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Cool Jonahs have You been able to find anymore info or if it will be available here soon?

tower
I'm hear at The Lord's will and for only that reason. He has things He wants Me to do and people to talk to or help.

tower during the illness I kept a weight of around 185 to 195. I went into the surgery at 5'11" 195 lb. on 10/7/03. By 2/04 I was at 135 and Doc was telling Me I was anerexic (SP?) and if I did not put on 15 lbs. by end of the month He would have to hospitalize Me. He is a great guy and I told Him I had spent almost 3 years in hospitals starting with first trip 3/17/2001 at 6.3 hemoglobin. I was not going in for starving. He said well just great all that work and worry all these people have put into You will end up just being thrown away after all. So I felt about an inch high. But, He had learned over the years of seeing Me every week giving Me vitamins and iron along with getting alot of transfusions through a port, with My veins shot from all the IV's the first year. He did not use any beside manner with Me. He said I have treated You long enough that i know Your mental state and i will have You committed to the hospital. i know that most that came to Him when i started have long gone to better health or hopefully a better world. I did not know if that was true or not so i got bags of baby ruths and ate them constantly and got the 15 on with some extra lbs. of coins, HAHA.

I would go in the beginning 3 times a week and sometimes in the very beginning every day. It was surreal. I hate to say it but, I had it easier than all the cancer patients I would sit in the same room while they got chemo and I'm getting iron, vitamins as well as some other stuff. I felt bad like what am I doing here with these good people and most would come for a 6 months or year and go into remission. Then there were those I would see for 3 to 6 months and find out they had died. I watched a young mother from My Church come to Him because they knew i saw Him. She could not have children and they adopted a baby from China. She was such pretty baby but, while they were waiting just before going to pick Her up they found out that She was expecting, which was a miracle. The Doctors had told them that after 4 years and the test there was no way She could have children. Well they started seeing Doc Baltz right after Her Baby was born they found She had cancer. I would sit with Her as We asked the Doc could We come at the same time. I was good freinds with Her husband. One day She did not come and then another and another so I asked since it was between Church days where She was at. They told Me She had died. Everyone thought She was going to be Ok. But after a year since She had gone to Be with the Lord a lady started to Church and Her husband had died the same. She had 2 children and they started out just being friends considering what both had gone through they understood more than others. Then after another year They said Hey everyone We have decided to have a Brady Bunch Family. I did not know Her Husband was told a very good Man but, knowing My Church friend the way I did I know She was so happy to know He was not raising the Kids alone.

Once Doc Baltz did not come into my room for 2 hours which was odd because he was prompt for check ups but, would spend all the time You needed. He came in having been crying with a family that He told them there was no hope for helping the Mother. First time I had ever had to give a Doc a hug but, they are human too and I had been seeng Him so long I think He felt comfortable moving on to Me, the nurses said that he changed the order he was going in that morning. He did not treat children, He said He could not stand it. It was to hard with adults. He specialised in elderly and when I first met Him and found out I figured He would pass Me on to another Doc but, I found out later the GI had told Him that He had a feeling that this one was going to be a weird case and would He stay with it. They had been in school together, so Doc Baltz hung in there. He could not use kid gloves with Me, so I got things put to Me the way i deserved to have it said and that was pulling no punches.

Sometimes when i weigh before I go if it is lower than I want I add stuff to My pockets so it will look better. I try to eat but, I do not have any appetite now. Everyone always asks Me if i ate or when or what. I will find I forget to eat for 24 hours if I get busy doing things that occupy My mind. But, most everyone does not let Me forget. I can't eat much but I do try hard to remember and drink weight gain stuff. But, as You know it just does not stay anywhere long enough to be absorbed so a permanent malabsorbtion problem. I like to go fishing just off by myself and in that situation I will forget unless I'm in a area where the girls phone can ring Me. In the boonies out here we have lot's of areas that signal is in and out but, it is getting better all the time.

tower about a year before finding out what was wrong, everyone had been telling I had no color or white as a sheet. I knew I could not walk up stairs to balcony at Church without stopping for air. I'm hard headed as most here have found out and just kept going thinking it was age (43) I needed to work out more. I was playing softball 4 nights a week and every Saturday at tourneys which meant 3 different teams. Church, league, and a tourney only team, I think back and do not know how i did it but, really wondered how could i have thought I was going down hill because of lack of exercise. Hindsight is 20/20. I kept asking myself how can I get in better shape? Now I do not know how I played so much ball except I loved it and just will power. I found I was taking Myself out of games more but, again age i thought.
I went for a check up for degenerative vertebrae in neck and disks in Lumbar. Doc asked if I felt well and I said not really but, it would be Ok. He said He needed some blood work, which I thought strange He never asked before, I went down stairs had it drawn but, He had said to come back up. At the time He had a plan I did not understand it. He had Me set out in waiting room and some nurses from the hospital came over to the Med Towers which are connected with a wheel chair. I asked Him what was going on and He said My count was 6.3 and hermaticate was so low I do not even remember it. He said I could die any second You have to go to the hospital. I knew something was bad wrong because My tongue had begun to have splits in it for about 5 months and other things. I learned it was a sign of low or no B vitamins in my body. I was void of iron, anemic. The tongue was scurvy You know like sailors use to get with out vitamins from fruit and vegies. I was blessed and got right from the start a great GI that called in an Oncologist/Hematologist and both have been with Me from day one. GI wanted Hemotologist to give the iron and blood as I was in such a dangerous condition that He just did not feel comfortable ordering it. Dr. Baltz came in joked around which He has been the same from the first day I met Him. Teased me about springing a leak. Both greatest Doctors I have ever had, well throw the surgeon in there also.
But they watched Me like a hawk all those years seeing Me every week and talking in the hospital on rounds trying to figure out what was wrong. GI took My case to a world conference in Seattle fall 2002 I think and brought it up in every round table and finally they just discussed it in open meeting for topic of discussion. They intially thought I had vessels in My stomach that grew to close to the stomach wall and would come through bleed and when pressure went down would retract and that is why all the scoping could not find anything. tower You probably know what it is called. Then there was one other but, can't remember what it was. You pick a name of a test and I can tell You if I had. Meckels scans? I never heard of it much less know there was a test for that.
They had University of AR for Medical Sciences use a really tiny scope to see if they could get into the small intestines from the stomach which is not actually supposed to be possible I understand because of a valve unless You swallow the pill camera. They ruled that out as very low % of finding anything with it. Technology is just to hit and miss with it the way it tumbles and they were thinking if they were looking for something small it would most likely miss it.

