednesday that the agreement it entered with NCAA was an auto loan arrangement and not lease financing.
When members of the committee inquired to know why Oduah approved more than the N100 million threshold by a minister, she said her directive was simply “Kindly do the needful.”
Rep Zakari Mohammed (PDP, Kwara) fur-ther asked her to explain what she meant by “Kindly do the needful,” saying she breached the law. But Oduah replied by saying “I’m sorry but your interpretation is wrong. What it meant was that they should do the necessary due diligence.”
Mohammed also told the minister that First Bank Plc had submitted that it was a loan agreement it entered with NCAA, but Oduah explained that both lease financing and loan agreement are the same. She said the agreement was a standard template used by First Bank, insisting that the amount to be paid by NCAA by year end would still be within the appropriated sum by the National Assembly.
At a point when the lawmakers asked the minister if armoured cars could be used for inspecting perimeter fencing, Oduah replied saying “I’m at a loss. Security cars are armoured cars and armoured cars are security cars.”
The committee asked Joyce Nkemakolom who was the acting DG of NCAA at the time of the contract to explain what they did when the minister approved and said they should do “the needful.”
In his explanation, Nkemakolom said because they had “a mindset that the National Assembly approved purchase of the cars,” they thought she meant they should go ahead and follow due process in acquisition. But a member of the committee Rep Jerry Mamwe (PDP, Taraba) accused him of misleading the minister by originating the request when he knew that NASS only approved 25 vehicles at the cost of N240 million.
Oduah also accused some individuals of causing her woes saying “The second category of commentators are the entrenched interests in the aviation sector, who for over 38 years have held the sector to the jugular and refused to allow any meaningful development and change to take place.”
Mamwe however said: “I disagree with the minister that the cars were approved by NASS. I don’t also agree with her that it was a lease financing agreement when First Bank told us yesterday (Wednesday) that it was an auto loan agreement. It’s either NCAA misled you or prepared the text for you to read.”
According to the lawmaker, there was a contradiction between the N100 million Oduah said NCAA would have paid to First Bank by December 31 when the bank itself said it is N116 million.
The lawmakers also observed that the amount said to have been approved by the minister in the NCAA request letter was about N564 million but the agency said the total sum for the transaction was N643 million.
The ex-acting DG Nkemakolom however said it was as a result of non-conclusion of the whole agreement at the beginning. The committee therefore accused him of misleading the minister. Chairperson of the committee Rep Nkiruka Onyejeocha (PDP, Abia) said at the end of the hearing that the committee had given fair hearing to all concerned and that they would consider all the submissions made in line with extant laws and financial regulations. The committee is expected to submit its report to the House on Tuesday next week.

Carelessness: Teenager arraigned for killing woman

A 19-year-old boy, Ahmed Jimoh, has been arraigned before a Yaba Magistrate’s Court for allegedly killing a woman named Grace Ilekure with a commercial tricycle popularly called Keke Napep.

The incident reportedly occurred along Commercial Avenue in Sabo-Yaba area of Lagos. Jimoh was said to have crushed Ilekure, while driving his tricycle “recklessly and dangerously” on the highway.

The deceased was said to have sustained serious injuries and was rushed to a hospital in the area. She however died some days after the incident.

It was learnt that the family of the deceased decided to take up the matter with Jimoh, leading to his arrest for the offence.

He was arraigned on two counts of manslaughter.

The charges read in part, “That you, Ahmed Jimoh, on or about the 26th day of March, 2013 while driving along Commercial Avenue, Sabo-Yaba in the Yaba Magisterial District and being the rider of a tricycle with Registration No AGL847QA rode the same tricycle on the highway recklessly and dangerously, thereby causing the death of one Grace James Ilekure.”

The offences were said to have contravened Sections 19(1) and 20 of the Road Traffic Law of Lagos State, 2012.

The defence counsel pleaded that he be granted bail in liberal terms and promised that the defendant would always be in court.

The magistrate, Mrs. M.A Ladipo, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N250, 000 with two sureties each in like sum.

The matter was adjourned till November 11 2013.

My husband shouldn’t have been in Oct 3 crash

 

Olaide, the wife of Felix Fatoye, a flight technician with the Associated Airlines has said that her husband was not meant to be on the aeroplane which crashed on October 3 2013.

Felix died last Wednesday at the burns unit of Gbagada General hospital, Lagos after sustaining injuries among several other persons, when the plane conveying the corpse of former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Agagu, crashed in Lagos, a few minutes after take-off.

