Re: Darv >> 2 Ellen

[Guest guest]

Dear Ellen,

I also wonder if the Rheumatoid factor is hereditary. Mom has

Rheumatoid arthritis, I have Stills, & my eldest daughter had JRA. All " kissing

cousins. " I know of at least ONE study going on right now, there are probably

many

more. Perhaps we'll have some of our questions answered in a few years (hope

springs eternal).

Kind Regards,

Pat

Austin, TX

**************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.

http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489

[Guest guest]

Ellen,

Thank you. It would be nice to work out of the home on bad days but I have

discussed it with my boss and although it would not impact my performance,

in fact it may make it better, he is against the idea as he feels that

others will want to do the same. Never mind that our main programmer is

out of state. But you do what your boss tells you to do.

One benefit to my job is there is plenty of time to do various other things

and I have done a lot of research on thing that might have caused my Still's

disease. I am fairly confident it's not related to any vaccine but rather

to some other infection as I had not had any vaccines for well over 20 years

with the exception of a tetanus shot. Back when I was in the military I

had many, many vaccines and never once became ill. Though several other

soldiers did have some reactions none lasted more than a couple of days and

long term I never knew anyone in the military that got anything like

Still's. Given the number of people in the military each year you'd think

we'd see more cases of Still's if vaccines were involved. But then every

one of us reacts differently so who's to say. Nothing is for certain when

it comes to medicine except that all of us were born and we will all die.

If I was to take a educated guess as to what might have caused it and this

is just a wild guess, then I suspect mine could be potentially due to a

couple of incidents at a hospital. I got the first Still's symptoms not

too long after having a colonoscopy because I had reached the age where you

should get one. I became ill shortly after the exam and a few months later

got my first Still's episode but dismissed it for a long time as the flu.

It could also have been the result of a bad compound fracture a few years

earlier. Depends on how long it would take to develop Still's I guess.

The compound fracture left the bone in my arm exposed to the environment

(asphalt) and the doctor was really concerned about infections. They did

several surgeries for nothing more than to scrape the inside of the bones

and clean them. I was on a massive antibiotic drip the whole time I was in

the hospital. I've had problems ever since but the good new is that they

saved my arm. That bad is that I suspect that I ether had some infection

or reaction to the massive amounts of antibiotics.

But, I may have just got it because I got it. I think we all try to

search for why this happened to us and the simple answer that none of us

want to accept is that sometimes bad things happen to good people. It's

just life and we may never know why. What is more important is how we deal

with it and how we help others in what we have learned from the disease.

If this disease has taught me ONE THING it is that I lacked compassion for

how much chronic pain could affect someone and was naive regarding many

illnesses. I now have much more compassion for those with chronic

illnesses than I did before and am much more willing to listen to them when

they talk about it.

Nice chatting.

Darv

_____

From: Stillsdisease [mailto:Stillsdisease ]

On Behalf Of Zovtic

Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 9:08 AM

To: Stillsdisease

Subject: Re: Darv >> 2 Ellen - and back to Darv

Darv:

It's incredible how well informed you and I thank you for your

input. As a parent I've had to immunize my son in order for him to

attend public school and I'm not against that at all. It's when we

start doing these genetic altering things that bother me.

When I was growing up, it was common place in our house to have

heated discussions about all kinds of subjects - as a matter of fact

nothing was off limits - and that kind of bantering is very

comforting in a way, to me. Typical Jewish home, you should've heard

how loud everyone would get, especially the men!

By the way, very interesting idea you raised about the AIDS testing

on primates. I've always wondered how that started and progressed to

humans. Yes, I know about patient X and all that (who doesn't) but

it was something that had to have exsisted somewhere first in order

for him to get it and spread it.

As a computer technician, I suppose you could work out of your home

if your company allowed but being in the country type of area would

probably not be condusive to your needs. It maybe a thought,

however, if you ever wanted to freelance.

Time to put dinner up in the crock pot. Thanks again for the banter,

I really appreciate it.

Take care and be well.

Ellen

[Guest guest]

Good evening Darv:

I've heard all kinds of things about how the illness rears it's ugly

head. Personally, I was six quite often for six months with colds

and such along with my son (he was turning 2 years old at the time)

when I was finally hospitalized. So I thought it was just my immune

system was so low that it was just another infection.

Then it was explained as an " in-born " virus that came " out " because

of all those times I became ill and that it really was Stills the

whole time.

Now my Chiropractor tells me that the illness was always in my DNA,

sort of a misfire, if you would, or something along that line. It

actually made more sense to me than the other explainations but also

causes a great deal of concern. If that's the case why doesn't

anyone else in the family have this and is it possible my son will

experience this problem as he gets older?

