I went to work in the Oil Field in January of 1981, working on land on a Workover Rig. Workover rigs are used to pull tubing for repair or replacement of rods, pumps and tubular goods which are subject to wear and corrosion.The picture below is a Work-over Rig

I had been working on the Rig for about 9 months when one day a well flowed (blow out) and we had to cap it off. We did not have the Blow out preventers on. Just got totally soaked in crude oil. We finally got it under control and started work again. You don't get to clean up, you just wear the oil the rest of the day and take a bath with Go-Jo when you get home that night. The picture below is what a blow out looks like.

About a week or so later my nose started running and for about a month I was feeling worse
and worse till I finally went to a Doctor and he put me in the hospital, took an x-ray, and told me I had Double pnuemonia.
He said something was making my nose run and it was feeding my chest and it turns into pnuemonia.

I found out later it's called petroleum pneumonia.

I got over that and went back to work.

About a year later I was in another Flowing Well and the same thing happened again.

I went back to the Doctor. He took another x-ray and said I had pnuemonia again.

I told the Doctor it must be the crude oil.
He told me to quit and find another way to make a living.

Well I didn't and about 9 months after that it happened again. I went back to the Doctor again and he admited me to the hospital again, took an x-ray and This time he took me into the x-ray room and pointed to a little spot on my lungs and said that is the beginning of emphysema. So I figured I better quit my job. I never had that problem since. That was at the end of 1983.

I had a friend tell me about the Allergy Clinic at LSU Medical Center, In Shreveport, La. so I went there to get allergy tests done. Met a really good Doctor who cared. He ran a bunch of test for things like pollen, trees and grass etc. Stuff I was around in our area, and they were all negative. He said, "Ok, you come back in 2 weeks and I will tell you what in crude oil is doing that to you". Two weeks later I showed up and He told me " I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is, I found the test I need to run. The bad news is, I can not run it." I asked Why? He said "Because the FDA protects industry in this country. LSU recieves government money. I would probably loose my job and the hospital would be fined. You will have to have the test ran outside this country, Switzerland or Germany would be best cause they are way ahead of us in this field, Sorry, I wish I could help". Well, needless to say I had no way of making that trip. So I left.

I moved to Nashville, TN in 1987. I lived and worked there till 1998. I worked in Precast Concrete for about 5 years and the rest I was a painter.

I moved to Florida in 1998. I made a living painting Houses. I had not seen a Doctor since 1984. In Jan. of 2000 I came down with the Flu. I went to a walk in clinic. They took an x-ray and told me I was border line chronic Emphysema.

In June 2003 I came down sick again and went to the same Walk in Clinic again. They took an x-ray. I was told I have chronic Emphysema.