Nick's Story - Silica Case Study
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You know… 33 and I'm feeling like a 70 year old man.
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Yeah, spent my younger days, just, you know doing what young people do I guess.
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And then eventually, I, one of my mates went out on site with him
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And he needed a help – bit of help and he was a stonemason
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and I went with him, loved the job… like I said 'you know, this is great, I'd really, you know if you can get me a job.'
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'You know, speak to your employer or what not.'
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And eventually I got into it.
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Was given a grinder, paper mask and, you know, start cutting and what not.
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However, you know talking about the um… the ventilation side of things when, you know, 2006,
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there wasn't much going on, as in, you know, like filtration, air you know clean air and what not.
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So, you know, you'd be set up on a trek on a stool, put your pieces down, mark out cut outs,
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polished openings, what not
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and um, just, you know, start cutting I guess.
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And you get out of there looking like Casper the ghost.
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And I woke up one morning, had my eyes open, I was lying in bed – I couldn't move.
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It was like, you know, waking up from having a operation in the hospitals.
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You know when you wake up from the anaesthetics.
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Yeah, you just – your eyes are open but you can't move.
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So, I was like that and um, I eventually said to my wife:
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'You know, can you sort of just like kick me over, push me over the side of the bed, 'cause I can't move.'
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And then, after 10 or 15 minutes, I got to the side of the bed.
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Went to put my socks on and I couldn't move my hands,
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yeah, couldn't put my socks on, couldn't put shoes on, I couldn't turn taps… um – I was a mess.
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Couldn't do anything.
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You know, I was in tears, I was in so much pain
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and then eventually I got admitted to hospital.
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I went to hospital; they weren't sure what was going on.
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They could see that my inflammation markers were all over the shop and this and that
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and… you know, my wife's also a nurse, so.
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You know, you're still young, I was 33 at the time,
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didn't think much of it, but I knew I was in a lot of pain.
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Just in the CT scans, you could see, you know, scarring, little bit of it and nodules and what not
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so, yeah, he sent that off to another specialist.
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He said: 'Look, I believe that its silicosis and you should stop work and not expose yourself to anymore dust and what not.'
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And that's been the process.
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So not only do I got silicosis, which is the lung disease, which is terminal.
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I've got an autoimmune disease that possibly could be terminal, you know, could turn that way.
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And I'm having those symptoms, so it's very…
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You know, I don't try to think about it too much and what not. I just take day by day as it is and um…
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You know just, I really hope for the best
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'Cause I, you know, I wanna see my kids grow up and you know, see all those milestones, I guess.