Electrolytes

Note: If for some reason you are just jumping into my story here, you should read my website first. Reading a blog about a medical story has got to be confusing, as it starts at the end and goes backward.

So, my entire condition centers around electrolytes and the control of them by the pituitary due to a change initiated in 1995. During my illness, I've experienced so many types of bizarre electrolyte/fluid level changes that it takes pages and pages of text to explain them all. Suffice to say, things change. Early on, the intervals between changes are protracted. While later, especially these last two years, changes come much more rapidly. But, all the while, the pituitary does a ridiculously good job of keeping circulating electrolyte levels within normal ranges. It is everywhere else that fluid and electrolyte levels change.

The problem lies with the kidneys not doing their job but is complicated by the heart beating in such a way that it causes suction. The two things create a complex scenario that gradually causes dramatic shifts back and forth in the fluids outside of the circulatory system. The suction causes the fluids to not accumulate in normal ways (swollen ankles, abdominal swelling). Instead, the net result is the accumulation of electrolytes, salts, in the tissues. Thus, the system finds a place to put the electrolytes that the kidneys are not removing. The condition goes through cycles where salts accumulate, then are washed away or in one extended period voided through fecal matter due to pressure gradients, and then reaccumulate in a different but similar fashion.

When my final transition took place on January 17, 2022, it started with a simple pain near my perineum as the constriction on my inferior vena cava finally released and the backpressure it held finally equilibrated across the vein. This set in motion what has been almost two years of changes as my body released a spring and set off a Rube-Goldberg series of reactions.

Within 2 months of that day, my body had shed over 30 pounds and I was down to 150lbs. This was fluid loss. The fluid that had been pressed into my interstitial space through the extra pressure was released in an extended period of polyuria. Thirty pounds is almost 4 gallons. I stayed there with a +/- 4 lb deviation until mid-summer of this year when another change occurred. I believe this change occurred when the fluids in my digestive tract were pulled into my abdominal cavity by the difference in pressure and electrolyte concentration. It was painful for a few hours but lessened thereafter. Once this occurred, it started the final process.

Since then, I have gained 15 lbs. As most of my cells are apoptotic, this is simply fluid retention. It has spread out through my body, increasing my waist, and my leg diameter. As more salts accumulate, because they cannot be fully eliminated, more fluid is retained. My ankles don't swell because all the epidermal tissue is apoptotic and shrunken. Overall, this retention is a gradual process. Some of these electrolytes are sugars. When these sugars reach the candidiasis stored in my apoptotic cells, bad things happen.

I should say that I am grateful to my PCP for prescribing Lyrica. It has really calmed the nerve pain I was experiencing, mainly in my arms and shoulders. My shoulder joints still feel like raw meat and I still experience some muscle pains, but it has dramatically improved.

I'm almost confident now that I will see Thanksgiving, and I credit Lyrica and how much pain it has relieved. I am beginning to have hope of seeing Christmas, but that is a stretch. I've wrapped a lot of presents.

The new bull market in crypto is just getting underway and I know I will not see it to the next all-time high, but I know it will get there and beyond and I hope I have left generational wealth for my son, Will, in the form of Microstrategy shares and other bitcoin-related investments.

The world is going to go through so many dramatic changes in the next ten years. Dramatic inflation is coming. Only the brightest tuned-in minds currently realize the financial implications of the current debt and deficit situation in the world. In less than 5 years, everyone will realize the situation. Bitcoin will ascend. Wars will be fought. AI will emerge and the consequences will not be minor. I only hope to leave my family prepared.

I usually wax more philosophical on things like these in my videos, but the videos won't be out for a while, so, I wanted to get some of it in print.

I live my life a day at a time, pretending the days are still plentiful. It is an odd situation to be in, the pretending. I am happy and sad, but hurting a lot less than I was and that really helps.

Finally, I've been honest since January 2022 about my situation with only my immediate family and my coworkers. You might think - why your coworkers, it is a bizarre, unsupported theory and you are bound to meet with criticism or consequences. Firstly, I was honest because that's just who I am. When I KNOW something, I am willing to discuss it with anyone. Further, I've worked for my employer for 21 years, and I know the people and trust them. As a consequence of being there for so long, I have a lot of institutional knowledge that I feel obligated to pass on. As it is an institution of medical learning, I also hoped I would find allies, regrettably, I did not. I've learned that practical medicine is not a science. If it was science, my condition would still be documented. Instead, "they" (don't ask me who that is, I can only presuppose), have redacted my condition from literature and left me without a properly educated practitioner. The medical profession probably performs worse than ChatGPT 4.0 on diagnosis and treatment. Sadly, one person, newly hired, actually thought about attempting to use my words against me in some misdirected attempt at hurting me.