Intro

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone, thought I'd make my initial " hello " ... I thought this

list would be of great interest to me and my loved ones, as my

family is certainly " blessed " with ails and illnesses! ;-)

 

Let's see... For starters, I have Bipolar Disorder, and am working

on getting off of " conventional treatment " and onto as much of

natural treatment as possible. I've been under treatment for 12+

years now, and in remission for the majority of the time for approx.

6-7 years, now. (YAY!) It's still a battle, the emotional roller

coaster from hell, many of us Beepers like to say, but I fight it,

and as hard as it is, I still feel that it makes me a stronger

person in the long run. I have my hard times; moments, days, weeks,

sometimes months... but although it's a lifelong war, I DO win every

battle! My younger son (12 yrs., my older is 15) also has Bipolar,

as well as my fiance... it's an interesting household indeed, LOL!

Funny thing is, our family fights less than most so-called

functional families do -- personally, I think that it's because we

all have to deal with the BP, and we " get " each other.

 

Anyway, I also have a family history FULL of cancer; especially

ovarian and breast. My grandmother died of ovarian, my aunt (mom's

younger sister) died of breast cancer 10 years ago as of this March

1, and my mom had ovarian cancer 25 yrs. ago and breast cancer 22

yrs. ago (happy to say, she's still cancer-free!)... there's a lot

of other cancer in my family too; " female organ " cancer as well as

other kinds. I, myself, had a hysterectomy when I was 24 (I'll be

32 in two months), the whole sha-bang, ovaries and all, so I don't

have to worry about that; only the breast cancer, which I carefully

check for regularily. Needless to say, I try to keep up with

what's " up " in the area of cancer.

 

I also have what the doc's " label " as Chronic Fatigue, as of course

they can't figure out what's wrong and so they therefore give it a

name... I don't care what they call it, it just sucks. But, I deal

with it, what else can I do? I have chronic migraines, a horrible

back (mostly caused by scoliosis) which goes out on me with no

notice to the point of nearly no mobility, so I have a hard time

even doing real housework beyond dishes, etc.; vaccumming is OUT!

Furthermore, bone pain in my legs since I was a child; the doc's

called it " growing pains " but I stopped growing when I was 12, and

the pain is worse than ever... it's not arthritis, it's not

diagnosible -- my mom has it, my uncle, my cousins, my 15 yr. old.

And it is degenerating... my mom, who is now only 50, has it in her

entire body now, and sometimes it leaves her practically invalid,

and what scares me is that it doesn't just hit my legs now: it

spread to my arms about four years ago; I'm terrified that I'm going

to end up like my mom. Not a " self-fulfilling prophecy " thing, mind

you... it's just that I have all the symptoms that she does. She

also has Krohn's disease, and I have all the symptoms that she had

only 4-5 years ago.

 

BUT!!! What's concerning me the most right now is my fiance's son.

He's four years old, he'll be five in January. He has Cystic

Fybrosis. And, he's in the final stage, already. Most CF kids live

to be in their teens; some even are (rarely) lucky to reach 30 or

so... but Tayler is dying NOW. The bottom half of his lungs are

obsolete, as the docs say; they don't function anymore, the disease

has eaten them up. His heart is scarred from too much work;

therefore, his oxygen saturation is only at 75%, and normal is about

99%; and this is with aggressive breathing treatment and an oxygen

tank, etc. He's on the list for a heart/lung transplant, but that

will do nothing but buy a little time... the CF will only destroy

the new heart and lungs -- and that's IF he lives long enough to GET

the transplant -- see, the waiting list right now is about 1-2

years, and his current approx. prognosis is 1-2 years. Just about

three months ago, he was a rambunctios kid, full of life and energy;

you'd never think he was sick, only asthmatic sometimes. Now, he's

tired all the time (largely due to lack of oxygen saturation in his

brain, organs, etc.). He wakes up numerous times a night, coughing

horribly, clutching at his chest and screaming in pain. He's

suffering, and it's so painful to watch. See, CF is a very evil

disease. It doesn't just kill you... No, it takes you very slowly,

and painfully, and makes you suffer horrendously for a very long

time (usually a couple of years) before it finally takes you. I've

watched family/friends die of cancer, and go through all the

horrific treatment and " wasting away " etc., and still I've never

seen such suffering. He's just a little boy!

 

Then, there's Adrinn, my fiance, Tayler's father. Oh, how many

times I've held him as he's cried despairingly... and how many more

times I will. And of course I do, too. I couldn't love that boy

any more than if I'd given birth to him, myself; he's just as much a

son to me as my own two teenage boys are.

 

Anyway, enough of that... didn't mean to introduce myself with a

bunch of sobs. Basically, what I'm saying is... there are several

reasons that joining this email list could (hopefully) help me. I

do all I can to learn about Bipolar Disorder, and Cystic Fybrosis,

as they are the two priorities on my list. But there are always

resources that are out that can be missed, that others here may

find. And who knows? I've studied a lot about Bipolar throughout

the years... if there's anyone here with Bipolar or anything

similar, I just may be able to be of help, myself! ;-)

 

And I see that this is a very large list! Hope I can keep up with

you all! So, here's to GETTING WELL!!!

 

~~ Kathy ~~