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Stable is the best to hope for from my eyes. My mom was exposed to toxoplasmosis when i was still in there. My left eye has been legally blind since i was 10 and the right one keeps fighting the good fight. Toxoplasmosis is the one where they tell all the pregnant ladies to stay away from the cat box to avoid. Mom didn't have a cat. Probably a bit of undercooked meat or something. The only reason they know she was exposed was because of what happened to me.

I never get something normal....

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It hard to believe there is nothing that can be done for your eyes. With all the advances in medical science, etc.... Toxoplasmosis sounds pretty bad. There must be some seriously powerful crap in cat litter. Pregnant or not, people should wear gas masks or something.

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I guess the problem with it is it's a protozoa and takes up residence where you can't get at it. It goes off to sleep or some such thing but when it wakes up it inflames the retina (or wherever it takes up residence) and leaves scarring behind. Nowadays I take a lower dosage of the stuff they use to treat it just to try and keep it nailed down. That's because the ones in the right eye are now in the field of vision. used to be i could tell there was a problem because my vision changed but after they took care of it things went back to normal.

So far this lower dose antibiotic has done the trick.

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Fezo: Wishing that the antibiotic keeps doing the trick. Which antibiotic is it?

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Bactrim. It's an old one that is nicely in generic. Actually only used it once to treat because there was another one, rarer and with horrible side effects, that they had been using. Treating was always a lousy time - four different medications one of which was prednisone. no fun at all. I told the kids I was on my grouch pills.

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Well fezo-steve, you never know. There could be cures coming up. Stable is good, but there could be more good. When I got diagnosed twice with macular degeneration, from two diferent doctors, well, that was not fun. Usually I just try to 'handle' everything, but I went to a healing mass on this case, and last time I went to the eye doctor, he said there was NO macular degeneration. I'm still hoping it's alright. I really did feel something good happening there that day. I believe in miracles.

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Patti, that is an inspirational story about your eyes being healed. That's wonderful :)

Wow, Fezo...you really have had your share of medical issues. I hope it calms down for you and that the antibiotics work well. I bet your kids want you off the "grouch" pill :)
Hang tough...prayers are with you.

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Patti - good for you! Very good! We always think that macular degeneration is what slowly did in my mom. Because she had it they yanked the medical certificate on her pilot's license (she learned how to fly small planes at age 62!) so she couldn't fly solo at the time. This may have been the event that started her depression and once you have that and start into dimentia it's all downhill. I like your outcome way better!

Nightingale - the good news there is that the grouch pills are the ones when they are actively treating it. The ones to keep it away, which seem to do the trick, are fine.

Today I ended up at the ER. Should have been to the regular doctor but kept putting it off. Have had these regular headaches for several weeks now and since I've had ministrokes in the medical history I was concerned. Well, last night I couldn't keep food (or my medicine) down and it became a real concern. Took forever in waiting but about 5 minutes worth of tests put the worries to rest and I'm better on teh food front. I'm guessing the headaches are muscular and related to my balky cervical disks. Need to exercise them.

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Fezo: 'Balky cervical disks'? What exactly are they? Why are they 'balky'?

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Herniated disks. What they used to call slipped disks. Cervical 5 - 7. Discovered when it was hurting my right arm a year or two ago. I need to keep exercising to keep them more or less in place - not putting pressure on things. Problem has been with the hemoglobin problem the very last thing you want to do is exercise.

The good news at the hospital is the hemoglobin reading was OK. I might be getting somewhere. Meanwhile, I'm restarting the exercise and will check in about a little physical therapy for the neck.

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Started second round of the chemo treatment and they take my hemoglobin count - 11.2! Woo! Hoo! That's up and it's the highest it's been in two years. We will take that.

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woo-hoo!
great news indeed!

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Alright! Way to go Fezo! Prayers continue tho'.

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Can never have too many of the prayers! I have no idea how long I'll have to continue the chemo but this is indeed a good day.

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Fezo, I hope you are doing alright.
That was very sad to hear about your mom. I'm sorry. That must have been very difficult for your family. Whether I say anything or not, just know that pray. Praying is something I do regularly, and well, I am one of the people that pray for you.

... actually, your post also about your mom got me a little worried about my mother. She is 75 and sometimes I'm concerned she may be depressed. She doesn't want to do much sometimes. I know she's 75 and doesn't have to do a whole lot of jumping up and down if she doesn't want to, but,... you know.
That is so cool that your mom learned to fly small planes at age 62!

