WVNed
The fish are staring at me with hungry eyes.
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2018
- Messages
- 10,206
- Reaction score
- 39,477
- Location
- Hurricane, WV
- What state or country do you live in
- West Virginia
Doctors are great people. But they are people and people make mistakes.
In 2014 I had to stop working. I started passing out. I did it 27 times over 10 months.
Idiopathic syncope.
In 2016 I was allowed disability social security. That is nice. I got to sit at home and eat cat tuna and be scared I would hurt myself again falling down.
From a 6 figure job to nothing for 2 years and then SS that amounted to 1/5 of what I used to make.
Still taxed because my wife works. Make that 1/8th.
The passing out was simply the last straw. I had been dealing with chronic health issues for decades.
Irritable bowl syndrome and Fibromyalgia and other incurable chronic things.
I am very tough. I had soldiered on for years, had a great job and family and ignored the more troublesome symptoms. Stiff upper lip and all that. Until I crashed and burned.
The brain that used to hold the programming for the communication system for a hospital couldnt remember my name.
Willpower doesn't help when you randomly fall down.
I had other symptoms.
I lost my vision, my hearing, my balance, my strength, my memory. I had fine and sometimes gross motor tremors. I couldn't walk in my own yard. I gained about 80 pounds. Type 2 diabetes set in.
Sleep apnea
I went to many doctors. I got scanned and probed and sat with electrodes attached to my head for a week and my chest for 2 months.
MRIs, CTs, and ultrasounds of my chest and head were done repeatedly.
I was told a great many things I didn't have. Wonderful to know but zero help and no comfort.
One doctor told me I would die in 5-8 years. I believed him.
demyelinating brain disease. Neuropathy.
I stopped being able to be me. This is the most miserable place a human can end up in.
Then they send you to the psychiatric people. They cant fix you but they can give you drugs so you don't really care and aren't upset about it.
I stopped taking those after a few months.
Life goes on while you are dying.
280 pound Ned, proud father at his sons weddings.
(This is Grant. He gave me his tank and helped me set it up. I had quit. It was too hard.
He reminded me I never quit. That is how I ended up here)
Jeanna is going to be a vet. She is at the wildlife center helping treat a bald eagle with a broken wing today.
Our house fell in basically because I coudn't take care of it and we had to move after 36 years
I asked Jill if it was where she wanted to live after I died.
Jill and I have both worked very hard for a long time. We are not rich but we are not poor.
The kids got educated with no loans and Jeanna got a full scholarship.
What a pitiful story.I am crying reading it.
Perhaps a bit of anger too.
The point of all this isn't a pity party.
With the internet we have all the knowledge of man including our doctors at our fingertips. You must be diligent in using it. I was never satisfied with "we just don't know".
I always like to know.
3 months ago I ought a $7 bottle of vitamin B12 at Walmart and started taking it.
and fixed myself.
I have lost 45 pounds.
This is the point of this thread
Vitamin B12 deficiency is common in the United States, especially among the elderly. It is estimated that between 10% and 25% of the people over 80 years of age may have a B12 deficiency. There are several causes of vitamin B12 deficiency. A strict vegetarian diet may promote a B12 deficiency because animal-based foods such as red meat, dairy products, fish, poultry and eggs are the only recognized source of dietary B12. A lack of B12, or the inability of stomach acids to aid in the absorption, also causes this deficiency. Consequently, drugs that reduce stomach acid should be taken with B12 supplements. A number of other conditions, procedures, and drugs are associated with a reduced the ability to absorb B12. These include autoimmune diseases, pernicious or unexplained anemia, pancreatic diseases, ileal resection, Crohn’s disease, HIV infection, gastritis, gastric or small intestine surgeries, malabsorption syndromes, multiple sclerosis, and use of histamine2 receptor antagonists or proton pump inhibitors.
Symptoms of lack of vitamin B12 can cause serious anemia, nerve damage and degeneration of the spinal cord. It is common for anemia to develop first, but this is not always the case, especially if a person is taking a folate supplement. A lack of B12 damages the myelin sheath that surrounds and protect nerves. Without this protection, nerves cease to function properly and conditions such as peripheral neuropathy occur. Even B12 deficiency that is relatively mild may affect the nervous system and the proper functioning of the brain. The nerve damage caused by a lack of B12 may become permanently debilitating, if the underlying condition is not treated.
I dont know why I became B12 deficient. My stomach went south with GERD and bleeding ulcers and the drugs used to treat it may have caused it. Could be genetic too.
I will take it the rest of my life.
I feel better than I have in 15 years, maybe 20. There may be some permanent damage. The screaming tinnitus has not decreased yet but I can live with that.
The sensation that I am dying is gone.