He was reportedly rushed to the burns unit of the hospital, where doctors battled to save his life until he died of infections caused by the severe burns he had sustained.

The distraught wife of the deceased, who is pregnant, told PUNCH Metro while fighting back tears, that Felix’s infections had continued to spread despite the doctors’ efforts.

She said the airline had promised to take him abroad for treatment before his demise.

Olaide said, “He died on Wednesday night. We had been struggling to keep him alive but his infections continued to spread. The doctors used different antibiotics to treat him at different times. Three weeks after the crash, the airline promised to fly him abroad for treatment but unfortunately, he died.”

Felix, a graduate of the Ibadan Polytechnic, also has a one-year-old child with Olaide.

Our correspondent, who visited the deceased’s Facebook page, observed that his last words on the social network on May 13, 2013, were, “God I thank you, for your grace that is sufficient in life and my family. Glory be to your name Halleluyah. Good morning my well-wishers.”  30-year-old Felix was said to have been employed by the Associated Airlines, in 2007.

Olaide said, “My husband’s name was not on the flight manifest because he was not meant to be on the flight originally.

“Felix was called the night before the air crash by the company that he would needed on the plane the following day.”

See How woman kidnapped self to dupe husband

 
Marcus Chukwu, an indigene of Agbogugu in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State was resting in his house when he received a distress call from his wife, Mrs. Nancy Chukwu that she had been kidnapped.
His wife told him on phone that her kidnappers were demanding N200, 000 to set her free.
The distress call from Nancy sent shock waves all through Chukwu’s body and left him in a state of confusion.
He could not believe what he heard but thought it was all a joke.
Though Chukwu has been hearing about kidnapping, which has become a thriving business in many parts of the country, he did not know that his wife, Nancy, would be a victim one day.
Chukwu however managed to put himself together and alerted some relatives who advised that he should report the matter to the police rather than pay ransom to the kidnappers.
He thus, reported the matter to the police and they swung into action, using available clues.
The police investigation led to the arrest of a commercial motorcyclist operator (Okada) in Awgu who was identified as Chikwe Tochukwu, a native of Amakwe Okemiri in Aboh Mbaise, Imo State.
The Okada rider confessed during interrogation that he stage-managed the kidnap with Mrs. Chukwu, the purported victim, in a bid to swindle her husband, Marcus of N200, 000.
Based on the statement made by Chikwe, the police arrested Mrs. Nancy for stage managing her own kidnap in a bid to swindle her husband.
In a statement confirming the incident, the Enugu State Police Command spokesman, Ebere Amaraizu, narrated that the woman’s husband, Chukwu received a telephone call from his wife, claiming that she had been kidnapped by gunmen.
Amaraizu confirmed that the woman told her unsuspecting husband that her abductors were demanding a ransom of N200, 000 to free her.
According to the police spokesman, Chukwu however reported the matter to the police, which prompted the Anti-kidnapping unit of the command to swing into action.
According to him, following police investigation, the police arrested an Okada rider in Awgu who was identified as Chikwe Tochukwu, a native of Amakwe Okemiri in Aboh Mbaise, Imo State.
Amaraizu said the suspect confessed that he stage managed the kidnap with Mrs. Chukwu in a bid to rip off her husband and was lured into talking to the man that he was holding the wife hostage and that a ransom of N200, 000 should be paid for her release.
He further confessed that he was the Okada rider that normally conveyed Nancy home anytime she went to the market and that he provided an account number belonging to his friend, Chikwado for receiving the ransom.
Chikwe’s statement reads: “I am an okada rider that usually convey Nancy home anytime she is back from market. I was lured into talking to the husband of Nancy with a tone that I am a kidnapper already holding Nancy under captivity and that N200, 000 is to be paid as a ransom to the account number provided, which belonged to my friend Chikwado.
Mrs. Chukwu corroborated the statement made by the Okada rider, saying she never knew what prompted her to commit such a crime.
She also corroborated the fact that Tochukwu was a commercial motorcyclist at Agbogugu that used to carry her and that she asked her to call her husband while they were together and to demand the said amount of money from the husband under the guise that she had been kidnapped.
“I never knew what came over me, prompting such behavior. I plead for forgiveness” Nancy said.
Amaraizu disclosed that the police have commenced full scale investigations into the alleged incident.
This is the second incident of stage managed kidnap in Enugu within the past two months.
Earlier, one Samuel Ani, a casket dealer at Gariki had earlier kidnapped himself in Enugu to extort money from his brothers. He was arrested by the police.
Kidnapping, a new trend crime has been ravaging the entire South-Eastern states for some years now.
Although the crime gained prominence in the country in the South-South region where militants abducted both expatriate and indigenous oil workers for ransom, it however shifted to the South-East when the Federal Government granted amnesty to repentant Niger Delta militants.
Notable among those who have fallen victim to kidnappers in the South-East include Nollywood actors, Pete Edochie and Nkem Owo, actress and aide to Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, Nkiru Sylvanus, and Dr Anayo Edemobi, the younger brother of former Information Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili.
Others are billionaire businessman, Dr Ifeanyi Okoye, the Managing Director of Juhel Pharmaceuticals limited whose mother was also a victim, former Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Prof. Ilochi Okafor and Vice Chancellor of Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Prof. Cyprain Onyeji.
Even foreign nationals are not free from kidnappers in the South-East. Sometime last year, Joe Machimbarena, a Spanish doctor working with Niger Foundation Hospital Enugu was kidnapped. He was later freed when the kidnappers sealed a deal with the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria.
Except for few of the victims who were successfully freed by security operatives, many of the victims parted with staggering sums of money, often running into millions of naira to buy their freedom

