I am compelled to share my story with fellow Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans as it may have an impact regarding your mysterious illnesses.
I am a retired, 24 yr veteran of the US Army. Overseas assignments include Vietnam, Australia and Middle East (Gulf Region).
Shortly after my return from RVN (1971), I began to have symptoms akin to Agent Orange & Chronic Fatigue. The mainstay was recurrent rashes and UTIs for which I received nearly two years of antibiotics. Most of the symptoms faded by the mid-1980s.
In 1989, I was in the best physical condition of my life. I was then assigned to the United Nations, Jerusalem (Israel) as a UN Military Observer. During an operational patrol in the Sinai Desert, in October, 1989, I became deathly sick. Shortly thereafter, all the symptoms I had from Vietnam begain to reoccur (headaches, chronic fatigue, sleep disorders, UTI, URIs, back pain, etc). However, new symptoms emerged...stiff fingers and migrating arthritic pains, mild memory loss, fluctuating vision and most of the GWS symptoms that can be identified.
As a good soldier, I reported all these symptoms during my retirement physical, but got no concrete diagnosis. I also submitted a service-connected claim for diability to the VA. I underwent a complete physical exam (to include Agent Orange and Gulf War registries) at the VA Hospital, Martinsburg. The VA diagnosis was chronic lubosacral strain, allergic rhinitis and mild PTSD.
With the symptoms and problems I was having, I did not agree with the VA findings. Through a stroke of luck, I learned from my local veternarian that my symptoms were similar to LYME DISEASE. I decided to see my family doctor and have new tests run.
After some preliminary tests that ruled out Thyroid, Arthritic Rheumatism, blood sugar and other more common diseases, my family physician referred me to an Infectious Disease Specialist. I requested to be specifically tested for Lyme Disease (IgM Western Blot) and guess what...IT CAME BACK POSITIVE! The positive Western Blot followed after two borderline negative tests for Lyme Antibodies.
I was subsequently diagnosed with ADVANCED STAGE LYME DISEASE...an infectious disease that is multi-systemic and can cause most, if not all, the mysterious symptoms that have been reported by many of our Gulf War Vets.
If you are being told by the VA that they can't find anything wrong and your body tells you otherwise, you might fit into this category. You should ask your local VA Medical Center to refer you to the Gulf War Referral Center for infectious disease testing, to include Lyme Disease. Or, you can follow the route I did and request a Western Blot test through your family physician when the VA is less than cooperative as they were in my case.
Yes, it can be in your head...it's called an spirochete known as Borrelia burgdorferi or "Bb" for short, also known as Lyme Disease. It can affect ALL parts of your body and that includes the Central Nervous System (i.e., brain).
More on Frank Sauer's Symptons and Lyme Disease
The story above does not elaborate about the bulls-eye rashes on each cheek of the buttocks while I was in Vietnam, and every summer thereafter for approx 15 yrs. It also does not talk about the flu-like symptoms I had in RVN before the rashes occurred.
I only learned recently that the Bulls Eye rash and flu-like symptoms are very common in LD. Of course, LD was a term named after a problem with children, tick bites, rashes and arthritic symptoms that developed in Lyme, Connecticut in 1975. The real enemy is known as a spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi "Bb" that is normally associated with a deer tick bite. However, it is now questioned whether other insects including fleas, biting flies and mosquitoes are possible mechanical or biological vectors...the same enemies we fought in both RVN and the Gulf War (the Middle East for me).
It is also interesting to note that the bacteria of Bb has been demonstrated in museum mice specimens from New England dating back to 1894. The disease has also been known in man in Europe since 1909. So, LD is not something that is isolated only in certain States within the U.S. nor is it hard and fast that the infection comes solely from a tick bite. I can only say that the Army and the VA made an oversight in my diagnosis and left me to my own devices and research that resulted in a "correct" diagnosis.
I believe I picked up the disease in Vietnam and it went into remission following several years of antibiotics. However, it re-emerged shortly after I became seriously ill in the Sinai Desert, in 1989, and has caused havoc on my body ever since. I spent two years in the Middle East that included the GW period.
I have two Senator's looking into my case as my military medical records are well documented with treatment/symptoms since 1971 and the Army/VA missed the boat in my case; only to have an independent infectious disease specialist positively diagnose me with the "late stage" disease. I have to undergo a minimum of one month (more like three months) of intravenous antibiotics followed by oral antibiotics for an undetermined length of time (perhaps the rest of my life).
I'm not sure if there is any connection with the mysterious illnesses affecting other RVN and GW veterans, but I do know that the comprehensive tests performed by the Gulf War Referral Centers (3 nationwide) include a Lyme Test in their infectious disease differential. What I am unsure of is if the test is only the Lyme Antibodies (I tested negative twice) or if includes the IgM Western Blot (I tested POSITIVE BIG TIME in that test).
Source: http://www.gulfweb.org/tracings/tos_show.cfm?ID=3
| Immunoglobulin A, B, and M what are they? |
"Secretory IgA antibodies can neutralize viruses, bind toxins, agglutinate bacteria, prevent bacteria from binding to mucosal epithelial cells, and bind to various food antigens, thus preventing their entry into the general circulation. The role of serum IgA is unclear."
"IgAD is a primary immunodeficiency disease presumed to result from a failure of terminal differentiation in IgA-positive B cells. Multipotent hematopoietic stem cells give rise to progenitors of T cells, B cells, and natural killer cells."
"The development of B-lineage cells begins in the fetal liver. B-lineage cell development then transfers to the bone marrow when it becomes the major hematopoietic organ. Pre–B cells become immature immunoglobulin M (IgM)–positive B cells and then migrate from the bone marrow to lymph node germinal centers. After leaving the bone marrow, the B cells mature and express immunoglobulin D receptors, respond to antigens, and, with the help of T cells (CD4+), undergo proliferation and plasma cell differentiation (International Union of Immunological Societies, 1999)."
Source: www.emedicine.com/med/topic1159.htm
Mike, "The immunoglobulin molecule: That's a rather complex molecule! Well, the lymph nodes crank out this protein molecule to go after foreign bodies in an organism. Too low numbers found in a blood test just means that particular means of defense is too low, possibly in decline.
Something is impeding the lymphs; bad nutrition, poisoning, old age, etc. Trick is to discover what caused such a condition.
I suspect you're on the path to connect that ester-alcohol solvent
C6H14O2/CH3(CH2)2CH2OCH2CH2OH
to lymph damage. Since the liver is definitely damaged with that substance just like longterm metalysis of ethanol, follows other organs will suffer as well."
From MERCK Manual:
quote:
IgG: Immunoglobulin G, a major class of immunoglobulins found in the blood, including many of the most common antibodies circulating in the blood. Also known as gamma globulin.
MERCK medical dictionary has some pretty good definitions, check this chapter on immune:
THE MERCK MANUAL, Sec. 12, Ch. 146, Biology Of The Immune System and
THE MERCK MANUAL, Sec. 11, Ch. 145, Aids-Associated Hematologic Disorders And Malignancies
C6H14O2/CH3(CH2)2CH2OCH2CH2OH
Reproductive & Fetal Effects; Liver & Kidney Damage; Blood Damage only Health Hazard level #2?
or
C8H18O3 / CH2(CH2)3OCH2CH2OCH2CH2OH
Kidney damage; Central Nervous System effects only Hazard level 1?
CA & EPA study
& What about the Hypothalamus?
http://www.valdezlink.com/pages/concernCheneyhealth.htm#hypo
