AA patients in Honolulu, Hawaii?

[Hawaii Bill]

Just wondering if there may be a "cluster" of cases... just in case we can find any cause commonality.....

Anybody else?

Anyone?

Anyone?

[Lisa V]

Hi again, Bill!

We were living in Honolulu when Ken was diagnosed, but we've since moved to Waimanalo. We also met another AAer who lives in Mililani, but that's all I know locally. I'm not aware of any cluster effect. I asked our doctor (Dr. Miller at Kaiser) in the beginning how many AA patients he had and I think he said 3. I don't know if that's 3 current ones or 3 total, but either way it's not very many.

We have a farm, and the doc thinks most likely scenario is exposure to agricultural chemicals, although his onset came around the time we were building our house, so that's another possible source of chemical exposure.

If you want to talk story, send me a PM!

[Hawaii Bill]

hello again!

I know it's almost pointless to try and find the cause, but my brain loves puzzles and so it continues to sift through my history.

We live right next to a golf fairway in Waikele, downwind. I often wonder if the chemicals they use for the golf course could be a cause. My doctor (Dr Loui of "Oncare") says it probably is not significant. I also walk on the Pearl City bike path 3-4 times a week, and there is a petroleum pipeline that runs right next to it.... Again, the doc says not likely. He says he would be concerned if I told him I worked next to open vats of benzene..

Remember the benzene scare they had with Perrier water a few years ago?

Like I said, my brain just keeps chuggin along...

I'm heading to LA today, only a few days till I get to see Dr Paquette!

Bill

[Neil Cuadra]

I heard a doctor explain why the causes of diseases like these so often remain a mystery: They can study statistics and look for patterns, but that doesn't necessarily indicate cause and effect. Meanwhile, it's quite often unethical or impractical to do controlled studies to see how people are affected by suspected disease factors.

Expose to benzene and related chemicals is a risk, as you know, but we don't know enough about what else might be a factor. As you discovered, it's not easy to know when we've actually been exposed to dangerous levels of chemicals either.

It's certainly frustrating not to know -- and not to expect to know -- why bone marrow failure entered our lives the way it did.