Joe's story

[Guest guest]

Dear group,

Joe has written his medical history to add to the growing number of

recoveries on our web page. Thankyou Joe for writing all this out for us

There are so many stories on the web page now that I think I'll have to

consider reorganising the index soon. Who was it who mentioned that if we

get 100 people who have experienced recovery on the antibiotic protocol

then that amounts to a clinical trial? We'll have to chase this up.

Here is Joe's story,

Chris.

________________________________________________________________

JOE, rheumatoid arthritis

Hi there, My name is Joe and I have rheumatoid arthritis.

It all started 3 days before my 29th birthday. A couple of friends and I

decided to go to Amsterdam, Netherlands for our vacation. After the

all-night flight, when I got up to leave the plane I notice that my left

knee was stiff and sore. Since I have had surgery on this knee several

years ago and ever since have had occasional problems, I didn't think

too much of it, so I popped a few ibuprofen tablets and forgot about it.

The next interesting event was just a few hours later when I noticed

that my face was itchy. I went into the bathroom at our hotel and

discovered that I had a fairly bad breakout of hives on my face. I then

checked my chest and it too was covered with hives. My first thoughts

were that I had eaten something that caused an allergic reaction, or

possibly the stuffy air from the airplane I had breathed for 7 hours

just earlier. A couple hours later the hives went away and I enjoyed the

rest of my vacation without either knee pain or hives.

When I returned home, again after a long flight, my knee had stiffened

again. I was beginning to think that I had damaged the knee somehow

shortly before my vacation. I took some more ibuprofen. The next morning

I discovered that the hives had returned! Now I thought I could find out

exactly what was causing the allergic reaction - I thought it might be the

cheese or French wine on the 'plane or aeroplane air.

I ended up skipping work that day (the hives were pretty drastic and

would be a source of embarrassment in public!) On my second day after

returning to work, around mid-morning a co worker noticed that I was

getting " splotchy " . I went to the bathroom and sure enough the hives

were back. Now I was really stumped! I had not had cheese, French wine,

or breathed airplane air! So I continued to look for other environmental

insults that could cause these hives. Meanwhile, my knee was not getting

any better. In fact it was getting worse, the swelling was as bad as I

had ever seen it. When the swelling got so bad that it drained into my

leg to the point my calf was twice it's normal size, I decided to go to

a doctor.

I went to see an orthopedic surgeon. He examined my knee, told me that

it was " angry " and had some " clicking " when he moved it and that it

probably needed surgery, but he didn't want to worry about that right

now. He was concerned about my swollen leg. He thought there might be a

blood clot causing the swelling and thought I needed to go the hospital

immediately for an ultrasound and possible observation. After many of my

protests, he finally pointed out that if it was indeed a clot, it could

be life-threatening, and I really ought to get down there, so I went. I

went through the ultrasound and they found no clot. That didn't stop the

doctors from trying to admit me for a day or two of observation. Well I

wasn't going to do that, not at this point so I high-tailed it outta

there. The orthopedic doc had prescribed for me a new non-steroidal

anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), Relafen, to help with the swelling. I

have experiences with some of these " super-aspirins " or

" super-ibuprofens " and have had dramatic and very effective results, so

I filled the prescription, took my dose and went to bed. The next day I

took what would become my regular dose and went to work. Again around

mid-morning a co-worker noticed again I was getting splotchy. But this

time it was worse. I decided to just tough it out and eventually the

hives did go away. My knee and swelling were also getting much better,

my calf was no longer swollen and my knee, though still slightly

painful, was also greatly improved. But every single day following I had

hives breakout. After making it though a weekend, still racking my brain

to discover the allergen, and the worst hive breakout ever, I decided to

go see an allergist.

Well, I went to a good one. He uncovered the allergy in minutes! It was

the NSAIDs, the ibuprofen I took in Amsterdam, the super-ibuprofen,

Relafen, my orthopedist had prescribed were the cause of the allergy!

