X-Message-Number: 17471 Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 23:53:02 -0400 From: James Swayze <> Subject: Thanks Gary, my current health References: <> Friends, Sorry this is late. I was away getting lab work for determining if I have a UTI and what antibiotic will kill it. Then that night I spiked a fever and could not sleep so I missed the opportunity to say thanks to Gary on Cryonet for upping his pledge. I did have opportunity to thank him over the phone. > > Message #17459 > From: > Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 10:08:16 EDT > Subject: Tripp, Swayze, research > > Gary Tripp (#17454) writes in part: > > > As one of the original pledgers [for James Swayze] I stand by my original > pledge >and increase it by $1000. I would like to be updated as to any > changes in James's >health in real time. Gary is being modest he actually is *the* original or first pledge after John Grigg asked could anything be done for me. Then followed many others I haven't the energy just now to look up for every one but Mike Perry and Robert Ettinger were hot on the heels of Gary. Thanks again all. > > > Many thanks. As to James' health, unfortunately it has taken a turn for the > worse, and I believe Mr. Tripp has been given the details, which should > probably not be made public, to preserve James' privacy and dignity, I've always been open about what I go through but did hesitate to just offer it up. But since it's been mentioned I am having problems that actually are life threatening. This will help to explain the situation and save me some typing. I wrote this to a friend the other day. My health Well actually I'm having a problem right now that will likely land me in the hospital this week or next. I am waiting for my doctors offices to open at this very moment to make calls regarding this issue. For twenty years I had an internal catheter and it caused me constant frequent urinary tract infections because it is simply a 6 lane highway for germs to travel straight from the surrounding environment right into my insides. Not even practicing the most sterile of techniques does any good. Experiments in controlled conditions have yielded infection after 72 hours even when doctors took every precaution. I needed desperately to be able to void without a tube inside me. However, my muscle could not relax due to the spinal damage and even weakening it with four surgeries where it was sliced through did no good. One day I saw a stent being placed in a man's coronary artery that had collapsed. The stent was a mesh tube that could expand against the artery walls and hold its expanded shape. Instantly I knew if I could get one put into my bladder it would hold the muscle open and allow me to void using an external or otherwise called condom catheter. I bugged my doctor about it but he wasn't interested in experimenting. Sometime later I got deathly ill and needed my right kidney removed to save my life. While in the hospital still I got to talking with my diabetes doctor about my idea and he liked it. Later by chance he became my primary doctor and when I started having trouble again he went to another doctor with my idea and that doctor happened to know where a third doctor, a Dr. Mayo from England but doing research right here in my state, was actually researching my idea independent of any knowledge of me. Or maybe my idea had gotten around but it doesn't matter. I was able to get it done. That was two years ago and the trouble I'm having now might be from scar tissue that tries to grow through the mesh and close off the opening. That is called restinosis and I happen to have another idea for fixing it which I again borrowed from heart patients. Anyway I need to have it looked at as it is getting seriously dangerous. Gary Tripp wrote: > James, I think that it would be wise to practise life-extension as well. I > recommend taking: > > Q10 CoEnzyme, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Metformin in addition to a balanced > consumption of vitamins mixed tocopherals E, C, selenium, folic acid, B6 and > B12. > + keep your total caloric intake in check but not restricted. > Gary, I'm taking some of these but need to see what of the rest are in my multi's. > Message #17463 > Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 21:43:19 -0400 > Subject: James Swayze, and A Question From Gary Tripp > From: > > I wish could be as upbeat about James' health, but as far as that goes, > he's been having some problems recently. It does not seem to be > life-threatening, but given his already precarious condition, of course > we're concerned. Apart for being quadriplegic, James also is partially > blind, has only one kidney,I believe, This is true and why getting UTI's is so dangerous. > and suffers from diabetes. It > does look as though he's going to pull through this time. The Jury is still out. I haven't received the lab results so no antibiotics at this point yet. However, there is more danger in just dealing with the side effects. I have wrote about this before, I believe, and a search through the archives for "dysreflexia" should find it. Right now, until the possible restinosis is worked on (They can't see me till Oct), I am back to the indwelling that causes so many infections. With those there is a lot of mucous and bacteria trash that needs to flow through the catheter unobstructed. If my bladder stretches only slightly due to a blockage my blood pressure skyrockets immediately to around 240/110 or so and has gotten to 300/150 just once. For you psych buffs this is Flight or Fight syndrome gone whacky and so my adrenaline level is dangerously high and I won't even go where that leads. You cannot imagine the headache the high pressure causes and panic from the certainty that in the next few minutes if flow does not begin again a stroke is most likely to result. I've had numerous temporary blockages, alleviated by slamming my bladder with my fist to dislodge the offending matter, and the day is not done. This is dangerous for possibly pressuring the bladder to back flow to the kidney and bring the infection there but it's a lesser of evils where time is of essence. I hope the doctor gets quickly onto an antibiotic early tomorrow. My apologies for the graphic nature and off topic subject of my post. I didn't want questions lingering. One last note, I have every confidence in CI's methods and no reason to entertain otherwise. James -- From the point of ignition To the final drive The point of the journey is not to arrive --RUSH Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17471