Posts in the “personal” category

I’m glad to say that I’ll be going back to regular consulting work again very soon. If you’re interested in the gory medical details that led me to quit consulting work (and write five computer programming books and a couple thousand blog posts), here you go:

• Back in 1999 I founded and co-owned a small software consulting company
• Over time I knew I was sicker than the average person, and it was getting worse
• Despite symptoms like constantly getting colds, the flu every winter, pink eye, difficulty breathing (intermittent asthma), rashes, compartment syndrome in both legs due to jogging, blood blisters in multiple places, migraines, and heart issues (irregular heartbeat and SVT), doctors suggested it was in my head
• Figuring I might die before doctors figured anything out, I sold my business and moved to Alaska to at least have some fun before it was over
• I got a bad digestive illness two months after moving there; that led to having my gallbladder removed
• Symptoms kept getting worse:
  • I road a bicycle every day, and suddenly couldn’t ride as far one day as I could the previous day; this kept getting worse
  • Diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease
• For family reasons I moved to Colorado
• New symptoms and medical procedures included:
  • Enlarged liver and spleen
  • Increasing muscle weakness
  • Thyroid cancer
  • Brain fog
  • Flushing
  • Hives
  • More rashes and reactions
  • Peripheral neuropathy
  • Went unconscious seven times (syncope)
  • Nearly went unconscious over 20 times more (pre-syncope)
  • A TEE test when a previous test showed that blood was flowing backwards inside my heart
  • Three “fake heart attacks” (what in retrospect was allergic angina)
  • 17 ER visits, one of which showed my kidneys were rapidly failing (this would eventually be a good thing, because it led to further lab tests that eventually led to a proper diagnosis and solution)
  • Several bouts of diverticulitis
  • A PICC line in my arm, followed by a blood clot
  • At one point doctors thought I had an adrenal tumor that could kill me any day and the good news was that there was a 90% chance of surviving that surgery
  • Over 100 blood tests
  • Nearly 20 CT scans and MRIs
  • Anaphylactic reaction to MRI contrast
  • An angiogram after a nuclear stress test showed a dead spot in my heart after my third fake heart attack
  • Had to have part of my colon removed
  • The 24th and 25th doctors finally found anomalies in lab results (only because the “fake kidney failure” led them to do those tests)
  • Pericarditis (inflammation around the heart)
  • More pre-syncope and syncope

Finally an answer

In late 2016 those last two doctors thought I might have a rare blood disease called Mastocytosis. (So rare, it wasn’t featured on House until Season 8.) I tested negative for that, but this led to the final diagnosis of another rare blood disease, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). Statistically, it’s so rare that there are only 26 of us in Colorado.

If you’ve ever heard of the “Bubble Boy” or “Boy In the Plastic Bubble,” this disease is related to that. You can read these stories about two women who have a more severe version of this illness at these links:

• Rare disease makes woman allergic to everything, including her husband
• Meet The Teenage Girl Who Is Allergic to Almost Everything

Following that diagnosis I almost immediately switched to a diet of eating only a select group of organic vegetables and fruits, and all of the symptoms rapidly dissipated. I still had to have three more surgeries in 2017 and 2018 to clean up problems that were caused by the untreated MCAS, but these days — January, 2019 — I feel better than I’ve felt in twenty years, exercising hard every other day and working a full schedule. And after writing books like Scala Cookbook, Functional Programming, Simplified, and Hello, Scala while mostly hoping not to die, I’ll be going back to regular programming/consulting work in about a month.

(And yes, there will also be more books. Three more books are currently in the works.)

A quote from the first episode of the tv series, The Dead Zone:

“Don’t you hate talking to sick people? You never know what to say. Just try and be cheerful, I guess, right?”

During one of my hospital stays in 2015, a nurse who was nearly named Amanda stopped in several times to talk to me, both when she was checking my vitals, and a couple of times on her breaks. We talked about life, death, and things in between; deep, honest conversations.

The song “Sara” by Fleetwood Mac — sung by Stevie Nicks — is one of my highest-rated songs in my iTunes collection, and is apparently about a baby that was conceived by Ms. Nicks and Don Henley of The Eagles. You can read more about it at lifenews.com.

As a note to self, I had the worst migraine headache I’ve ever had on December 17, 2019. I threw up twice during the event, and fortunately I finally started to feel better after the second time.

A brief conversation about the symbolism of flowers, from the movie, Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil:

MANDY: You want to send some flowers?