This was a double edged sword, the NSAIDs were working great on my knee

for swelling and pain, but they were causing the allergy. At least I had

discovered the allergen. I then called my orthopedist and told him the

problem. He felt that I really needed the NSAIDs, as Tylenol

(acetaminophen) wouldn't work with for inflammation. He suggested that I

come by his office and get some samples of other NSAIDs to see if I was

allergic to them all . Quick note: My allergist and he both agreed that

all NSAIDs would probably cause a reaction. They were right. I went

through Ibuprofen, Relafen, DayPro, Voltaren, Naproxen sodium,

Ketaprofen, and aspirin. All caused hives. So Tylenol it was.

At this point I noticed other problems. I started having pains in my

hands. It got bad enough that I decided, once again to go see a doctor.

By this time I had switched jobs (again?!) and was on a new health plan

with new doctors. The new doc examined me, took some blood and referred

me to a rheumatologist. I didn't even know what a rheumatologist was at

this time! So I made an appointment for the following week. Before I

even went to my appointment I received a call from my original doc

informing me that my blood work labs had come back and that I had an

elevated " rheumatoid factor " that indicated probable rheumatoid

arthritis. Hadn't expected that. Isn't rheumatoid arthritis (RA)

something my grandmother had? I soon

discovered that RA is a disease of the young, usually afflicting people

anywhere from their mid-20's to mid-40's. I also found out that it is

the number one crippling disease in the world. 50% of the people who

develop RA are confined to a wheelchair within 10 years. Bleak news

indeed.

Meanwhile my joint pain had not only spread to other places (ankles,

toes, wrists, elbows, hips) and started to be quite severe. I'd like to

mention here how miserable I had become, remember I couldn't take any

NSAIDs for the pain and the Tylenol just didn't cut

it. I had received a prescription for a new pain-killer, Ultram, that

when combined with acetaminophen made the pain a little more bearable,

but I still was suffering quite a bit. Plus the Ultram would become

addicting after more than a month of use.

I visited my rheumatologist the next week as planned. He examined me,

saw my violently inflamed knee and decided to start taking action. He

drained the fluid off my knee (not a pleasant experience by the way) and

shot me up with cortisone. He also drew blood and sent that and the

synovial (joint) fluid out for tests and had me make an appointment for

2 weeks later.

Well the next morning the " cortisone miracle " had happened. All my pain

was gone. Not just some, but all! What a relief, for the first time in

months I was pain free. Little did I know that would be the last time I

would be pain free for a long long time to come. Just to give you all a

little background on the severity of this disease, initial cortisone

shots like I received can last for 3 to 6 months but in my case they

lasted for just 3 days. Then the pain started coming

back, and coming back with a vengeance. By the time those 2 weeks had

passed I was crippled from the pain and inflammation to the point where

I couldn't hold a pen in my hand to write a check. I could grapple one

enough to scrawl a signature down if need be (though it looked like a

child's signature), but couldn't really write the check. I knew I was

into something serious.

It was time for me to be a bit more proactive about my health care. I

was facing a disease that most authorities said was incurable and the

traditional treatments were highly toxic at best. Traditional rheumatology

treats RA with several drugs, the main one being mthotrexate, a anti-cancer

drug that suppresses the immune system. They also use

other toxic substances like Plaquenil (an anti-malarial drug), Gold

salts, and prednisone (synthetic corticosteroid that has a host of

nasty side effects).

I had learned all this stuff on my own, I even feel like my

rheumatologist was keeping information from me on purpose. Maybe this

was to keep me from getting too frightened, or maybe he was worried I

would look for alternatives. Well he was right, I was frightened and I

was going to look for alternatives, with or without his help. So I found

one. I discovered the research and practice of a Dr. McPherson

Brown, a Washington DC based (coincidence!) rheumatologist that had

treated RA patients with low dose, long term antibiotics.

Here was a doctor who had a theory that RA was an infectious disease!

