C
CELDamage
Guest
Mine is a complicated and long story. It is not the normal everyday story you might expect from someone who is extremely ill, you might even say it's the story of comic books and novels. So please bear with me and understand that I have the tendency of including too much detail.
My name is Chad Lietz. I was originally diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in 1998, but I was not officially informed until 2007.
On an ordinary night in 1998 I awoke to a dull ache in both my kidneys and the feeling of constipation. When I went to the bathroom I could not go and the pain suddenly became so severe I could hardly stand up. My wife took me to the emergency room (ER) and after several tests I was admitted and the next day the pain was gone and I was left feeling like it was all a bad dream. The gastrointestinal specialist did a colonoscopy and took a tissue sample and confirmed I had Crohn's, but the doctor was in the process of retiring and transferred my records to the doctor taking over all of his active patients. The new doctor never called me of con tacted me.
I never experienced another issue until July of 2005. After my fathers death I started to feel some abdominal cramping and unusual pain. When I returned to work the pain continued and one morning I came in to my office and the pain became so severe at first I felt my apendix had burst. I was rushed to the ER and on the way I passed out twice from the pain. Eventually I found that I had a kidney stone not a ruptured apendix. This would start events that would cause me to experience 3 to 5 stones a month.
After passing my 5th stone in less than a month I went to a nyphrologist who told me to drink more water. I went for a second apinion and the answer was the same. Then one morning I passed what looked like red sand. It just poured out, wet sand. I went to the ER and they had never seen anything like it. The nyphrologist had never seen anything like it. So they sent me to a specialty kidney clinic in Spokane WA. Before I went I did some research on the internet and I found that the sand was uric acid crystals. Uric acid crystals large enough to see with the naked eye is extremely rare, uric acid stones are also rare I found. Then I came across a blog that said these two things are evidence of highly advanced and severe Crohn's disease. When I went to my appointment the doctor told me I was crazy and that i needed to drink more water. He also told me that it was absolutely impossible that Crohn's was the cause of the crystals or the stones.
Two days later I was in the hospital having a large stone removed. It was 100% uric acid. So I asked my family doctor to do a colonoscopy and take a tissue biopsy to check for Crohn's. At first he denied, but just before I was to leave the hospital I became severly ill. They rushed my in to emergency exploratory surgery and found that my gallbladder had a blockage and my pancrease had a blockage as well. Because thses were also signs of Crohn's listed on the page I gave my doctor he finally agreed and 2 months later they did the test.
Before the test was done however I developed extreme pain in my abdomin and was started on increasingly higher doses of pain medications.
The GI doctor who was to do the colonoscopy told me I was crazy and said that he was doing the scope against his better judgement. An hour later I awoke to find him apologizing to my wife. They had found 3 ruptures in my intestine just below the ileum, right above my right kidney. The ruptures were leaking digestive fluids on to my right kidney.
The biopsy was also posative for Crohn's and then the GI doctor came forward and disclosed that he had forgot to follow up with me when he took over for my prior GI doctor and that the tests in 1998 also showed posative for Crohn's.
Because of the kidney damage they called in a new nyphrologist. They called in a new one because I felt I could not trust any of the other ones who had failed to recognize the symnpthoms. When I met for him the first time and explained my sympthoms within 5 minutes and without knowing about my diagnois he told me that it was most likely that I had Crohn's disease. He explained that internal bleeding in the intestines causes the body to reobsorb the blood and that during the process of breaking down the blood there is a lot of uric acid created, which would then be dumped in to the kidneyes thus causing my stones and sand.
It took them 2 years to identify my condition. During which the pain had become increasingly more acute and intense.
The first treatment they started me on was Remicaid. Unfortunately Remicaid caused me to loss the feeling in my right arm and eventually caused me to go blind due to swelling in my optic nerves. After 6 treatments I stopped taking Remicaid. My original Doctor refused to change my treatment plan. He also told me that Remicaid was the best choice for me and that my complications could in no way be caused by Remicaid. His nurse on the other hand told me that she had checked with the manufacture, Centocore and that they acknowledged that Remicaid could in rare situations cause blindness and nerve damage. She told me to find another doctor. She said that Dr. Setti was acting strangely and that he had asked her to destroy records and that he was taking a very unusual interest in my file. She was fired the next day and that was my last treatment.
When Itried to find a new GI doctor, none would take me as a new patient as soon as they found out that I had been given Remicaid. I did not under stand at the time why it was that no one would accept me as a new patient. Luckily for me, my family doctor, Dr. Stanly Ling, was able to get me in at the UW Digestive Disease Center. There I saw Dr. Scott Lee. After reviewing my case he told me he would take me as a new patient even though he normally was not taking new patients at that time. He also switched me to Humira.
After starting Humira in 2007 my condition improved and I was doing great. I was almost off of the Morphine and all of my symthoms were gone. Then in September of 2008 my condition started to worsen and by November 2008 I was so sick, my employer at the time, brought me in the day before Thanks Giving and told me that they were letting me go. When I asked why they told me that I had failed to meet my job objectives. Then they told me it was because I had been unable to identify the network communication issues with the new main frame. I explained that it was not my job and that my supervisor had expressly told me that it was not my concern. I also explained that I had found the issue, but again my supervisor would not accept my conclusion that the drivers for the network interface cards was the issue. They finally said that it didn't matter and that I was probably right, but in the end I was still being let go. They explained that while I had a good court case, that they would do everything to prevent me from ever claiming a cent and that if I signed a NDA they would give me a small severence package. I realized they were right and because of my financial situation at the time I signed the NDA and walked a way. One week later I received a call from a co-worker to let me know I was right and the drivers had been found to have a memory leak.
Since November 24, 2008 I have filled 400+ applications and have had 48+ job interviews and all have ened with me being unemployable because I am on Morphine.
My condition has worsened so much in the last 8 months that I sleep up to 20 hours a day because I am so fatigued. The cooper, iron and liver enzyme levels in my blood are so high they are starting to look for other issues as being the cause to my Crohn's and other problems.
In the last 3 years I have lost 2 houses, 3 cars, 4 ATV's an RV, 5 acres or land, 3 jobs, $300,000.00 in savings, all my friends and now I am living in a small les than 800 sq. foot apartment with 3 kids and my wife. My wife wants to leave me and my kids cry all the time when they see me in so much pain. I understand that this is all too much for my wife and well, I know that tomorrow may be the day she takes the kids and walks away.
I have tried to make this story as abrubt and short as possible. Currently Ijust pray every day that they find a cure.
My name is Chad Lietz. I was originally diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in 1998, but I was not officially informed until 2007.
On an ordinary night in 1998 I awoke to a dull ache in both my kidneys and the feeling of constipation. When I went to the bathroom I could not go and the pain suddenly became so severe I could hardly stand up. My wife took me to the emergency room (ER) and after several tests I was admitted and the next day the pain was gone and I was left feeling like it was all a bad dream. The gastrointestinal specialist did a colonoscopy and took a tissue sample and confirmed I had Crohn's, but the doctor was in the process of retiring and transferred my records to the doctor taking over all of his active patients. The new doctor never called me of con tacted me.
I never experienced another issue until July of 2005. After my fathers death I started to feel some abdominal cramping and unusual pain. When I returned to work the pain continued and one morning I came in to my office and the pain became so severe at first I felt my apendix had burst. I was rushed to the ER and on the way I passed out twice from the pain. Eventually I found that I had a kidney stone not a ruptured apendix. This would start events that would cause me to experience 3 to 5 stones a month.
After passing my 5th stone in less than a month I went to a nyphrologist who told me to drink more water. I went for a second apinion and the answer was the same. Then one morning I passed what looked like red sand. It just poured out, wet sand. I went to the ER and they had never seen anything like it. The nyphrologist had never seen anything like it. So they sent me to a specialty kidney clinic in Spokane WA. Before I went I did some research on the internet and I found that the sand was uric acid crystals. Uric acid crystals large enough to see with the naked eye is extremely rare, uric acid stones are also rare I found. Then I came across a blog that said these two things are evidence of highly advanced and severe Crohn's disease. When I went to my appointment the doctor told me I was crazy and that i needed to drink more water. He also told me that it was absolutely impossible that Crohn's was the cause of the crystals or the stones.
Two days later I was in the hospital having a large stone removed. It was 100% uric acid. So I asked my family doctor to do a colonoscopy and take a tissue biopsy to check for Crohn's. At first he denied, but just before I was to leave the hospital I became severly ill. They rushed my in to emergency exploratory surgery and found that my gallbladder had a blockage and my pancrease had a blockage as well. Because thses were also signs of Crohn's listed on the page I gave my doctor he finally agreed and 2 months later they did the test.