JOHN: I think so. I don’t know, though. It’s kind of complicated.

MANDY: For whom? What’s she like?

JOHN: I don’t know her that well.

MANDY: Roses are a favorite ... a bit presumptuous. How about poinsettias?

JOHN: Perennials might give the wrong impression.

MANDY: Too long-term?

JOHN: Yeah, it’s hard to say.

MANDY: This is complicated. How about petunias? They’re pretty without being presumptuous, smell nice, and in 3 days you throw them out. Sound like what you’re looking for? (pause) Sorry, we’re all out of petunias.

When I fell asleep last night I had Amazon Prime Video running on my tablet. Then when I woke up at some time during the night, there was a squirrel talking in a kitchen, and then I saw that he was talking to Robert Downey, Jr. Turns out it was this fun Alexa/Doolittle ad, supporting Toys For Tots.

(And on the Dolittle front, this Dolittle “Auditions” video provides even more fun.)

Video of the day: A deer scores a soccer goal and then celebrates.

A “Northern Exposure” coffee mug, with a Tundra Comics design.

“Sometimes the mind ... for reasons we don’t fully understand, just goes to the store for a quart of milk.”

(Or for ‘december,’ in my case.)

(Quote from Dr. Joel Fleischman, Northern Exposure)

“I don’t know what this is, or why this is Amy, but I’m tumbling for you in a big way. You know what I mean? I’m plummeting off the edge of the Earth ...”

~ from the Northern Exposure “Pi” episode.

A wee bit of cause and effect:

I may never have lived in Alaska
if I didn’t first go there on vacation.

I may have never gone to Alaska on vacation
if Colorado wasn’t on fire in 2002.

I may not have thought to go to Alaska in 2002
if I hadn’t discovered Northern Exposure ~1996.

I may never have discovered Northern Exposure
if I didn’t quit a job I didn’t like in 1995.

I may never have discovered Northern Exposure if a tv channel
that doesn’t exist today hadn’t aired it back then.

This keeps going back in time until I was born (or before then),
but that’s the basic idea.

I don’t always get sick, but when I do ... it’s nice to find other people who are going through what I’ve been going through, and they still have a sense of humor about it. If you have a Pinterest account, this “My Mastocytosis” page is great.

I think I originally saw this “kindness changes the brain” quote in a pschologytoday.com article titled The Positive Psychology of Kindness.

I call this image, “Purple sky, with sunrise in the side view mirror.”

Sunrise on the road, December 10, 2013. Somewhere in Kansas.

Little drops of rain whisper of the pain
Tears of loves lost in the days gone by
My love is strong, with you there is no wrong
Together we shall go until we die
My, my, my, inspiration is what you are to me
Inspiration — look, see

And so today, my world it smiles
Your hand in mine, we walk the miles
Thanks to you it will be done
For you to me are the only one
Happiness, no more be sad
Happiness — I’m glad

~ Lyrics from the song Thank You, by Led Zeppelin, possibly my favorite band of all time. This is one of those songs where I can work while listening to it, no matter how loud you play it.

“It Couldn’t Be Done,” a poem by Edgar Guest. Former Broncos head coach Red Miller passed away recently, and he said that this became his motto.

(Image courtesy of Cecil Lammey on Twitter)

So if you’re lost and on your own
You can never surrender
And if your path won’t lead you home
You can never surrender
And when the night is cold and dark
You can see, you can see light
Cause no one can take away your right
To fight and to never surrender

(Lyrics from the song Never Surrender, by Corey Hart. It was popular during my college bartending days, which was also a peak time for MTV and music videos.)

Chicago Cubs great Ron Santo passed away on December 3rd. Back in the day, he came to one of my baseball games, wearing his trademark leather jacket. Technically he went to his son’s game, but since I was pitching for the opposition and we won, it was my game. :)

My dad would have loved to meet Mr. Santo, but he stopped coming to my baseball games by that time, so he missed out on that. In fact, my mom, with all of her problems, was the last parent to see me in a baseball uniform. She came to see a game after I injured my shoulder, and it turned out to be my last game.

When I was in the hospital in Boulder, Colorado with the heart problem a few weeks ago, I asked a nurse about my cardiologist. I knew he had retired, but didn’t know why. “He’s 68 years old,” she said, “and he wants to spend more time with his girlfriend, who lives in Chicago.”

#HolidayLoveStory