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I just responded to an e-mail from Babylon Sister and I'll cut and paste the gist of it so you know essentially what's been up, and I just gotta say again how much I missed you all and I feel like I'm home! My friend Jim sent me his "old" macbook, so I'll have access more frequently now. As sick as I was, I was still enough of a Mac snob that I didn't want to hassle with my sister-in-law's PC. :7
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My illness is Hep C, and not working, not having insurance I couldn't get help for it. Although, even when I DID have insurance I wasn't interested in the treatment which 1) doesn't always work 2) is essentially chemotherapy (another cancer drug they pulled off the shelf) 3) is REALLY hard on you, with suicide being a common "side effect". Steven Tyler of Arrowsmith said the treatment almost killed him. When I was working and had $$$, I kept it under control by eating organic foods, juicing, herbs, etc -- my "numbers" were improving so much my doctor was flabbergasted. But living w/my brother and sister in law, since I have no $$$ I have to eat what they eat which is crap -- the typical processed high fat American fast food diet. So that pretty much did me in.
Since I don't have insurance I called my former hepatologist and begged to see her because I just knew I was at death's door. Ideally she felt I should get a transplant (yeah, try that with no insurance or pull) but somehow got me free treatment through some program (which is amazing since it costs about $30K). I had no choice but to take the treatment or die (and as bizarre as it sounds, I didn't want to burden my brother and his family by dying!). It was AWFUL! I never knew I could feel so bad and want so bad to put an end to it all. The good news is that my type/strain responds well to this treatment, so at least it's bought me some more time. I'm not cured by any means, and I'm actually feeling better little by little as time goes on -- good days and bad days.
The fact that I'm actually interested in what's going on in the country again, and coming to DU tells me I've come a long way!
Now, waiting for that "health care for all" to kick in. :-)
So that's my story, and again, I'm so happy to see you!!!
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