Hillary Hysteria Reaches Fever Pitch! Run For Your Lives! We're All Gonna Die!

Whoo.

This latest Hillary flap has brought out all the hysterics on the intertubes to ventilate their spleens over Hillary's Health Crisis Du Jour.

Her campaign says she's got pneumonia. I don't know whether it's true or not. There's no way to know. The campaigns are charades top to bottom and sorting out truth from fiction is an endless task. There's no way to keep up. That she's ill is clear enough. With what, though?

There have been rumors about her health for months or years, and I typically ascribe them to anti-Clinton bullshit. How it is that the Clintons, among all politicians, invite such over-the-top antagonism is a mystery to me. They have long fed their haters, though, so I don't entirely blame it on some kind of Derangement Syndrome. There seems to be something symbiotic about it, bizarre though it may be. They get something from being hated so strongly, and their haters need the Clintons just as much.

Be that as it may, Hillary's been sick, and the 9/11 Memorial Incident could not -- at least it wasn't -- hidden from the public. At one point, while awaiting her transport, she could barely stand and could not walk on her own. There were indications that she passed out. Oh boy.

When the announcement was made -- eventually -- that she had pneumonia, I nodded and said, "Yep." Her symptoms, at least visible ones, some of which had been rehashed over and over in the hysterical media no matter the political persuasion, were consistent with a severe and/or long-untreated case of pneumonia. I know. I've had it. Several times. What she was showing were symptoms very similar to some of the worst experiences I've had with pneumonia. Others would testify to having similar symptoms themselves.

But the intertubes exploded with authoritative but utterly false declarations of what pneumonia does and doesn't do, and with equally false declarations of how serious or not serious the condition must be in Hillary's case. Jebus dancing on a crust of Wonder Bread, this was insane. Utterly insane.

What I reacted to was the completely inane and false and almost universally encountered statements regarding how pneumonia behaves -- particularly how it is relatively mild or benign, and how, for example, it doesn't cause dehydration or make one feel hot or feverish in mild weather. This is utterly false. Yes, it can cause severe dehydration and feelings of fever or overheating. Yes. It. Can.

It can make you feel faint. It can make you pass out. It can cause "out of body" experiences. It can leave you disoriented, confused, incoherent, etc. A bad cough that doesn't go away with ordinary cough suppressants is routine.

It can give you the shakes, or you can be semi-paralyzed. It can be deadly.

Vaccines cannot and do not prevent all forms of pneumonia, but patients are not always told that they can still get pneumonia even if they've received both vaccines.

In my view, pneumonia is always serious, but its course may not involve all the most serious symptoms. It can be very difficult to control with antibiotics. I've usually required two courses of antibiotics every time I've had it. That's ten days each. But even after the infection is controlled, there are lingering after effects for months.The worst is fatigue, something that you really can't do anything about (but see below.)

Many authoritative commenters insisted that pneumonia is easily controlled with antibiotics. It's not always easily controlled at all. A few days on antibiotics and you're good as new. Not true. It may work for some people, for others, no.

Other commenters authoritatively insisted that Hillary couldn't have pneumonia because of this, that or the other symptom that pneumonia doesn't cause. Except for the fact that her visible symptoms were consistent with severe or untreated pneumonia...

Others seemed to have so much invested in their pet medical diagnosis for what ails Hillary that they couldn't accept something as uninteresting as pneumonia and dismissed it out of hand.

Many insisted that Hillary was obviously contagious and should be effectively quarantined. Or contrariwise, she was exposed to too many sick people and should be better protected by her staff. Some of her staff were apparently taken ill too.

Almost all of the intertube commentary was wrong, and most of it was ridiculous.

One of the most striking things after Hillary's episode at the 9/11 memorial was her astonishing recovery after an hour or so at Chelsea's place. My own perception is that it could not have happened without some kind of "boost." There were speculations she was given amphetamines.

Maybe.

It looked to me like she'd been ill with pneumonia for some time, perhaps months, and neither she nor her staff was aware of it. She thought it was allergies. She may have thought it was a persistent cold. Whatever the case, she showed some symptoms, but they went unrecognized, and so she went on with the campaign without treatment, or perhaps with treatment for the wrong condition.

Undiagnosed pneumonia is pretty common.

She probably didn't even see a doctor until she felt so bad she had to do something.

They say she was diagnosed last Friday and put on antibiotics. My guess? Too little, too late.

They didn't have time to work before the 9/11 memorial, and they may not have been effective in any case. For example, I had one course of antibiotics that had no effect at all.

Her condition likely would get worse under those circumstances. And so the episode at the van where she appeared to be either unconscious or semi-paralyzed.

This should have set off a whole series of alarm bells in the campaign, but it's not at all clear that it did. Taking her to Chelsea's house rather than to a hospital was a strategic move that Hillary probably insisted on -- it's clear enough that she sets the rules of the campaign -- but it may not have been medically wise.

If she was given a "boost" of some kind at Chelsea's but had no real medical treatment beyond already prescribed antibiotics and maybe an energy drink or two, I would be alarmed.

