2008: The year in medical fun!

As some of you may know, I was diagnosed with CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy) this past year. Simply put, CIDP is a syndrome in which your nerves are destroyed by an overactive immune system. This makes your arms, legs, face, etc. go numb and eventually become paralyzed. It can also lead to internal organ failure and other fun havoc in your gutty-works. Luckily, I have only experienced the numb and paralyzed extremities part of it so far. My face went numb for a while and I got a lump in my throat that interfered with swallowing, but I got treatment before it got to my autonomic system (that’s innerds for us southern yokels). I did however end up needing a wheelchair. I’m hoping treatments will help me grow enough nerves back so I can do without the wheelchair, but I’m still waiting to see if I’ll keep recovering or not.

I’ve met my share of quacks, and I’ve met my share of Saints, during this bizarre, medical journey. I’ve met doctors and nurses that truly cared about their patients and who took pride in their work. I’ve also met doctors and nurses who could care less about patients. Of course I will be writing more about these lovely people at a later date. Needless to say, I now know first-hand exactly how screwed the healthcare system in the U.S. is.

Anyway during the last year, I not only had to find out what was wrong with me but I also had to find out how to keep it from killing me. These desperate times called for desperate measures. So, as you could guess, there was a lot of testing, poking, and prodding that had to be done.

I decided it would be cool to look back and list all of the fun stuff that I’ve experienced over the last five months. My symptoms started in January 2008 but it was the end of July before I went to my first doctor. That’s when all the fun started. So most of this all happened within a five month window of time.

Below is a list of the procedures and tests that I had done and how many of each of them I got to enjoy:

IV’s: 10

Attempted IV’s (blown veins due to clumsy nurses): 4

Number of times blood was taken: 10

Number of barrels of blood taken: 27

Lumbar punctures: 1

Solu-medrol steroid treatments: 10

IVIG treatments: 3

Decadron shots: 1

MRI’s: 2

Nerve conductivity studies: 2

EMG tests: 1

Cat Scans: 1

X-rays: 7

Number of hours in hospital: 95

Neurologists: 2

General practitioners: 3

Number of pills taken (including supplements): approx 1540+

Total number of needles pierced into me (IV’s, lumbar puncture, blood work, injections, and EMG test): 40+

Number of doctors I wanted to punch in the face: 2

As you can see, I had an interesting year. I’m not complaining. I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to fight back against this disorder. I’m glad I had good friends and family that helped me up when I was down. And I’m glad I’m married to the most loving and supportive wife in the world. I honestly know that without the support and love of all the wonderful people in my life, I would be dead in a ditch (or worse) by now.

I also learned there are good people in the world after all. Having some real shitty friends over the years had jaded me into quite a cynical corner regarding friendship. But I know now that there are some very loyal people out there after all, and luckily I know some of them and I have the honor of being their friend. Thanks to you all. You know who you are.

So in closing….I tip my hat and raise my glass to the previous year of stress and soul-wrenching battle. It was scary, exhilarating, and damned hard work, but I learned quite a bit about myself in the process (a lot of which I had been to busy for years to find out). It’s been one of the most exciting years in my life. I just hope the coming year is less stressful and a bit more laid back.

Thanks for reading. I hope you all have a good year.