It feels great waking up and not thinking about how bad you feel as your first thought of the day.
My new doctor asked me to get my story out there
I am going to go play with my dog.
In 2014 I had to stop working. I started passing out. I did it 27 times over 10 months.
Idiopathic syncope.
In 2016 I was allowed disability social security. That is nice. I got to sit at home and eat cat tuna and be scared I would hurt myself again falling down.
From a 6 figure job to nothing for 2 years and then SS that amounted to 1/5 of what I used to make.
Still taxed because my wife works. Make that 1/8th.
The passing out was simply the last straw. I had been dealing with chronic health issues for decades.
Irritable bowl syndrome and Fibromyalgia and other incurable chronic things.
I am very tough. I had soldiered on for years, had a great job and family and ignored the more troublesome symptoms. Stiff upper lip and all that. Until I crashed and burned.
The brain that used to hold the programming for the communication system for a hospital couldnt remember my name.
Willpower doesn't help when you randomly fall down.
I had other symptoms.
I lost my vision, my hearing, my balance, my strength, my memory. I had fine and sometimes gross motor tremors. I couldn't walk in my own yard. I gained about 80 pounds. Type 2 diabetes set in.
Sleep apnea
I went to many doctors. I got scanned and probed and sat with electrodes attached to my head for a week and my chest for 2 months.
MRIs, CTs, and ultrasounds of my chest and head were done repeatedly.
I was told a great many things I didn't have. Wonderful to know but zero help and no comfort.
One doctor told me I would die in 5-8 years. I believed him.
demyelinating brain disease. Neuropathy.
I stopped being able to be me. This is the most miserable place a human can end up in.
Then they send you to the psychiatric people. They cant fix you but they can give you drugs so you don't really care and aren't upset about it.
I stopped taking those after a few months.
Life goes on while you are dying.
280 pound Ned, proud father at his sons weddings.
(This is Grant. He gave me his tank and helped me set it up. I had quit. It was too hard.
He reminded me I never quit. That is how I ended up here)
Jeanna is going to be a vet. She is at the wildlife center helping treat a bald eagle with a broken wing today.
Our house fell in basically because I coudn't take care of it and we had to move after 36 years
I asked Jill if it was where she wanted to live after I died.
Jill and I have both worked very hard for a long time. We are not rich but we are not poor.
The kids got educated with no loans and Jeanna got a full scholarship.
What a pitiful story.I am crying reading it.
Perhaps a bit of anger too.
The point of all this isn't a pity party.
With the internet we have all the knowledge of man including our doctors at our fingertips. You must be diligent in using it. I was never satisfied with "we just don't know".
I always like to know.
3 months ago I ought a $7 bottle of vitamin B12 at Walmart and started taking it.
and fixed myself.
I have lost 45 pounds.
This is the point of this thread
Vitamin B12 deficiency is common in the United States, especially among the elderly. It is estimated that between 10% and 25% of the people over 80 years of age may have a B12 deficiency. There are several causes of vitamin B12 deficiency. A strict vegetarian diet may promote a B12 deficiency because animal-based foods such as red meat, dairy products, fish, poultry and eggs are the only recognized source of dietary B12. A lack of B12, or the inability of stomach acids to aid in the absorption, also causes this deficiency. Consequently, drugs that reduce stomach acid should be taken with B12 supplements. A number of other conditions, procedures, and drugs are associated with a reduced the ability to absorb B12. These include autoimmune diseases, pernicious or unexplained anemia, pancreatic diseases, ileal resection, Crohn’s disease, HIV infection, gastritis, gastric or small intestine surgeries, malabsorption syndromes, multiple sclerosis, and use of histamine2 receptor antagonists or proton pump inhibitors.
Symptoms of lack of vitamin B12 can cause serious anemia, nerve damage and degeneration of the spinal cord. It is common for anemia to develop first, but this is not always the case, especially if a person is taking a folate supplement. A lack of B12 damages the myelin sheath that surrounds and protect nerves. Without this protection, nerves cease to function properly and conditions such as peripheral neuropathy occur. Even B12 deficiency that is relatively mild may affect the nervous system and the proper functioning of the brain. The nerve damage caused by a lack of B12 may become permanently debilitating, if the underlying condition is not treated.
I dont know why I became B12 deficient. My stomach went south with GERD and bleeding ulcers and the drugs used to treat it may have caused it. Could be genetic too.
I will take it the rest of my life.
I feel better than I have in 15 years, maybe 20. There may be some permanent damage. The screaming tinnitus has not decreased yet but I can live with that.
The sensation that I am dying is gone.
It feels great waking up and not thinking about how bad you feel as your first thought of the day.
My new doctor asked me to get my story out there
I am going to go play with my dog.
