Not necessarily relevant to the topic, but ...

A close friend of mine, Frank, has in the past week been diagnosed with a
rare neurological disease, metachromatic leukodystrophy.  It's one of
those simple genetic errors: the brain loses the ability to process one
particular amino acid.  He must have gotten one bad gene from each parent.

Normally, metachromatic leukodystrophy kills you before you're 10 years
old, but in his case, he was lucky enough to live to be 46 before symptoms
appeared.  There is no treatment and no cure: they don't know any way to
supply that specific amino acid across the blood-brain barrier.  Hence,
progressive central nervous system demyelination, similar to Lou Gehrig's
disease or multiple sclerosis, but maybe slower in someone Frank's age.

On the other hand, his speech has already been affected.

He is also having dialysis due to kidney problems unrelated to the
neurological diease.

Meanwhile, I am having medical issues of my own.

On Wednesday of this week, I am going in for throat and nose surgery,
including tonsillectomy, UPPP and septoplasty, in an effort to relieve
obstructive sleep apnea.  It will be a three hour surgery.  I am not
looking forward to this.

Every doctor who has ever looked down my throat has marveled at how huge
my tonsils are.  I thought I had been lucky to escape the tonsillectomy
fad wen I was a kid, but appearently not: the tonsils are probably the
main reason I have apnea.  Surgery may seem like a drastic step, but the
nose/throat problems, particularly my tonsils, interfere with other apnea
treatments, and it will only get worse as I age.

What's the difference between childhood and adult tonsillectomy?  Adults
get more pain, they told me.  So you'll need a lot of pain management.

I envision some bureaucratic office with the title PAIN MANAGER on the
door.  Or a whole floor of a state office building as the Bureau of Pain
Management.

Recovery is expected to take a while.  I will be off work for three weeks,
what with pain meds and sleeping (in the hospital the first night, then
home).  Y'all probably won't hear from me for a while.  But if it works,
I'll get better sleep and not be tired all the time.

                                Larry

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Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
Washtenaw County Commissioner, 4th District
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
Ebay Page, http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/potifos/
Mailing address: P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106

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