POST # 5000 - GLAD TO BE ALIVE!

[rockgremlin]

57647





Fellow Boglites,

In honor of my 5000th post, I would like to sheepishly disclose an incident that occurred to me about 4 months ago. Back in April I was diagnosed with a very rare and debilitating condition that hospitalized me in the ICU for 5 days in Grand Junction, Colorado. Needless to say, I was at death

[tanya]

Wow! I never knew. You are so FIT and still quite young. What did you have? Was it cured?

Kudos for beating it! :stud:

[accadacca]

Congrats on 5,000 and cheating death. Wow!!! Yeah, very curious... :eek2:

[rockgremlin]

I didn't broadcast it at all, until now. I went into a bit of a depression after the initial fallout. The condition is called Rhabdomyolysis, and it affects many systems in the body, but mostly skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle tissues. It affects your brain (causing short-term memory loss, and messes up your thermoregulation), and can lead to severe kidney failure. I was already in moderate kidney failure when I was found comatose by my wife, who then called 911. Moab hospital doctors didn't know what the hell was wrong with me - even after extensive tests, spinal taps, etc. So I was life-flighted to Grand Junction to the ICU there.

I awoke in ICU out of what was basically a coma, and found that I had been fitted with a lovely catheter. My urine at first looked like black coffee - indicating modest kidney damage. This condition isn't "curable" except with time and as much exercise as you can stand.

[accadacca]

Good hell dude! WTF causes this? :eek2:

[trackrunner]

had no clue. glad you are feeling better. you are back in slc now correct? we should do a local hike, canyon, peak, or travel to one soon.

[Deathcricket]

Well I am very glad you are ok. Although I am a little jealous of your post count. :2thumbs:

[Iceaxe]

I told you licking toilet seats in public restrooms would leed to nothing but trouble!

FWIW: here is a picture of rockgremlin and his kids I snapped last week at RMR. You can tell he is sickly because he isn't wearing his man thong.

[Scott Card]

Yikes and I am sorry to hear this. Hope you continue mending.

[rockgremlin]

^^^^I told Shane when we were sitting together at RMR that I moved away from Moab "to get away from the rednecks." (I was born and raised in SLC, so I'm an urbanite 100%) Shane's reply was "and you decided to come to this?" (referring to the stock car rally at RMR). :roflol:

My three boys are now helping me gain an awareness and mild appreciation of redneck culture, ie. monster truck rallies, stock cars, fishin,' huntin,' and shootin' guns. Everything but the alcohol...:haha:

[restrac2000]

Congratulations on the recovery and getting back on your feet. Admire your honesty on the issue and can only imagine the difficulties you have faced. Keep up the good work, mate.

[Sombeech]

Yikes! It's all that aspartame!

jk, if I ever get a disease, cancer, AIDS, or an ear explodes off of my head, the first thing people will point at is my Diet Mtn Dew consumption, desperate to pinpoint it to some type of behavior.

Glad you're doing better.

[oldno7]

Glad your on the mend RG....

AND--what's so wrong with rednecks:ne_nau:

[jman]

Yikes! It's all that aspartame!

Don't u guys drink like 2 or 3 liters of diet mtn dew a day?!

[tanya]

My first husband died of ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. It's horrible to go from being so healthy to something like you describe. The cure-exercise is very interesting. What an odd collection of cause and risk.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001505/)When muscle is damaged, a protein called myoglobin is released into the bloodstream. It is then filtered out of the body by the kidneys. Myoglobin breaks down into substances that can damage kidney cells.


Rhabdomyolysis may be caused by any condition that damages skeletal muscle, especially injury.
Risk factors include the following:


Alcoholism (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A000944/) (with muscle tremors)

Crush injuries

Drugs, especially cocaine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A003578/), amphetamines, statins, heroin (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A003578/), or PCP

Genetic muscle diseases

Heatstroke (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A000056/)

Ischemia or necrosis (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A002266/) of the muscles (which may occur with arterial occlusion (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A001102/), deep venous thrombosis (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A000156/), or other conditions)

Low phosphate levels

Seizures (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A003200/)

Severe exertion, such as marathon running or calisthenics

Shaking chills

Trauma

[JONBOYLEMON]

Glad you got to the other side of death. Having been in the same situation at 29, I can say it just gets better. I call it the bonus round. Every day is a good one when your supposed to be dead already!!!! Congrats and keep up the fight.