He had treated over 10,000 patients with over 80% success rate! I'll

give you his theory in a nutshell. Dr. Brown thought that RA is caused by

mycoplasma, a virus-like bacteria. They call it virus-like because it is

so much smaller than most bacteria. It's so small that it doesn't have

it's own cell sheath, so it has to take over one of your own cells to

live out most of it's life. It's a bacteria though because it does not

use your cell to reproduce (viruses inject their DNA into your cell and

" force " you own cells to reproduce the virus), it does have to leave

your cell to reproduce then it hides again back in your own cell.

So armed with this new knowledge and ideas, I marched myself back to my

rheumatologist, ready to have him start me on minocycline. He wasn't

going to hear it. What I hadn't realized up to this point was how

entrenched the mindset of traditional rheumatology is against the work

of Dr. Brown. In spite of over 30 years of research and practice Dr.

Brown, who passed away in 1989, died a " quack " to his peers. These

doctors weren't ready to look at this possible cause of RA. Even

with the discovery of Lyme Disease (which was considered a form of RA

before the Lyme bacteria was uncovered) most rheumatologists still would

not consider an infectious cause of RA. This issue is described

in great detail in " The New Arthritis Breakthrough " and it is

apparently quite a dark time in the history of medicine.

So my rheumatologist was no

different. He smirked when I mentioned antibiotics and went into a

tirade about how Dr. Brown and Dr. Gabe Mirkin were

quacks and how they had never helped anybody and that my only hope was

to take these medicines that in all likelihood would kill me in 10 years

or less. Well I hadn't even known Dr. Gabe Mirkin was a proponent of the

antibiotic treatment for RA. I had known of Dr. Mirkin from his daily radio

show, as many of you probably have, but I didn't realize that he treated

RA patients. Well I knew that was the last time I was going to see THAT

rheumatologist! The one thing I can thank him for is dropping Dr.

Mirkin's name, so I knew at least one doctor in the area that would

prescribe this treatment for me. The next day I went back to see my

primary care physician to discuss my options for treatment

within the insurance plan. He referred me to another rheumy in town that

he thought would work with me. I found out later that day that the

rheumy was no longer accepting patients within my insurance plan. Well I

had had enough! I was in severe pain and I felt like I wasn't going to

get treatment that was truly going to help me get better. So I called my

GP back, told him that I was going to go see Dr. Mirkin and pay for him

out-of-pocket. I asked if he would work with Dr. Mirkin and I for my

treatment to minimize my out-of-pocket expenses. He agreed, and I was

able to get an appointment 2 days later with Dr. Mirkin.

I saw Dr. Mirkin, he took one look at me, one look at my labs and

immediately diagnosed me with infectious rheumatoid arthritis and

prescribed for me his antibiotic protocol (100mg minocycline two times a

day, plus 500mg Zithromax two times a week). He then sent me home with

an appointment for four weeks hence. Dr. Mirkin was kind enough to write me

two sets of prescriptions, one for 2 months' worth of drugs, and another

for just one weeks' worth. I promptly filled the weeks' worth and began

antibiotic therapy on September 29, 1998. The other set of scripts was

for my GP, whom I saw a few days later, who rewrote those prescriptions

so I could get my insurance to cover most of the cost (which is a good

thing, being that the Zithromax is something like $10 a pill and I was

taking 4 a week, not necessarily a backbreaker, but it was nice to have

at least some of these expenses covered).

Two days after starting the antibiotics I was hit by a Jarish Herxheimer

Reaction. This reaction is named after the doctor who discovered it,

which is basically a " things get worse before they get better " sort of

idea. What was happening is that the antibiotics were working and

killing off the mycoplasmas at an accelerated rate. This was causing the

mycoplasma to release their toxins upon destruction into an already

sensitized field (my joints). I had thought I knew suffering, but

nothing prepared me for the Herxheimer. Everything got worse. I already

was quite crippled and now everything hurt even worse. I couldn't even

get the keys out of my car with my hands! Forget holding a pen, I could

barely type (but I could type and I could mouse, so I ended up not

missing a single day of work, how this happened, I'm still not sure), I

had a fever and overall severe flu-like symptoms.

