Author Topic: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!  (Read 50142 times)

guest4955

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #100 on: October 11, 2017, 06:15:20 PM »
Well I never intended to revisit this thread but I have some “good health news” I’ll share solely for the purpose of encouraging others, not bc I think it’s appropos to discuss health issues on an MP board.

First a short recap and some new details. Like millions of men world-wide, I took an FDA-approved drug for 17 years daily to stop my retreating “widows-peak” baldness. It totally worked, no further hair loss at all. Seemingly a miracle drug! I religiously recommended it to others.

Bc the drug caused one problematic but not “traumatic”  side-effect, I discontinued the drug in Dec. 2014. Within 10 days I suffered extensive brain damage. Consequently, I stopped sleeping at all, I was very dizzy and could barely walk, I had very severe double-vision, the area of my face near both eyes turned very black, my facial hair stopped growing entirely, and the worst three side effects I won’t discuss.

I found out a few thousand men world-wide had suffered an identical fate. I also consulted the world’s top doctor/expert on this “syndrome.” The worst effect – for which there is no effective treatment or cure and is considered permanent - was so horrific and ego-crushing that 40% of victims considered suicide and a fair number had followed through.

I was somewhat lucky that many of my maladies resolved naturally within a year. But the insomnia, walking/dizziness issues, voice impairment, and the very worst malady continued. (Totally impossible to believe, I have not slept one second in the last 10 months but I usually feel fine except for persistent dizziness.)

*****

So my repeated message to you is:

(1)   Treasure and preserve your health bc it just might disappear suddenly,
(2)   Buy disability insurance RIGHT NOW. Luckily, the fed gov (my former employer) provides this insurance for free to all its employees. If it didn’t, I would be permanently financially ruined.
(3)   Carefully research of all known side-effects of every drug you take.

My new message is:

(4)   Continue to hope and believe you will get better no matter how poor the prognosis. Also impossible to believe, my very worst malady resolved recently overnight after 2.5 years of zero improvement. To the best of my knowledge, only a handful of victims – it could be fewer than 20 out of thousands – have recovered from this horrific malady.

*****



*****

To end on a lighter note....

I was "torture-teased" by work colleagues a few years ago:

"Ask me anything ... about poodles!"


Online 50s

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #101 on: October 11, 2017, 07:27:44 PM »
Good precautionary tale to share

On a more exciting note, pointing out your worst malady is now looking on the up and up must give you great strength in going forward.


Offline Harry Caul

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #102 on: October 11, 2017, 08:18:06 PM »
Glad to hear you are turning the corner on this Mel!  thumbsup.gif

guest4955

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #103 on: October 15, 2017, 05:17:42 AM »
Thanks hombres. I should add that EVERYONE has been effusively friendly to me bc I'm partially disabled, opening doors for me, saying hello in the hall, etc.

Except one time I fell in the hall. One guy walked by and said "are you OK" but didn't try to help me up.

But I guess it was karma!

I rarely interacted with disabled peeps, mostly bc they were few and far between.

One time five years ago in DC I helped a blind woman across the street. Looking back, I was much too aggressively helpful.  I just grabbed her arm and hauled her across the street. She kinda angrily said "I didn't need your assistance."

A couple of months later I was standing on one corner of a very busy intersection. One of the roads was four lanes and usually many cars were drivingly by at 40MPH.

As it happened both roads were totally clear of traffic. I glanced at the other corner and noticed this young woman very awkwardly approach the corner from the sidewalk. Without stopping or looking around she entered the street and began walking DIAGONALLY across the intersection. I was shocked. Nobody EVER crosses an intersection diagonally bc you are crossing in the path of oncoming traffic.

After a couple seconds I was sure she must be blind, even though she wasn't wearing sunglasses or carrying a walking stick. She was crossing very awkwardly in a curved not straight path. I SHOULD have run out into the street to help her. But I didn't do or say anything bc there was no traffic and I assumed she would get angry like the prior woman.

Eventually after 30 seconds she made it across. (She missed the corner and instead walked onto the sidewalk.) I lost track of her but saw again inside the Best Buy store. No question she was totally blind bc a BB employee had linked arms with her and was describing the products in the aisle to her.

