Mesothelioma and Asbestos

As a kidney cancer patient and a husband whose wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2009, I can certainly relate to the devastation an individual experiences when confronted with a cancer diagnosis. But I actually think that I got lucky, and I will tell you why.

I have been exposed to asbestos when I was a teenager. Back in the early 1980s, nobody cared about protection when working with asbestos sheet rock. This material was used widely for all kinds of insulation purposes so my father had decided to install them in our house in order to save on heating. Over the course of a year I had literally swallowed and inhaled little chunks of asbestos. As a matter of fact, I am now 38 years old, I can still remember the taste and texture. When the day was over I had it all over me, oftentimes I was completely covered in asbestos dust.

But it took over 20 years for me to develop specific asbestos exposure symptoms. Or to be more precise, I should actually say kidney cancer symptoms. My cancer had literally destroyed my left kidney which was removed in November of 2009 via a laparoscopic nephrectomy. According to the pathology, my cancer must have been growing inside of my for about 20 years and my Oncologist confirmed that there is a good chance that the cause of it was exposure to asbestos.
Okay, but now let’s have a closer look at the asbestos exposure mesothelioma link. Of course, by now we all know that being in contact to this highly carcinogenic material over a prolonged time can cause the development of mesothelioma, a rare cancer which in the vast majority of all cases attacks the lining of the lungs, medically referred to as mesothelioma. This cancer is growing very slowly which is a common thread for all asbestos induced diseases. According to modern medicine it is incurable. However, there are mesothelioma survivors who fondly believe their changes in lifestyle is responsible for the fact that they beat all odds and are still alive after 5 years since they had been diagnosed.

What we do know for a fact is that certain people are at a higher risk of developing mesothelioma, and those people are individuals working in certain professions. Especially asbestos removal jobs come with an increased risk, however, legislation enforces stricter rules nowadays and studies have shown that the rates associated with occupational asbestos exposure and mesothelioma are on the decrease.