Advanced
Studies In Human MisBehavior
or You've Got Hepatitis C!!
July 17, 2004
Lloyd
I thank you so much for the immediate attention to my book order. Not
only was it sent right away, but the additional book was a real surprise
and an uplift. I ordered Saturday and received it Wednesday on the
east coast. After dealing with corporate medicine, this is
really impressive. You know how it goes, "This is an emergency,
we'll set you up with an appointment 4 weeks from tomorrow."
I read the book quickly, having become familiar with much on the website
and really enjoyed your sense of humor. The medical industry is
a vast sea of comedic material if the subject matter wasn't so tragic.
I was diagnosed in April of 2003 and found your web-site soon after but
didn't read it thoroughly. I just put it in Favorites. I had a certain
amount of faith that despite the idiocy of corporate America, the industry
was still my best shot at a cure. I thought that the basic desire of people
to be decent and provide a certain minimum amount of give-a-shit would
keep the system working honestly enough to be the best chance at a cure.
I guess I under-estimated the deleterious effects of disco music, or
something equally sinister, on the fabric of our society.
I am/was in the contracting business, and it
always kind of amazed me that anything ever got built given the corporate
mindset. It didn't take long inside the "Mill" of the medical
industry for me to realize that only squeaky wheels and palms got greased
and that I was kind of on my own once the treatment started. Looking
back, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I was a mean and ornery
SOB to all the right people and they took me off that crap.
It would be hilarious if I wasn't in such sorry shape. I had finally
developed a nasty rash and the Gastroidiologist backed away from me into
the corner and told me treatment was done, that my levels were going back
up, and please don't make me look at that rash anymore. I shoulda
showed him my toenail fungus right then and there but he never gave me
a chance. I never thought I could be so glad to see a treatment
for a "life-threatening" illness fail.
I began to feel better and better and showing up for work more and more
and after a couple months I felt better than I had in years! I knew
that I still had the disease but I was just hoping the good feelings would
last.
Every now and then I would drink a few beers, but it didn't sit to good
and I rarely drank more than two. The feel good only lasted about a month
or maybe six weeks and the fatigue came back hard.
I get tired from the least activity and then the joints on the left side
of my body get sore. If I work through it I will just be suffering until
I allow myself to rest for an inordinately long time. I find it odd that
the left side has always been affected more, even before I knew what was
wrong.
I originally went to my family doc because of vague and varied symptoms,
much on my left side. He did a battery of tests for heavy metals and other
things and it came back positive for Hep C.
I had also noticed over the years that mosquitos didn't seem to find me
particularly tasty and would prefer my companions over me. I just thoughtI
had a convenient BO, but maybe they don't like lousy blood. The more I
have read about the wide range of functions the liver has, the more I
realize that I have probably had flareups for years and years. I most
likely caught it from IV drug use around 1975. I was in an isolated area
in Montana and I know who was doing what in that little community. My
wife at the time was diagnosed before I was, and the Vietnam vet that
I most likely got it from has been dead for about 15 years. I have been
married three times since I quit that behavior and none of my other exwives
or current one have the disease, nor do any of my 5 children. I don't
believe 1a is sexually transmitted.
About a month ago I had four beers on a Monday and began feeling bloated
on Tuesday. On Wednesday I complained to my apprentice who had been carrying
me for the last year, that I felt like I had a hangover that wouldn't
go away. On Thursday the pressure was in my chest as well, and I went
to my doctor's partner who thought it might be a heart attack and he sent
me to an emergency room. That was great.
I spent the night in the hallway on a gurney hooked up to a monitor that
kept quitting and freezing my dingleberries off. I finally put my clothes
back on under my gown. It is obvious to anyone stuck in there and not
thoroughly drugged that many of the hospital emplyees are only concerned
about the same thing my guys are. Getting through an 8 hour shift doing
as little as possible. I could have moved through that hospital faster
with a piano tied to my butt and my feet shackled together. I finally
got a room at 4:30 in the morning but was back out in the hall at 7:30
waiting for "tests". The whole morning was consumed with waiting
in hallways interrupted by brief comedic relief, ie; testing.
24 hours later I walked home knowing that I have a wonderfully healthy
heart, low cholestrol, ultra low blood pressure when I'm laying down (Are
you sure you don't feel dizzy?) and I still feel bloated but not as bad.
Rest seems to help. Its been two and a half weeks now, I haven't had
a drop of alcohol, and I still feel bloated and can hardly drag myself
to work to dispatch my guys and then come home. Maybe all the hospital
staff has hep C and chronic fatigue. That would explain a lot.
My current wife is a peach. She actually has a lot in common with your
traveling companion in the book except that mine doesn't have the rich
taste. She consumes beer at an amazing rate and refuses to believe there
is anything wrong with me that a kick in the ass can't fix. I need the
motivation but it gets a little much sometimes. Anyway she slipped in
the rain on the back step and was just out of it for a week on muscle
relaxers and pain killers. She couldn't stay awake long enough to remember
she used to drink beer and I had a little more free time. I still had
your web site
on my favorites and finally looked at it. A day later I ordered the book
and now I am ready to make the changes in my life that will be necessary.
This is gonna go over like a brick glider around here, but hey, its never
to soon to be a crotchety pain in the ass to your loved ones. I'd feel
terrible if something happened and I missed my opportunity make them remember
me.
I don't know much about my blood work except that my virus level was initially
about 2.9 million and that it went way down on the Peg-Intron Ribaviron
therapy and then it began to increase. I was on the s**t for 5 months.
To tell the truth I don't really care about tests. I want to feel well
enough to raise hell at work instead of at home and have a chance to rack
up some nice debts before I croak. Re-appropriation of inheritances is
another industry I don't want to support. I'll make sure my loved ones
are glad I'm gone.
Well I've rambled on for quite a maddeningly long time now without any
real point other than possibly convincing you that the disease can affect
the mind as well as the liver, but surprisingly enough I do have a question.
You mentioned to one writer that bloating is often a build-up of lymphatic fluids rather than water retention and must be removed manually. How can I find out? My doc is ok and has always been pretty willing to spend my insurance company's money, but I don't really want to go to the mill again.
My belly has gotten noticeably bigger in the last year but I've been
pretty inactive and thought I was just getting fat until it got uncomfortable.
The bloated feeling is about a month old and I haven't been to the
doctor since the heart attack fiasco.
Thanks again for excellent service in getting me your books. If you want
to hear anymore of the amusing anecdotes surrounding my milking, I mean
treatment, let me know. I'll search through the brainfog and if I can't
remember any I'll make up a couple good ones that will be as accurate
as any corporate prospectus.
M. P.