ASBESTOSIS

Hello. I to suffer from asbestos in my lungs.. Can't find anyone who will go in
And rake that stuff out of there.. I am one of those lucky people who have at
Least. 4 additional lung problems. Send your questions and I will do my best to return an answer. Jumper

Hello Jumper,
My name is Bill. I am in Florida now but lived my life in construction both residential and commercial in the Northeast.
It was after moving to Florida the asbestosis was found in 2001 sone near 30 years after exposure. With my dr.'s help we keep good check on it and to date has not turned to meso and hope it does not.
Jumper......it's my understanding that it cannot be removed from the lungs. thats it......it's there. I since have aquired asthma, gained weight and have labored breathing but I plod on. I am age 75.........wow.........how did that happen? ha ha
I have a wife who is very over protective and makes sure I am up on all appt.s and tests. Guess she likes me ha.
All that can be done is to watcvh this condition and keep in with the Dr. I avoid sick people so as to avoid any colds or flu best I can that would not be good for the lungs.
How far have you gone in diagnosis and treatment? Did you file into the class action suit against the Companies who sold the products? I did and hope you did also.
Sincerely,
Bill

hello Bill. Thanks for the message. I will be 73 on the 24th and I don't know how that happened either. AM retired from the Army and this lung. Situation did not appear until I was ready to retire. I love to sail and the plan was to get a boat load it down with chow and leave. My wife didn't think much of the idea so I decided would write her occasionally . She doesn't like that idea either. OK so I won't write. We had been married 10 years and she had a baby. We were living Georgia and that would not work, they have problems there. Told the wif we were going to move to home town where this young man could have a home town, know his grand parents, cousins, and aunts and uncles. Something I never had. So here we are in Sparta, Wisconsin and I am freezing my A off. Went to the VA hospital in Madison and they tested and evaluated me and put me on oxygen. The doctors don't know to much about COPD that's why they don't give it a medical name. I then joined a medical research study at the big hospital inPittsburg . Doctor Scherba, the renowned transplant doctor took some movies of my lungs and told me I had a multitude of problems none of which were cureable. The pictures did not look good. He will not give me a transplant because my good lung is not good enough to support me. He told me to buy a sailboat and will it to him. So I sit around sucking on this air hose wishing I was someplace else.
Have a gr eat day. Jumper

HI JUMPER,

IT SOUNDS AS IF YOU HAVE SEVERAL ISSUES. IT IS VERY SCARY YOU SAY THE DR.'S DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT C.O.P.D.????????? WHAT KIND OF DR'S. YOU GO TO? ARE THEY REAL? MAN THATS NOT LOGICAL.

I UNDERSTAND ABOUT YOUR NOT HAVING A LUNG TRANSPLANT...................OK SOUNDS AS IF SAIL BOAT DAYS ARE NOT TO BE BUT TO AWAKE EVBERY MORNING AND BE CONTENT TO SHARE THE Day WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS. I ALSO HAVE TO COME TO GRIPS WITH THE FACT THAT SOME DREAMS ARE NOT GOING TO HAPPEN AND MOVE ONTO OTHER THINGS AND BE GRATEFULL FOR THE DAYS I HAVE.

THAT ASBESTOSIS COULD STAY JUST AS IT IS AND NOT TURN INTO THE MESOTHEOLIMA AND FOR THAT I WOULD CONSIDER MYSELF VERY LUCKY.

I HAD ASKED YOU IF YOU FILED FOR THE CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST THE MANUFACTURES OF THE ASBESTIS....DID YOU? HOW DID YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH IT?
bILL

Hi Bill
Guess you are correct, hel I was a smoker, welder, spray painter, mixer of chemicals. Sprayed chemicals, also have a dozen allergies, Damn it is a wonder I made it this far. Doctors, he'll I have seen some of the best also some that were not. H even talked with a PA,C. That works as a lung replacement team member

no Bill I haven't filed for anything? Would be interested in how you make out. Have known guys who have won and by the time they got any money they were to sick to use it. The best I have is the fact that my. Condition has not changed. And the doctors agree that I could be this way for ever. They have also told me regardless what type surgery I might have I would die within. 5 years.

Had better close as it's my nap time. Haha. Talk later. Jumper

LOVE THOSE NAPS JUMPER.. LISTEN MY CONDITION IS HOLDING ALSO.....THANK GOD. I DID FILE FOR A CLAIM. WHY NOT. EVEN IF I AM GONE MY ESTATE GETS IT! MATTER A FACT JUST TODAY IN THE MAIL THE BOSTON LAWYER SENT STUFF TO TRY TO RECALL CERTAIN PRODUCT. E-GADS MAN..........THATS SO LONG AGO!!!!!!! I WAS IN CONSTRUCTION BOTH RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL. WE USED A HOPPER FILLED WITH STUFF TO SPRAY GIRDERS ANOUNG OTHER EXPOSURE. SOME DAYS BY DAYS END I WAS SPITTIN BLOOD !!!! THEY DID NOT TELL US THAT STUFF WAS BAD BUT THEY KNEW IT WAS!!!! YOU BET I'M GOING TO FILE A CLAIM. THE LAWYERS ONLY COLLECT ONCE IT'S SETTELED! NOTHING IN ADVANCE. AND IF YOU DON'T GET IT THEY DO NOT CHARGE.........THATS HOW SURE THEY ARE IT WILL PAY!
FILE MAN........FILE! CONTACT AN ASBESTOSIS LAWYER IN THE STATE YOU WORKED. I AM IN FLORIDA AND TO BEGIN WITH FILED HERE AND THEY TOLD ME NO............NEVER SAID TO CONTACT IN THE STATE YOU WORKED SO I LOST 2 YEARS IN THE PROCESS. LIVE N LEARN.
WE DO NOT KNOW HOW OUR ENDS WILL COME......I'M GOING TO AT LEAST TRY AND BE SURE MY WIFE DOES NOT LOSE OUR HOME TO CARE FOR ME.
BILL