If she was severely dehydrated and actually passed out, then she should probably be under close medical supervision -- if not actually hospitalized -- for at least several days. It may require IV infusions of both stronger antibiotics and fluids.

That can take place at her home if need be, and that's likely what's going on at her place in Chappaqua.

There are many issues that can be raised over this situation, none of them particularly good, but the intertube hysterics over it are not helpful at all. Neither those who dismissed the seriousness of pneumonia nor those who made it out to be worse than it is really caught the fundamental problem:

1) she had apparently been ill for some time but was not diagnosed until last Friday.

2) either she denied she was as ill as she was or -- likely -- no one bothered to check what was wrong or how severe it was.

3) even after being diagnosed, her treatment was apparently inadequate to her condition.

4) her campaign was not forthcoming about her condition.

5) speculation was rampant for months before her diagnosis based on nothing at all but a perception that she wasn't well. She wasn't, it's true, but the speculation was allowed to run wild when a proper diagnosis and initiation of treatment early on might have scotched the speculation and she might have gotten well much sooner.

It's valid to question her judgment and the judgment of her staff and medical personnel. What were they thinking? There appears to be a dangerous level of disengagement from reality involved in this episode. Many questions about her judgment have already been raised, of course. There are plenty more questions to be raised. But the way this episode has been handled is not helpful either to understanding Hillary's condition or the many problems of this outrageous political season and the interests being served.

On the other hand, there is a whole series of unanswered and largely unasked questions about the other major candidate...

Good heavens, what a mess...

Survival Notes... As It Were

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a strange stringy soup of one health crisis after another. It's a bizarre feeling, especially when I've got friends who insist that if I hadn't drank and smoked and whored around when I was young and believed myself to be invulnerable, I wouldn't be in this condition now.

Well, may-be, but I'm not convinced. It is something that certain preacher-men like to retail to their impressionable flocks, though -- as they drink and smoke and whore around the way they do.

I'm not in as bad shape now as I was a week or so ago, so there's that. I had a CT scan -- without the iodine dye which I'm deathly allergic to -- last Tuesday, and the extensive report came back very quickly:

There are two masses in my right lung that look like "chronic inflammation" and evidence of "moderate emphysema" in both lungs. I knew about the emphysema from a CT scan five years ago when I was suspected of having TB -- because of my pneumonia symptoms and because the flow chart showed I'd been to Mexico (except I hadn't, I'd been to New Mexico). It apparently hasn't gotten worse. Yay. I haven't smoked in almost 20 years, so at least I haven't been adding more tobacco smoke to my lungs. In fact, I can't stand to be around tobacco smoke any more.

I'm somewhat puzzled and intrigued by those "masses" however, It's possible they've been there all those years, too. But as I researched the chronic inflammation aspect, it turned out that that is actually a potential consequence of rheumatoid arthritis and/or other autoimmune conditions, as is indeed pneumonia. Oh.

So it's quite possible that the double whammy -- RA and pneumonia -- that I went through for the past couple of months was all of a piece, not separate illnesses that just happened to strike at the same time. And it's likely I will continue to be vulnerable...

OK. Getting used to this.

Or at least learning. Interestingly, my PCP suggested that the interim treatment for RA (prednisone) was contributing to the persistence of pneumonia as prednisone acts as an immunosuppressant. Interesting because a routine treatment for lung inflammation due to autoimmune conditions is... prednisone.

I guess finding the balance is the issue.

I asked for and received a prescription for "low-dose" prednisone, and it seems to be working out reasonably well. I no longer have pneumonia symptoms (yay!) and whatever pulmonary inflammation there is seems to be under control. The doctor prescribed inhalers -- which are complex to use, whoa -- for breathing difficulties, and now, in addition to follow up with a rheumatologist, I'll be seeing a pulmonolgist, too.

So. Moving right along...

But I loathe being ill.

Bleah...

Illness and Dealing With The System (UPDATED)

I have a Medicare Advantage Plan through Presbyterian Health Care in Albuquerque. Until yesterday, it seemed to be fine. I got care by competent professionals when I needed it, and though the clinic is 35-40 miles away, it's not too inconvenient. Co-pays -- so far -- have been reasonable.

As I've mentioned previously, I'm currently being treated for rheumatoid arthritis and pneumonia. Rheumatoid arthritis can be very painful and debilitating, whereas pneumonia can be lethal, especially for an elder like myownself.

Treatment for RA has consisted of diclofenac twice a day and high-dose prednisone for five days, with a follow up by a rheumatology specialist. That follow up has not happened. I was supposed to receive a call from Rheumatology setting up an appointment, but none came. The prednisone treatment ended April 18, and for the next week or so, the pain I'd previously experienced was more or less controlled. But yesterday, actually the day before, the pain started returning, and it became so bad I could barely stand it. It was at times worse than before I started treatment.

I had been given a five day course of antibiotic treatment for pneumonia, half the time-period of previous treatments. It seemed to control the symptoms, but then not. At all. It did not seem to me that Azithromycin was an effective treatment as I still had a severe cough, chest pain and compression, and difficulty breathing.