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Fezo-Steve - My thoughts and prayers continue to be with you. You certainly are fighting the good fight - on more fronts than one should have to. One thought on the discussion of cervical discs gone awry: are you looking at a cervical fixation ? And have they discussed cervical stenosis with you ? I am only curious , as I may have some thoughts for you, perhaps off-line in a PM ? I could share some thoughts with you in specific, especially if a D.O. or a D.C. wants to do a manual "twist/crack/adjust" on your neck. It has proven to be a very undesirable thing if you are posessed of herniating discs, or are further beleguered by stenosis. IMO to be avoided at all costs - the "adjustments". I'd be happy to share info with on this.

I am sorry to hear of your mothers' conditions, and of your 'inherited' toxiplasmosis problems. I'll surely continue to keep you in mind. Take care - and I am glad you went to the E/R when you were concerned about the headaches and mini-strokes. Keep us updated !

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This is GREAT!!! I'm happy for you :). I'm coming in from the other direction, lol. From a high of around 17 ish 5 years ago, my January count in my pre-op CBC had me finally in the normal range at 15.5. Just .3 from being high -but I'll take it!

Hope you don't need too many more of the chemo treatments?

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All the best to you both fezo & podunklander ! :)

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Ya know, Pam, you're the second person I know with too much hemoglobin. Talk about a foreign concept to me! Cool that it's in range.

I am approaching four weeks since transfusion. I can almost guarantee there will be on in the upcoming week but we're heading in the right direction.

All of my various chronic things are ones that can be treated as opposed to cured. As long as they keep me going I'm fine with that.

Thanks, all, for the good thoughts.

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I'm thinking good thoughts your way -that you may not need that transfusion, that you stay well and continue to do so.

I do feel fortunate that I have a chance to be cured because I've about had it with all the chronic symptoms that keep popping up and specialists, treatments and surgeries. All which most likely could have been prevented years ago.

The latest thing that came up (low chronic DHEA...lower than in the 70-80 year old range) and adrenal dysfunction -if not that a friend asked me what caused this (DUH...I hadn't even thought about it) and asked me if it might be related to Lyme. I would have never considered this in relation to Lyme, and found that it's called "type 2", which is commonly found in Lyme patients.

Halting the Lyme arthritis with the antibiotics and I'm taking DHEA supplements and hoping that perhaps it will re-build bone/cartilage.

Finally read the surgical notes from the thumb surgery I had...as well as a letter the surgeon sent to my PCP ...where he stressed his concerns about the condition of my bones...and also cited the fact that I had a total hip replacement at a very young age, etc. And he also wasn't able to repair the bone in my right thumb :(. I'm kind of pissed off that my PCP ignored the concerns in this letter...well until recently anyway.

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Just to throw something new into the mix....

A couple of years ago I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. For quite some time things pretty much held at that. Well, in the last six months to a year the glucose number has gone berserk. Looks like I'll be starting insulin in the very near future.

Part of this seems an awful lot like just one more thing to me. I still plan to live to be 100. I do think however that this will be the call to drop weight and build some muscle. I'm not going to be Charles Atlas or anything but less flabby and such has got to help.

On the good side my cholesterol has gotten so low that I'm being kicked off the medication for that.

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Hey Fezo Steve,

I found this video just last week. :biggrin:
This guy is someone I used to watch about everyday, and workout with years ago, and he really helped. I got in great shape. It seemed funny to me when I found this video. I better subscribe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOHYlL0wW3k

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grrrrr me too :(. I'm getting hyper and hypoglycemic swings but that should get straightened out with the treatment for the adrenals (which includes dietary -protein, cruciferous veggies :rolleyes:, pathetic acid (pantethetic...that is, B5) and vitamin C along with DHEA supplements. And I'm forcing myself to not go so long in between meals by doing mini's. I bought the little boxes of Newman's Own organic raisins at Wallyworld (cheap)and other healthy snacks and I make sure to keep some with me at all times.

And so because I've been eating more..I've put on weight :(. Yesterday, I did the "Master Cleanse" ...not to lose weight but for the liver detox...but I lost 2 pounds :biggrin:.

But there was NO way I could go to bed hungry and figured I made it well past 24 hours and treated myself to a big bowl of steel oats and a handful of grapes at 3am.

We're obviously in no condition for duckpin bowling! But dammit I'm determined to be running around and playing with my friend's kids and grandkids at the end of the month!!! I couldn't even run away from the bubble-gun toting wee one's last time I was there -so I just let them bombard me from head to toe :(!!!

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Pam, we have to stop one upping each other. It's gonna kill one of us.....

Got my two units yesterday. we'll see if we can stretch it out further...

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LMAO yeah especially if we both live to be 100!!! So you got through another day of infusions and feeling good today then, huh?

ok well I better get on with my research here -trying to find a Lyme literate doc for the rest of my treatment :rolleyes: and so far I can't find one nearby :(.