File photo by Tom Rivers – Aleka Schmidt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Albion, is a 10-year survivor of breast cancer. She is keynote speaker during this evening’s For Women Only event to benefit the Community Partners outreach program of Orleans Community Health.

LYNDONVILLE – The 20th annual For Women Only this evening not only celebrates a milestone anniversary for the event, but also will mark 10 years of being cancer-free for the keynote speaker.

Aleka Schmidt was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer when she was 28, shortly after her daughter’s second birthday.

In the fog of bloodwork, diagnostic imaging, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, hospitalization, and strong medication, life as a cancer patient soon became the new norm in her household.

Schmidt will share her story during the For Women Only event today at the White Birch Golf Course in Lyndonville. The event is already sold out with nearly 300 tickets sold.

Schmidt said everyone should get to know their body and be on the lookout for anything unusual that could be cancer.

“Speak up if you have a concern,” she said.

Cancer patients in Orleans County are fortunate to have quality healthcare options close to home, especially with cancer specialists in Rochester and Buffalo, she said.

She said people should maintain a positive outlook, even while fighting a potentially life-threatening disease.

“Choose to be better, not bitter,” she said.

Schmidt was working full-time as a music therapist when she was diagnosed. She has switched careers and now is pastor of the First Baptist Church in Albion. She is a semester away from earning her master of divinity at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. She continues to work part-time as a music therapist.

As part of the evening today, Jenifer Maynard, director of Imaging Services at Orleans Community Health, will present the new 4D ultrasound machine. The machine provides superior image quality for more accurate diagnoses.  Orleans Community Health started using the new ultrasound on Jan. 1.

The new ultrasound machine has high frequency, wide field-of-view probes and improved software for advanced breast imaging, improved sensitivity and powerful enough to scan all body types, and portability to accommodate patients and staff.

This year’s event will include wine and chocolate tastings, appetizers and desserts, basket raffle, survivor recognition and a celebration of women.  All funds raised from the event will benefit the Cancer Services program which provides free screenings to individuals with little to no health insurance.

The event raises about $5,000 that helps Community Partners, the outreach program Orleans Community Health, offer cancer screenings and also complete blood work.

Vendors, speakers will cover range of topics

Photo courtesy of Photos by Bruce – Gwen St. John, center, is pictured with her daughters, Cheryl Chladek, left, and Karen Sawicz. St. John, former owner of the Lake Country Pennysaver and a registered nurse, died on Feb. 25 at age 88 after fighting cancer and other illnesses.

ALBION – A seminar on Tuesday from 6 to 9 p.m. at Hoag Library will explore end-of-life care issues that many people are reluctant to consider.

The Albion Rotary Club has organized the seminar that will include a vendor fair from 6 to 8 p.m. Many businesses and agencies will be available to discuss their services including representatives from nursing homes, Hospice, Brigden Memorials, assisted care facilities, funeral homes, Mount Albion Cemetery, Office for the Aging, a bank that provides long-term care insurance, Medina Memorial Hospital and other service providers.

After the vendor fair, several speakers will then share advice and their experiences from 8 to 9 p.m.

Local attorney Sanford Church will discuss advanced directives, John Zonitch will highlight Medicaid Law with nursing home admissions, Scott Schmidt will bring a coroner’s perspective to unattended deaths, Susie Miller from the Office for the Aging will talk about a PRI (Patient Review Instrument), and Karen Sawicz will offer advice from a caregiver’s perspective.

“People don’t want to think about that their parent or that they themselves will come into this situation,” said Grace Denniston, a retired Office for the Aging director and Rotary Club member who helped plan Tuesday’s seminar. “Taking care of some of the issues can make it so much easier for the survivors.”

Denniston suggests pre-paying for a funeral, buying a cemetery plot and gravestone.

There are many issues for the caregivers, and Sawicz will share advice learned from five years of managing her mother’s health care.

Sawicz is president of the Rotary Club. She pushed to have the seminar on Tuesday after realizing there was so much she didn’t know in caring for her mother, Gwen St. John, who had her first surgery for cancer in March 2011. She battled other illnesses until her death at age 88 on Feb. 25 at the Martin-Linsin Residence of Hospice of Orleans.

St. John was a dynamic woman who earned her degree as a registered nurse in 1948 from Rochester General Hospital. She worked many years at the former Arnold Gregory Memorial Hospital in Albion. She maintained her license until she was 82.

In 1960, she and her husband Vince purchased the Albion-Holley Pennysaver, which they jointly operated until their retirement in 1989. Sawicz has been running the operation since, and serves as publisher of the Pennysaver and the Orleans Hub.

Sawicz was a caregiver for her mother, and organized schedules for home healthcare aides. Her mother was able to stay at her home on Route 279 before moving to Hospice for the final week of her life.

Sawicz had help in hiring home health aides, and planning their work schedules from a friend in the health care field. Sawicz fielded calls from the aides who would share her mother’s condition.