So I contacted my primary care physician reporting that I was experiencing returned or persistent symptoms of both RA and pneumonia and requesting advice.

The response I got was... odd. "Were you able to set up an appointment with the Rheumatologist?"

The answer, of course, is No. I replied that I had never received a call from Rheumatology and I had no contact info.

Shortly, I received a text telling me that Rheumatology had called me and left a message for me to call them back to set up an appointment. Apparently I hadn't received the message for some reason. Contact information was provided and I was encouraged to give them a call to set up an appointment.

This I did promptly.

Hm. I spoke to a very nice person who said that in essence there are are no appointments available until November at the earliest. The doctor who I was told to contact is not accepting new patients at all, and the only rheumatologist on staff who is accepting new patients won't have an appointment opening before November. I explained that I'd been informed by my primary care physician that someone had tried to contact me to set up an appointment with the doctor who isn't taking new patients but that I had not gotten the message. "Let me check," she said. A few minutes later, she said there was no record of anyone from rheumatology trying to contact me and no record of an attempt to set an appointment time. Interesting.

I asked if it was possible that someone had tried to contact me but called the wrong number (I get calls periodically from doctors offices and dentists for other people, sometimes because the caller has misdialed) and she that they only have the one number for me, and there is no record of anyone from rheumatology trying to contact me at any time.

I explained that the nurse told me there was, so it was something of a mystery. She said she would look into what happened and get back to me, because it certainly seemed odd to her, too.

I then texted the nurse who had told me that someone had tried to reach me from rheumatology with the information that they have no record of it, and I had checked through my voicemail messages for the last month, and there was no message from rheumatology.

Meanwhile, the pain was becoming excruciating while we've tried to get this resolved. As it happens I have a few prednisone tablets from the first prescription when I was told I was taking them wrong, and I took one last night -- because in a pinch, one tablet will control the pain for about 24 hours. Doctor told me not to take it that way, but I have no other pain relief option when the RA pain comes on the way it has, and as the issue with rheumatology follow up seems to be a mess for the time being, as they try to sort out what happened with my non-appointment, I used what was at hand.

We'll see what happens. At least the pain was controlled overnight, and that is a major relief.

Meanwhile, I still have pneumonia symptoms which I've reported and asked for advice on, but so far, there's been no response to that request. At all.

The system apparently isn't set up to answer two questions in one message or to respond to more than one issue at a time.

I'm learning, I guess. But if I didn't have the prednisone, I would be in serious agony with no relief at all, and the persistence of pneumonia symptoms after treatment ought to be something of a red flag -- but apparently it isn't.

UPDATE: Despite systemic resistance, I was able to set up two appointments to deal with immediate issues. The first, yesterday, followed up on pneumonia symptoms. Turned out my condition was worse -- gee, ya think? -- and I needed and was prescribed a stronger antibiotic along with more prednisone in case the chest pain becomes severe.

The next appointment is Monday for the rheumatioid arthritis. Since there apparently is no rheumatologist who is accepting patients within a reasonable time frame (at least none that I know of), it will be up to me and my primary care physician to find an appropriate treatment for as long as it takes to get in to see a specialist -- which apparently is going to be months.

Prednisone does work. Even, it would appear, in low dose, which I've tried since getting prednisone for chest pain yesterday.

My co-pay for the stronger antibiotic is quite high (close to $100). It may be that the earlier ineffective treatment -- which had a very low co-pay ($4.00 or something like that) was intended to keep my costs reasonable. I don't know. But it didn't work, and at first, the staff at the clinic ignored my repeated requests for relief. Then something happened, perhaps when I called up again yesterday morning, and things changed.

The system may be resistant but apparently it's not entirely non-responsive.

Ché the Pneumoniac

Yes, I have pneumonia again. Third time. I wanted not to think it was true, but symptoms were too similar to previous episodes, and I was not getting better. So, got doctored for "persistent cough" and sure enough, pneumonia.

This is  annoying as all heck because I've had both pneumonia vaccines. What in tarnation is the point if I get pneumonia anyway? And where did it come from this time?

It's a mystery, but this is my suspicion: When I went to the doctor for RA symptoms, I got a flu shot because I didn't get one last fall. The nurse who administered the injection had a severe cough. A few days later I developed flu-like symptoms, but I attributed them at the time to side effects from the RA medication I was taking.

After I finished the high dose course of RA medication, I figured the flu-mimic symptoms would go away. They didn't. It became more and more obvious that I had somehow acquired pneumonia again.

How? My suspicion is that I had flu after the flu shot -- either from the nurse or from the vaccine itself. I had no treatment for flu, of course, because it didn't really register with me that that's what I had. The flu led directly to a pulmonary infection that became the pneumonia I'm being treated for now.

If it is viral pneumonia, the antibiotics are not going to work, but so far they seem to be working, so we'll see what happens over the longer term.

For the record, RA symptoms have been largely under control since the five-day high-dosage prednisone treatment -- which ended on 4/18. Not a cure, no. But at least it's less debilitating.

What a drag it is getting old...