New Page 1

Ok, did they do a 'retic ratio?'

It is part of the hemotology tests, if they order it

What was the count for the red blood cells?
Just at borderline normal or slightly under normal?

Was there any blood showing up in urine (protein ?) ... even trace?

One of the workers exposed to 2-butoxyethanol 15 years ago has a retic ratio of 0.3 % & the normal range is 0.5 - 2.0%

What does this mean?

Other counts looking mostly good:

WBC 6.3 (normal range for a male is 4.5-10.8)
RBC 4.45 (normal range for a male is 4.5-6.0)
HGB 14.0 (normal range for a male is 13-18)
HCT 43.1 (normal range for a male is 40-50)
PLT 216 (normal range is 150-450)

He has very, very low blood pressure (wonder what the volume of blood is?) There is concern for liver, and he has had rapid weight loss; he has collapsed a couple of times. This lower than normal level of 'retric' could be from lack of nutrition, so I don't think we can tell what was happening with the blood now that other ailments are getting severe. Or, is he just not making enough blood? What other tests are needed?

He also says he can only sleep about 15 minutes at night; he can't keep any moisture in his skin; his temper is always going off ... he is at his wits end. One time after he had collapsed they put him on a special heart machine and found the 3 of his heart chambers were double their normal size. These are also said to have thick, dark blood (Thick from fagility of red blood cells? Dark from lack of oxygen, most likely)

What other tests would be necessary to see if autoimmune hemolytic anemia is going on?

Quote:

Positive Coombs' test, direct or indirect
Elevated bilirubin levels
Elevated LDH
Low serum haptoglobin
Hemoglobin in the urine
Elevated absolute reticulocyte count

Quote:

Why is the test done: Elevated absolute reticulocyte count
To determine if red blood cells are being created in the bone marrow at an appropriate rate.
A special stain can be used to identify reticulocytes, because they contain remnants of RNA. Fully mature red blood cells are terminally-differentiated cells lacking nuclei and nucleic acids. The number of reticulocytes in the blood is proportional to their rate of synthesis and release by the bone marrow. The body will respond to bleeding or hemolytic anemia (breakdown of red blood cells) by an increased rate of red blood cell synthesis under normal circumstances. A lower-than-normal percentage of reticulocyte is suggestive of a nutritional deficiency.

Low red blood cell count and hemoglobin

(Yes, this man has had blood showing up in his urine regularly, too)

What did the CBC with differentials show? I think this is part of what is tested for, too?

Quote:

The differential count estimates the number of the various types of WBCs. This can help detect infection, anemia, and leukemia; or follow the progress of treatment.

There are various types of WBCs (also called leukocytes) that normally appear in the blood. The differential determines the relative percentages of the different types of cells in the blood, notes any abnormal appearance of the cells, and the presence of any abnormal immature cells.

Neutrophils are mainly phagocytic cells (that is, they engulf and destroy invading organisms). They also release some enzymes and substances that affect the function of other cells called cytokines.
B lymphocytes (B cells) synthesize and secrete antibodies.
T lymphocytes (T cells) -- one type of T cell is called a helper cell; it secretes proteins that increase B cell function and the functions of cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes recognize and destroy virus-infected and other abnormal cells.
Monocytes recognize a variety of microorganisms, especially gram-negative bacteria. Activated monocytes turn into macrophages that can engulf and destroy microorganisms and secrete a variety of cytokines that modulate the activity of other leukocytes.
Eosinophils and basophils release substances that cause vasoconstriction, smooth muscle contraction, and an increased permeability of small blood vessels. Eosinophils are stimulated by parasites and some bacteria. Basophils are stimulated by allergens.

This is what "Slim" has to share - in his own words:

Quote:

I've had doctors say that the oil spill never hurt anyone.

What do they know?

I hope you will listen.

I worked on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill as a laborer, 1989.

When at the Dayville Dump some bad smelling chemical

- like the smell you have when you wash radiators...

spilled on me.

I was trying to triple red bag this open 5-gallon bucket of chemical that showed up there.

