Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) Support Group
Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), also known as acute myeloid leukemia, is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells. Patients with AML usually present with symptoms such as fatigue, bleeding, infection, prompting medical attention. An abnormal blood test reading will then result in further testing in a hospital with a hematologist to determine AML.
TFD on another thread wrote: "I had read it takes about 7 years after radiation exposer for leukemia to show up." This was something I had not heard and it got me to thinking that we might want to put our heads together and see what we might all have in common. that might cause AML.
The only thing I keep hearing is that benzene exposure might do it. I would guess the first thing we need to do is to start a list of all possible causes. There must be some scientific basis for the benzene thing since it is stated in so many places as an established fact. TFD added the radiation possibility, which is in my mind a completely different animal. I have also heard that AML can be a side effect of chemo.
If benzene is a major cause, then how long does one need to be exposed to it, in what way, and how long after this exposure would it show up.
One thing that seems to be a complicating factor is the average age of AML victims. Seems to be somewhere around 70, so it would seem to me that it would be a very thin chance that all of these oldsters (I am 69) would have been exposed to it recently. It would seem like their systems just cannot handle it once they get to an older age. Could it be an accumluated thing over a lifetime. Or perhaps something that we have been exposed to on a regular basis but now that we are hitting the older ager we just cannot handle it?
Anyway -- if you are interested in this and know anything about it or just have a hunch and want to jump in, here is a forum for it.
Thanks in advance -- dave
The only thing I keep hearing is that benzene exposure might do it. I would guess the first thing we need to do is to start a list of all possible causes. There must be some scientific basis for the benzene thing since it is stated in so many places as an established fact. TFD added the radiation possibility, which is in my mind a completely different animal. I have also heard that AML can be a side effect of chemo.
If benzene is a major cause, then how long does one need to be exposed to it, in what way, and how long after this exposure would it show up.
One thing that seems to be a complicating factor is the average age of AML victims. Seems to be somewhere around 70, so it would seem to me that it would be a very thin chance that all of these oldsters (I am 69) would have been exposed to it recently. It would seem like their systems just cannot handle it once they get to an older age. Could it be an accumluated thing over a lifetime. Or perhaps something that we have been exposed to on a regular basis but now that we are hitting the older ager we just cannot handle it?
Anyway -- if you are interested in this and know anything about it or just have a hunch and want to jump in, here is a forum for it.
Thanks in advance -- dave
Cliff
I believe how I got AML will stay a mystery. I just wanted to know at the beginning, so I not to repeat the same mistake. :-( But, I was assured it wasn't anything I did wrong.
Blessings,
lily
A very interesting thread you have started.
I have thought of two possible causes of my AML
1.Over 55 years ago, I worked three summers on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana as a roustabout. One of the tasks we were frequently given when essential work was slow or when the big bosses were coming to the rig was to wash down the rectangular solid tanks (about 10'x10'x40') in which fuel or water was stored for use on the rig. We would get a 5-gallon bucket of deisel fuel and a rags and wash down the tanks. No gloves; just bare hands in deisel fuel for hours at a time. I understand deisel fuel contains benzene in which some of the additives are soluable. Bright blue, the tanks really sparkled when we were done.
2. About five years ago, in our neighborhood, several very large pine trees, four- or five-stories tall, started to die, as did a number of smaller trees. I asked a friend who is a consultant and expert in plants and soil why the the trees might be dying. (Disney flies him all over the world to consult on planting and plant growth at its amusement parks.) Without hesitation, he replied, "A gas leak." About two weeks later, he told me that a representative of the city had called him and asked him the same question. For about the last two years at least, city workers have been working on repairing leaks in the underground gas pipelines in our neighborhood. For almost forty years, I have been running and race walking along those same streets, breathing deeply as I have run to and from home. When I asked my oncologist if he thought that exposure could be a cause of my leukemia, he said no; otherwise, everyone in the neighborhood would have leukemia. As far as I know, natural gas for domestic use does not contain benezene, but it is a hydrocarbon, as is benezene.
Once again, too long and too much detail.
Best to all.
Jonathan
Please don't hate me, but I have finally found a thread that makes me feel uncomfortable. I thought about the etiology of my AML early on after my diagnosis. Finally, I let it go. I would never be sure about what might have influenced my getting this disease, and so it was not worth ruminating about it. It just makes me sad. I know that I will probably be barraged with a slew of negative comments, but I advise all of you to let it go as well. Let's all look forward rather than backward. I love you all and I do not want anyone to think anything but positive thoughts. These and only these will help you get well.
Cliff
A well meaning but misguided friend suggested that I had not learned my lesson the first time round (cancer 1), that's why the universe gave me another one.
The mind boggles.....
As always, you are right. Thanks for sticking up for me, but I really shouldn't generalize my own feelings as if others felt the same. It is certainly an interesting thread, and if studies begin to show a relationship between a wide variety of environmental carcinogens and leukemia, that will certainly be of help to those who might have the option of avoiding such exposures. I sometimes get the feeling that I may overdo the repression of my thoughts about my AML, but if I let my mind go there repeatedly, it will become a "path of least resistance" whenever I am feeling down. I don't know. Maybe I just don't want to think that I could have been even in part responsible for my own affliction. On the other hand, if medical scientists had not been so determined to find correlations between environment and health, we would all be a lot worse off. Thanks for the thought provoking topic Dave. I mean it.
Cliff
Unashamedley I say I love you both..... One word descibes OUR group here, it is LOVE
Thanks brothers,
Sandra.
Please pray for Ben, he not able to sleep right now with his stomache pain. He has been taking codeine for lower back pain......It may be he has constipation. We shall wait and see, I guess.......
Sorry about these thoughts, I hope you will bare with me,
Sandra
I do not remember your mentioning anything about Ben's abdominal pain. How long has he had back pain and how much codeine has he taken? If he has not been moving his bowels as before, he may well have constipation. The first thing I would try would be to increase the anount of fluid he drinks. If that doesn't do the trick, get MIRALAX and follow directions. It is an absolutely safe laxative that should not increase his pain. DO NOT use enemas or anything like that. Please keep me informed. He should not suffer when there are easy solutions.
Is his back pain something that has bothered him for a long time?
Cliff
I was hoping to see an update about Ben. If you have a moment, please let us know.
Cliff