Spinal Meningitis (not Spinal Tap)

Friends – I want to thank all of you for your immense support during the last two weeks. The support and well wishes from friends and family was extremely critical for me to have while being in an isolation chamber in a hospital thinking I was dying. Right now I am on a short reprieve of 12 hours ( must be back at VHG at 07:00) but wanted to write to update you all on what has happened and the current status.

Basically, in the early morning hours two weeks ago, I was rushed to Vancouver General Hospital with near paralysis and severe pain in my head and torso. This was a complete shock as there was no prior indication anything was wrong and I have enjoyed great health most of my life. After several tests including a spinal tap to retrieve spinal cord fluids, the diagnoses came in as Spinal Meningitis. For those of you who do not know this illness, 70 percent (http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/hb/hbmening.htm) or more of bacterial meningitis cases were fatal before antibiotics were developed and with antibiotic treatment, the fatality rate has dropped to 15 percent. The hospital basically pulled out all the stops to rid me of this disease.

Unfortunately, in doing so, they introduced a wide spectrum anti-viral medication into my blood stream. My kidneys reacted very badly and I currently have a creatinine count of around 357 (when I came into the hospital, the count was 62). 300 + is a very bad score indicating kidney impairment (ref: http://www.medicinenet.com/creatinine_blood_test/article.htm). Currently the doctors are trying to find both the exact reason for the high creatinine count as well as a cure. Tomorrow morning I will get a kidney biopsy (basically a series of 6 drill tests through the kidneys) to try and find exactly what has gone wrong. The results will not be known for a while (Monday maybe) and I will update here.

I want to acknowledge the support of my wife and all my family and friends. There is nothing specific we need at this time so please just well wishes and if you really want to do something, be nice to a random stranger tomorrow. Knowing my life is influencing people I do not know in a good way is the best gift you could give.

Thank you again.

Peace, love and may your code compile on the first try!

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