Long time no see Options

[StonedGrover]

so, how has everyone been? i havent been around much. i quit playing FFXI a while ago, and started playing World of Warcraft with my brother. It is alot of fun. I am looking forward to PSU, as i will definantly be playing that. prolly on PC or Xbox.

but what has everyone been up to? how is life treating you? i must know!!

[StonedGrover]

so, ill give everyone a quick update on me..

I had been ill for a long time. felt like a horrible cold that i couldnt shake. but i didnt have health insurance, so i didnt go to the dr for a long time.

on Feb 15 of this year, i went to see my Primary care physician as i thought i had pnuemonia. he told me i didnt have pneumonia, but i had a pulmonary embolus, which is a blood clot going to my lungs, and it can kill you. i was transported to the local hospital emergency room, and they did xrays and a ton of tests. i didnt have a pulmonary embolus, but i was in fact, in complete liver failure.

they told me they couldnt care for me there, and pu me in an ambulance and sent me to Mass General Hospital. (which in my opinion is the greatest hospital in the world)

upon being admitting, they told me how sick i was, and that they would do whatever they could to keep me alive long enough to treat me. I was very close to death. VERY close. they couldnt do a liver biopsy because your liver controls your bloods ability to clot. if they did i biopsy, i would have bled to death. they couldnt figure out what was wrong with me for 13 days. when finally they called in one of the heads of research at mass general, and he was able to diagnose me with Auto-Immune Hepatitus. whihc is laymans terms means my body thinks my liver is a foreign invader, and my body is attacking and trying to kill my liver.

they determine the best way to treat me is to put me on heavy doses of prednizone. which is a steriod. one of the side effects of steriods is that they completely obliterate your immune system. well, unknown to everyone, i had apparently obtained and was incubating both bacterial and viral pneumonia, and influenza A. when the sterois killed my immune system the diseases decided to strike.

I woke up one morning feeling like i couldnt catch my breath, and felt like something was caught in my throat. i started coughing, and blood started coming up. at first a little, then alot, then bucket loads of it. I crashed, and they had to rush me to the ICU where they kept me unconscious for 6 days. I woke up to a tube in my throat and whats called a central line, which is basically an IV, which is inserted through my neck directly to my heart. i recovered in the hospital for another 4 weeks after that, and then was moved home. I came very close to dying in ICU. the nurses on my floor figured there was a less then 1% chance i would come out of there alive. the pneumonias had completely destroyed my lungs, and i was unable to breath without machines for a month afterwards. i had no airsacs in my lungs.

i am better now. my liver is almost completely better, and im working hard on staying healthy. it was a pretty scry 2 months, and it made me realize how lucky i am. so i wanted to come by and say hi to some old friends, and see how you all were doing.

hope everything is well.. =)

-Josh