It spilled on me melting my gloves and boots; my hands and feet have been itching and not healed since, as you saw

Since then I've also had blood showing up in my urine. I had copies from the Glennallen Clinic placed in my file at your clinic.

When someone encouraged me to see you in February I was feeling like digging 3 holes in the ground, for me and my 2 dogs & ending it all. Come to think of it, I'd already dug the holes.

Thank you for ordering blood work;

I would still like to be checked for hemolytic anemia;

If the chemical had the poison in it; that’s what I’m supposed to have

(red counts were 4.59 – OK by your lab, but just barely?),

4.32 & 4.53 July/2003

But I have other stuff, too:

I used to be able to work 16-18 hour days and not think twice about it.

Now I can only work 7-8 hours in a day and I feel half damn croaked.

I loose my G Damn temper way quick. Dan's cut me off on "Coffee Hour" more than once.

I feel different the hell than the way I used to.

I can’t keep any moisture in my skin.

(Just found out that seal oil helps… it’s all natural)

My eyes? I can't see. I can see far, but I can't see to read.

One doctor said I had a hole in my eye and there wasn’t anything that could be done for it.

Is there a specialist that could check this out?

I've been on my own since I was 13 years old.

I am self taught and used to love to read, when I could see;

Every night I would read a few hundred pages.

Now I sit home alone and bored; it's damn aggravating.

I can't sleep neither.

It makes me more lonely than I would be - living alone.

I can't find any household help and that makes me damn angry too.

I am pissed off and feel the hell like giving up

(A helping person uses other words for how I feel: depressed & suicidal)

The way I figure it, it's not going to help me all that much,
but it may help the next guy
& the little children.

So, if you think the VA or Medicare will pay for the chemical tests
could you order them? I would like to have that done, too.

When you find out all about it, since I've had too much chemical stuff could you find some way to help without more chemicals? -S

July, 2003 update - collapsing - spend a week in the hospital

October, 2003 update - heart racing - then nothing.

As far as I know he doesn't have a diagnosis of hemolysis or hemolytic anemia.

CBC usually does look good; so retic ratio not ordered

I heard Corexit was like kerosene; should become vapor quickly as it is 38% 2-butoxyethanol. Maybe it is odorless; or smells like when you clean out radiators. I haven't been around any, but I know they try to store it on the Alyeska pipeline oil terminal for usage again some day, should there need to be oil spill cleaned up; sad day if that's ever put in the water!

Most times the CBCs look OK. (Probably NOT the differential part.)
But still the Reticulocyte count can show too many immature red blood cells. I think if doctors started ordering this routinely they would be surprised how many people have this kind of fatigue ... and if they have the add on assortment of odd symptoms, then maybe suspect the 2-butoxyethanol poisoning which does all of that, too; plus cause autoimmune hemolytic anemia (Remember, this diagnosis may not show up right away; but the 'retic ratio' will be off right away)

Doesn't the doctor's office, have a copy of your blood results? How about the lab that did them? It's important information. Whatever the results were then; they wouldn't be any better now; so you can still get the info. It's a good idea for everyone to collect their blood information and see whether it is changing in any area over time.

Would the VA send you to a hematologist? I think Walter Reid Army Hospital is checking into this. I shared this info with them a week ago, in better detail than before; before I knew to zero in on this part, they replied that the gulf war vets were no more harmed than the general public with no more instances of hemolytic anemia. Well, before you get that diagnosis, the 'retic ratio' will look the same for all those harmed by 2-butoxyethanol and will be something that all harmed by it will look alike in.

Walter Reid (or deployment health?) hasn't replied so promtly this time, so maybe they are checking out this theory. IF not, we can do it ourselves and hope that others start checking, too.

(Remember eyes burning and hurting; fatigue; flu-like symptoms, dark urine can be evident upon too much exposure)

The blood is a very complicated organ.

Quote:

hemolytic anemia

Symptoms

Chills
Fatigue
Pale color
Shortness of breath
Rapid heart rate
Yellow skin color (jaundice)
Dark urine
Enlarged spleen

Signs and tests
These are tests for hemolysis (red blood cell destruction). There are specific tests which identify the specific types of hemolytic anemia. They are performed after hemolysis has been established.

