Our private "hypotheses" about our wg-etiology

[Alysia]

my "likes" are for the reply... but most of the lists are too sad

[greenjeep]

Right after dx I read that the cause was unknown but it could be exposure to silica. Well, I live in west Texas, USA. Some days the sun is blocked out by "silica". But there is no epidemic here that i know of.
We also have a large cotton farming industry here and I've heard some nasty things about what harvest time can do to a person, but again, no epidemic.
My other hypothesis - I'm a worrier - always feel stress. That is one thing that WG has forced me to find ways to work on this negative attribute.


Sent from my iPhone while driving on the freeway.

[ingemlb]

Sent from my iPhone while driving on the freeway.

I hope greenjeep you are a bit of a joker LOL or I will be looking very hard on every freeway for someone typing into their iPhone

[annekat]

I make pottery and have been exposed to silica. Not a problem with wet clay but with dry dusts from clay and glazes. Cleaning well and wearing respirators is important. But I was not always as careful as I should be. The well-known potter's disease is supposed to be silicosis, a disease very damaging to the lungs, and I can think of one famous potter who died of it. But I don't hear of it often at all. And silicosis is not Wegs, and I have Wegs. I must continue with the pottery in order to have income. I try to keep the dust exposure to a minimum.

I have had a lot of stress in my life.... was a victim of childhood bullying, had a dysfunctional family life, was painfully shy and withdrawn. As an adult, have been in dysfunctional relationships, though not abusive, have had trouble focusing on any career track, have gone through the considerable stress of my parents' divorce and its effect on my younger siblings, have gotten into too much debt, and am constantly under stress about keeping bills paid, reducing debt, and not getting any further into it. Have never been married and have the constant stress of having to take care of everything alone. This is not the kind of stress suffered by the most unfortunate people in the world, by any means, but it is still an underlying factor in keeping Wegs under control.

I have suffered from allergies and asthma off and on throughout my life, starting in childhood. I had the stress of people not paying enough attention to it or making sure it was properly dealt with, even though my dad was a doctor, and being more or less left on my own with it. I always felt like the allergic reactions were made worse by emotional stress. When I became a young adult, better inhalers became available to me for the asthma, but still not the best. I did not get access to good allergy treatments until I was in my fifties, and then I got Wegs.

About 10 years before my dx, I started having weird tinnitus and head congestion. This kind of thing always happened around the time of seasonal pollen allergies, even if my allergies weren't particularly acting up that year in the usual ways.

My Wegs flared up for the first time about 2 weeks after I had had a cold and then gone to my cousin's funeral and inhaled some very strong incense. This initial flare consisted of a nasty, drug-resistant ear infection in both ears, followed by more than two years of recurring sinus infections and severe allergy problems. Or so it seemed, until the WG went into my lungs and I was dx'ed.

[renidrag]

I worked in the plumbing industry for almost forty years and have inhaled everything from lead fumes, asbestos,oakum dust to PVC cleaner and glue and everything in between. Apparently I didn't think I was damaging my lungs enough so I also smoked for over thirty years. That being said I had major dental infection in upper teeth. I was exhausted even after a good long nights sleep. Finally had to have teeth pulled and things seemed to be okay for a while. Before diagnosis in 09 I was faithful to visit for an annual physical and would always ask why pain here, pain there, blood in stools, SOB, fatigue, fatigue. Finally got diagnosis when I went for physical and pointed out a ganglion on my sternum and between fingers. Was sent to Pulmy for SOB and he diagnosed.
No major family problems although I was raised by a single Mother but with two sisters and a brother we relied on each other a lot and even today we are very close.
Mother passed day after my dx.
I would say usual stress, divorce, child rearing (two, both wonderful people) bill paying
Today I do worry about money a lot.
Dale

[annekat]

Well, I did not have the responsibility of raising children, which would be huge stress in itself.

Forgot to mention mold, several kinds of which I've been found allergic to. I sell at a farmers market in an open air structure with open drains and lots of other dark, damp places where molds could grown unnoticed. They do clean the place but I don't know how intensely. I remember having bad asthma in an old cabin with mildew likely lurking everywhere. I think molds are just about everywhere, except maybe in the warmest, driest places, and must affect a lot of people. It also seems the increased industrialization and development of the world over the last couple centuries, with all the substances involved and disturbance of the natural state of the earth, would mean an increase in Wegs throughout the world.

[Alysia]

again, my likes are for the replies. the lists are sad
I want to hug each one and one of you and to tell you how strong and kind souls you are after all

[annekat]

Yes, the lists are sad, but thank heaven for this forum and our ability to share these things together instead of dealing with WG all by ourselves!

[lag713]

My grandmother had rheumatoid arthritis but I do not think I have any other autoimmune issues in my family.

I don't think I've had many occupational or environmental exposures. Approximately 3 years before my diagnosis, I worked for a two years in a research center that frequently had light flooding inside the building after it rained and the carpet would smell of mold. I had terrible mold growing inside my AC units in my last apartment. I was often sick with what seemed to be a cold with fevers, body aches, fatigue, and malaise in the spring of 2013. I developed joint pain before moving out in July 2013 but wasn't diagnosed until December 2013.

I was under a bit of stress because I am in graduate school and there is a lot of pressure to perform. I've lightened my load and reduced my stress over the last couple of months.

[annekat]

I don't remember hearing of any autoimmune issues in my family. My dad had, and some of my siblings and I have, deviated septums, one source of extra nasal and sinus problems. I think my dad may have had it worse than any of us but got through his life that way without treatments or surgery. At the end, he had so many problems with sinus discharge that in retrospect, I have to wonder if he could have had smoldering Wegs. Other issues took him out at age 83 before any WG dx would have been possible. Without a doubt, many people have had WG and died without a dx or even a thought of getting one.

On second thought, my grandmother had arthritis but I don't know if it was RA, and her daughter, my aunt, has RA.