We sadly report that Barbara passed away on April 27, 2015.

In the June 2012 issue of Vermont Woman, Barbara Bardin was our featured cover profile. It was a joyfully honest and sometimes painfully revealing interview. Barbara is the founder and owner of Splash at the Boathouse, located on the dock on Lake Champlain in Burlington. She is famous for her fun-loving spirit, imaginative catering and party management, and love of fine food and good champagne. She has a big persona, and with her generosity and knack for easy engagement, she has made hundreds of adoring friends over the years.

In October 2012 Barbara was diagnosed with ovarian cancer Stage III.

Friends, family, and associates were shocked, saddened, and worried. Typically, Barbara, though scared, immediately waged a mighty effort to win the toughest battle of her life. Like everything else she has had to overcome, Barbara took this on with the fierceness of a swashbuckling Viking, believing that by her own sheer will and with the experience and expertise of the gynecologic-oncologist team at the UVM Medical Center, the victory of life would be hers. Though the survival statistics are not good, a small percentage does beat the odds. Barbara believed she would be one of those lucky ones. Everyone was rooting for her.

Continue Reading...

 

Ovarian cancer is serious but fairly rare. It is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the United States and accounts for about 3 percent of all cancers in women in the US.

According to the National Cancer Institute, ovarian cancer begins either in the cells on the surface of the ovary, called epithelial cancer, or in egg cells, where growths are identified as malignant germ cell tumors. Fallopian tube cancer and primary peritoneal cancer are similar to ovarian epithelial cancer and are staged and treated in the same way. Like other cancers, ovarian cancer spreads through the lymph system. An estimated 22,000 cases were expected in 2013 with about 14,000 deaths anticipated.

The exact causes are still unknown.

Risks, Screening, Detection

Risk factors for ovarian cancer include a family history of the disease, the presence of certain genetic mutations including those found in BRCA1 and BRCA2, and a genetic link to a hereditary form of colon cancer called Lynch syndrome. Women who have used estrogen-only hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or taken fertility drugs or who are obese or very tall are also more vulnerable. Heavy use of talcum powder in the genital area, suspected as a risk factor, does not appear to pose a general threat, but it can be relevant in one type of relatively rare ovarian cancer.

Continue Reading...

 

When writer Yvonne Daley identifies a good she can contribute to the world, she makes it happen. Just months after tropical storm Irene hit Vermont in 2011, Daley saw the need to record instances of community togetherness in the face of devastation, so she authored A Mighty Storm: Stories of Resilience after Irene.

That same year, she published Octavia Boulevard, chronicling her years on the San Francisco boulevard, from 2003 to 2007. A 20-year part-time resident of the city, Daley had noticed her neighborhood was losing its affordable housing to Silicon Valley gentrification and gave the poor and homeless on her street a voice in this innovatively narrated memoir.

Continue Reading...

 

There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments. —Janet Kilburn Phillips, gardener

May is for planting in Vermont. If you’re a vegetable gardener, these longer days and the more direct sunlight and warming temperatures have got you looking at seeds packets at the store, pulling out your seed-starting supplies, and putting upcoming seedling sales on your calendar.

Although planting is an important part of gardening, there is much to be done to get your garden ready before the plants go in it. Successfully growing vegetables can take planning, precision, and perseverance—and a good deal of luck as well. While gardeners are on their own in the luck department, there are a number of things backyard growers can do to get their garden off to a good start.

Continue Reading...

 

Learning doesn’t have to end with your diploma. Vermont’s colleges, universities, technical education centers, and nonprofit organizations offer many opportunities to become a lifelong learner. These programs are ideal for everyone, whether participants are seeking new career skills, new perspectives, or personal enrichment. Importantly, these programs offer a chance for socialization and fun, too.

Continuing Education

College campuses offer on-campus and online learning opportunities for adult or nontraditional students. The Community College of Vermont (CCV, www.ccv.edu), with 12 locations around the state and an online center for learning, offers traditional associate’s degrees in disciplines like graphic design, accounting, communications, hospitality, and medical fields, among many others. They also offer certificates in the fields of health care, child care, website design, and substance abuse.

Continue Reading...

 

Largely influenced by pop culture icons suggesting her breasts were inadequate, Denee Dimiceli felt unhappy about the size of her breasts. At age 27, she opted for breast augmentation, despite her spouse’s reassurances that her breasts were fine.

Dimiceli’s decision isn’t surprising. Ads promoting breast augmentation abound. “Envision Your New Breasts!” “Fast Breast Enlargement!” promotions boast. Such ads are proliferating and aimed at younger audiences who are choosing augmentation at increasing rates.

Wendi Myers had a different experience than Dimiceli. She wanted to remove her implants. Having suffered unexplained dizziness, hair loss, and fatigue, she believed her silicone implants were to blame. When Myers’s implants were removed, she was shocked by the gelatinous material that was excised.

Continue Reading...