Trepanning is good for you!

Over the course of the week I was hit with several emails informing me of the mystical benefits of bleeding. I even started joking with my friends that all it might take is a touch of new age nonsense combined with ancient medicine and old men wearing robes, and there would be people who would buy into trepanation. You know, cutting holes through the cranium to let bad spirits out. You know what’s coming next, don’t you? [Read more…]

Bleeding complete

I tried to find the Theodoric of York Medieval Doctor clip from SNL with Steve Martin, where he bleeds every pax that comes in until they are pale and lifeless, to garnish this follow-up on my procedure: I had to be bled. My red and white counts were already lower when I went in than they were in the path report, still high though. One nozzle masquerading as a needle and a couple of days  later, I feel fine. I felt pretty loopy all day Monday, less so yesterday. But today I feel surprisingly good. Maybe bleeding every now and then isn’t such a bad idea.

The cells all looked normal. If you’re new here, a blood test last week set off a leukemia/marrow-disease scare. Now I’m told it was probably combo of having above average white counts all the time, and then losing 30 lbs and gaining bone density due to working out like a body Nazi, temporarily kicking up the RBC similar to what happens when you spend a week in the mountains. Bottom line is, I’m probably in the clear and I feel really good. We’ll get back to a more regular blogging schedule this week my friends.

I am to be bled

Last week was supposed to be vacation for me, that’s why posting was light. But alas, fate threw me a curve. An AS flare up led to a routine blood test, which came back with some unusual cell counts. We believe we know what’s causing it, and if we’re right it’s easily managed. But there are some other things it could be including pages and pages of freaky rare leukemia and various bone marrow malignancies. The crazy high counts cause everything from autoimmune flare ups — a complication I’m terribly prone to, did happen, and turned the latter half of the week into an intractable nightmare opiate painkillers and gobs of other drugs could barely ease — it also causes the blood to be thicker and stickier, making it harder on organs and veins and posing a significant clotting risk. A person can’t go around untreated with this condition for long without suffering a stroke or an embolism or some serious complication. Not to mention, if I had to spend the rest of my life feeling like I felt Friday, sooner or later I’d have to kill myself. It was miserable.  But the meds and bedrest worked, I felt much better by last night.

So first thing Monday morning I’m going to have more specialized tests done, then I am to be bled, like in ye merry old medieval world. It’s a brute force approach to get the counts down, fast. If the tests come back normal as far as how the cells look, no weird hairy filaments around WBCs or deformed/nucleated RBCs, I’m probably in the clear. If not, we’ll go from there.

Romney has some splain’n to do

The tape that was heard around the world is still circling the global net today. In it Mitt Romney basically calls out half of us as being parasitic moochers who pay no tax and for whom he isn’t concerned with. I’d very much like Romney to walk in my shoes for one month to see just how lazy and entitled I am … Anywho, that’s music to the ears of the trust fund and vulture cap brigades. What might not go over so well is the man in whose home Romney made those remarks: [Read more…]