When tests fail

For the last almost 16 months I've had a bacterial infection or overgrowth in my digestive tract, or at least I say it is and know from experience, but not all gastroenterologists would agree with that diagnosis, in spite of the evidence.

One, however, saw it not only wasn't normal, but clearly some type of infection, but all the tests for known bacterial infections and overgrowth were negative. And while many specialist might give up saying they don't know what it is, and as I've written before, "Patient heal thyself."

Last year were down to the last test, a colonoscopy, which was scheduled for last June but wasn't done, so he did an endoscopy on my upper GI tract, from the throat to the duodenum, where he found I had Barrett's Esophagus. Like I cared since it wasn't a problem.

Anyway, since last June the war between the body and the bacteria had good and bad periods, some where I lost 4-5 lbs in 3-4 day when the body was winning, and where I gained 4-5+ lbs when the bacteria was winning.

So we scheduled another colonoscopy, which was done today (2/9/16) after a weekend of two preparations kits to ensure the colon was flushed and cleansed. I had a day of fasting and then the  prescription preparation protocol each of two days before. Yeah, overkill it was, in every manner of speaking.

The colonoscopy proved effectively meaningless, finding nothing obviously physically wrong related to the bacteria or polyps (none), but finding two small other problems, normal stuff of age and consistent digestive problems, nothing worth pursuing, although he sent one out for biopsy.

What I was thinking before the proceedure and which proved with the proceedure - I was only mildly sedated to watch the monitor and talk with the gastroenterologist during the proceedure - was that colonoscopies have one major flaw.

Not so much the colonoscopy, but the whole proceedure with the preparation. A colonoscopy looks for physical problems in the large colon. It can't look for other problems, such as bacteria, tissue masses, etc. because they're flushed out with the preparation.

And unless they leave attachments or remanents on the intestinal wall, the gastroenterologist won't see them. It's the gap in gastroenterology, between the known tests for non-physical conditions and tests for physical conditions.

This gap, however, is huge, in part why they call it Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which is short for "It's bets the Shit" out of us. They can't know what they can't identify, and therefore can't treat conditions they don't know.

And this is where I'm at. To me it's a bacterial infection when it flares up because not only does it hamper the large colon, it has extensive side effects throughout the body, often flu-like symptoms. But two labs have only identified it as "aggregate bacteria" from samples.

What's also frurstrating is that I've met other people with other digestive conditions to go through the series of tests and arrive at the same place with their specialists, it's unknown, and therefore untreatable, unless the specialist is willing to experiment with the patients approval.

So this is where I'm at, but my gastroenterologist is leaving the clinic for another job, so I have to find a new gastroenterologist, and effectively start all over, except we have all the tests results proving what we don't know and nothing of what we know.

What I've also learned, some at the recommendation of gastroenterologists or naturopaths, is that probiotics are a disaster. Four different brands of different single or multiple probiotics made matters worse, like sending more soldiers into an ongoing major battle.

Enzymes don't work, as has several other health supplements which are supposed to help fight digestive bacterial problems. All of these only made the bacteria condition worse. I've found fasting helps as does colds and the flu, because the immune system seems to fight anything it sees as abnormal, which includes this bateria.

Anyway, just some thoughts to date. Since mid-January, the body is winning the battles and war after 3+ weeks of the bacteria winning. I went from 144 lbs in early December to over 152 lbs in January and am down to 143 lbs this week.

That's the difference the bacteria adds to the body when it flares up, 5-7 lbs, and all in my digestive tract with all the associated problems in the digestive tract and symptoms in the body. And there's nothing doctors will do. They can prescribe universal antibiotics but won't without specific test showing it's an infection, which requires identifying the bacteria, which they can't seem to do.

While I still have some measure of confidence in gastroenterologists, the ones who care enough to keep exploring than be dismissive of the patient, I don't have much confidence they can solve my problem, so I live with it for now and try ways to keep it in check and hope the body overcomes it for good, some day.

Teddy Roosevelt

What republicans don’t get is that Teddy Roosevelt diplomacy only works when your opponent fears you. Today, the US isn’t feared, and in fact, makes our enemies more defiant against us.

If you don’t believe that think much damage 9/11 did to this country and how much it’s changed, all due to a small terrorist group lead by Osama bin Laden. They didn’t fear us, they planned and executed an attack against what the world stands for represented by the US. 

And all of the offshoot groups of Al Qaeda don’t fear us despite having the world largest and more powerful military. We carry the big stick but all our words doesn’t scare anyone or instill fear in them. And in fact it fighting the US was a recruitment tool by militias and terrorist groups in Iraq after the invasion.

That is what we have to change, ourselves to realize we’re not facing an enemy who fears our might, because they know we won’t use it enough to destroy them for that would engage them on their terms, make martyrs of them (against the US), and make our political diplomacy irrelevant.

The world has changed since 9/11 but we haven’t. It’s more complex and complicated where simple solutions espoused by republicans, and some democrats, is meaningless and irrelevant. It’s all meant to sell an image which doesn’t exist anymore.

And this image has put us in the position our military is the most expensive in the world, more than the rest of the major nations combined, more technological - from satellites to personnel - and more complicated. 

And yet doesn’t seem to make the world safer while making our enemies more brutal in their wars and defiant against the western world, especially the US. If you don’t believe it, look at all the places our military is located, working with government, some not so good, and fighting their and our enemies. 

Who’s winning? And who’s listening? And when will it end? Except there is no end, it’s the reality of the world today, notwithstanding all the Teddy Roosevelt rhetoric we hear from politicians.