To give you all an idea, I would take 3 times my prescribed dose of

percocet (synthetic codeine with acetaminophen), plus a dose of Ultram,

plus 800 mg of ibuprofen and I was still in agony. Nothing would help

the pain. When my friend called and was asking about the pain he

mentioned tooth aches and abscesses. He asked if the pain was that bad.

The answer is yes, it's that bad and worse because it hits you all over,

not just in your mouth. But it's a sharp and severe pain, not unlike a

tooth abscess. Get the idea?

I had been losing weight this whole time and this really finished it

off. By the time 2 weeks had gone by, the Herxheimer had passed and I

had found I was 20 pounds lighter then before. Many of you don't know

that I'm not exactly one of great girth to begin with, and now I was an

emaciated 154 pounds at 6 foot 2 inches! I'm sure I must have looked

like hell, but to be honest, I don't remember much. That's one of the

nice things about pain, you don't remember it! In fact I have a period

of almost 2 months that are pretty much missing from my memory. From

about 2 weeks before I started the AP, until 1.5 months after, my

memories are pretty much gone. I only know to write about it because I

kept a journal and I kept talking about it so I wouldn't forget what I

had been through. One other thing of note. About 6 or 7 days into the

Herxheimer, I was suffering intorably and really wanted to take some

ibuprofen to hopefully achieve some relief, even just a little. Since I

was hurting so bad I decided to hell with the hives, I want some relief,

even if only for a few hours. So I took some, and I had no breakout. A

few hours later I took some more, still no breakout. So I took even

more, and still no breakout! I had remembered reading in Dr. Brown's

book how RA can cause allergies and chemical sensitivities, and how once

the AP was started, most often those allergies went away. This appeared

to be what was happening to me so I decided to test the theory. I went

back to my stashes of Relafen, DayPro and Voltaren and tried each and

every one. None of them caused any breakouts! I was cleared of my

allergy to NSAIDs! Now at least I had more powerful analgesic drugs to

help cope. I also had my own personal proof that the infectious theory

of RA was accurate, otherwise I would not have had a Herxheimer reaction

nor the allergy clearing. The NSAIDs didn't really help that much when

the pain was really bad, but it was better than just Tylenol! Anyway, 2

weeks after I started the AP the Herxheimer broke and I started to get

better. I could actually take the top off a child-proof pill bottle all

by myself! Finally I had a small period of relief. I had 2 or 3 good

days, then I got bad again. This time I was bad for 2 or 3 more weeks

(though not as bad as before) then I'd be good for another couple days..

Then the cycle would continue, week after week, month after month. " Three

steps forward, two steps back " they call it.

This seesaw continues to this day. I have continued to improve, but at

the 3 steps forward, 2 steps back pace. I find that my periods of bad days

seem to be lessening and my good periods seem to be

increasing. I still find that I spend about half my time miserable and

in severe pain, but the other half is pretty decent and helps me see the

light at the end of the tunnel.

Christmas '98: I was experiencing a few complications that seemed

to have set me back more then just the 2 steps. It looked like I might

have to start using some of the more dangerous substances, namely a

short course of prednisone to get some of my swelling under control so

the minocycline could get past the inflammation to the critters that are

hiding behind it. But I was still optimistic. I had also developed anemia

from the RA which left me cold all the time. My potassium and magnesium

levels have also dramatically dropped causing an irregular heartbeat -

that is now under control with lots of bananas and potassium and magnesium

supplements.

