“Have a seat, sir. Someone shall be with you in a moment,” stated the secretary as she handed me my insurance card with a smile on her face. I sat waiting for my name to be called to get my blood drawn. My legs shook nervously, for the unknown is a scary place; the waiting is the worst part. I fiddled with the magazines already knowing that nothing was going to interest me or hold my attention.
“Luke O’cyte.”
Oh God, here goes nothing, I thought to myself. I stood up and felt the blood rush from my head; a slight dizzy spell, that’s all.
She directed me to the room and sat me in the chair while she wrapped my bicep with a rubberband. Cleaning my arm with an alcohol swab, she began with the small talk.
“You’ve got some nice veins.”
“Thanks?” I felt bad for being short with her, but I was tired and irritated.
I cringed as I watched her poke the needle into my vein. The blood filling up the tube, I began to fill dizzy. I turned my head.
“All done. You feelin’ alright?”
“Yeah”, but I didn’t.
“Just keep this cotton on here for about 20 minutes or so.”
She then instructed me to have a seat in the waiting area and that the nurse would be calling me in shortly. After about 10 minutes of sitting there, I noticed the cotton was almost saturated with blood. That is a lot of blood for a little stick, I thought to myself. Once again my attention was drawn to the pile of magazines on the table. I was just picking up the six-month old edition of People Magazine, when I heard my name called.
After the walk to the exam room, I noticed I was a little winded. The nurse turned towards me and mentioned something about my color.
“You’re awfully pale.”
Being the humorous individual that I am, my response was, “It’s winter and I’m polish. My fair skin comes naturally.”
“No, I don’t mean that kind of pale, but we’ll see what the doctor says. Your blood results should be in soon.” Her eyes glanced down at the crimson cotton ball, “You didn’t stop bleeding yet? Hmm…”
The door closed behind her. A sense of despair came over me. Maybe there really is something wrong, I thought. I have had a lingering cold and I got short of breath easily, even if I was just climbing the stairs. I laid back on the examining table and let out a sigh.
I heard a knock at the door, “Come in.”
In came this huge man with shoulders as wide as a refrigerator. He extended his hand to me, “Doctor Neutro. Phil Neutro. Nice to meet you Mr. O’cyte.” He noticed the blood-soaked cotton as I was shaking his hand.
“Looking at your blood counts, it seems that they are below normal. Now we have to find out why that may be,” he stated with a concerned look on his face. “We’ll start with a few questions about your occupation.”
“Alright, I’m employed as a city crew worker. I cut grass. I tar pot holes. I spray weed killer. I paint. Just about everything they tell me to do, that’s what I do.”
“That’s interesting. Do you wear any protective gear, such as masks, gloves, respirators? Are you aware of the chemicals that you’re working with before you work with them, so that you know how to protect yourself?”
“Well, I never really thought it was a big deal. We were never instructed that we had to wear any of that stuff.”
“Based on what you’re telling me Mr. O’cyte, the reason for your counts to be this low could be from your exposure to benzene.”
“What kind of chemical is that?” I asked the doctor.
“Benzene is a chemical that is used in the production of plastics, oils, and pesticides. It has been known as a carcinogen, a cancer causing agent.”
Cancer? I started to get scared and anxious, “How long will it take to figure out what’s wrong?”
“We’ll start with a bone marrow biopsy. A needle is inserted into your hip bone to pull out some bone marrow. We then study the marrow to see whether it is normal or not. It will also help us in the process of diagnosing you. I would like to do a biopsy now, because your counts are very low. The sooner we can do this, the sooner we’ll know what’s wrong, and the sooner we can treat you.”
Four hours later…
“Well Mr. O’cyte based on our preliminary findings, we have determined that you have severe aplastic anemia.”
“What the hell is that?!” I began to panic.
“Aplastic anemia is a blood disorder that affects the bone marrow, which is the blood factory of your body. Your bone marrow is not making enough red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. Which would explain your fatigue, lingering illness, and failure to clot properly from your blood draw. We also are confident in saying that based on the work that you do and for the number of years you have worked there, your illness was caused by benzene exposure. Unfortunately, because you were not removed from the exposure immediately, your bone marrow has been damaged significantly.”
“I have never heard of this before! Is it common?!”
“Years ago, I would say no it’s not common. In the past year, we have diagnosed seven different patients with this disorder. Due to occupational exposures to chemicals, such as benzene, which is commonly used in pesticides and herbicides, we have seen this disease on the rise. On the plus side, please be aware that research has come a long way and we have been very successful with getting people into remission using different protocols.”
