Support Needed, Please!

[Guest guest]

One of our WLS brothers needs our support. Nate " Dogg " has suffered

a set back in his WLS journey. Please take a moment to sign his

support page:

http://tinyurl.com/ndq4u

If any of you would like to know how to contact him, e-mail his Mom

at fishgiver@.... She will print the e-mails and take them to

read to him.

Here's Nate's story from his MOM.

Hi, I'm Nate's Mom. He does not have access to the internet right

now and has asked me to let you folks know what is going on with him.

I know my other son Ben posted about it on myspace but Nate thought

it would be good to also post here too since he knows a lot of you.

I've met a few of you also.

As Ben said, Nate is very sick.

He did just fine the first 4 mos but then started having a really

hard time with vomiting.

He was doing it at least 4 times a week but had no other symptoms so

he just kept going.

A few days before Christmas he got to where he could not keep

anything down.

He had lost 150 lbs by then. It was less than 5 mos.

I took him up to Orange and his surgeon put him in the hospital that

night.

They thought his stoma had probably healed small so they did a EDG

the next day. It had healed small so they stretched it and thought

he would be fine.

He wasn't. He never stopped throwing up.

I took him back Christmas morning and he was admitted again.

They did an ultrasound of his gallbladder and did another EDG and

stretched the stoma more.

When the doctor was done doing that he went over to ultrasond dept

and looked at the pics of Nate's gallbladder.

It was full of stones and sludge.

They did a nuclear scan after that to see if it was working at all.

It never showed up on the scan so that meant it was not.

He was very sick by then, still vomiting and very weak.

They removed his gallbladder Friday morning.

The surgeon said his pancreas was inflamed and his liver was also

but that was nothing compared to what was about to happen.

The day after surgery, they got him up to go to the bathroom.

He walked in and collapsed on the floor.

He could not get up and had to be literally picked up and put in the

bed.

They tried over the next couple of days to get him to stand up but

he couldn't.

His legs and hands were also getting numbness at that time also.

We also noticed that he was having trouble getting a deep breath and

was breathing shallow breaths.

His surgeon knew something very serious was wrong and called in a

Neurologist.

The Neurologist did some preliminary tests and knew pretty quick

what was wrong.

had Guillain Barre Syndrome.

His gallbladder had poisoned him, causing his immune system to go on

the attack.

It sent out Auto antibodies that attacked his peripheral nerves in

both his legs and arms as well as his chest muscles, back muscles,

pretty much all of his muscles.

His breathing got worse over the next few days and he became

literally paralyzed.

He could move his arms some but not his legs. They were total dead

weight.

He had trouble swallowing also and could barely use his hands.

They did a spinal tap to confirm the diagnosis and it was positive.

They ordered him a special airbed to avoid pressure sores and put

him on a ton of medication.

They told us he needed to have his Plasma removed from his blood to

clean out the auto antibodies.

They put him in ICU to monitor his breathing more closely and

started the treatment.

He had tubes and wires coming out of everywhere. He had pic lines in

his arm and his neck, which was kind of scary for him.

They put his blood thru a machine which spins the blood 220 rpm's to

separate the plasma from the red and white blood cells.

Then they mix those with saline and albumin and return them to him

thru his neck tube.

The plasma is collected in a big bag that looks like beer and thrown

away.

They had to do this for 2 hrs 6 times over the next 7 days.

He did not get any worse, so they knew it had worked.

The damage was done though. The treatment cannot reverse that.

He has Peripheral nerve damage as well as Myelin damage.

Myelin is the coating on the outside of our nerves, kind of like

rubber coating on wires.

When that protective coating is damaged by auto antibodies, nerve

damage occurs.

Nerves cannot send signals to muscles to work if they are damaged,

causing paralysis.

He also has intense pain in his hands and they are half numb and

half needles and pins.

He has had intestinal infections and blood infections since then

also.

It only made things worse.

His breathing became a little more stable so they put him back in a

regular room. He was glad. He didn't like ICU.

After a month at St ph's Hosp, they moved him to a

convalescent/rehab center down the street.

It's a skilled nursing facility since he requires 24 hr care.

Physical Therapy works with him twice daily as well as

Occupational therapy for his hands.

His leg muscles were pretty much not visible for a month and a half

but they are starting to show up again.

They were atrophied and will require much therapy to make them work

again.

It's a very slow process and will take months.

He can barely use his hands due to the intense pain and numbeness.

He drops everything like phones but he manages ok.

Good thing for speaker phone.

He has just started being able to sit and stay up.

Before he just fell over. He also has figured out how to get himself

maneuvered in the bed to get himself sitting up on the side of the

bed, using only his arms.

His legs still do not work too much but he can move them a little

when he's laying down and he can push the foot of his bed with his

feet just a little.

They get him out of bed with a lift which looks kind of like a stork

carrying a baby.

They put him in his wheelchair that way and back in the bed the same

way.

We're hoping to get him moved down where we both live by the end of

next month.

We need to get insurance straightened out first, then we can do it.

It will make it so much easier for him to be close to home.

It has been very hard on all of us, especially Nate.

He has a really hard time with depression but he has started to

really get determined to get better.

I know he will, it might just take a long time.

If any of you would like to know how to contact him, e-mail me at

fishgiver@...

I will print the e-mails and take them to read to him.