When these complications developed my GP decided he didn't feel

comfortable with our arrangement any longer and

insisted I see a " real " rheumatologist. Another small miracle happened,

2 days before my GP opted out, I was browsing the main antibiotic protocol

web site (www.rheumatic.org) and I came across a list of doctors that

prescribe the AP in the DC area. Wouldn't you know it that one of the docs

in the area

was also a participant in my insurance! And he wasn't just any doctor,

he is the doctor that now owns Dr. McPherson Brown's old

practice! I found this encouraging until I met Dr. Kempf. He is

an admittedly " traditional " rheumatologist who wants me to start using

methotrexate (MTX). The good news is that he wants me to continue the

antibiotic therapy but add the MTX to my regimen to provide relief. I

saw him again after 2 weeks and refused that treatment (over his

protests) but he said he will continue my existing protocol since that's

what I have chosen. We did agree that if after 3 more months, no

significant improvements have been made, that I would undergo a short

course (6 months) of low-dose methotrexate to get the swelling under

control. I would continue the minocycline in the hopes that the metho

would be able to boost the mino into a more effective treatment, and

kill all those critters that have been ravaging my body.

So the good news was that now I finally felt that I was in good hands.

Other good news is that Dr. Kempf got me accepted into a National

Institutes of Health (NIH) study of RA patients and the possible

infectious cause. This means that I will get " Hundreds of thousands of

dollars " worth of tests all for free, just for participating. I'm sure

the tests won't be pain free, but it will help with my continuing

treatment of this vicious, horrible, cruel disease.

On January 13, 1999 I went to the NIH hospital in Bethesda, land for

my initial round of tests. Urine and blood tests as well as x-ray pictures

were taken, but they also wanted to biopsy one of my joints, which was a

very painful procedure.

March 9, 1999: What a difference 2 months makes!

You may remember that I had seen my new rheumatologist just 32 hours

after getting off the plane from my Christmas trip. One important thing

to note is that the mycoplasmas love low pressure, it really gets them up

and active. So

I had a triple whammy, 1.) I was in a flare period; 2.) I had to fly in

a airplane where the atmospheric pressure drops fairly dramatically

compared with normal weather changes; and 3.) I went to Seattle, WA and

Portland, OR which must have the lowest relative atmospheric of anywhere

in the country. It's very easy for me to think of this time as being the

worst I've experienced, but I know this is not true. It's just the worst

time I can actually remember. So my new doctor was seeing me for the

first time at my absolute worst. It's no wonder he was ready to start

the chemo-therapy. The treatment might kill the patient, but at least it

sometimes provides relief.

3 days after the NIH visit and " that " procedure my flare broke. One of

the things I've noticed about the rheumatoid arthritis flares is that

there seems to be a " storm before the calm " and again I was experiencing

this phenomenon. It is now early mid-March and I have not had a major

flare since mid January! I saw my new doc once again since I last wrote

and he couldn't believe how much better I was. We agreed not to add any

more

agents into my treatment as long as my progress continued, which it has.

For over two months now I have been at relative peace. That's

not to say that I haven't had some minor flares or that I am now pain

free, for certainly I am not, but the constant, passive pain has almost

left me completely. I no longer feel that I am birthing a child. I would

rank most days on a scale of 0 to 10 (with 10 being completely healthy

and 0 being so bad that you would actually have to get better to die)

somewhere between 7.5 and 9! Those days when I am at a 9 I feel like I

could run a marathon! I have actually run up stairs with almost no

difficulty! If I had any doubts as to the effectiveness of this

treatment, they have been swept away. I am getting better, and

dramatically better at that! I know now that I have many more

Christmases to come in my life.

I have even been able to cut down on my analgesic drugs (I use about half

of what I did just 2 months ago.) I even sometimes forget to take the

non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine and sometimes I don't even

notice it until the next day! Just a few months ago I would be in so

much pain that I would watch the clock just waiting to take the next

pill.

I have also fought and won my battle with chemical addiction to Ultram.

