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(She's a Molecular Biologist.) To Wit:

Quite likely I have Pernicious Anemia.

I quite _desperately_ hope I really do.

While it was once a fearsome and cruel way to die - one of my Great-Grandfathers died of it - while it cannot be cured the first effective treatment was the "Liver Therapy", eating vast quantities of raw liver :-0, for which Liver Therapy's three developers shared the 1934 Medicine Nobel.

I expect because I'd rather die in a fearsome cruel way that even just a tiny bit of liver - even cooked - the beneficial part of the liver was ultimately determined to be Vitamin B12. This lead to a great many lives being spared by regular B12 injections for the rest of one's life.

That I regard P.A. as likely is the result of my having experienced increasingly frequent and increasingly severe Neurological symptoms starting in May 2010 with Brain Seizures and Dissociative Fugues - more commonly known as "Fugue States" - then later Broca's - or Expressive - Aphasia in both my writing and my speech.

A week ago Saturday I was _completely_ convinced I was dying when quite suddenly and completely out of nowhere, an incredibly loud ringing in my ears - Tinnitus - was followed with dizziness so severe that even small head movements brought on intense nausea, followed shortly after by numbness in both my lips, then the soles of both my feet.

I rode in style with Lights And Sirens but found myself strangely unable to enjoy the experience.

I went to the ER _every_ time, sometimes on the bus, sometimes in an ambulance. Four CT Scans, an MRI and a whole bunch of physical stroke exams were _always_ perfectly normal, resulting in every medical or mental health professional I've ever discussed this with being completely stymied.

After that Lights And Sirens ride, I _finally_ got referred to A Neurologist With A Clue. She asked me a whole bunch of questions, I pointed out a few things that she hadn't asked about, then she gave me a more-thorough physical stroke exam.

That I'd experienced numbness in my feet led her to order a blood test for Methylmalonic Acid. If B12 is low in the blood, Methylmalonic Acid will be high. She also ordered an Electroencephalogram but they're so booked up I won't get my EEG until April.

Just this morning I met online someone with Pernicious Anemia, who mentioned that _some_ but not all P.A. patients are able to take 3,000 mcg of Methylcobalamin daily, rather than get the injections.

I'm busted flat just now - no clients for several _months_ - so I asked my brother-in-law to order some Methylcobalamin tablets for me. There are lots of different brands of these, as Vegans _must_ take B12 supplements or they'll get the very same Neurological problems as I've got.

(Vitamin pills and fortified foods always have _Cyanocobalamin_ labeled as B12. This because Methylcobalamin is hard to synthesize; two percent of the Cyano form is converted to the Methyl by the liver.)

Tuesday a week ago I was completely convinced I was _already_ far too disabled to work as a coder. Riding home on the bus I was completely overcome with grief and struggling desperately to avoid screaming in agony.

The following morning I initiated my application for Social Security Disability Insurance. I've _never_ regarded my Bipolar-Type Schizoaffective Disorder as a disability. To willingly apply for SSDI is quite a cruel blow to me.

If you have _any_ blood relative who had Pernicious Anemia, I suggested you get your own Methylmalonic Acid test. There are some other types of Vitamin B12 Anemia; in my specific case, I'm pretty sure that it was my taking antacids for nausea that triggered each of my Neurological attacks.

This because the reaction between a stomach enzyme called Intrinsic Factor and something else that ultimately results in absorption of B12 requires an acid stomach.

In addition, older folks like you and I are far more likely to get P.A. because of the degradation of our stomach linings as we age.

On the morning of Halloween, I underwent a Radical Nephrectomy of my right kidney due to a 5.6 cm Renal Cell Carcinoma. Happily, the pathologist's report on his biopsy of my now-external kidney said it had "Negative Margins Of Excision", which means that there were no cancerous cells in the normal tissue surrounding my tumor.

That I was one month later in the ER three times in just one week, all with unexplainable Neurological symptoms is I am quite certain the result of my having eaten Calcium Carbonate Antacid Tablets just like they were M&M candy every day since my surgery.

Forty days later I'm _still_ getting nauseous every single day. Just now I grew concerned about this when I learned that one's risk for Stomach Cancer is _significantly_ increased by having Pernicious Anemia. If this persists for more than the next few days, I'll schedule a visit to my Primary Care Physician so that either she can examine my stomach herself, or she could refer me to a gastroenterologist.

Some EMT suggested my brain disorders could be due to a Psychosomatic Illness. I at first agreed but upon further reflection realized that's _not_ how Psychosomatic illnesses work: they have real bacteria, real viruses and real carcinomas, but the ultimate cause is the human mind. The link between our minds and these very real diseases is as yet quite poorly understood.

Once I do have my Neurologist's final diagnosis, I'm going to dig up the names of every EMT who ever transported me, every medical professional who's ever treated me as well as every Radiologist who's ever reported on my brain scans to explain what My Sparky Brain ultimately turned out to have.

Vitamin B12 Anemias are actually quite common. That leads me to regard all those ER docs and nurses to have been profoundly clueless.

It was that my dizziness came back today that led me to ask Stanley to order that Methycobalamin. I'm confident enough that I really do have PA that I really don't want to wait for my Neurologist to order any treatment, whatever that treatment might ultimately turn out of be.

Hopefully,

Mike