Alphas, Friends & Family
Lost and Found
In 1994, Dennis Pollock was not looking forward to attending his first Alpha-1 support group meeting. He was 34 years old, and it had been less than a year since he had been diagnosed with Alpha-1. His pulmonologist had told him that Alpha-1 was extremely rare, and that he could expect to live only another few years.
Raised in Lawton, Oklahoma, Pollock was a wrestler in high school. On his 18th birthday in 1977, he joined the Coast Guard, where he worked in search and rescue and law enforcement. At age 25, he began to notice something was wrong. “The Coast Guard was becoming hard for me, “ he recalled. “Climbing on and off boats, boarding ships on heavy seas — the strain was becoming just too much. After nine years in the service, I decided I couldn’t re-enlist. The military doctor who examined me when I was discharged in 1986 told me I was healthy except for some asthma.”
Pollock went to work for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Lawton as an electronics technician. The doctor who gave him his first company exam had some suspicions that something might be wrong, but Pollock passed the physical and went to work.
But it wasn’t long before the 27-year-old realized that something was, indeed, wrong. He tired easily. Climbing up and down ladders wore him out. He decided it was time to see a specialist.
On his very first visit to a pulmonologist, Pollock was tested for and diagnosed with Alpha-1. “The doctor told me I was his first Alpha-1 patient, and that most people with the disease didn’t live past age 40,” said Pollock. “I was told that I’d need to give up my job at Goodyear, because working in a dirty, dusty tire plant would further damage my lungs and affect my breathing. I had a daughter, Tara. Retirement seemed an impossibility. It really weighed on me.”
As his health declined, Pollock’s marriage deteriorated. “The strain of my illness was just too much. We had a son, Tyler. But soon after, we divorced.”
In early 1994, an Alpha-1 support group in Oklahoma City invited Pollock to join.
“I didn’t want to go. I thought it would be a roomful of sickly people with oxygen tanks. I thought it would just be depressing. So I put them off,” he said. But finally, he went.
“I felt at home right away,” Pollock said. “I was just out there, lost. And suddenly I felt like I belonged to something. Many of my fears were lifted at that first meeting. Just talking to people and seeing some who were 60 years old and active, still living with Alpha-1, was an incredible feeling. That support group meeting was the best thing that could have happened to me.”
Pollock attended an Alpha-1 Association National Conference in Boston, where he networked with some Alphas who were military veterans, just like him. They told him that he could qualify for benefits through the Veterans Administration. Meanwhile, his local support group helped him to learn how he could qualify for Medicare and Social Security to supplement the insurance he had through his employer.
Through the help of other Alphas, Pollock did manage to retire from Goodyear in 1997. “I just couldn’t do my work anymore. My lung function had dropped to 20 percent. I could no longer even push my toolbox around. I was lucky to have gotten so much support and advice, and lucky that Goodyear continued to carry me on their insurance.”
Another stroke of luck was in store:
On one of his frequent trips to the hospital, he struck up a friendship with a nurse he met there. She became his best friend, often helping him with his young son. “I married Shelley four years ago,” he says. “When she married me, it was before my transplant. Things could have gone either way for me. But she had faith.”
He received a lung transplant in August, 2004, at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. The day after his surgery, he was off the ventilator; within a week he was walking a mile; he was released after 10 days.
Since then, Pollock has become a Cub Scout leader and has gone hiking and camping. “I see the world in a different way, now.”
Prior to his transplant, Pollock kept himself going by talking to other Alphas. He became one of the first Alpha-1 Association Peer Guides. He attended training sessions and became a member of the Support Group Leader Advisory Council. He is now on the Board of Directors of the Alpha-1 Association.
“Dennis has been a staunch advocate for the Alpha-1 Community,” said Alpha-1 Foundation co-founder John Walsh. “He has set a tremendous example for all of us. He and his wife, Shelley have dedicated themselves to building their local Alpha-1 community and support group. They have organized fundraising efforts to support research through our Building Friends for a Cure program, and have truly inspired us.”
Last year, Pollock was presented with the Inspiration Award by the Alpha-1 Association at their National Conference. “They’ve really given me an award for things that other people have done for me,” Pollock said. “I was inspired by people like John Walsh and Susan Stanley. They had the disease and were still doing things for the community. I watched people who had transplants and survived.
“I’m a happy and contented person. My life is a blessing today. I know some others don’t feel that way, but I want to show them that being positive can help.”
Pollock is still a Peer Guide, still on the Group Leader Advisory Council, still shares his experiences to help Alphas.
“I pay back the Alpha-1 community any way I can. I dedicate at least three days a week strictly to Alpha-1. There’s no pay, and it’s no chore.
“When I think of where I was – the fear and the loneliness I once felt – it’s a pleasure to do what I can for the Alpha-1 community. That community saved my life. I am me because of Alpha-1.”
Article first published in Alpha-1 Magazine in Fall 2008
