Biography

From 1975 to approximately 1978, I worked for a company the manufactured custom glassware for laboratories and scientific research. In order to hold, mold and shape the hot class, we had to wear asbestos cloth gloves to protect our hands and arms from the intense heat that was reflected straight back from the molten glass. Generated by the propane torches used by the glass blowers. As the red hot heat bounced off the Pyrex glass, it came in contact with the asbestos gloves causing the fibers to break down into tiny particles that were released from the asbestos gloves and become air born which in turn we inhaled these tiny particles into our lungs. Because these particles of asbestos are so tiny, our body’s defense system tries to eject these minute particles from inside our lungs, but our body is unable to eject the come embedded in the plural, which is the lining of our lungs, and then the scarring process takes over so now all of the asbestos particles are buried under thousands of layers of scar tissue and literally become a part of the body.
When you inhale asbestos into the lungs, the scarring process takes place and may take many years before it pops up on the radar, so for years it has been repeating the process repeatedly, encapsulating the lungs and heart.
It takes years to manifest itself, with very few symptoms present but, in my case, in 2001, we found an egg size mass in my right lung. Except for shortness of breath, I was in pretty good health, up to that time. At this time this is when the doctor diagnosed me with Pulmonary Fibrosis secondary to asbestos exposure. I was also having some dizzy spells and turns out that I have Multiple Scoliosis as well. This was a huge shock to me!
The next week they went in to remove the mass and preformed a routine thoracotomy. The mass was benign however in 2002 and in 2004 they performed two more thoracotomies with the last one lasting six hours to remove my right lung, diaphragm and part of my sternum. While I was in recovery, the surgeon came out to speak with my now ex-wife and told her to “get his affairs in order” because, in his professional opinion, I had three to six months to live! That was in 2004, fast forward to today, 2019 I’m still alive and kicking!
Because of the pain I was having, they decided to implant a Medtronic pain pump to help manage the pain. It currently has Dilaudid and Bupivacain are the meds they fill it up approx. every eight weeks or so. As of February, of this year they realized that my oxygen saturation was far from where it’s supposed to be so they put me on 100% oxygen with a large concentrator in my home and a portable that fits on my belt.
I did pursue a worker’s comp law suit and after approx. 3 years of litigation and appealed all the way to the supreme court, I won a settlement that the company is responsible for all of my medical expenses related to pulmonary issues until the day I leave this planet.