There is some bad news. Approximately 3 weeks after my initial NIH visit

I received preliminary lab reports in the mail. My blood work showed

nothing surprising (though this was the first time that everything had

held steady instead of getting worse) but the x-rays of my hands and

feet gave me cause for concern. It was discovered

that I have " massive erosions of the interphalangeal joint of the great "

and " both hands and wrists show a similar pattern of marked osteopenia

in the wrist and multiple erosions in the carpal bones. " Basically this

means that much of my bone and cartilage has been destroyed and will

never repair itself. This is quite disconcerting as my hands are fairly

crippled and to discover that they will not get any better was quite

discouraging. So I will be crippled for life, but at least I'll have a

life. And the crippling isn't really so bad, there are some things I will

never be able to do again (weight training for instance is almost

certainly over with forever), but it's not so bad that I can't adjust

and live a productive and fulfilling life. When I went for my first

follow up visit at NIH I got to see the x-rays. Sure enough, there are

" holes " in the bones that just shouldn't be there. The toes are worse

then my hands, in fact my toes are so bad that it lead the NIH doctors

to conclude that I must have been suffering from RA for at least a year

before I started treatment. There is just too much erosion for it to

have happened in 6 months. The lesson for me here is to stop ignoring

pain when I get it! If I had raised the flag a year ago when only my

toes hurt me and started treatment sooner, I almost certainly would have

experienced less pain and less permanent damage to my body. In addition

to all this, we still don't know about the state of my knees, elbows,

shoulders and jaw. If pain and swelling is any indicator (and it is) I

would think my left knee will be have extensive damage as well, but I'm

not dwelling on that right now.

But there's more good news, on my second visit to NIH they performed

their standard body examination. On my first visit the examination gave

a score of 15 (higher is worse, this seems to be an arbitrary number

calculated using the number of affected joints and the severity of

swelling including range of motion limitations). During my second visit

I scored a 7, much to the bafflement of the NIH docs (they are among

those doctors that don't really believe in the antibiotic protocol

treatment for RA). The best part is another friend and member of my

support group whom is also a participant in this study has had similar,

" remarkable " improvements. The two of us getting so much better without

the use of DMARDs like methotrexate or

prednisone has really opened the mind of my NIH doc. He has invited me

to send him all the information I can on the antibiotics and he promised to

research what's out there to the best of his ability. So maybe this

could be the beginning of something that really effects change in how

most doctors view and treat these rheumatic diseases. I can only hope.

So to recap, I am doing great. So great in fact that a week and a half

ago I spent the weekend in Europe! I had a trip that I thought just a

few scant months ago I would never be able to take again! I did have a

little trouble with swelling in my knees, but thanks to DMSO (dimethyl

sulfoxide) a new-to-me topical liquid that is used for arthritis in

Europe, Canada and Russia, but is only approved for use on animals here

in the states. It is also used as an industrial solvent, so yes,

sometimes these days I paint my body with horse medicine/industrial

solvent and it works great (and I don't care!) Anybody else out there

with osteoarthritis, bursitis or sprains may want to investigate the

stuff for themselves, try www.dmso.org. Apparently the only reason it's

not approved for use here is that it would cost too much money for any

drug company to go through the FDA's approval process. Since it's a well

known chemical compound, there could be no patent on it and no patent to a

drug company equals no profit. It's amazing how over and over again I

find the medical and pharmaceutical industry putting money ahead of

health and human suffering.

I have started to have a life again. I

expect, at the current rate, to be pain free in less than 6 months and I

will have to continue to take the minocycline for at least a year after

that. I am very very optimistic about my future. Every day seems to get

better and better. I know the AP works. It may take patience and a bit

of suffering, but you do eventually get there, which is something that

can not really be said for the other toxic treatments.

Joe Graff.

You can contact me at joegraff@...