It is easy

“Children don’t ask to be born, just loved.”

Maybe the Pro Life folks should take responsibility to help the children already born to ensure they have a good life when they most need it, that they have good, affordable healthcare, a safe home environment, sufficient food, good, affordable daycare, good pre-school education, a safe neighborhood to play, clean air and water, a good home, and everything else it takes to develop into a young person and adult.

If they did that, with all the resources and people they have and devote to abolish abortion, there’s no telling how much better the children would be here and in the world. Maybe they might learn that it’s the right of the mother to bring her baby into the world or not, but it’s her responsibility if she does to see the baby becomes a healthy child, and that’s where many mothers could use all the help they can for the struggles they have to live and raise their children.

It’s easy for an economically advantaged person to spout morality over babies when they have the resources to raise healthy children, and think it’s universal. It’s not, It’s easy to deny the rest of the world is not like them, but demand the rest of the world act like them. It’s arrogance. It’s easy to stand on a pedastal to espouse religious teaching on life as they interpret it, and ignore the reality of the world below them.

It’s easy to think you have the right to demand power over women and their reproductive healthcare, especially when they’re pregnant. It’s easy when you have the money to live a good life and believe that entitles you to preach. It doesn’t. It doesn’t change the reality of the other women in the world who have less than you, some far less, and have to make hard choices about themself and their baby.

It’s easy to think their life is the real world. Something the they forget and don’t want a reality check that not all babies are like theirs, because of the world those mothers live. It’s easy not to look. And that’s the Pro Life people’s failing, they’re blinded by their own narrow morality and blind to the world outside theirs.

It’s why they forget babes once they’re born and ignore the reality of the world of those babies. It’s not their world, so they don’t care, only their imaginary world of their view of God and life. That’s the tragedy of it. Life is only defined by the womb to them, and anything outside it is irrelevant.

MSNBC

I've been a regular viewer of MSNBC cable news channel for years, even through all the changes they've made to help improve viewership for the network, of which some of the changes were good and some were bad, even terrible, but I still watched the few programs I liked.

That said, with the 2016 election campaign which started last summer, I've watched MSNBC less and less every month and will continue to lessen my watching until the election itself. There are many small reasons for this, but one really big reason.

I'm one of the American public who thinks the election campaigns are far too long, and really useless, since it's about money and power and about politicians lying to get votes. I'm in favor of changing the primary to 3 months prior to the convention in August and then the time to the election. Six months is long enough.

With that I don't watch the news for the campaigns or the politicians. I can read about it in the newspapers and news magazines. That's enough for me to get the information I want than listening to endless lies by politicans and endless opinions by pundits.

And so I don't watch MSNBC news much anymore, only for the occasional news of important world or national events, and even then I turn it off after it gets repetitive, and some people there I like to watch. I skip the ones I don't like, the latter for more than the former.

For one, I don't watch Chris Matthews. As good as he is, he talks too much, interrupts guests too often and doesn't let people complete sentences let alone their thoughts. He's a proverbial bully in that sense. I want to hear guest, not him.

As for the rest, the only one I consistently watch is Rachael Maddow, but even her focus on her favorite subject, politics, is too much most days now where I simply don't turn the TV on to watch her (I skip Matthews and Chris Hayes). I would watch Jose Diaz-Balart, but he's on too early for me when I have to get ready for my daily walk to town.

What can MSNBC news do to get my viewership back? Easy. How about a daily program on world events with foreign correspondents and guests. How about a daily program on national events in the states with local journalists and guests.

How about a show on the issues of importance to voters, like an hour on a subject with neutral hosts and guests to present the background, history, laws and issues on the subject. If they can do an hour show on one political subject, how about the whole array facing Americans here and in the world.

Anyway, that's my rant and vent. I watch MSNBC about an hour a day most day, but many not even at all. And I won't until the election is near. Sorry, I'm fed up the MSNBC giving some Republican candidates free aid time disguised as news. I don't need it and don't want it.

NPS Ranger Margaret Anderson

On January 1, 2012, NPS Park Ranger Margaret Anderson was killed by a veteran with a car of guns and ammuntion. The veteran entered Mt. Rainier NP through the Nisqually Entrance, ran a vehicle check for snow conditions, and encountered Ranger Anderson’s vehicle blocking the road. The veteran shot and killed Anderson before she had time to get out of her vehicle. He then went into the backcountry where he found dead from hypothermia.

Ranger Anderson blocked the highway about a mile from the Paradise Visitors center area where there were over 100 visitors and NPS employees, but at the time, no one had weapons to defend the visitors had the veteran made it past Ranger Anderson. She sacrificed her life to stop a potential massacre.

In 2010 in an amendment governing guns in National Parks tucked inside a bill on credit cards passed by Congress and signed by the President. There was nothing any NPS employee could have done to stop the veteran with a number of weapons on the back seat of his car, or let alone confiscate the weapons. 

He didn’t violate any law on guns in national parks until he fired the weapons at NPS rangers, before he was stopped by ranger Anderson and shot and killed her. The veteran was reportedly suffering from PTSD from his time in the service, but his record revealed he never was near combat during his time in a combat zone.

It turned out he have mental heatlh issues before he went into the service and came out with the same issues. All the time he was able to aqcuire the weapons and ammunition before he went on his shooting and killing spree which started earlier January 1st in Seattle after which he drove to Mt. Rainier National Park.

We owe our gratitude to the employees of the NPS service for their dedication to their work and willingness to sacrifice for the safety of all visitors to National Parks, as shown by ranger Anderson. Remember to say thank you when you visit a National Park. They’re there to serve everyone.