After completing my graduation, I was commissioned in the US Navy in Kentucky. Little did I know that this was going to make my life very difficult in the future. I had no idea that one day I would be fighting a battle for my survival. However, I left the commission in about four years but the damage had been done. My mom was facing health problems so I decided to find work a little nearer to home. I lived a solitary life and reading was my best occupation. I had almost devoted a whole room to my collection of books.
Soon enough, I was offered a job as a teacher and I decided to accept it. After leading an active life in the US navy, a part time job was what I wanted. Time flew by and I got married. My wife was also a teacher so we had a lot in common and nothing happened to disrupt our quiet, peaceful lives. We named our daughter Elizabeth.
Life changed only a very little but I had no idea of the trouble that was brewing all these years. Elizabeth, or Betty as everyone called her, was 12 when the trouble started to surface. I had developed a dry sort of a cough and my voice got often hoarse while talking. Initially, no one could tell what the matter was. I changed my eating habits and was proud of the fact that I did not smoke. I took up walking but the coughs did not go away.
My wife forced me to consult a doctor. On my first visit, the doctor didn’t say much and just recommended that I get a chest X-ray done. I did not like to think that I had some serious disease so I delayed it. However, my violent coughing was attracting all sorts of attention and I could not deny that I had also developed a pain in my chest.
By the time, I revisited the doctor, I was coughing up phlegm. After showing my chest X-ray to the doctor, I could see that he wasn’t pleased. He reviewed my medical history and appeared grim after knowing that I worked in the US Navy. All this made no sense to me as I kept wondering what the matter really was.
The doctor explained that the X-ray had revealed a pleural thickening on one of my lungs and asked me to undergo a CT scan. I was not satisfied. Clearly, there was something wrong but I was in the dark as to what it was. I did not delay the tests this time.
Diagnosed with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
After that I also had to undergo cytological tests. The doctor claimed that the tests were positive and a biopsy confirmed his suspicions. I was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma due to heavy exposure to asbestos.
It took me months to get used to the name and the disease, which, according to the doctor, was fatal and incurable. Even more unbelievable was the fact that I had acquired the disease due to my few years’ commission in the US Navy. I wondered whether my workplace colleagues were suffering too.
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