I felt guilty as hell for NOT acting to help her before. (Of course, she was very foolish for walking around without any help.)

So always ACT and don't be a useless onlooker like me...


Offline brude

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #104 on: October 15, 2017, 01:21:56 PM »
Good for you, Mel!
 clap clap clap clap clap clap

guest4955

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #105 on: October 16, 2017, 04:53:15 AM »
Why are you still reading my intro thread 5 mos. after I rejoined! I don't have anything better to do with my time since I both stopped sleeping and working, but surely you do!  :-*

****

Well we're in the trangender rah-rah era, so I'm going with a femme avatar for the first time eva  ;D


guest4981

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #106 on: October 19, 2017, 03:07:55 PM »
Also impossible to believe, my very worst malady resolved recently overnight after 2.5 years of zero improvement

Was just posting in greeting section and saw your story. Was curious, you mention not sleeping for 10 months, but that your "worst" malady recently resolved. Is there actually a worse malady/symptom than not sleeping for 10 months? Or are you saying that's resolved and you're sleeping now?

Offline CSM

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #107 on: October 19, 2017, 03:27:48 PM »
How many years until the Class Action suit is resolved?
Chris

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #108 on: October 19, 2017, 03:53:50 PM »
Not sleeping actually sounds cool to me, could free up an extra 4-5 hours a day to do other things.
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guest4955

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #109 on: October 20, 2017, 05:02:01 AM »
Sleeping is a long story. I was a perfect sleeper until summer 2014, when I suddenly started sleeping no more than 4 hours a night but I felt fine, found a GF etc.. By by Nov I could only sleep 1-2 hrs and then I stopped sleeping at all until April 2015. I was not "fine" at all. My entire head felt like a rock, I could not speak a word, and I just lay on my couch 24 hours a day, no TV, no Internet.

So I was later told I was "24 hours from death" when I was hauled off to the hospital for 2 months. I have no memory for first two weeks. My docs put me on two drugs (remaron/nortriptylin) which restored normal sleep until Dec 2016, when I once again just stopped sleeping at all. No drugs work but impossibly I feel fine. For the last month I've "gone to bed" for 7 hours and my brain goes into a relaxed state but I do not sleep a wink. Progress?

*****

Not maladies but caffeine and alcohol no longer affect me at all! Sucks all 'round.



*****

There is a class action in Canada but not in the US. Last I checked there are 500 lawsuits in the US. I can't sue bc my case is impossibly complicated. For starters I was hit by 10 maladies, twice as many as others, but 7, including the worst one which virtually nobody else has recovered from, resolved eventually for no known reason.

*****

DL it's not much fun being wide-awake at 2 am and no on else is....




guest4955

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #110 on: October 29, 2017, 05:26:57 PM »
The thread will not die!

But related to life finis, I donated blood for the first time in 20 years. (I was on the verboten list while taking  the anti-baldness drug.)



PS The Jigsaw movie is sponsoring a blood drive:

http://www.jigsawblooddrive.com




guest4955

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Re: Mel: Collecting Round 2.0 begins!
« Reply #111 on: January 23, 2018, 12:08:56 AM »
Just a quick public service announcement/health update:

I met a 60yo man in my apt. complex with a similar health experience. He was perfectly healthy until age 47, when he became 100% permanently blind in 3 months due to internal optic nerve damage. He “foolishly” quit his high-paying IT sales job and lost/dropped his health and disability insurance. He told me he would be getting $8.3K per month from dis ins, instead of the $2.8K he gets from SS. Lesson: Employers are required to “reasonably accommodate” your health issues, so don’t quit your job and retain your health/dis ins. But good news: He’s a pretty happy, married man who’s “hanging in there.”

As for me, my dizziness/disorientation/”druggy” sensations became much worse two months ago BUT I can sleep semi-normally now, after IMPOSSIBLY going sleepless for a year. So really no lesson, except “hang in there” bc things might get better/worse.

Please don’t publicly reply to this bc a MP forum is not really the right place to discuss life’s up and downs. Happy to PM with you. (Two other APFers have corresponded extemsively with me about health issues.)

*****

On a lighter note, my whole "mess" developed bc of an anti-baldness drug. Should have gone this route: