During the 2020 plandemic, I started having digestive issues with frequent diarrhea. Doctors would not see me in office, and the hospitals here were closed except for covid patients. I had an internet consult with a GI doc, but that did not result in any diagnosis or treatment, but suggested I have a colonoscopy when the hospital reopened for elective procedures. When that happened, he diagnosed me with crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.
About a week later, I woke up and my heart rate was 170 bpm. I thought I was having a serious heart problem and had my wife call an ambulance for me. I remember walking to the ambulance and thats the last thing I remember for the next 11 days. When I woke up again after 11 days, I was totally paralyzed and didn't know what had happened but I knew I was in the ICU and they told me I had a colostomy. While I was under their care, I suffered 24 blood clots in my legs and 3 pulmonary embolisms. A surgeon called me on the phone and told me I needed another surgery immediately or I would die that night. I told him no, and my wife backed me up on my decision. So they sent me to hospice. Well, I didn't die that night, and after about a month, I was sent to a rehab. During my time in rehab, the nurses all expected I would die. I found a swelling on my pelvis which I didn't have before and the rehab doctor told me it as a hernia I had for years. I told him I did not have a previous hernia, and sent a picture of it to my wife. She convinced the doctor that it should be investigated whereupon they sent me back to the hospital where they tried to reduce the hernia, but discovered it wasn't a hernia. Cat scans showed it was a huge pool of pus in my abdomen. Drains were inserted and over a liter of fluid was drained out. That's the point where I started to recover. Two months later, I could walk a few steps and operate a wheel chair and they sent me home.
Other losses were my finger tips which developed gang-green. My wife would not let them amputate my fingers, and they mostly recovered but I did lose some of my fingertips. I was a musician in local bands most of my life and now I can no longer play my bass, guitar and pedal steel. I also lost half the visual field in my left eye, probably because of a stroke while there. My muscle strength has not returned in four years, so I cannot run my machine shop equipment.
As for the colostomy, its the biggest deficit which has resulted in the loss of my freedom. Because it is unreliable, uncontrollable, and unpredictable, I can't trust going anywhere for more than a short amount of time, nor can I predict when that time window is going to happen. I am a prisoner to it.
In short, everything that made me ME is gone.
After this ordeal, the GI doc told me that I had to take Humira for the rest of my life. I refused, know that Humira was antibodies which lowers TNF-alpha. Thats all it does. Well I was familiar with two other substances that control TNF-alpha; gold nanoparticles, and high dose melatonin. So I have taken 180mg of melatonin a day for the past 4 years, which costs me about $10 a month instead of the thousands Humira costs.
I hope no one else has to endure the problems I have had.
About a week later, I woke up and my heart rate was 170 bpm. I thought I was having a serious heart problem and had my wife call an ambulance for me. I remember walking to the ambulance and thats the last thing I remember for the next 11 days. When I woke up again after 11 days, I was totally paralyzed and didn't know what had happened but I knew I was in the ICU and they told me I had a colostomy. While I was under their care, I suffered 24 blood clots in my legs and 3 pulmonary embolisms. A surgeon called me on the phone and told me I needed another surgery immediately or I would die that night. I told him no, and my wife backed me up on my decision. So they sent me to hospice. Well, I didn't die that night, and after about a month, I was sent to a rehab. During my time in rehab, the nurses all expected I would die. I found a swelling on my pelvis which I didn't have before and the rehab doctor told me it as a hernia I had for years. I told him I did not have a previous hernia, and sent a picture of it to my wife. She convinced the doctor that it should be investigated whereupon they sent me back to the hospital where they tried to reduce the hernia, but discovered it wasn't a hernia. Cat scans showed it was a huge pool of pus in my abdomen. Drains were inserted and over a liter of fluid was drained out. That's the point where I started to recover. Two months later, I could walk a few steps and operate a wheel chair and they sent me home.
Other losses were my finger tips which developed gang-green. My wife would not let them amputate my fingers, and they mostly recovered but I did lose some of my fingertips. I was a musician in local bands most of my life and now I can no longer play my bass, guitar and pedal steel. I also lost half the visual field in my left eye, probably because of a stroke while there. My muscle strength has not returned in four years, so I cannot run my machine shop equipment.
As for the colostomy, its the biggest deficit which has resulted in the loss of my freedom. Because it is unreliable, uncontrollable, and unpredictable, I can't trust going anywhere for more than a short amount of time, nor can I predict when that time window is going to happen. I am a prisoner to it.
In short, everything that made me ME is gone.
After this ordeal, the GI doc told me that I had to take Humira for the rest of my life. I refused, know that Humira was antibodies which lowers TNF-alpha. Thats all it does. Well I was familiar with two other substances that control TNF-alpha; gold nanoparticles, and high dose melatonin. So I have taken 180mg of melatonin a day for the past 4 years, which costs me about $10 a month instead of the thousands Humira costs.
I hope no one else has to endure the problems I have had.