Hi Guys, thought I would chime in on the "asbestosis" thing. Mine was diagnosed in 1996 after exposure to the fish hooks in 1959 while serving the US Navy. The hooks caught me but haven't fried me yet :>). Here it is 16 years, many CT scans, still coughing up a storm but little else, tried most of the inhalers that are out there to try, blown the test to the point of almost passing out and all else that goes with this crap. (no oxygen yet, thankfully)

HI JERRY,
HAPPY DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING !!!! I AM NOT ON OXYGEN EITER. DR. SAYS LUNGS CLEAR YET MY CHEST SO HEAVY AND I PRODUCE MUCUS FOR 2 PEOPLE BUT..........JUST WENT TO AN EARS, NOSE & THROAT DR. AND AWAITE TEST RESULTS TO SEE IF IT IS CHRONIC SINUSITIS NOT ANYTHING WITH THE ASBESTIS!!!!!
I AM STILL ON ADVAI AND DR. ALSO HAS ME ON Q-VAR INHALER. I PASS THOSE BRATHING TESTS ALSO WHERE YOU BLOW INTO THE MACHINE........SO MAYBE I AM AT A "SO FAR, SO GOOD" POINT IN LIFE. OF COURSE THE LUNG THING SCARES THE YOU KNOW WHAT OUT OF ME BUT......SEEM TO BE HOLDING. MY BODY IS RIDDELED WITH PAIN HEAD TO TOE AND TAKE CELEBREX AND THEY SAY ONLY OSTEOARTHRITIS AND THE PRICE I HAVE TO PAY FOR THOSE HARD YEARS IN CONSTRUCTION !!!! I RESIST PAI MEDS..........AT LEAST FOR NOW.
THERE ARE DAYS IT GETS ONE DOWN!!!! BUT..............SO MANY SO MUCH WORSE.
YES, I ALSO COUGH HORRID BUT..........THE DR.'S SAY IT IS FROM STOMACH NOT LUNGS AND I AM ON NEXIUM TWICE A DAY...BEING OVER WEIGHT DOES NOT HELP. I TRY DIFFERENT WAYS TO LOSE WEIGHT BUT ALL I HAVE TO DO IS LOOK AT A PICTURE OF FOOD AND GAIN !!!!!!
THIS ASBESTIS MAY STAY AS IS THE REST OF MY LIFE AND NEVER TURN FATAL...........FOR THAT ALONE I AM VERY GRATEFUOL IF IT DOES.

Hi Bill, I hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving! We did have a good one. We spent a couple of days at our daughters home in Rochester. It gave me time to check out the Mayo Clinic where I will be going for an appt. next week, not for my lungs (I don't think) but a seperate issue that has been showing up with more frequency and really making life more of a challenge. I have angiodema which is where my mouth, lips, tongue, throat chest and often also on my body I get swellings and/or welts. My tongue has been swollen to the point of filling up my mouth, couldn't do anything for relief to even get air. Thankfully my nose was clear so I could breathe! It's happened a couple of times like that and that scares me as well as the lung thing which is a daily struggle.
My wife and I began to plan for my death after getting the asbestosis news in 1996, I'm sure you can identify with that. Here I am 16 years later and still living with the heaviness like you mention among other things. I'm thankful for this much more time we have had but it sure hasn't been a picnic!
I dislike those "blow" tests because I am always able to give a good test, the doctors seem to think that is the measurement for how you are doing and to me it doesn't begin to tell how I feel.
My VA doctor and my Health Partners doctor and my allergy doctor have not been able to come up with a valid treatment or diagnosis for the angiodema which has sort of taken over our lives presently. The VA allergist made a determination that I don't have an allergy but a "toxicity" in my system and I am wondering if maybe after my Mayo appt. I am going to find out the "toxicity" is in reality the asbestos fibers in my lungs. Man, I wouldn't wish lung or breathing problems on anyone, it's really hard. Much like yourself, one of the original Pulminologists I saw told me I may very well die from something other than the asbestos and I am also grateful for that information.

hi jerry,
yes, a very good turkey day here also,. The son and family came in for 2 days and now back home on Hilton Head Island. I ate to much!!!! yup have to diet! but......it was so good !!!!!!
I am real glad to hear your going to Mayo Clnic!!!! You cannot beat them !!!!! and tell them also about that tocix diagnosis you were told and let them check you totsally out.
as far as funeral arrnagements...............the wife and i both decided we will stay in florida and go into a crypt down here. I'm not much on earth burial and none of that cremation stuff either. we will stay where its mild temps and be comfortable. ha ha so we got that all set and actually a relief to have it done and done our way!!!!!!

I awaite test results from the allergist and the holiday and long weekend holding that up for now.
what your going through is very scary with that angiodema......never heard of it. The way my nose stuffs I'd be in crisis witht that!!!
I think your very smart to go to the Mayo !!! yes Sir you are. I will be anxious to hear how that goes and explain it all to them!!!!!! Lay it all on the line!!!! I wish you best of luck man and a prayer off to you as well.

Like I said.............we may never go from Asbestosis!!!!!! Kinda like Prostate Cancer........Have it for ages yet my Father in law lived to age 95 and did not die from that !!!! Go figure!
You take care and will have you in my thoughts.
Bill