very sadly FG yet to release N100b to varsities –ASUU

Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Abuja chapter, Clement Chup, has alleged that the Federal Government was yet to remit the N100 billion it promised universities in the country for development of infrastructure.
This claim is contrary to the position of the Federal Government which, in September “disbursed” the N100 billion to the various universities’ governing councils in an elaborate event in Abuja presided over by Secretary to Government of the Federation Pius Anyim.
The disbursement which came in a letter assigning various amounts to the universities for infrastructural development took place shortly after ASUU walked out on government.
But Chup claimed in an interview in Abuja on Sunday that government was systematically evading the implementation of the 2009 pact, insisting the agreement remains binding on government.
He vowed that the union would not be intimidated to call off its four-month-old strike because of what he described as cheap propaganda by government.
“To buttress their of insincerity, government would claim and they have been telling the general public that they released N100 billion two months ago; up till now that we are talking one kobo has not been released to any university.
“Rather, what government is trying to do is to run away from the agreement and we cannot accept that because the agreement is binding.
“So when they say we would as from next year make budgetary provision for so and so amount, the question we should be asking ourselves is what was spelt out in the agreement.
“Government must be honourable and responsible and implement the 2009 agreement,” he stated.
Reacting to the allegation by government that ASUU’s strike has been unduly politicised, Chup said: “A thief always thinks that every other person is a thief, because they believe politics is all about falsehood; they think others are reasoning like them.
“The question they should be answering is whether ASUU has any basis for going on this strike?
“Let anyone of them come out and say no. Does the agreement exist and did the Federal Government sign the agreement and the answer is yes.
“They have the machinery for propaganda at their disposal, they can disseminate whatever false information they want and they think everybody is like them, we are for goodness sake a union of intellectuals, we do not just come out to say anything or do anything, we subject it to scrutiny,” the ASUU chieftain added.
Similarly, University of Ibadan (UI) chapter of ASUU has condemned Senate President, David Mark, over his comment on the 2009 agreement.
Mark had been quoted as condemning the team raised by the government to negotiate with ASUU on its behalf, saying: “For those who negotiated on behalf of the Federal Government with ASUU in October 2009, the facts made available to us today by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Uche Chukwumerije, showed that they are people who do not know their right from their left.
“In the process, they put the Federal Government into the problem it is facing today, because when the agreements were read out, I thought they were mere proposals, only for Chukwumerije to confirm that they signed the largely un-implementable agreements characterised by payment of all manner of allowances.”
But at its congress at the weekend, the union’s chairman, Olusegun Ajiboye, flayed Mark over the comment, describing it as a derision of the personality of an elder statesman, Gamaliel Onosode, who led the government team to the negotiation table in 2009 with ASUU.
In the resolution after the congress, the union asked the Senate President to tender an unreserved apology to Onosode, saying “the elder statesman, an alumnus of the University College Ibadan, who has served as the Chairman of Governing Councils of UI and UNILAG, a great successful businessman who has served the country in various intervention capacities, deserves respect as a man of proven integrity and impeccable character.”
In a related development, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has kicked against how the Federal Government spent N4.8 billion in 2011 for the education of children of Nigerian diplomats abroad.
The Congress also vowed that it will continue to resist “attempts by government to sell the 104 Federal Unity Schools.”
Speaking at a national summit/dialogue on education, good governance and national unity organised by the Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA) in Abuja at the weekend, President of TUC, Bobboi Bala Kaigama, called on Nigerians to prevail on government to give priority to the nation’s education sector.