It's been a while since I've been able to visit this forum, because for the last three weeks, I've been in the hospital.
I'll try to start from the beginning, and keep it fairly short, a hell of a lot has gone on in the last few weeks. But about three weeks ago, I was up all night puking my guts out, 15 times in six hours for example. And before that, I'd been getting headaches whenever I'd exert myself, even just walking around or going down stairs. I'd been having some other problems too, hearing my pulse in my ears, getting messed up vision, and so on.
So I finally broke down and went to the doctor after all that puking.
While I was there, they hooked up an IV to give me some fluids, since I hadn't even been able to keep water down. They also took some blood to run some tests and see how my blood cell counts were looking.
Long story short, the doctor came back with a grave look on his face and told me I had a hemoglobin count of 3. Yes. 3. Which if you don't know much about blood is damn near fatal. Hemoglobin has to do with your red blood cells, and oxygen in the blood. The average count in a healthy person is 15 or so. Today the nurse told me that people have been known to have heart attacks when their hemoglobin count reaches as low as 6.
He had me immediately admitted to the hospital, and as I was getting into the room, the nurse asked me if I knew what my counts were. I told her my hemoglobin was 3, and she said that was impossible, I'd be dead or unconscious.
They took some blood, did some tests, and a little while later the same nurse came back and said "Oh my god, it really IS 3!"
Right after being admitted to the hospital, I had to get an emergency Blood transfusion. I got 3 units over 9 hours. They told me that normally they would not like to give a transfusion without knowing why my blood counts were so low, but at this point they literally didn't have a choice.
The blood tests revealed that in addition to my hemoglobin being incredibly low, all my other cell counts were equally low. I had almost no red cells, no white cells, and no platelets. Which basically meant I wasn't getting enough oxygen, I couldn't fight infections at all, and if I started bleeding, I'd have trouble stopping.
So I went through several days and several nights of tests, Cat Scans, Heart Ultrasounds, Chest Xrays, Bone Marrow Removal/Biopsies, Blood Test after Blood Test, question after question.
Finally after days and days of testing and eliminating things, they came to the conclusion that I had developed a disorder called Aplastic Anemia.
Aplastic Anemia is a bone marrow disease, where your bone marrow basically stops working. Bone Marrow is where all your blood actually comes from, it is what produces all your blood cells, and mine stopped working.
The Bone Marrow Biopsies revealed that my marrow was damaged and not developing properly, that the actual marrow cells were not maturing correctly, which is why they were not producing blood.
Bone Marrow Biopsies are not fun...Basically, they stick a very large needle all the way through your hip bone, and suck out some of the marrow inside.
How metal is that?
Anyway once they figured out what my problem was, they told me there are several ways they can try to treat it. One of the most likely would be a Bone Marrow Transplant. They did not do that at the hospital I was admitted too, so I was taken by Ambulance to a much larger hospital in Dallas.
My brother was tested as a Bone Marrow Donor, but he was not a match to me, so I won't be getting a transplant from him. Right now, they are looking into other family members, and Donor Registry, but at the moment we are not going for a transplant.
I may end up needing on in the future, it is yet to be seen. For now, they are treating me with Immuno-suppression therapy. Based on all the tests and questions, they narrowed down the most likely cause of the disorder to my own immune system attacking my bone marrow for some reason. They cannot say why for sure. This is a very rare disease and it can be very difficult to figure out what exactly brought it on.
There are several causes, one of them is actually extreme exposure to toxic heavy metals!
Lol. That figures.
But death metal doesn't count lol. So anyway, they think it may have been a virus I had that settled into my marrow, or altered my marrow, and caused
my immune system to attack it and mostly destroy it. Great.
The idea with the immune suppression therapy is that they take my immune system down, or what's left of it, down to nothing, in order to give me marrow a chance to regenerate. They are giving me drugs meant to suppress my immune system, similiar to transplant rejection drugs, and some kinds of Chemotherapy. they are also giving me other drugs meant to stimulate my marrow.
So, as I understand it, depending on who you ask, this treatment has a 60-75 percent chance of working well, then a 30 percent chance of working well the second time, if it fails the first.
So right now, that's what I'm hoping for.
I've had four blood transfusions in the last couple weeks, cause until my marrow starts working again, that's all they can do to give me enough good red blood cells to keep everything working, basically.
Pretty weird.
Anyway, I'm doing my best to keep positive, hope for the best, and take it day by day. My brother was kind enough to donate me his laptop, and I was able to get online again after a long time away. So at least I feel connected to the world again lol.
I'm in a room with it's own filtration system, the air is constantly sucked out, filtered, and put back, cause I can't get an infection. They give me IV antibiotics every 12 hours, and a huge pill cocktail of anti everything each morning.
So anyway, I figured some people on this forum might want to know. As many times as I've had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with some of the guys in Vehemence, John and Nate especially, I feel like I know you guys, so I figured I'd let you know what's up. You guys were always great to me and my gf when we met you at the shows, and I really appreciate that. And I've got some friends in the area that know me through this forum too, so at least you know what's up.
Damn...that was a lot longer then I meant it to be lol. Well, guess that's all for now. Like I said, I've been here 3 weeks, and will probably be here at least another 3 weeks to a month, maybe longer depending on how my treatment goes.
