| Hi Lloyd!
Well all I can say is that you've been warned about answering
emails from people you don't know, but you answered and now
I will try to exercise all my self-restraint and not spam
you with email. But I do have a lot that I want to share with
others and I will try to put together some thoughts, stories,
jokes etc. in a postable form and send them to you to dispose
of as you see fit.
In my first email I didn't really tell you about my run-in
with the Peg Intron Ribaviron combo therapy. Don't let my
light hearted mention of it hide the fact that it was hands
down the worst thing I have ever done to myself. It kicked
my butt and after 5 months the doc took me off it.
That was six months ago. I felt better for a period of time
afterward, but now have rapidly lost my energy, stamina and
general zest for life. My stomach feels bloated and I can't
escape the intuitive feeling that something is badly haywire.
I can't continue working much longer and will order the NatCel
Thymus and related products in a last ditch effort to re-gain
my life, as soon as I work out some details. It's that or
go on
disability and wait to die.
I went to a doctor because of years of vague and varied symptoms.
I got the diagnosis and did most of my research on mainstream
medical sites on the internet. I believed that the combo therapy
was my best hope even though I had read the studies and knew
the success rate was dismal. I did not really know that there
could be complications that would not go away other than suicide.
There are serious debilitating consequences. And even now,
it is easy for those complications to be blamed on the disease,
not the therapy, because the liver controls so many different
processes. But I am definately worse off now than before treatment.
That feeling of Sheol, of my approaching death, is very sobering.
My experiences with the medical machine were like everybody
else's. At its best its a rather mechanical assembly line
type of thing, and at its worst it kills people. Hospitals
are very dismal if you do not have family or friends to spend
a lot of time with you, co-ordinate your care and provide
for personal comforts. They have no time for comfort or for
pleasantries for a lot of reasons. They think they are doing
a lot more than they
are.
This state of affairs is not conducive to health and recovery
and hence there is a real attempt to move people through and
get them out so they can get better. This is bolstered by
the insurance industry's desire to reduce stays and thereby
reduce costs. That is one of the main successes of the system,
that they have realized that staying in their care too long
is dangerous. Do the mechanical work and turn them over to
some one who cares.
I believed I was getting to the point in my life where I had
something to offer humanity before I went to the doctor or
anything. I have always studied people and the human predicament
and now I finally feel that I may have some worthwhile observations.
In some ways, this face-off with death has been an agent of
order in my thinking and certain things seem more definate.
Like the value of fidelity, wholesome discipline, hope for
the future, faith in a plan, mercy for the mis-guided, the
willingness to take any one into your heart, into your family,
bearing one anothers burdens, and all the other faces of love.
"How can you love the Father if you cannot love your
fellow man?" You are doing well and I hope that I can
write some things to inspire you and our family in our quest
for life.
M.P.
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