Steve's Disability/Illness History

My illness story starts back in 1980 when I had a brain tumor that almost killed me removed and I spent a year recovering, after which unbeknownst to me, I was mistreated, misdiagnosed and mismedicated for over 20 some years by 3 different Doctors. Then in the mid 90's I started having various problems that I wrote off to getting older and maybe being a little out of shape (bad idea). Later in the summer of '99 I took a bike trip to the 4 corners area of AZ, NM, CO, NV, northern CA for 2 weeks. I waited until the holidays that year and when I wasn't yet back up to speed I got worried. I decided that something was really wrong, so I went to the Doctor and said I was not leaving until he listened to me and got serious about what might be wrong with me. At first he started looking for big things like MS, ALS, Lupus, etc.. with not much luck at all. In the meanwhile I was continuing to go down hill and I saw specialist after specialist and got test after test (ugh). When several months had passed and tons of different meds were tried he had decided to send me to the MAYO Clinic, but wanted to think small in the meantime and started testing for lots of little or as he put it "lesser problems" in the hopes I had several small things rather than one large thing wrong.

That's when he started finding things that were off or wrong and the unfortunate part was the damage had been done and there was no way to go back. So, after about 12 to 14 months they had decided that I had 20 some different things wrong that needed some serious medicating. By 18 months I had lost 3 to 4 inches in height, gained 50 to 60 pounds, started walking with a cane and had fallen or slipped on the stairs 11 times. I was stuck in limbo balanced on a fence and the doctors told me I would probably not get any worse if I stayed on all my meds & therapies, but unfortunately I would never get any better; so here I sit doing my balancing act. My doctor says that I have gone from being on more medication than any current patient he has, to being on more medications than any patient he has ever had, all the way up to now where I am on more medications than any other physician's patient that he has ever heard of (eeks). He could not believe that I had lost so much in height and took me into the x-ray room and tried to stretch me out on the table, but alas I only gained about a 1/2" tops. They determined that my problems were 3 fold: First was that I was mistreated and mismedicated for 20 some years. Second was that some of my problems were hereditary as I was adopted and do not know any of my family history. Third was the way I lived my life and the fact that I ignored the warning signs and had the "show must go one attitude" (oops).

There is a separate list of illnesses that accompanies this one. Click here to view the list.

Have a great day and a better tomorrow, be well, stay safe and always keep the faith! Thanx, Steve (Doc)