Before the test was done however I developed extreme pain in my abdomin and was started on increasingly higher doses of pain medications.
The GI doctor who was to do the colonoscopy told me I was crazy and said that he was doing the scope against his better judgement. An hour later I awoke to find him apologizing to my wife. They had found 3 ruptures in my intestine just below the ileum, right above my right kidney. The ruptures were leaking digestive fluids on to my right kidney.
The biopsy was also posative for Crohn's and then the GI doctor came forward and disclosed that he had forgot to follow up with me when he took over for my prior GI doctor and that the tests in 1998 also showed posative for Crohn's.
Because of the kidney damage they called in a new nyphrologist. They called in a new one because I felt I could not trust any of the other ones who had failed to recognize the symnpthoms. When I met for him the first time and explained my sympthoms within 5 minutes and without knowing about my diagnois he told me that it was most likely that I had Crohn's disease. He explained that internal bleeding in the intestines causes the body to reobsorb the blood and that during the process of breaking down the blood there is a lot of uric acid created, which would then be dumped in to the kidneyes thus causing my stones and sand.
It took them 2 years to identify my condition. During which the pain had become increasingly more acute and intense.
The first treatment they started me on was Remicaid. Unfortunately Remicaid caused me to loss the feeling in my right arm and eventually caused me to go blind due to swelling in my optic nerves. After 6 treatments I stopped taking Remicaid. My original Doctor refused to change my treatment plan. He also told me that Remicaid was the best choice for me and that my complications could in no way be caused by Remicaid. His nurse on the other hand told me that she had checked with the manufacture, Centocore and that they acknowledged that Remicaid could in rare situations cause blindness and nerve damage. She told me to find another doctor. She said that Dr. Setti was acting strangely and that he had asked her to destroy records and that he was taking a very unusual interest in my file. She was fired the next day and that was my last treatment.
When Itried to find a new GI doctor, none would take me as a new patient as soon as they found out that I had been given Remicaid. I did not under stand at the time why it was that no one would accept me as a new patient. Luckily for me, my family doctor, Dr. Stanly Ling, was able to get me in at the UW Digestive Disease Center. There I saw Dr. Scott Lee. After reviewing my case he told me he would take me as a new patient even though he normally was not taking new patients at that time. He also switched me to Humira.
After starting Humira in 2007 my condition improved and I was doing great. I was almost off of the Morphine and all of my symthoms were gone. Then in September of 2008 my condition started to worsen and by November 2008 I was so sick, my employer at the time, brought me in the day before Thanks Giving and told me that they were letting me go. When I asked why they told me that I had failed to meet my job objectives. Then they told me it was because I had been unable to identify the network communication issues with the new main frame. I explained that it was not my job and that my supervisor had expressly told me that it was not my concern. I also explained that I had found the issue, but again my supervisor would not accept my conclusion that the drivers for the network interface cards was the issue. They finally said that it didn't matter and that I was probably right, but in the end I was still being let go. They explained that while I had a good court case, that they would do everything to prevent me from ever claiming a cent and that if I signed a NDA they would give me a small severence package. I realized they were right and because of my financial situation at the time I signed the NDA and walked a way. One week later I received a call from a co-worker to let me know I was right and the drivers had been found to have a memory leak.
Since November 24, 2008 I have filled 400+ applications and have had 48+ job interviews and all have ened with me being unemployable because I am on Morphine.
My condition has worsened so much in the last 8 months that I sleep up to 20 hours a day because I am so fatigued. The cooper, iron and liver enzyme levels in my blood are so high they are starting to look for other issues as being the cause to my Crohn's and other problems.
In the last 3 years I have lost 2 houses, 3 cars, 4 ATV's an RV, 5 acres or land, 3 jobs, $300,000.00 in savings, all my friends and now I am living in a small les than 800 sq. foot apartment with 3 kids and my wife. My wife wants to leave me and my kids cry all the time when they see me in so much pain. I understand that this is all too much for my wife and well, I know that tomorrow may be the day she takes the kids and walks away.
I have tried to make this story as abrubt and short as possible. Currently Ijust pray every day that they find a cure.
