Weird Biology and/or Genetics

[Graywolf]

Does anyone else have the same problem I do? Whenever I have been in the hospital or seen other doctors they all comment on how unusual my biology is. When doctors take my family medical history their jaws drop as I babble on about my background

My mother lost 5 children between my sister and I, could not carry full term, this was in the early to mid 40's. Back then she didn't know she had uterine cancer and took DES and Thalidomide the entire time she carried me. Both mom and I almost died during delivery and I was born at 13.5LBS with cancer.

I had the entire raft of childhood diseases, chicken pox, measles 3 times, mumps, whooping cough, pleurisy, pneumonia 4 times tonsils and appendix out, and after I survived my teen years was almost never sick.

I don't go to the gym, only was a long distance cyclist and swimmer, and at 61 still have pecs and 6pack abs, around 6% body fat. Zerit, AZT and nerve damage has decimated by ass an legs though.

Whenever they take an EKG jaws drop again, the electrical activity in my heart is 180 degrees out of phase with the norm, there is no history of heart disease in my family. I have been having horrible memory problems and recently had a brain MRI and 4 hour long neurological exam and testing, in some areas I excel while others there are gaping black holes, but overall IQ is close to 180...I never felt smart

I react totally different than almost everyone to HIV and most other meds. I always get the life threatening side effects that are in small print and not the common ones.

Many doctors have told me i am a total enigma, which is not comforting. Maybe I was the product of alien human hybrid breeding experiments :-) My PCP shakes his head, wondering is the Thalidomide, DES being born with cancer and going through almost every childhood disease in the book may have had an effect on my immune system and other biologies....and no I wasn't born with slippers or a penis growing from my chin from the Thalidomide. it's the same with my spinal problems no one has a clue as to why my legs are wasting

has anyone else been told they are a medical oddity?

[weasel]

Hey Wolf ,
                 I WISH I had the care and concern that YOUR doctors have shown  you .

                 It is really great that they TELL you everything !

                 I envy you big time .

                 I also had many of the childhood diseases you had and was never sick after i hit puberty

                 until  2004 ! , and that is caused from the MEDS

                                                       best to you ,

                                                                               Karl

[Ann]

Wow Gray, that certainly IS an unusual history! It's amazing that your mum took Thalidomide during the whole pregnancy and you didn't end up with any deformities.

(but I must say, if you were a straight man, if you had been born with a penis on your chin, you would have been a BIG hit with the ladies for oral! hehehe! Sorry if that grosses you out, but ... wow, that would have been interesting!)

I've been told I'm an enigma, but never on the medical front. You sure must have one strong constitution though, to survive everything you have. Long may it continue!

Ann

[Graywolf]

I can't say they have care and concern, scratch their heads, shake my hand and give me a McDonalds happy meal gift certificate, write a script or two and send me ion my way since they can't figure it out.

as far as the penis on the chin goes, it elliminates the need for smalltalk in bars

[mecch]

Hi Gray,
Well your weirdness definitely trumps mine by miles. Its awe inspiring the variety of biological present in the human species but life goes on.
I have a rare biology concerning HIV. I was identified as in seroconversion stage in early May of this year.  My viral loads were immediately in the millions, and going up. The doctors were looking at my CD4s, which should have been going down to zero, with such viral loads, but they were slowly improving. Eventually at close to 5,000,000, my ID said I was one of the rare cases of people who can't mount a natural defense against the HIV virus. So they put me on HAART.  So far, I am following the normal progression on treatment and thank god I am no longer weird.

A friend of mine who survived cancer said that its very common to patients with very serious diseases to have one biological issue that does not match the model.  Things such as miracle cures, or the opposite, being allergic to the one medecine that would cure the disease, etc.  These forums are filled with people who are bewildered about why they are LTS when others from the 80's and 90's suffered and died. 

I think its important that doctors be quite creative so they can overcome whatever special issue they find in treating people.  My friend told me that is the "art" of medical science.