When the Surgeon and the GI went in to explore the game plan was to make and incesion in top of small int. and push a scope down and if nothing then cut at the bottom and push up.
It did not happen that way as just before going in My Pastor came with Nurses to check on Me and He said I'm going to Pray Your welcome to stay or leave whatever You prefer. He simply Prayed Lord let there be no confusion and no guessing. Guide their eyes, hands, and most of all Their minds. He then asked God that what ever it is let it stand out like a neon sign. I was of course out but, the Docs came out to talk to the family about what happened in surgery and surgeon said they cut me open and My stomach was glowing like a neon sign it was so red and inflamed. I kid You not that is what He said according to the witness's and Pastor. The GI said they looked at each other and surgeon just started there and found the AVM and followed it down into small intestines and just removed until they felt they had enough or like GI said as far as they felt safe to remove. They had explained in advance they felt it was only a 50/50 chance of finding it and a 50/50 chance I could die because they had not been able to get blood numbers up for the surgery. I imagine You know how picky Docs are about all signs being good and Surgeon had tried to back out about 3 days earlier and to be honest in tears on the phone I begged Him not to because this time I was going to die anyway so what difference does it make if it is at home or at least where there is a chance to help Me. He left on a 2 day trip and told Me He would think about it and call Me Monday the morning of the surgery to tell Me if He would go ahead or not. Worse 2 days of My life I think but, I know it really wasn't i thought it was. I'm not ashamed I cried on that phone begging Him not to change His mind that I'm not worried about dieing but, I'm worried about leaving My Daughters with no parent left to look after them. I told Him as for Me it would be a joy to be done with all this and go to Heaven. I asked Him for My Girls, whom he had met when They would take Me for visits, please do not give up for Their sake. I got off the phone and called GI and told Him Surgeon was getting cold feet and He called which I guess they had words because Surgeon did not seem as friendly to Me after. GI said it was god complex that Surgeon is in charge at surgery and even He had to follow His lead. GI felt We had upset Surgeon by questioning what He felt like should be done. I explained to Surgeon that He has been invovled for 1 week I and My 2 other Docs and Family have been dealing with this for almost 3 years or more. They cannot give Me enough whole blood and shoot Me with enough vitamin K anymore to make Me coagulate. It just would not work anymore, all the little tricks they used before would not work. The day before the surgery I got 4 units to get Me to 12 which is where Surgeon said I needed to be before he could work. They could give only so much, You can get iron poisining from to much I think it was. They kind of danced around those rules some with Me for obvious reasons.

tower right now I'm 145 but, worked on H2 all day getting it ready for show and supercharger install on Tuesday or the next day. It is at painter now painting it Stealth Gray. We are chroming everything in the engine compartment We can get. I'll finish Jonahs's gauge design install Monday. Last week put on dual elecric fans and alot of other stuff. Inside chrome door plates and big chrome door pulls. New gauge face from Nu-Image stainless steel. painted needle hubs blue to match blue in cluster face. Gosh I would just have to go out and make a list while walking around.
I'm having fun though so that's what counts.

Thanks for your good will tower and the many others who have PM'd Me asking and checking on me. Since the blood level drop back in Feb. I have been perfect and Doc thinks it was Me not making blood instead of loss since He had begun to spread the iron and vitamin treatments out. He increased them again and everything seems good. The constant blood loss has caused a neuropathy or 2 due to oxygen shortage to my brain so often. It seems to be neuorological but, not known to what degree. RLS and beginnings of some dizziness and a few blackouts. Not sure what to make of that yet but, does not worry Me just an inconvenience. I can feel when the dizziness starts and learned that if doing something that could endanger someone just pull over or do not leave where I'm at in case it leads to a black out like it did on a few occasions. Learning to watch out. Hopefully it goes away. i do not let these minor problems or at least to me minor not slow Me down to much but, I have met others with RLS and it can be life altering. I for some reason have always had a high pain tolerance threshold. So I hope i can hold it back. It gets very painful sometimes but, the feeling like something is crawling on Your legs sort freaks Me out sometime but, knowing what it is I'm adjusting.

Again thanks tower and many others who have followed this weared illness.
TAZ