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Chest pains after serving in gulf Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.post-trib.com/cgi-bin/pto-story/news/z1/11-11-03_z1_news_01.htmlhttp://www.post-trib.com/cgi-bin/pto-story/news/z1/11-11-03_z1_news_01.html
War comes home
Nov. 11, 2003
By Sharlonda L. Waterhouse / Post-Tribune staff writer
Army soldier Orlando Munoz, 26, carries his inhaler daily. He never knows when his chest will tighten in pain and make his breaths shallow.
Like many soldiers returning from the Iraq, Munoz is experiencing respiratory problems of unknown origin.
To complicate matters, he also suffers constant eye pain, which his doctors attribute to bacteria and grains from too many sand storms.
But Munoz isn’t angry about the lingering conditions that may plague him for years or alter his quality of life.
On this Veterans Day —
the third consecutive one where America has been at war —
the Lake Station reservist says it’s just a part of a soldier’s risk.
“I accept it as part of the sacrifice. I mean I hope the military can do something about it, but I feel lucky that I came out alive,” Munoz said.
Munoz said he and other soldiers must face the grim reality that if you’re not killed or injured in war, you might come back and notice some mystery illness or condition.
Gary’s Donna Thomas, who served in the U.S. Army during Desert Storm, knows that.
More than a dozen years after she left the Gulf, she still breaks out in rashes.
She doesn’t know if they are a result of sand fleas, pesticides, or the nerve pills she had to swallow to protect against chemical warfare.
“This,” she said, pointing to the dark spots on her hand at the Crown Point Veterans Affairs clinic, “could be a complication related to that. We don’t know.”
But Thomas said post-Gulf War conditions suffered by Desert Storm vets “are mild compared to what current soldiers may face.”
Munoz’s condition is moderate, so far. He has not been hospitalized as scores of other soldiers have been.
Still, the husband and father of a 1-year-old daughter has had to visit the hospital emergency room for shortness of breath and tightness in his chest — most recently last week.
In addition, he suffers blurred vision and eye irritation from what doctors believe may be sand granules embedded in his eye.
These are not problems he had before being deployed, he said.
Munoz takes medication four times a day to keep breathing problems at bay. So far, his doctor hasn’t tagged a reason for the shortness of breath. Munoz fears he inhaled too much sand.
“Sand consists of very fine particles,” said Helena Sivilano, a nurse practitioner with the VA in Chicago. “If you breathe in too much, you could develop inflammation in the lungs, and it could lead to scarring that could compromise your breathing.”
While Munoz has experienced asthma-like breathing problems, other soldiers in Iraq were hospitalized with a mysterious pneumonia. In August, The Associated Press reported at least 100 soldiers had been stricken and the Army surgeon general’s office was sending a medical team to Iraq to investigate the cause.
While officials try to find the cause of the outbreak, the Army stepped up health advisories, urging soldiers to avoid dehydration, to be careful when dealing with dust and to stop smoking.
Munoz was first sent to the Gulf in early 2002 as the U.S. waged Operation Enduring Freedom after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A year later, he moved toward Baghdad, continuing his deployment with the war in Iraq.
He said he didn’t notice his ailments, however, until he returned from duty in September.
“When you’re in Iraq there are so many other things to worry about,” he said.
When he sought treatment a month ago, his doctor immediately asked if he’d been overseas.
“I had difficult breathing every day, and I went to my doctor ... I told him I was just getting back from war. He said the sand storms could definitely be the cause of it.”
Tests are still being run as Munoz seeks medical claims from the government.
The eye and breathing problems are beginning to affect life activities, like playing sports with friends and watching TV.
“When I go to play basketball, I’m not going to be running up and down the court. And when I do housework, I feel extremely tired,” he said.
His doctors will try to remove embedded sand granules in Munoz’s eye in January, he said.
“There are (cells) growing over a grain in the black part of my eye,” Munoz said.
“I see blurriness most of the time, and I have itching. It hurts.”
Dr. Thomas Stelmac, an Chicago-based optometrist who works with veterans, said sand can indeed become lodged in the eye: “Then tissue grows around it and acts as a buffer.”
Stelmac said small organisms from exposure to sand can cause itching around the eyes and in other skin sites.
Munoz, who now works for Midway Airport’s homeland security team, said because masks and goggles were “precious commodities” in Iraq, he wore his only on necessary occasions to preserve them.
But just walking on sand “can stir up clouds because it’s so soft,” he said.
And sand storms would whip up without warning. Munoz said once he endured constant sand storms for five consecutive days.
He said the result of that is making life hard for his wife, Marilyn Munoz, and their daughter.
“She’s concerned, although she tries not to express it,” he said. “I’m just glad I can see my daughter and still have enough energy to play with her.”
Reach Reporter Sharlonda L. Waterhouse at 648-3107 or swaterhouse@post-trib.com.
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