Please excuse the simple expressions but it's the end of the day,

I've been up since 4:30 a.m. and all the expressive writing has left

my body due to exhaustion.

Thank you for tell me your story and your thoughts, I found it very

interesting. I never realized how many of our members have been in

the military until today.

I'm now going to go eat dinner ( finished making it), take a pill

and go to bed. I'm not going to sleep but I'm going to rest and

finish the book I'm reading. By the way, I'm reading " The Last

Templar " by Khoury. It's actually pretty good and I don't

usually like his writing.

Take care and be well.

Ellen

[Guest guest]

Ellen,

Your chiropractor is somewhat on the right tract. The potential for an

autoimmune disease is indeed genetic but current studies seem to indicate

that some sort of infection (cold, flu and other viruses) can trigger the

disease. It's similar in that the HPV virus has recently been linked to

certain type so cancer. The virus triggers something and your immune

system becomes active and attacks more than just the virus. So even though

someone is genetically prone to a disease like Still's disease, they may

never develop it. As some supporting evidence of this, my daughter who is

38 this year has PSC (Primary Sclerosing Colingitus) which is also an

autoimmune disease. I don't know if hers and mine are related but I'd be

they are in some way. My daughter will eventually need a liver transplant

as a result.

Let me know how the book is. When I turned 13 I became a member of the

order of DeMolay. In the club one of the ceremonies is to perform in a play

about the final days of Jacques de Molay and his execution at the hands of

the king. So having been in the plays I have always been fascinated by

stories of the Knights of the Templar. So much intrigue. A good story

for a book. It looks like the book is set in modern times. Is there

mention of De Molay in the book?

Rest easy Ellen.

Chat with you soon.

Darv

_____

From: Stillsdisease [mailto:Stillsdisease ]

On Behalf Of Zovtic

Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 2:45 PM

To: Stillsdisease

Subject: Re: Darv >> 2 Ellen

Good evening Darv:

I've heard all kinds of things about how the illness rears it's ugly

head. Personally, I was six quite often for six months with colds

and such along with my son (he was turning 2 years old at the time)

when I was finally hospitalized. So I thought it was just my immune

system was so low that it was just another infection.

Then it was explained as an " in-born " virus that came " out " because

of all those times I became ill and that it really was Stills the

whole time.

Now my Chiropractor tells me that the illness was always in my DNA,

sort of a misfire, if you would, or something along that line. It

actually made more sense to me than the other explainations but also

causes a great deal of concern. If that's the case why doesn't

anyone else in the family have this and is it possible my son will

experience this problem as he gets older?

Please excuse the simple expressions but it's the end of the day,

I've been up since 4:30 a.m. and all the expressive writing has left

my body due to exhaustion.

Thank you for tell me your story and your thoughts, I found it very

interesting. I never realized how many of our members have been in

the military until today.

I'm now going to go eat dinner ( finished making it), take a pill

and go to bed. I'm not going to sleep but I'm going to rest and

finish the book I'm reading. By the way, I'm reading " The Last

Templar " by Khoury. It's actually pretty good and I don't

usually like his writing.

Take care and be well.

Ellen

[Guest guest]

Pat,

I don't think there is any doubt that all autoimmune disease are probably

closely related. The only significant difference is which cells in the body

do the attacking and on what other part of the body they attack. My

daughter has PSC and it's nothing like Still's except that it is autoimmune

in nature. Her disease chooses to attack her liver. Odd thing in our

family is that it was my wife's mother that had Lupus. No one in my family

until me had any autoimmune illness then both me and my daughter get it?

Hard to know what's going on there.

Darv

Darvin Atkeson

http://www.liquidmoonlight.com <http://www.liquidmoonlight.com/>

_____

From: Stillsdisease [mailto:Stillsdisease ]

On Behalf Of Milligal@...

Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 3:11 PM

To: Stillsdisease

Subject: Re: Re: Darv >> 2 Ellen

Dear Ellen,

I also wonder if the Rheumatoid factor is hereditary. Mom has

Rheumatoid arthritis, I have Stills, & my eldest daughter had JRA. All

" kissing

cousins. " I know of at least ONE study going on right now, there are

probably many

more. Perhaps we'll have some of our questions answered in a few years (hope

springs eternal).

Kind Regards,

Pat

Austin, TX

[Guest guest]

Pat,

Yes, RA is an autoimmune disease, along with a host of other

illnesses. Most likely Stills falls into this category as well, and

it makes sense to me as I have 2 other AI diseases.

Because it is an autoimmune disease, it is genetic. Does it mean that

family members will have the same AI disease, no. But it does mean

that family members are more likely to have an AI disease because of

the genes.

Houston