Wish me luck!
I'll try to start from the beginning, and keep it fairly short, a hell of a lot has gone on in the last few weeks. But about three weeks ago, I was up all night puking my guts out, 15 times in six hours for example. And before that, I'd been getting headaches whenever I'd exert myself, even just walking around or going down stairs. I'd been having some other problems too, hearing my pulse in my ears, getting messed up vision, and so on.
So I finally broke down and went to the doctor after all that puking.
While I was there, they hooked up an IV to give me some fluids, since I hadn't even been able to keep water down. They also took some blood to run some tests and see how my blood cell counts were looking.
Long story short, the doctor came back with a grave look on his face and told me I had a hemoglobin count of 3. Yes. 3. Which if you don't know much about blood is damn near fatal. Hemoglobin has to do with your red blood cells, and oxygen in the blood. The average count in a healthy person is 15 or so. Today the nurse told me that people have been known to have heart attacks when their hemoglobin count reaches as low as 6.
He had me immediately admitted to the hospital, and as I was getting into the room, the nurse asked me if I knew what my counts were. I told her my hemoglobin was 3, and she said that was impossible, I'd be dead or unconscious.
They took some blood, did some tests, and a little while later the same nurse came back and said "Oh my god, it really IS 3!"
Right after being admitted to the hospital, I had to get an emergency Blood transfusion. I got 3 units over 9 hours. They told me that normally they would not like to give a transfusion without knowing why my blood counts were so low, but at this point they literally didn't have a choice.
The blood tests revealed that in addition to my hemoglobin being incredibly low, all my other cell counts were equally low. I had almost no red cells, no white cells, and no platelets. Which basically meant I wasn't getting enough oxygen, I couldn't fight infections at all, and if I started bleeding, I'd have trouble stopping.
So I went through several days and several nights of tests, Cat Scans, Heart Ultrasounds, Chest Xrays, Bone Marrow Removal/Biopsies, Blood Test after Blood Test, question after question.
Finally after days and days of testing and eliminating things, they came to the conclusion that I had developed a disorder called Aplastic Anemia.
Aplastic Anemia is a bone marrow disease, where your bone marrow basically stops working. Bone Marrow is where all your blood actually comes from, it is what produces all your blood cells, and mine stopped working.
The Bone Marrow Biopsies revealed that my marrow was damaged and not developing properly, that the actual marrow cells were not maturing correctly, which is why they were not producing blood.
Bone Marrow Biopsies are not fun...Basically, they stick a very large needle all the way through your hip bone, and suck out some of the marrow inside.
How metal is that?
Anyway once they figured out what my problem was, they told me there are several ways they can try to treat it. One of the most likely would be a Bone Marrow Transplant. They did not do that at the hospital I was admitted too, so I was taken by Ambulance to a much larger hospital in Dallas.
My brother was tested as a Bone Marrow Donor, but he was not a match to me, so I won't be getting a transplant from him. Right now, they are looking into other family members, and Donor Registry, but at the moment we are not going for a transplant.
I may end up needing on in the future, it is yet to be seen. For now, they are treating me with Immuno-suppression therapy. Based on all the tests and questions, they narrowed down the most likely cause of the disorder to my own immune system attacking my bone marrow for some reason. They cannot say why for sure. This is a very rare disease and it can be very difficult to figure out what exactly brought it on.
There are several causes, one of them is actually extreme exposure to toxic heavy metals!
Lol. That figures.
But death metal doesn't count lol. So anyway, they think it may have been a virus I had that settled into my marrow, or altered my marrow, and caused
my immune system to attack it and mostly destroy it. Great.
The idea with the immune suppression therapy is that they take my immune system down, or what's left of it, down to nothing, in order to give me marrow a chance to regenerate. They are giving me drugs meant to suppress my immune system, similiar to transplant rejection drugs, and some kinds of Chemotherapy. they are also giving me other drugs meant to stimulate my marrow.
So, as I understand it, depending on who you ask, this treatment has a 60-75 percent chance of working well, then a 30 percent chance of working well the second time, if it fails the first.
So right now, that's what I'm hoping for.
I've had four blood transfusions in the last couple weeks, cause until my marrow starts working again, that's all they can do to give me enough good red blood cells to keep everything working, basically.
Pretty weird.
Anyway, I'm doing my best to keep positive, hope for the best, and take it day by day. My brother was kind enough to donate me his laptop, and I was able to get online again after a long time away. So at least I feel connected to the world again lol.
I'm in a room with it's own filtration system, the air is constantly sucked out, filtered, and put back, cause I can't get an infection. They give me IV antibiotics every 12 hours, and a huge pill cocktail of anti everything each morning.
So anyway, I figured some people on this forum might want to know. As many times as I've had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with some of the guys in Vehemence, John and Nate especially, I feel like I know you guys, so I figured I'd let you know what's up. You guys were always great to me and my gf when we met you at the shows, and I really appreciate that. And I've got some friends in the area that know me through this forum too, so at least you know what's up.
Damn...that was a lot longer then I meant it to be lol. Well, guess that's all for now. Like I said, I've been here 3 weeks, and will probably be here at least another 3 weeks to a month, maybe longer depending on how my treatment goes.
Wish me luck!
