Mesothelioma Information Washington DC Blog | Asbestos Attorney

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Mesothelioma Treatment Centers and Doctors

Here are some sources of good mesothelioma information and treatment. Our website will soon have a whole page devoted to such resources.

The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) web site - http://cancer.gov
NCI's Cancer Information Service toll-free at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237) Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Franklin Square Hospital Center
9000 Franklin Square Drive
Baltimore, MD 21237

Daniel Harley, M.D.
9103 Franklin Square Drive, Suite 309
Baltimore, MD 21237

The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center
600 N. Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21287-8943
410-955-8822

Mark Krasna, M.D.
University of Maryland
22 S. Greene Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-328-6366

If you are suffering from any symptoms that have you wondering about lung cancer or in particular about mesothelioma, please send us an email or call us at 1-410-9330. We can give you a free consultation to evaluate your work history and determine whether you might have been exposed to asbestos years ago and are now developing the after effects.

posted by Patti at 2:42 PM

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Sleep Disorders Among Mesothelioma Patients

A person being treated with mesothelioma, can have many causes of sleep disruption. It’s important to minimize them, since adequate sleep is always crucial for good health and good recovery from radiation or surgery.

The anxiety of being in cancer treatment is enough to disrupt sleep for many people. Then there are the symptoms that interrupt sleep:

Pain
Fever
Coughing
Breathing problems
Headaches
Night sweats
Diarrhea
Nausea

Keep a regular sleep schedule
It helps to keep to a regular sleep schedule if possible. Let the body become used to retiring at the same hour each night, so that it expects that, and adapts to it. The daily wake-and-sleep cycle is called the Circadian Rhythm. Most of us know what jet lag is like – the disruption of our Circadian Rhythm. Changes in one’s work shift have the same disruptive effect. In our own home we can avoid these problems by always being in bed by the same hour each night.

Create a restful sleep environment
Dim the lights, soften any noise, keep the room at a comfortable temperature, be sure the bedding is clean and wrinkle-free, have lots of pillows, and dress in loose, soft nightwear.

Prepare the body well for sleep
Avoid drinking any fluids close to bedtime. Be sure and go to the bathroom before you lie down. Drink lots of fluid during the day so that you are not thirsty at bedtime. If you suffer from incontinence, take a medication for it. Avoid caffeine near bedtime. Do some exercising during the day so the body is not restless, and eat a high-protein snack about two hours before you retire, so hunger doesn’t wake you during the night.

Cancer treatment is usually a stressful thing to go through. If you would like to know more about your legal rights and options, please contact us for a free consultation. If you have mesothelioma and were exposed to asbestos years ago, you could be entitled to monetary compensation, and we can work on that for you.

posted by Patti at 2:37 PM

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Can Asbestos Exposure Make you Eligible for Compensation?

It could, if you were harmed by that exposure. The health effects of asbestos exposure take many years to manifest. If you worked in one of the occupations that exposed you to asbestos fibers, you probably breathed fibers in and they lodged in your lungs. Even family members of such workers, who never spent time on the work site, frequently develop mesothelioma many years later. It’s thought that they breathed in the fibers from being near their family member’s clothing, since the fibers are microscopically tiny and can become invisibly stuck in cloth.

Some occupations which involved asbestos exposure

Asbestos mine worker
Crane operator
Pipe fitter
Painter
Plumber
Drywall mechanic
Floor coverer
Welder
Aircraft mechanic
Telephone lineman
Tinsmith
Bulldozer operator
Demolition crew member
Tile setter
Shipyard worker
Brake mechanic

There are many more such occupations, and many general environments where the risks were present, such as hospitals, glass factories, oil refineries, the Navy, and shipyards.

If you ever worked one of these occupations or did some other kind of work that exposed you to asbestos, you may now be at risk for a mesothelioma diagnosis. But just the exposure to asbestos does not in itself qualify you for monetary compensation.

On the other hand, companies which made asbestos products have known since about 1930 that it causes mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis, and did not speak up about it. That may give you a legal right to compensation from an asbestos company. Some of those companies are:

General Electric
General Motors
Westinghouse
Ford
Armstrong World Industries
Chrysler
Owens Illinois
Dow Corning
U.S. Gypsum

Once you are diagnosed
If you are suffering from mesothelioma symptoms, it would be wise to visit your doctor and have some tests done. Make sure your doctor knows that you were exposed to asbestos. Once you have a diagnosis, you should contact us here at Parker, Dumler & Kiely, and set up a free consultation. We work a great deal with mesothelioma patients and can assess your situation, and inform you of your legal rights and options.

posted by Patti at 1:33 PM

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Nutrition for Mesothelioma Patients

Good daily intake of nutrients is essential for healing and health maintenance. This becomes an issue for a cancer patient, because both the cancer and the drug(s) being used can depress the appetite and change the way the body metabolizes proteins. Proteins and calories are the two most-often deficient items in a mesothelioma patient’s diet.

