In Part One I explained how as a teenager I began to develop a pragmatic approach to personal health.  I embraced trial and error, exploring, researching, and refining personal well-being and what works for me.  Often this meant quietly pushing aside peer or societal pressures and medical norms.  Over the decades, I continued seeking out pragmatic health tools that best fit me. Until the past year, I still looked first for help from the U.S. “sick” care system, which repeatedly failed to help me during Covid and Long-Covid.  Read More

Reconnecting these days, friends will inevitably ask, “so, how’s your health?”  In short, my transformation has been amazing given my serious health struggle – shared in earlier blog posts.  My recovery meant embracing what some might call “crazy” holistic practices.  With the perspective of time and feeling good, I now think of this journey as a radical new commitment to deep “positive health.” Coming out of the weeds of the ongoing efforts to recover, a new friend and fellow author Jane Doyle recently re-framed my health journey.  Read More

Though frequently referred to as “little Chicago” by folks from Illinois, the “Cream City” (so called for the hue of the local brick) has a distinct culture and identity. A case in point, Milwaukee water fountains are called “bubblers”.   And the local NPR radio series answering listener questions in Chicago called “Curious City” (on WBEZ) in Milwaukee entitled “Bubbler Talk” on WUWM.  The origins of this odd term and public radio series offers an interesting dive into Milwauke history. Read More

That’s right, “Milwaukee or Bust”.  So, while not literally driving a beat-up Model-T cross-country for the promise land, echoing back to 1930s Dust Bowl days, the metaphor helps dramatize my move and internal travails to find a new home.  Temporarily living in “God’s Country” (as my cousin’s refer to Wisconsin) shifted my mindset, which has evolved over the past couple months as a post-pandemic, 50s-something. My June blogpost “Exit Chicago” detailed uprooting myself from Chicago to try out Wisconsin while still buzzing back to the city one-day a week for appointments with Back to Natural Health and catch friends.    Read More

It’s been too long, since Thanksgiving that I sent an email update.  Much has happened. Most dramatic on November 30th Jim Sugrue and Doc. Lynda probably saved my life by getting me to Illinois Masonic Hospital.  I was unable to think clearly or form words and later learned low-sodium spurred by a second bout of Covid (Delta or Omicron, who knows?) and my mistakenly pushing too much water.  This gave me a front row seat to learn the old adage is true: Ignorance really IS bliss, for I didn’t suffer and have only fleeting, dazed and confused memories of the initial 36-48 hours.  Read More

The narrative current over the past 11-months has been overwhelmingly in support of vaccines.  The same time I was pursuing a regimen of repurposed, off-label prescription drugs, a modified diet, and boosting vitamins to fight off long-Covid.  In retrospect, from my experience, thousands in online support groups, and front-line doctors it is clear these medicines indeed work.  Today, I am no longer suffering from crushing fatigue, shortness of breath, malaise, and am beginning to really live again.  Although still not 100% these treatments have made a huge difference. Read More

I contracted Covid in March of 2020.  I was never hospitalized but I experienced four weeks of fatigue, difficulty breathing, tightness in my chest, malaise, exhaustion, brain fog, and a complete loss of productivity. I am a 57-year-old writer and athlete.  Feeling better, I got back on my road bike and four weeks later had logged 520-miles.  Then BAMM!  With no warning—on May 15, 2020—Covid returned and laid me out.  Month after month I struggled to manage life’s basics, occasionally able to accomplish some half-days of work.  Read More

Just before midnight three Monday ‘s ago I awoke — not with the realization of society’s systemic racism, but a realization as basic and personal.  I was struggling to breathe alone in bed (so no cops were involved).   This had happened once before 18-months ago.  After a few minutes of deep breathing assessing my body and calming my mind I contemplated what to do.  The tightness in my chest and constricted feeling at the back of my throat made breathing a conscious effort.  Read More

My frustration now has a new focus.  The crying shame of the U.S. medical establishment is resistant to recognizing Ivermectin as a remedy to mild, severe, and long-Covid-19 symptoms — particularly as huge segments of the population wait for vaccines and continue to get sick and many die. There is a lot of good information to share with doctors about Ivermectin.  Certainly, IVM may not work for everyone, but with little or no side effects and the potential upside against Covid-19 why not try it? Read More

Fast approaching a year of dealing with Covid I am finally starting to feel better thanks to a friend of a friend and a Nobel prize winning substance, known in medical shorthand as IVM.  My journey is not over, but IVM has offered a major path to recovery which has been thwarted from the start.  This is my story… Mid-morning on March 23, 2020, I was knocked down with fatigue, slept for 2-1/2 hours and awoke to a growing malaise and brain fog.  Read More