Hi all:
Please forgive me if this is not an appropriate place to post this
question, but I have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome which
started abruptly 2 years ago after a small acute mercury exposure. The
exposure was from a mercury thermometer, which broke and left me exposed
unknowingly to heated Hg for about 5 minutes. This was in a lab setting. I
talked to a toxicologist who told me that even if the Hg was heated, it
was too small an amount to do me any harm. But I think the coincidence and
timing is hard to ignore and has me quite worried. My illness started
about 30 minutes after the exposure and hasn't remitted since. I am on
long-term disability and feel pretty awful. Any thoughts on this? Should I
see an environmental physician? By the way, I had a Hg blood test about 2
weeks after the exposure which was within normal limits, but I have heard
that a blood test for Hg might not tell the whole story. If this is the
wrong place for this post, I apologize.
Simon Franklin
slyfrank at aol.com
