One Year Ago Today, Do you remember?

For most of us it was a normal day, except that we were watching the storm on TV as it was hammering the Gulf of Mexico. I also remember that I was a little tired but just figured it was the hours I was putting in a day, at the office, on the farm and around the house. I even told people that I was just trying to get some attention, I really wasn’t. You know being married to a nurse in the ER your little aches and pains ain’t nothing compared to what she has experienced in an 8 to 12 hour shift. Now if something is wrong she will be the first to start nursing me back to health, but the whinnying to get attention won’t work with a nurse.

Well come November 2005 after a whole lot of testing was when I was diagnosed with liver trouble. Wow that was the last thing I could have came up with! The doctor had told me for some time that I had a fatty liver, that didn’t surprise me due to the fact that I had fat every where else. The doctor then told me that a whole lot of people had fat in their liver. People over weight, perfect weight, and below weight. This usually don’t cause a problem, but in a small percentage of people it does cause the liver to be damaged.

In my family history there is a gene that a lot of the family has or is a carrier of the gene, which causes damage. In my case I have been test since I started going to Charleston, MUSC and I don’t have the gene. The doctors also questioned my job, but I could not give them any specific chemical I had been exposed to, and I told them that was about 25 years of fire. They told me that they had no data on Arson Investigators.

If I could spread two words to every one out there, be tested for the gene and if you are in a hazardous environment protect yourself, skin and lungs. I am now trying to echo what Lt. Doug Ross has been teaching about exposure, there is no need to risk your health for an investigation. Dead or sick heros can’t save any more lives!

God Bless You & Keep Safe,

Lightning