Elevated indirect bilirubin levels
Low serum haptoglobin
Hemoglobin in the urine
Hemosiderin in the urine
Increased urine and fecal urobilinogen
Elevated absolute reticulocyte count
Low red blood cell count and hemoglobin
Elevated serum LDH
Direct measurement of the red cell life span by isotopic tagging techniques shows a decreased life span.

This disease may also alter the following test results depending on the specific cause:
Uric acid
TIBC
RBC indices
Protein electrophoresis - serum
Potassium test
Platelet count
Peripheral smear
Leukocyte alkaline phosphatase
Serum iron
Hematocrit
Ferritin
Febrile or cold agglutinins
Donath-Landsteiner test
Coombs' test, indirect
Coombs' test, direct
CBC
Blood differential
AST
24 hour urine protein

This bioremediation - exposed to 2-butoxyethanol, 1989

At 18 years old, and wanting to earn money for college, "One person knows he has come down with anemia since the 'bioremediation' work of the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup...now has a low red blood cell count... doctors couldn't figure out why: not dietary, not hereditary, colonoscopy indicated no internal bleeding, bone marrow OK, lymph nodes swollen throughout body, but lymph node biopsy was OK. So back to square one: his doctor doesn't know why he has a low red blood cell anemia.

And he's wondering... literature he recently obtained on Inipol EAP 22 (which was used during the EXXON Valdez Oil Spill clean up starting Aug, 1989) indicates blood damage possible, being hemolytic anemia. How to test for? Any effective treatment?

During that time, the company drew this man's blood - a second time - with very thick-tubed needles so as to not destroy whatever it was they were looking for? Since it was a new product being tested, would that mean anything? What were they looking for? Did they find the red blood cells were 'ragged' and 'beat up?'

He started feeling this tiredness a few months after the summer of '89 and worked again in the 1990 summer.

If there were a problem wouldn't the company know about it? Surely they wouldn't let him work another summer with the same Inipol EAP 22 -which he did- if their testing indicated health problems?

Since then there has been the depression, difficulty concentrating ... evidence of central nervous system damage, skin damage, etc 'The package' of 2-butoxyethanol poisoning.

There is concern for heart attack from this health damage; currently there are 'cracks' in his intestinal track: a more serious problem than he realizes.

He is a hard working, successful young man who loves his wife and children and wants to share his life with them. No one should give their life for a job they did one day."

Well, all 1,000 bioremediation workers are needed to help medical science know what happens to those exposed to 2-butoxyethanol. The Inipol EAP 22 was too strong in this poison- pesticide - poison (12% by weight); the workers had too much exposure (14 days straight, 16 hours per day and both respiratory, skin and eye exposure); and the protective equipment was only a rain suit (just 'protection' from rain)

I've thought recently that if anyone cared about what happened to the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup workers ... maybe there never would have been a 'gulf war syndrome' and the Dept of Defense never would have bought the Corexit to be moved around by the Navy Seabees, nor sitting around in hot warehouses for soldiers to be exposed to this horrible chemical!

Just to share with you ... the 'bioremediation workers' were all men, mostly young; a crew consisted of a supervisor, a safety engineer, a mechanic, pontoon captain, a skiff operator and 5 'beach workers' on a small boat. Recently I met a woman doing a day's work in Valdez. She exclaimed that she had a very good friend who worked on the Exxon Valdez oil spill and that he died in 2003 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, as did his other 4 friends that he worked with ... died from the same cancer. The doctors, of course, suspected it was the job they did. Were they 'bioremediation workers?'

I pray that these will not get cancer. I heard a proclamation on the 700 club in 2002 that someone was being healed by God of lymphoma. So, I claimed that for all those exposed to this chemical.

I'm just recalling what a supervisor of several teams of bioremediation workers shared with me. He said that the Exxon men NEVER came on their boats; but would radio over to them, etc. However, just staying on their own boat didn't protect them from the harm of this chemical. The wind could blow it in their direction; getting it in one's eyes is the worst exposure.

