GlennM's Journal, 19 July 2010

Glenn, I have not been to your journal in a few days and just caught up. I'm so sorry to hear of this horrid back problem. You are falling apart guy. You're too young for this. The cortizone is not permanent, so what do you do for long term relief? Have any of the Drs. given you some idea what's ahead for you? Did I read right....you have had issues since age 19? Not sure what reactive arthritis is, I think I will look it up so I can speak intelligently about it. Good luck of course with the poems. It is a foot in the door, as they say. Of course you are always in my prayers. I sure hope you feel better before winter weather arrives or are able to move to a warmer territory first. Maybe the Florida ocean water would help. We are clean and beautiful on the east coast. Hot of course, but it's been beautiful. Of course, we do have the hurricane risk. Glenn be well please and rest your back as best you can. I remember the pain in my knees until the injections. Cannot imagine it in my back. Just take it easy on yourself please. 

"Reactive arthritis is a chronic, systemic rheumatic disease characterized by three conditions, including conjunctivitis, joint inflammation, and genital, urinary or gastrointestinal system inflammation. Inflammation leads to pain, swelling, warmth, redness, and stiffness of the affected joints. Non-joint areas may experience irritation and pain. Treatment for reactive arthritis depends on which area of the body is affected. Joint inflammation is treated with antiinflammatory medications". I just read this article and now I feel really bad for you. Apparently the only thing for this is antiinflammatory meds or pain meds. Oh Glenn, I sure hope you are not effected by all the stuff in this article. Please take care of yourself. Prayers are doubled. 

Next Number - upon my arrival in the Philippines on the first week or so - Jan 7, 1982 I was fine. I believe, oh, within a three weeks I came down with gastroenteritis so severe I was hospitalized at Clark Air Base Hospital. (Why am I mentioning this? They don't know the exact cause of reactive arthritis, and sometimes later after a severe stomach infection the illness can show up). And as I arrived there no one of course had heard about 'safe sex', so the women on base were literally agressive coming onto us guys as the guys were all off base with the girls as HIV at that time and until the time I left 18 months later when news about it was coming out - was no known cause or worry about it. (I want you to know why I was having unsafe sex then with the women I was with). Anyway, the girls on base were known to carry STDs then too, one girl the week I arrived in my dorm room gave an STD to fourteen guys and I was told to stay away from her. The girls off base did too of course. I was nineteen so was having the time of my life as were most of the guys there. About five weeks after the stomach bout I came down with severe joint pain, urinary tract inflammation or urethritis, severe conjunctivitis - also known as pink eye, and a red rash on my palms especially and soles that was a bit itchy known as erythmatosus multiforme, that wasn't contagious. Anyway, I have had bouts of this for many years, the rash I haven't seen since the early 1990s. The pink eye probably not since then either, the urethritis is not there either. The arthritis has gone into remission for YEARS at a stretch, like when I was a nurse in Los Angeles. Don't worry that is the only symptom flaring up, I know there can be more and some severe. It's bad enough. The lower back is where it primarily attacks and that is my problem now, of course. I just thought I would let you all know the truth about it. I have no STDs now. It CAN go away at times into remission. That is what I am hoping long-term... glenn 

'aggressive' above. Anyway, some additional notes about above. The gastroenteritis could have been from a visit to an off base restaurant most likely with my Air Force buddy Tony, who took me to a place and we had pork rolls. I ate many and got violently ill, he got quite sick on just a few so we figured that was it. Usually everyone gets a stomach ailment badly when moving to an underdeveloped country if they're there a long while and for an extended stay by the way. Reactive arthritis was then known by its discoverer named Reiter, so it was known then as Reiter's Syndrome but the name has been properly dropped due to his activities after discovering this illness, etc. with the Nazi regime. Anyway, then as it was known Reiter's Syndrome less was known than now and little has changed -but some more information I noticed while reading up on it. It's possible upon onset I had a Chlamydia type infection. They didn't know to test for one back then I suppose, but as I said the stomach bout could have been enough. White men are more prone to it because of genetic predispositions though I don't have the dreaded genetic marker for it, but one need not have it to get the illness. Two famous people have said they have been diagnosed with it - a soccer player from the UK named Ian Murray, and more well-known in America, Patrick Buchanan a conservative political pundit. I hope I can move where it's warmer and when the severe flare-ups aren't bad the warmer weather would make it more manageable... 

P.S. Additional note - I forgot, yes, there is a type of gastrointestinal issue with it too, a diarrhea like illness that I had upon onset I forgot to mention. It is strangely different from typical diarrhea and I for one can tell it is the reactive arthritis diarrhea as the arthritis is flaring up badly then. Also, the arthritis has been lingering for years with me with severe bouts off and on. It is chronic for me at this stage as it was in the 1980s when I was unable to work. At that time I couldn't even get on Social Security times MANY years, my relatives including father, mother and sister, uncles and aunts all thought I was malingering and I wound up in a homeless shelter here in the area and developed agoraphobia too so couldn't go to school. My mother forgets the things she said as does my dad and sister. Eventually I moved to Los Angeles penniless and wound up getting my nursing license until I had a complete mental breakdown. This is one reason I recently mentioned why I am fairly liberal-minded. When one is down and out one's family will usually not help and the government often won't either despite the right wing's mantras. Just some thoughts... 

GlennM...wow, have you lived a full life. I am sorry about your pain and wish you a speedy recovery as well. As NN mentioned, Florida is a wonderful place to live. I don't know if there's ever been any research on whether warm climates help certain ailments or not. Take care of yourself! 

Thanks Tammy, I forgot to mention - it really is no one's business but the Air Force discharged me because of the arthritis. I receive nothing from them, I would have gone back in if I could have. If you get an illness that is disabling while in the military you're supposed to get a federal veteran's pension, yet it is rarely true. Once I am published I will move overseas to a warm climate. I can't afford to move here in the States now... I DO need to live somewhere warmer though, it is getting to the point it is flaring up in the summer and a lot of damage is being done by the cold weather of the long winters where I live. Thanks for your kind words, Tammy and Next Number...