Early in your treatment, it’s a good idea to get a nutritional assessment. This may evaluate:

Weight changes
Changes in type or quality of food
Ability to continue with normal living
Symptoms that affect appetite such as nausea or diarrhea

Cancer treatments, whether drugs, radiation or surgery, increase the body’s need for a high quality diet. The body must heal from the surgical incisions and perhaps fight infection; it must deal with drug side effects. It must recover from radiation effects on nearby healthy cells.

Eat well before, during and after your treatment
By building up your health before treatment, you give yourself a stronger chance of dealing with the fallout and side effects of treatment. If you have a poor appetite, mouth sores or nausea during or after treatment that lower your dietary intake, try using nutritional milkshakes or juice drinks to get the vitamins and minerals you need, as well as the protein. Drink at least six to eight cups of fluid each day to prevent dehydration.

Pointers for the daily diet

Eat colorful fresh foods. The colors of fruits and vegetables is indication of their nutrients. Vitamin supplements can be washed down with a sip or two of water, but there are so many other nutrients besides the main vitamins we know about. Fresh, colorful food has them all. Even canned fruit in its own juice contains good nutrients, especially the low- or no-sugar varieties.
Use whole-grain breakfast cereals rather than the sugary types. Add some fresh fruit and milk, and you have a good supportive meal.
If cooking is a chore, do it less often. Cook in large batches and freeze it in small containers, one for each meal. Bean chili, casseroles, stews, whole-grain pancakes – they all lend themselves to freezing.
A soft-boiled egg with whole-grain toast is a meal easy on the stomach.
Prepared salads such as three-bean salad, beet salad and other vegetable mixes are quick to put on the table and give good nutrition.
Eat small meals rather than three larger ones. Eat when you’re hungry regardless of the clock.
Cheese and peanut butter provide excellent caloric value and good protein.

If you are diagnosed with mesothelioma, or if you have a loved one in that position, please contact us to learn more about your legal rights. You may not have a lot of time or energy to cope with paperwork or legal matters, but that’s why we’re here. We can relieve you of those burdens and represent you in your claim for monetary compensation. Why not schedule a free consultation with us so we can evaluate your case and determine where to start?

posted by Patti at 1:53 PM

Monday, April 7, 2008

How Long for Mesothelioma to be Detected?

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. It grows slowly. It is usually not detected until decades after a person is exposed to asbestos . If you spend any time in the vicinity of asbestos, you are breathing air which contains asbestos fibers. For example, on a construction site, asbestos insulation was moved around, cut, attached, and so forth, sending microscopic fibers floating into the air unseen.

They lodge in the lungs. The body tries to dislodge them so they can be excreted. It sends special cells called macrophages whose job is to attack and ingest foreign bodies, making them harmless. But instead of the macrophage winning, the asbestos fibers win, killing the macrophages.

Asbestos is “inextinguishable”
The name asbestos comes from a Greek word meaning inextinguishable. It is one tough group of minerals (six in the group). It is fire-resistant, impervious to electricity, resistant to chemical damage, blocks sound, and has great fibrous strength. It is not surprising that the Greeks used it, nor that our society did. Most buildings constructed between about 1860 and 1960 used asbestos for insulating pipes and structural steel, in drywall joint compound, and in many other ways. Besides that, thousands of people worked in asbestos mines.

The mesothelium
The body has protective membranes around many structures. The lungs have one called the pleura, the abdominal cavity is lined by the peritoneum and the heart has the pericardium. A cancerous tumor growing on any of these membranes is known as a mesothelioma.

What we normally refer to as mesothelioma is cancer on the pleura, usually from breathing in those tiny asbestos fibers; but not everybody with mesothelioma has spent time working or living around asbestos. It takes many years, even decades, for the presence of those fibers to build up symptoms to the point where mesothelioma is diagnosed. There will be chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, coughing and maybe blood coughed up. A person might live with these for a long time, using over-the-counter products to minimize them.

The symptoms increase in number and intensity until procedures like chest X-rays and lung function tests finally rule out other possibilities such as tuberculosis. Mesothelioma diagnoses are increasing now, as people age and their symptoms become more severe. It might have been 50 years ago that a person worked on construction sites, but only now are they being diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Please contact us for a free case evaluation if you would like to learn more about your legal rights. We have represented many mesothelium sufferers and have long experience in negotiating and fighting for compensation for our clients.

posted by Patti at 1:18 PM

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

New website design

Hello Everybody,

We recently updated our website design and this is a test message for our new blog... more to come soon.

Thanks for stopping by,

Parker, Dumler & Kiely LLP

posted by dano at 12:46 PM