[Sombeech]

Don't u guys drink like 2 or 3 liters of diet mtn dew a day?!

6 to 8 actually. The only side effect I've seen in the last 15 years is an increase in sexiness.

[savanna3313]

6 to 8 actually. The only side effect I've seen in the last 15 years is an increase in sexiness.
They say waning eyesight is the first symptom. :haha: Sorry Beech........couldn't resist. You know I love ya! :2thumbs:

This was a wonderful story to read RG! I am happy not only for your sake, but for your family's sake as well. Best wishes for a continued and speedy recovery!

[Sombeech]

OH SNAP

[rockgremlin]

My first husband died of ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. It's horrible to go from being so healthy to something like you describe. The cure-exercise is very interesting. What an odd collection of cause and risk.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001505/)

When muscle is damaged, a protein called myoglobin is released into the bloodstream. It is then filtered out of the body by the kidneys. Myoglobin breaks down into substances that can damage kidney cells.


Rhabdomyolysis may be caused by any condition that damages skeletal muscle, especially injury.
Risk factors include the following:


Alcoholism (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A000944/) (with muscle tremors)
Crush injuries
Drugs, especially cocaine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A003578/), amphetamines, statins, heroin (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A003578/), or PCP
Genetic muscle diseases
Heatstroke (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A000056/)
Ischemia or necrosis (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A002266/) of the muscles (which may occur with arterial occlusion (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A001102/), deep venous thrombosis (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A000156/), or other conditions)
Low phosphate levels
Seizures (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/n/pmh_adam/A003200/)
Severe exertion, such as marathon running or calisthenics
Shaking chills
Trauma




None of the items in your list apply to me....so it's the grand mystery I guess.

As it was explained to me, when muscle tissue is destroyed it releases Creatine Kinase (CK) into the bloodstream and can plug up the delicate tubules that filter your blood, which can cause kidney failure. (Is CK a synonym for Myoglobin?)

The CK values for a normal adult range between 30 - 200. Mine was over 35,000....

Thanks for all the well wishes everyone. Now let's stop boobing about it and go do stuff. When's the next Bogley event?

[canyoncaver]

Not saying this is how you got it, but hanging in a harness for long periods of time has sometimes resulted in rhabdomyolysis. This is an interesting article that should be of interest to anyone that does vertical ropework:

http://www.caves.org/section/vertical/nh/56/ProlongedSuspensionInAnAlpineHarness.pdf

Written by Roger Mortimer M.D. , caver and National Cave Rescue Commission Instructor.

[rockgremlin]

Not saying this is how you got it, but hanging in a harness for long periods of time has sometimes resulted in rhabdomyolysis. This is an interesting article that should be of interest to anyone that does vertical ropework:

http://www.caves.org/section/vertical/nh/56/ProlongedSuspensionInAnAlpineHarness.pdf

Written by Roger Mortimer M.D. , caver and National Cave Rescue Commission Instructor.

I could see how that would happen. Anytime blood is cut off from muscles for long periods of time (long enough for muscles to die due to blood loss) Rhabdo may occur.

[canyonphile]

Wow, RockG - what an awful thing to go through. I remember learning about rhabdo when I was in medical school. It's one of those weird, potentially fatal, conditions that is not common, but not rare, and can occur without warning - sort of like DIC. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disseminated_intravascular_coagulation)

What a relief to hear you are on the full(?) road to recovery, and getting back outdoors :2thumbs: - rock on!

[rockgremlin]

Wow, RockG - what an awful thing to go through. I remember learning about rhabdo when I was in medical school. It's one of those weird, potentially fatal, conditions that is not common, but not rare, and can occur without warning - sort of like DIC. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disseminated_intravascular_coagulation)

What a relief to hear you are on the full(?) road to recovery, and getting back outdoors :2thumbs: - rock on!


Thanks a bunch. Yesterday I was able to run a nonstop 2 miles for the first time since this happened. Definitely progress!