tabbtech
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| Rank | Member |
| Online Status | OFFLINE |
| Member Since | 05/29/2011 06:03 PM |
| Last Online | 05/21/2013 11:50 AM |
| A little about me: | I'm a Sheet Metal Worker and Welder and Iron Worker, I joined the Sheet metal Workers Union in 1978 at 27, finally some direction in my life. Our daughter was 4 when I started apprenticeship, it was not easy 40 hrs. a week and then 3 hrs. of school 2 nights a week, the pay was low I had been working in a tire plant the previous four years and had worked my way up a little so I had to take a $3/hr. pay cut to start the apprenticeship. My wife and daughter said it was worth it since I didn't smell like rubber all the time. I worked Weekends in a Department store on the week ends until may pay came up. I finished apprenticeship and was in charge of a few jobs. After three years as a journeyman I started my own small company, did well for several years. Then came the Law Suits for poor construction, and since I was contracting the roof and water proofing sheet metal, I was always included in the suits. I was sewed 17 times for things that Developers had done or failed to do, four times we went to trial, I was shown to have never done anything that was not up to code, all four times, Twice the Plaintiffs hired experts in my trade, both times they testified that my work could be used as an example of the standard of the trade. I'm kind of proud of that, but it did no good. By 1996 my wife and I were managing an apartment complex and our daughter was living with her boyfriend. They finally let me back in the Union in 2005, I was 54. This was OK they have a very good pension benefit so I figured to work for 10 years and I would have way better situation than just Social Security. This was going well but then someone,(I'm a Republican so it was probably a democrat), decided to ruin the economy. I was copping with it since I'm pretty good at my job. Then I got ambushed, I started having pains in my right side, and some good friends noticed that I wasn't moving very quickly at work, (at $43/hr. the boss expects you to move fast) so I went to the doctor to complain once again about chronic fatigue, It was really getting bad now I said. Once again I was told I was just getting old. This was the same doctor who had told me 14 years earlier that he couldn't give me Lipitor for my high blood pressure because of a slight Liver problem. So I'm off to a new doctor, of course the first blood test shows my Platelets are down to 70,000. Sends me to a bone marrow biopsy and then to a GI. Doc. By this time the Spleen swelled like a balloon and pretty sore too. So the GI. examines me, gives me a referral for a colonoscopy and an Ultra sound, tells my wife and I that I have Cirrhosis and will need a transplant and runs out of the room. Up to this point I thought I was handling things fairly well, getting back into the Union was the right thing to do, we were doing well. Now I have something that I have no Idea how to handle it and not getting much help from the doctors, they just treat you they don't tell you how to react to it. So we come home and got on web sites and read about this decease and scared the heck out of ourselves. Fortunately we had come to belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the mean time, and this has made me depend on him all the more, he has blessed us and strengthened us and changed us, so that now with his help and strength we can get through this trial and anything else that comes along, and in this life you can always be sure there will be more. Jesus said In this world you will have tribulation, but fear not for I have overcome the world. My wife has been a great blessing to me throughout our 40 years together, but she is even stronger now in spite of her own painful back and Sciatica problems. It's a great blessing and a joy to see our daughters faith grow even more strong than before and to watch her grow in her faith in the Lord. I haven't had major complications yet to speak of, just one episode of being very sick for four days and coughing up a small amount of blood, that was early on just a few months after diagnosis and just before I found this site. Just enough time so that we had read enough stuff so that when this happened I was sure I was dying. Nowhere near it fortunately. Though I haven't really had any bad complications I do have Portal Hypertension, and a slightly high INR, 1.2, and that one does scar me a bit since I do get minor bleeding once in a while. We are learning to cope with this decease, I guess I won't be strong and healthy until I'm 80 and then die in my sleep. I'm not afraid of the dying anymore, but I must admit that I am a bit afraid of the pain, but the Lord will strengthen me for that when it is needed, and when the time for a transplant comes if he wants me to stay here then there will be an Liver for me, or if he wants me to come home to him then I'll go, It's all in his hands. |
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"Because I have Cirrhosis" |
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 | Thank You Paul, giving up drinking was the easy part:) |
 | Thanks Paul, it is always good to hear the good things! |
| Anemia group: Have you checked out the forums lately? There are some absolutely incredible personal stories on there. Please go read and show your support for our brave group members!! Baby clams and OJ!! <3 |
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