OT: Dr. Oliver Sacks

[Calida]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/opinion/oliver-sacks-on-learning-he-has-terminal-cancer.html?_r=0

(A word of caution. When I wrote this post, the link above was more descriptive and included Dr. Sacks’ opinion piece topic “Oliver Sacks on learning he has terminal cancer”. After it was posted, I saw that those words disappeared and no one would have fair warning that the article may be considered sad or depressing by some readers.)

As people who have experienced unusual health problems and searched outside the mainstream treatment protocols, we have a kindred spirit in Dr. Sacks. He has been one of my heroes since I first read Awakenings and Island of the Colorblind many years ago.

I wanted to share this because I’ve often felt, over the past few months, like one of his patients in Awakenings who exists in a state of suspended animation, a catatonic state, and is suddenly “awakened” after receiving medication – I think it was l-dopa – in high doses administered by Dr. Sacks. After my experience with banned antibiotics in September-October, I gradually became unable to form written sentences or comprehend written material. Verbal wasn’t much better and both long and short term memory was affected. It wasn’t anything like the frustrating brain fog that comes with autoimmune disease. I grew used to functioning at that level and became a bit apathetic. I was aware that I was a different person but I didn’t have a great sense of loss until I eventually had days of “awakenings” when I would recover a portion of the functions and become frustrated. These days became more frequent with greater degrees of normal function with each positive episode.

I think the worst has passed, no worse for wear as far as I can tell. Well, a little dull around the edges but maybe I was like that before 😆 I’m a bit sad because I exchanged emails with 2 new found distant cousins who were really nice and I suddenly dropped out of sight. I don’t know how to explain the disappearance and I don’t imagine they would understand if I tried to explain. It all just sounds too weird.

So cheers to the courageous Dr. Oliver Sacks. May this last leg of his journey lead to a beautiful awakening.

Dx: Diffuse Systemic Sclerosis/SLE overlap, Raynaud's June 2013, Lyme August 2013
AP: Azithromycin (Teva) 250mg BID, May 2014, Clindamycin 600mg every 8 hours for 2 weeks July 27, 2015 - Aug 10, 2015
Minocycline (Teva generic) 100mg BID November 20, 2014
Meds: LDN 3.5 mg, Prednisone 5 mg (discontinued), Aspirin 81mg, Liposomal Artimisinin 50mg QID x 3 weeks, 4th week off, rotating (discontinued May 2015, restarted 2016 7 days per month), Daily Nystatin, 2 tabs BID, as a preventative measure
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