Back from Nashville!

[Guest guest]

Hi all! Well, I'm back from medical testing this last week. Good

news and bad news. Good news is that I got a pretty sure diagnosis.

Bad news is that there is no cure

I don't know anything for sure, but the docs are about 99% certain I

have Chronic Epstein-Barr Virus (CEBV). It has absolutely nothing to

do with WLS. It is like having Mono for 18-24 months, instead of a

month or so. The whole enlarged liver and spleen thing, the fatigue,

body aches, fever, hypoglycemia. Basically like having a bad flu for

a long, long time. No cure, unfortunately, but time. Most people

feel at least 40-50% better after two years. Sometimes it takes as

long as 5 years, but it seems like it does eventually go away.

CEBV is a auto-immune disease. It is very similar to AIDS or Lupus.

Fortunately it doesn't kill the T cells, like AIDS, so the mortality

rate isn't nearly as high.

Treatment is spotty at best, and seems to treat only the symptoms of

CEBV, not the disease.

Unfortunately, it looks like I will be an invalid, or semi-invalid,

for the next couple of years. Fortunately, it will give me more time

online to support others.

Another plus (in some eyes) is that CEBV is so fatiguing that most

people sleep 14, 16, even 18 hours per day, so the time passes

quickly.

I thought I was going insane. I'm glad I'm not (since I was already

insane before, hehe).

Felicia