Hades

Dear Dan

On Jan 1 I started triple drug therapy for hepC-- latest antiviral (telaprevir), ribavirin and and interferon. They had treated

some 50 liver transplant patients this way at Mayo. Interferon and hep C both interact in complicated ways with the immune system.

On around the evening of Jan 25 I developed a shaking chill fever. Meg called an ambulance and toke me to UNM hospital where I was put in the medical ICU. Some three days later, Meg was unhappy with my care at UNM. Just as I was slipping into a coma, she got me on a med-vac flight to Jacksonville, at the last possible moment that I could still be transported.

At Mayo, Jacksonville a team of some 6 doctors and nurses worked on me for 3 hours to stabilize me and then struggled to keep my blood pressure up over the next 2 weeks.

I hallucinated throughout this period, and for at least a week on and off after I came out of the coma.

I awoke from the coma incredibly debilitated. Just standing with help was virtually impossible. My toes on both feet were frost bitten (from the low blood pressure). I was deaf in my left ear (seems to be resolving).

Since then, I have been fighting , fighting to come back. A little bit each day. making steady progress on my recovery no

Everyone tells me how very very sick I was, and how close I came.

-Michael

Hi Michael,

holy crap, thanks for update. This hades was the result of the interferon, the hepC, or what??

 D

Let met tall you about the night it started. I had come home from eating dinner out and was in bed when I started to feel a little shaky. The shakes proceeded into a full shaking chill. I called Meg in to take my temperature and it was already 103. This had happened to me several times before in the past year so I new what it meant. Shaking chills and fever meant a serious infection and I had to go immediately to the hospital. The night was cold and I wanted to play it safe. So Meg called 911. We expected an ambulance, but first the fire department arrived. About half a dozen firemen crowded around my bed. I joked with them and told them they were underpaid. A little while later the ambulance arrived. They put me on a stretcher and took me out the front door. In the ambulance they started an IV.

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