[Guest guest]

Hi Notan

Thank you for your most recent post which included links to Joe's posts. I have

just read all of Joe's & Robyn's posts in this group dating from the begining of

08. What can i say. Wow. Yes i read from joe's posts that he has never regreted

the Roux-En-Y surgery for acid & bile reflux and for his posts i shall always be

grateful for the information contained. Yes, if my surgeon talks of this

operation for my reflux when i see him on May 16 then i will say yes to the

operation despite the high risks for complications. I have just had what is

becomming a normal night in that i fall asleep, wake up violently refluxing

acid. The acid is slowly erroding the enamel on my teeth and the awful taste

that it leaves in my mouth is compared to car battery acid! I cannot go on like

this and bearing in mind what happened to Joe i will go ahead but we'll wait and

see what the surgeon says first. you see the surgeon that is at present looking

after me has performed

ectomies in the past for Achalasia but has limited experience on doing the

Roux-En-Y on patients post ectomy so may referre me back to the Thoracic surgeon

who performed my ectomy back in 2004 as he definately has this missing

experience but we'll see.

I wish that i had more information on the Roux-En-Y performed on post ectomy

patients as it may throw up some questions that i can ask the surgeon when i see

him.

from the UK

From: notan ostrich <notan_ostrich@...>

achalasia

Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 6:14 PM

Subject: Joe's Story

 

wrote:

> ... Who was " Joe " . I am not familiar with him. ...

I should have been more accurate about what I said. He actually survived

the surgery but may have died from the complications. It is a

complicated story. The outcome of the surgery was not good. One of the

problems Joe had was adhesions, scar tissue that binds organs and

tissues together. In one of the messages he reports that his doctor

said he scarred more than most people. There are other comments that

relate to it too. It probably made his surgery much more difficult which

could have lead to the cut artery. The more surgery you have in an area

of the body the harder it can be to do any more there.

Here are some of the messages of his story. Have some tissue ready.

1-13-08

Scheduled for surgery on 3-6-08:

achalasia/message/46994

His esophagectomy was not vagal-sparing. Some are, some are not. As

everything with achalasia it is controversial.

achalasia/message/47024

A modified roux-en-y gastric bypass procedure became the new plan:

achalasia/message/47064

He lists other problems; vocal cord nerve cut, anastomotic leak,

diverticulum in anastomosis, aspiration pneumonia, severe dumping:

achalasia/message/47067

He lists more problems; umbilical hernia, torn adhesions, pain, B-12,

dehydration, damaged kidneys:

achalasia/message/47085

1-18-08

J-tube problem while waiting for surgery:

achalasia/message/47108

J-tube test showed MRSA:

achalasia/message/47122

and

achalasia/message/47173

Changes and J-tube damage moved surgery up:

achalasia/message/47255

1-24-08

Surgery, blood loss due to a accidental cut in large artery:

achalasia/message/47296

Ventricular tachycardia (VTAC), ventricular fibrillations (VFIB):

achalasia/message/47348

1-26-08

Coded again:

achalasia/message/47371

High fever, heart beat problem, back in surgery to fix a leak:

achalasia/message/47395

1-27-08

Heart muscle damage:

achalasia/message/47418

1-28-08

Brain damaaged?

achalasia/message/47435

1-29-08

Was sitting up, things looked good:

achalasia/message/47476

2-1-08

Couldn't walk or sit for very long, and had seizures (stroke):

achalasia/message/47577

2-3-08

Was facing Short-Term Rehab for stroke:

achalasia/message/47646

2-4-08

Joe posted to the group:

achalasia/message/47708

2-12-08

Day before rehab (couldn't move left side well):

achalasia/message/47976

3-5-08

Back to Brigham and Women's Hospital for leak:

achalasia/message/48505

6-16-08

" I wish everyone well. " Joe:

achalasia/message/50696

7-9-08

" Sad Day for us. " Robyn:

achalasia/message/51068

Death from heart attack may have been caused by nerve stimulation:

achalasia/message/51186

All these messages were from jmr12667. There are other messages under

that name if you want to search for them. His older messages were under

robjoe94, joecoolrn and applelady72.

For some history see:

achalasia/message/818

achalasia/message/935

achalasia/message/945

achalasia/message/1097

achalasia/message/1134

achalasia/message/1385

achalasia/message/1450

achalasia/message/1452

achalasia/message/1794

achalasia/message/2279

achalasia/message/2797

achalasia/message/3241

achalasia/message/3443

There are other messages too.

notan