I sit here wondering where this infection of leukemia came from and how did it find a home in my body. As far as I know I am the only person in the Peterson clan to ever have it. In fact any kind of cancer is rather rare. A couple of my 2nd cousins had cancer of the breast. but they were sisters and if it is hereditary it is possible they could have inherited elsewhere. I have to think that my infection has been induced by some environmental reason. So where does one start to look , what have I done or come in contact with over the years that triggered the infection. Looking back now I can think of dozens of things that may have been to blame and maybe none of them. Anything that I might say is purely speculation.
Up until W.W.2 I led a very low key existence so there should not be anything that even comes close to being responsible. During the war we were subjected to some of the modern chemicals such as D.D T. Our whole area in the Philippines was sprayed with an airplane to kill mosquitoes. We also had it delivered in bulk so that it could be used in our slit trench latrines. We operated on the principal if a little was good more was better to the point that your trip to the poles each day was made as short and uncomplicated as you could make it. If you didn't any exposed openings of your bod y would suffer a burning sensation. After the war we used DDT in the barns to keep the fly population down. At first it was very effective but the flies soon became resistant and we had to use different chemical that was even stronger Chloro-dane, this was one of the first chemicals banned as being a source of cancer. I will say that I only used it once and not more than a pound or two. That pretty much covers the insecticides that I used myself. Herbicides is another story the first one we used was 24D a very effective chemical in the control of broad leaf weeds. We never used any precaution in handling it such as rubber gloves or mask. If a nozzle plugged you simply took it off and blew the obstruction out backwards with your mouth. I a lso used five gallons of 245T or "Agent Orange" as it is now called. This was ten years before Viet Nam. Over the years there has been a whole array of herbicides used but in latter years we did start to use a little caution but you still had to deal with drift if the wind was blowing. Yes I even had a little contact with asbestos when it was necessar y to cut several sheets that we used in the barn.
The question is did one or more of the above chemicals trigger this onslaught of leukemia or did it come from some other source ? Who knows , all that I can say that it is here and has to be dealt with to the best of the Doctors ability and my strength, Gods will, to combat it. All that I can do now is to wait and pray to God for his healing grace.