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Page history last edited by Henry T. Hill 3 years, 5 months ago

Teachers and Students and Facebook

 

FB post to advertise Mindfulness books 10/3/2020

June 18, 2018 I learned I had Amyloidosis Al, a rare, 9 cases per million, and incurable disease. After researching the disease and treatment options, I choose the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville (six hour drive from Marco Island. I called for an appointment (no referral needed) and began treatment July 30, 2018 with Dr. Taimur Sher.

Began a schedule of once a week chemo treatments of dexamethasone and Velcade near home in Naples at the Florida Cancer Specialists in September 2018 and finished 16 chemo treatments in January 2019. In December of 2018 I developed peripheral neuropathy (PN) in my feet and legs. Having had six kidney stones over the years, I can say that PN pain is less than a kidney stone, but PN pain does not pass or go away. Day and night PN pain comes, grows, lessens, and passes for a short time.

Chemo cancer doctors understand pain. My chemo doctor, Dr. Newman, prescribed first gabapentin, but when I did not work, Dr. Newman prescribed Hydroco/APAP 325mg, four a day if needed, and prescription Ambien  or Zolpidem 10mg. Dr. Sher and my Mayo pain doctor, Dr. Palmer,  confirmed Dr. Newman's prescription and added a custom scripted gel Amit/Keta/Lido at 2/5/5% to apply twice a day and a prescription for physical therapy.

I knew I had to wean myself off pain pills and ambien and started to work mindfulness techniques I had used since childhood and while teaching at Roosevelt High School from 1968-1999 and teaching here in Florida from 2006-2018.

From December 2018 to June 2019 I worked the problem of convincing my brain, the somatosensory area, that the pain nerve signal was really just a "strange" nerve signal, not pain while I slowly weaned myself off pain and sleep medication. It worked. By the end of June 2019 I stopped taking any pain and sleep medication and have not taken again.

Here are the mindfulness techniques I used:

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and Five Stages to Acceptance
Pragmatism
Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy
Transactional Analysis
Making Sense with General Semantics
Somatosensory Part of the Brain and the Role of Behavior Chemicals, Emotions and Physical Activity
Placebo Effect Concept
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Marshall McLuhan and The Medium Is the Massage
Words and Questions and Grammar and Chaos
Learning Theories
Poems and an Essay and Quotes
Feelings and Reactions

I, as author Henry T. Hill, have written two books available on Amazon in Kindle or paperback versions on my amyloidosis al and peripheral neuropathy (PN) and mindfulness journey:

"My Journey From Amyloidosis AL to Chemo to Peripheral Neuropathy and How I Used Mindfulness Learning Tools to Improve My Quality of Life" (February 17, 2020 and 118 pages and 317 KB )
This book chronicles the journey from Amyloidosis Al to peripheral neuropathy to mindfulness with some explanation of mindfulness and how I used it.

"Mindfulness vs Disease and Debilitating Symptoms Such As Pain, Fatigue and Loss of Coordination" (September 23, 2020 and 153 pages and 3359 KB)
This book focuses and expands the mindfulness techniques I used. This book is for anyone struggling with chronic symptoms that restrict their quality of life.

Just for the record, I receive "strange" nerve signals from my peripheral neuropathy days and nights, but I can walk four thousand steps a day and sleep at night only waking up once not five or six times as I did from December 2018 to June of 2019. As of now I see a doctor every three months for blood tests and consultation alternating between my Naples chemo doctor and my amyloidosis Mayo doctor. As of now my amyloidosis al is holding, and so I do not need to go back on chemo. So life goes on.

My lesson to you:
Do your research by Google searching using space pdf at the end of a search (peripheral neuropathy and pain pdf). The pdf yields scholarly articles.  

Mayo Clinics, in Rochester, MN, Phoenix and Jacksonville, offer a biography of each doctor who sees patients and on the Mayo Clinic  website the doctor lists their publications and offers a button to click to request an appointment. My Amyloidosis doctor, Dr. Sher to date has co authored 71 publications.  Note: my Naples GI doctor who found through a routine endoscopy biopsy my amyloidosis had never seen amyloidosis. My Florida Cancer Specialist doctor administers my chemo coordinating my the Mayo doctor, and my Florida Cancer Specialists doctor has four patients who have amyloidosis all with other primary amyloidosis doctors. Just for the record, during my September 2, 2020 visit with my Mayo amyloidosis doctor, Dr. Sher, he said he was glad to see because half of amyloidosis patients are dead in one year, and here I am seeing Dr. Sher from July 30, 2018 to September 2, 2020. I tell Dr. Sher it is because he is on my team, and I pray for him every day. He is on my daily prayer list.

Do your research to get the best diagnosis.
Do your research to get the best treatment.
Do your research to learn to work on yourself to give yourself the best quality of life possible. 

 



 

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