He also said that this was the ONLY experiment that was monitored by Exxon themselves (Hoping for a money making chemical composition?) Each bioremediation crew had a Exxon Operations Rep and a VECO Operations Coordinator.

ShatteredLife2 (a gulf war vet)

That liquid was clear like kerosene and was soaking ino the concrete. It had no smell to it really but I suppose it was perhaps for cleaning weapons? I believe the arms room attendent was using the 50 gal. drum to clean weapons? He had a suit I believe that he mentioned for cleaning the weapons with? Or gloves or something like that?

From the moment of this horrible fatigue, did your urine turn dark brown to black? You wouldn't have needed a urine test to see that there was blood in your urine. (Burning eyes, flu-like symptoms are often part of the reaction to this chemical exposure)

The identifying marker of 2-butoxyethanol poisoning is blood in one's urine. And at 2.5 days after this exposure, the reticulocyte count would be very, very elevated (Meaning that the red blood cells are being prematurely destroyed - autoimmune hemolytic anemia). So the bone marrow compensates by making more red blood cells, but these are low functioning, immature red blood cells and don't have the iron storage & oxygen storage and utilization that is necessary for energy. I believe this is the fatigue of CFS and CFSID and 'gulf war syndrome' too ... as this chemical also causes the other symptoms that are a part of these.

Over time the bone marrow has trouble making enough red blood cells, but there can also be harm to the liver going on unnoticed because when you have the wrong ratio of mature to immature red blood cells the liver counts are going up; but those are the counts that are checked when the liver is damaged. (Those counts would then be dropping; so one test is counteracting the other)

So, say the doctor didn't pick up on the hemolysis and didn't check further as to the cause? Well, you would still have some ongoing trace blood in your urine, and hopefully they could still test for and find the hemolytic anemia that is underlying all your other ailments.

I know that the blood in urine is key. First, I learned about the workers of the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup. One advisor to Exxon on chemicals shared with me that the first day Inipol EAP 22 (for 'bioremediation') was tried, five men were rushed to the hospital with blood in their urine! That should have been the last day of that experiment, if you ask me. These 1,000 young men and the US Coast Guard monitors have KNOWN EXPOSURE to 2-butoxyethanol. So do the US Navy of the USS Deluth and USS Cleveland military who assisted in the Corexit experiment, July, 1989

Two people have shared that the medical records showing blood in urine no longer are at the local hospital. This information must be significant. As is the regular blood work that was done on the bioremediation workers (not for THEIR benefit, but for the company wanting to make money on inventing a new oil spill cleanup compound)

At first I was on active duty and everything was going normal then we got inoculated which all seemed relatively normal. What happened to me from start to finish is when I first got sick, I started coughing very hard and violent and I felt totally exhausted, fatigued, and felt 80 years old instantaneously-- and I was on a military base at the time. I was then rushed to an army hospital where they found out my lungs was filling up with fluid, (I had my anthrax and related vaccines approx. 2 days earlier); I was ordered to have to be admitted because I didn't think I was all that sick and they gave me a room for my illness which I now know was a severe adverse reaction to the vaccines we were given back in 1990; well, I had very severe diarrhea when I got there, the worst I have ever had! I was normal at first then things turned very ugly very fast! I turned grey and had red skin which quickly became hot to the touch! I had severe body aches, joint pain in all joints, fever, red bloodshot and teary eyes, dizziness, nauseated, very sick feeling, muscle aches, bad case of diarrhea, urination was dark in color (Dark Orange like I never saw before?) I think? chest pains, breathing problems, etc. It was very bad!!! There were 9 others in my room also, but I personally don't believe they made it out of that hosptial alive. I did but only on a prayer and a special pill I was given that changed everything!!! I nearly died and is the reason why I am writing on this forum... I fall over a lot and have coordination problems, dizziness, vision problems, muscle pain, diaphragm pain, abdominal pains, chest pains, bone pains, joint pains, can't walk well, etc. The effects of this has been very catastrophic for me and very devastating to my life! I am just not the same anymore, and I mean that in a very negative way! An Adverse Event!