Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 10, 2003 12:00 AM
Before she went to the Persian Gulf as an Air Force reservist in
Desert Storm, September Amyx feared the worst: death.
But after a dozen years of being so sick she felt like she was "walking
hip deep in water," Amyx realizes that her fear was misplaced.
"I'm living death," said the 46-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills woman,
who recently moved to California.
A victim of "Gulf War Syndrome," Amyx has spent years trying to
pinpoint the source of her never-ending fatigue, anxiety, depression
and "fibro fog," a condition, which she says stems from fibromyalgia,
that doesn't allow her to think clearly.
Tens of thousands of servicemen and women returned from Desert Storm
with various ailments lumped together as "Gulf War Syndrome." The
condition has since been renamed "Multisymptom Undiagnosed Illness"
and is characterized by fatigue, insomnia, headaches, short-term
memory loss, muscle aches, vague skin rashes, weight loss and gastrointestinal
problems such as constipation and diarrhea.
The symptoms still plague veterans like Amyx, a reservist who loaded
and unloaded equipment in large C-5 cargo planes bound for the Persian
Gulf beginning in August 1990. She flew multiple missions to and
from the gulf as oil fields burned.
The 36-year-old Tempe man was an Air Force pilot who flew several
missions to the gulf beginning in August 1990. By May 1991, Schmuck
returned to the states 40 pounds lighter, suffering from insomnia,
fatigue and muscle aches that made sitting in a chair excruciating.
"I had no meat on my bones," he said. "I felt like I had brain fog."
After researching his illnesses, a process that "was wearing me
out just trying to find a cause," Schmuck believes he was poisoned
by a preservative used in the multiple vaccines he was given before
serving in the gulf. The preservative, thimerisol, is an ethylmercury-based
compound that was used in childhood vaccines until 1999. Vaccine-makers,
under pressure from Congress, removed thimerisol from children's
vaccines because of its potential risk as a neurotoxin.
But the preservative remains in many adult vaccines, and Schmuck
said he believes he received more than the allowable limits by getting
several vaccinations at the same time.
"I'm the link between Gulf War Syndrome and autism," he said, referring
to theories that ethylmercury in childhood vaccinations may be responsible
for the growing number of autistic kids.
But Dr. Nanette Auriemma, a doctor with the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical
Centerin Phoenix who has treated more than 200 Gulf War Syndrome
patients for more than two years, is doubtful thimerisol is to blame.
Of all the studies looking for a cause, not one of them has pointed
to thimerisol, she said. Instead, environmental toxins are the likely
cause, she added.
"The problem is that most of these cases are just vague symptoms,"
Auriemma said.
Rather than trying to treat the varied symptoms, Auriemma and other
doctors refer patients to specialists for individual health problems
after adding them to a national registry of veterans with the syndrome.
More research is needed, she said, to find a source for the illnesses.
"I know that feeling of desperation that they get," Auriemma said
of her patients. "It's very frustrating for the patients and the
doctors when the tests keep coming back normal."
Recently, researchers found a link between Vietnam soldiers exposed
to herbicides such as Agent Orange and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Some believe chemical exposure in the gulf may someday be linked
to cancer the same way.
Now a commercial pilot, Schmuck said he overcame the syndrome by
having several mercury fillings replaced in his teeth and undergoing
a controversial process known as chelation to remove heavy metals,
namely mercury, from his body.
"This mercury had obviously gotten to my brain," he said. "They
(doctors) have been trying to say it's all in our heads, and I do
believe it's in our heads. I felt like somebody had poisoned me."
After regaining weight, strength and energy, Schmuck got his pilot's
license reinstated.
But he worries about troops headed to the gulf for a possible war
in Iraq.
"All you can do is ask for thimerisol-free (vaccines) if you're
due for multiple vaccines," he said.
Other veterans share Schmuck's concerns about another crop of vets
returning home ill after the Iraq conflict is over.
"What I seem to be hearing from Persian Gulf vets is that they're
very concerned for the people going over there now," Auriemma said.
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