“You have to learn your patient,” she said. “You don’t call the ambulance or doctor every time.”

Sawicz and the aides learned St. Johns baseline temperature, about 97 degrees. If her temperature was 100, that was a worrisome sign. Her mother didn’t tolerate antibiotics well, and her sodium level would plummet.

Sawicz kept records and showed doctors the documentation about how her mother responded to medicine. She often would seek clarification from doctors, making sure they understood her mother’s patient history.

“You need to be assertive and ask questions,” Sawicz said. “Don’t be nasty but be assertive.”

Sawicz kept her mother’s medical history on her SmartPhone. She would suggest people do the same, or print it out on paper so it’s easily accessible when filling out numerous medical forms and meeting with doctors.

Sawicz said she was fortunate to have a supportive family and employees, who would step in at a moment’s notice when she had to care for her mother. St. John battled cancer, a stress fracture, dementia and other health issues. Dementia was the worst to endure because her mother was robbed of her sweet disposition and personality, Sawicz said.

“We just want to help people think about planning,” Sawicz said about the seminar. “It will make things a little easier because people don’t want to talk about death.”

By Nola Goodrich-Kresse and Kristine Voos, Genesee-Orleans Public Health Education Team

Ticks can spread disease. Not all ticks can cause disease and not all bites will make you sick, but as these diseases become more common it’s important to learn how to prevent a bite, how to remove a tick and what to do if you think you could have a tick-borne disease.

“The warm winter and recent temperature increase have set the stage for a flourishing tick population, providing an update on Lyme disease, the most common tick related illness in our area, seems prudent,” states Brenden Bedard, director of Community Health Services for Genesee and Orleans County Health Departments.

Lyme disease is also the most common disease spread by ticks in New York but there are other serious diseases they spread including Anaplasmosis, Erhichioisis, Babesiosis, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

There are many different species of ticks but locally the most common is the Deer Tick. The Deer Tick is a vector for several diseases (Lyme disease, Babesiosis, Anaplasmosis) and received the name because of its habit of living and feeding on white-tailed deer, however ticks acquire Lyme disease by feeding on infected mice and other small rodents.

“Although Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming Counties have had less than 5 reported cases of Lyme disease annually since 2013, ticks are here locally and you can’t tell which are infected by disease or not,” stated Paul Pettit, Genesee and Orleans Public Health Director.

Ticks may be found in many types of settings such as woodlands, tree stumps, lawns and gardens, around stone walls, nature trails, outdoor summer camps, and playing fields. Ticks do not jump or fly, they attach to their host when a human or animal makes contact with something that a tick is on, like tall grass, shrubs, or an animal. The risk of human infection with Lyme is greatest in late spring and summer, but ticks can be active any time the temperature is above freezing.

“The high concentration of ticks in NYS counties including Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Ulster, Dutchess, and Albany leads me to believe the threat of tick-borne diseases will continue and likely increase locally in the future, this is why it is important to become aware and prepare now,” said Pettit.

Lyme can only be transmitted after being bit by an infected tick- seeing an attached tick or a tick bite does not necessarily mean Lyme has been transmitted. It generally takes between three days to one month after a tick bite for Lyme disease symptoms to develop.

In 60-80 percent of Lyme cases a “bulls-eye” circular rash or solid red patch develops at or near the site of the tick bite first and steadily gets larger or spreads out. You can also get several patches of rash on your body. Early on in the disease (days to weeks post-tick bite) you may develop symptoms such as fever, chills, headaches, joint pain and/or swelling, fatigue, or facial paralysis (Bell’s Palsy), sometimes these can be very mild.

As Lyme disease progresses more severe symptoms like arthritis with severe joint pain and swelling may develop months-to-years post tick bite in 60% of persons who are not given antibiotic treatment.

It is important to keep in mind that getting Lyme disease once does not provide protection against getting Lyme in the future, if you are bitten again at a different time you can get Lyme disease again. If you develop any of these symptoms you should call your doctor right away to inquire about getting tested and treated.

To prevent tick-borne illness exposure while outdoors you and your family can do the following:

Wear light-colored clothing with a tight weave to spot ticks easily.
Wear enclosed shoes, long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Tuck pant legs into socks or boots and shirt into pants.
Check clothes and any exposed skin frequently while outdoors.
Use insect repellent with 20-30% DEET.
Stay on cleared, well-traveled trails. Avoid dense woods and busy areas.
Avoid sitting directly on the ground or on stone walls.
Keep long hair tied back, especially when gardening.
Bathe or shower as soon as possible after going indoors (preferably within two hours) to wash off and more easily find ticks that may be on you.
Do a final, full-body tick check at the end of the day (also check children and pets), and remove ticks promptly.

Additional prevention tips for homeowners to create a tick-free zone in your backyard to keep you, your family and pets safe from tick exposure:
Keep grass mowed, along with clearing tall grasses and brush.
Remove brush and leave around stonewalls and wood piles.
Keep wood piles and bird feeders away from your home.
Keep family dogs and cats out of wooded areas to reduce ticks brought into your home.
Place swing sets, sand boxes, decks and patios in a sunny spot away from yard edges and trees.
Place a 3-ft wide barrier of wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas and around patios and play equipment.

