That's correct, I'm back in this fight, and somehow I'm more fired up than ever. Maybe the good lord
has heard all your prayers and has given me an extra shot of confidence and courage. I must admit I
had been dreading going through the procedure again till just the last few days. I've been encouraged
by some improvements in the gym and, just an overall improvement in the way I feel. Swallowing
had been a problem but it's cut me a little slack the last few days. I messed my
lower back up and got something in my eye from weed eating. (Yes,I had glasses on) I get a break
from the PD and, create other ills. Lol Nothing a trip to the chiropractor and massage envy can't take
care of. The grass is all flushed from the eyeballs as well! Getting old sucks!
I looked way back to Nov 2016, when I started this quest and thought about where I've been, and
where I'm going? It brought me down to think of all that time wasted so I've stopped reflecting!
"It is what it is!" as they say! I'm trying to look forward to the future and the good things ahead.
I know it's going to get worse again before it gets better. Surgery just seems to take it out of you.
What I hate more than anything, is my support team having to take up the slack at home, and keep me
out of trouble. I feel this time they're going to put me in a sterile bubble boy suit and not let me out
till I'm all healed!
I'll try not to duplicate previous posts and bore you even more. My focus will be on noting any
differences in the way I feel mentally and physically.
I've had other stuff on my mind for a while that supersedes all my own woes that I'm going to share
with the world wide web in hopes that there is an answer out there. I've been given permission from
my daughter Amanda (we call her Mandy) to share her story. To my friends who ask how my girls are
doing, I must apologize for not telling the whole truth. I would usually just say "they're doing good,
Mandy is married living in Denver, and Morgan is in grad school at UT" and leave it at that.
The truth is Mandy has been sick for about 1.5 years, and no one has made a good diagnosis.
She's a beautiful young 24 year old that used to have boundless amounts of energy and strength.
She could do more chin ups in middle school than any boy inn her class. She trained for hours after
school for competitive gymnastics.
She and her sister pulled and pushed me to the summit of Mt. Elbert, the highest point in Colorado at
14400 feet less than two years ago.
That was then. Now on some days she doesn't feel like getting off her couch. She's has a low grade
fever almost every day. Fatigue,body aches and pain are present as well. I don't think I can cover
her symptoms adequately, I'll let her do that. There has been a lot of tests run looking for the obvious
but it's apparent now that this illness isn't plain and simple. Put yourself in my shoes...you have a
chronically ill daughter that's 1400 miles away, and you can't help her get better. You can support her ,
and love her, but you can't kiss her boo-boos and make everything alright like fathers do.
What can you do to help? Well, one of her doctors told her the more people that sees her problem
the better the chances of figuring out what's wrong. I'm trying to increase those odds by
spreading her story. I'm going to get back to a condition that I want to do another fourteener , and I
need both my hiking partners.
I have this blog on a couple different forums that some intelligent people belong to, (I'm lucky there
wasn't a test to belong) so I'm asking you to take a look at Mandy's blog and get to know her and her
symptoms and just maybe someone can help a young woman with a bright fulfilling life ahead to
reach her goal of normal health.
Don't worry, she is a very good writer, much better than her father, so her blog is the real deal. I
must admit I cried aloud for 10 minutes after I read it. Give it a look, you might shed a tear as well.
You can find her at thechroniccaterpillar.com the name alone should entice you.
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