Health (or lack thereof)

[BigDumbDinosaur]

My ITP condition has gone into full relapse despite the surgery I underwent last January, and I am now living on steroids again.  The drugs that used to be able to rescue me when the platelet counts crashed can no longer be used, so now it's a tricky balancing act between using enough steroids to keep my immune system from gobbling up all my platelets but not too many steroids, which would gobble up my liver.  Life can suck sometimes...the surgery was technically a success (I lived to tell about it) but ultimately accomplished nothing, unless you call transferring close to 100,000 dollars (the U.S. kind) from the insurance company to the hospital and doctors an accomplishment.

Corticosteroids tend to break down bone and muscle mass and when used at the high doses required to have the desired effect in my case, will ultimately result in permanent liver damage, cardiac problems—possibly an early death.  A more immediate and annoying side-effect is a loss of motor coordination and the development of what I call the "steroid shakes," most noticeable when lifting a can of beer to one's mouth.  The latter condition has made the use of a computer more difficult for me, as my typing has significantly deteriorated.  Since programming is largely an exercise in thinking and typing, I'm in big trouble, especially in the thinking department.  Hence projects like Clock-Calendar 128 have been languishing as I try to deal with this little mess.

Ultimately, my survival is going to hinge of the development of a drug that will cause my body to generate platelets faster than my immune system can destroy them.  One such drug, AMG 531, shows some promise but is still in clinical trials.  I had attempted to get into the trials late last year but my condition was considered a bit too precarious at the time for me to become a lab experiment.  Now that I've gone through a triple splenectomy, yet relapsed soon after the surgery, I'm considered a viable candidate for AMG 531.  However, they're not taking any more test subjects right now, so I'll have to wait and see.

Meantime, I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about this thing, even when the platelets go into the toilet, the bruising and bleeding start, and the nice folks at the hospital ER infuse more steroids to try to get things out of the danger zone.  A normal person has a platelet count of 150,000 to 450,000 per microliter of blood.  My count has been below 2000 at times.  Anything below 20,000 is dangerous—a trivial cut can become life-threatening—and at less than 5000, a bump to the head can start intracerebral hemorrhaging, which is often fatal.  Needless to say, when my counts are low I don't get into any situations where a whack to the noggin is a possibility.  That includes riding in an automobile.  At least I can save on gas that way...

[Blacklord]

Mate, we're all praying for you.

[bacon]

That's tough. Let's hope that AMG 531 works and gets on the market soon.

[jt-3d]

Well, I guess I'll stop bitching about how rough I think I have it. At least you are still drinking beer. Beer makes everything better. Good luck, Mr. Dinosaur.