What you can do if you find a tick attached to you, a family member, or a pet:
You should use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the ticks by its mouth parts, as close to the surface of the skin as you can. Carefully pull the tick straight up without twisting. Do not touch the tick. Do not squeeze the body of the tick (may increase your risk of infection). Clean your hands and the areas on your skin where the tick was. Watch the site of the bite for rash (3-30 days after bite). Removing a tick within 36 hours of attachment to the skin can lower the risk of contracting Lyme disease.

To learn more about ticks, Lyme disease and other diseases ticks can spread visit the New York State Department of Health, click here.

File photos by Tom Rivers – Firefighters spent hours at this massive fire in Albion at Orleans Pallet on Oct. 17, 2013.

Press Release, State Sen. Robert Ortt

ALBANY – Senator Rob Ortt (R-North Tonawanda) today announced the New York State Senate passed legislation on Monday that would provide volunteer firefighters with more health benefits as they continue to put their lives on the line to protect others.

The bill (S3891) amends the Volunteer Firefighters’ Benefit Law to extend levels of protections for volunteer firefighters that develop certain cancer related diseases while on the job.

“Volunteer firefighters provide an invaluable service across our state and especially here in Western New York,” Ortt said. “In the vast majority of my rural district, these selfless men and women are the first responders when emergency strikes. This legislation acknowledges the health risks they face and justly offers them the protections they deserve.”

There are more than 100,000 volunteer firefighters statewide that would have presumptive cancer coverage as a result of this legislation. The number of firefighters diagnosed with cancer has increased in recent years, and medical studies have shown that they are at a significantly higher risk for various types of cancer than the general population.

Dark smoke spewed from the Orleans Pallet fire in Albion on Oct. 17, 2013.

Increased cancer risks are linked to the high levels of carcinogens and other toxins from building fires and other hazardous settings where firefighters serve.

The bill is being sent to the Assembly.

This measure for volunteer firefighters is in addition to the $250,000 the State Senate recently secured as part of the enacted 2016-17 State Budget to support the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters.

The funding will help to address the shortage of volunteer firefighters throughout the state by using promotional tools to highlight the importance of protecting local neighborhoods and enforcing public safety.

The money will be used for promotional materials, public service announcements, and other tools in an effort to bolster the number of volunteers.

By Nola Goodrich-Kresse, public health educator for Orleans County

The first week of April is National Public Health Week (NPHW), a week set aside showing us how we can choose healthier living.

National Public Health Week started in April 1995 by the American Public Health Association (APHA) with a focus on Public Health prevention topics. This year’s theme is, “Healthiest Nation 2030”. This year the focus is on working together to make changes in our health and the health of our communities.

“Working across county boarders allows us to collaborate more efficiently and effectively,” stated Paul Pettit, Director of both Genesee and Orleans County Health Departments. “Pooling resources not only help rural health departments financially, but provide us the opportunity to expand our outreach with the ‘one message, many voices’ approach. This allows us to send out timely, consistent health related information.”

Review the following calls for action and see what you can do to work toward becoming the Healthiest You 2016!

The focus areas chosen this year are:

Build a nation of safe, healthy communities
Help all young people graduate from high school
The relationship between increased economic mobility and better health
Social justice and health
Give everyone a choice of healthy food
Preparing for the health effects of climate change
Provide quality health care for everyone
Strengthen public health infrastructure and capacity

This article will only touch on a couple of the focus areas. To learn more about National Public Health Week and the movement for change, visit their website by clicking here.

Build a nation of safe, healthy communities: make health a priority. From healthy housing to parks and playgrounds, choose to walk and bike. When biking, make sure you follow the rules of the road and wear a properly fitted helmet, no matter what your age is. Support local law enforcement to help them make our communities safer. Support farmers’ markets and local businesses that value health, such as retailers that don’t sell tobacco/nicotine products.

Help all young people graduate from high school. Education is the leading indicator of good health, gives people access to better jobs, incomes and neighborhoods. Engage your children in learning activities, visit their schools and get to know their teachers. Participate in school activities with your children and participate in your Parent/Teacher/Student groups. Become a mentoryou can make a difference!

Give everyone a choice of health food. Our food system should provide affordable food with nutritious ingredients, free from harmful contaminants. Consider starting a home garden. If you don’t have a lot of space, talk with family and friends to see if they would like to build one together. Containers work well for small tomatoes and herbs. Encourage your family to eat more fruits and vegetables instead of processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages.

One of the easiest ways to strive toward a healthier nation is to take care of you. Make sure you eat well, engage in physical activity often, spend less time in front of a screen, and get plenty of rest. Treat yourself and others with care and respect. And finally, remember to have fun and laugh … after all, laughter is the best medicine.