i am sorry....

[Muskrat]

that i talked nighthawk into coming back. i fear it caused him more pain than anything. think he knows who his real friends are too. the last couple of days have been brutal for him with thyroid, diabetes and all. i just checked his public profile. yeah i read profiles.

amy says he is in severe pain and i see his car in the drive today. i know he is very depressed and also says and i quote, " i miss my old faol". i think it is due to his illness but i wish i didn't talk him into coming back. too much too soon.

[rainbowchaser]

I am saddened to see this. I had hoped that his enthusiasm for the project to bring TSO C.D.s to the troop was a sign of an end to the depression. Eric knows that I don't always agree with him but I have always respected his commitment to service to our country and have enjoyed our banter about sports. Please make sure that he knows that we are thinking of him and looking forward to the day when he is ready to once again be an active member here.

[CharlaineC]

Please let him know that if he would like to chat i'm more then hear for him. I myself suffer from depression baddly and understand. I pray he will come out of it and I pray he realized what good he does. I does mean alot.

[Muskrat]

Please let him know that if he would like to chat i'm more then hear for him. I myself suffer from depression baddly and understand. I pray he will come out of it and I pray he realized what good he does. I does mean alot.

thanks i will tell him. saw him tonight. he was dumping flowers into the compost that were still blooming. he was shaking like a leaf in a storm! he did go for a walk. good to see him doing that again i hope it continues.

[TyroneFly]

Geeze,,, when it rains it pours on that poor guy. Let Eric know he and Amy remain in my prayers.

[crazy4oldcars]

Eric will always have a place at the FAOL table. I'm sorry to hear that his troubles are again on the increase. We miss him, and have only the his best interests in our hearts. Our prayers are that he will once again get his health under control.
Eric, you take care of yourself, we'll be here when, and if, you're ready.

With warmest regards,

Kirk

[WarrenP]

You might let him know that the thyroid problem can be controlled and I feel the "shakes" are caused by the thyroid condition. What he described in his post is very similiar to a problem I had over 20 years ago. What I had was called Graves disease and at that time they did not know what causes it and they had no cure. They only had a control. My thyroid was normal size but all the cells in it over produced the chemicials that it sent to the other organs in your body. This puts your entire system into high gear. The doctor explained that there are times the human body can do super strength things like lifting a heavy weight off loved one long enough to allow someone to remove the person it fell on. This super strength is suppose to be short lived and comes into action in an emergency. With Graves disease, my body was in this "super mode" constantly. My heart rate at rest was 109 beats per minute when it should have been around 80 or less. Your entire system is high speed. This causes food to be passed through your system so fast that your stomach does not have enough time to process it so you can gain the value of it. This causes fast weight loss and a constant hunger. I ate all the time and lost 35 pounds in 30 days! I was only able to sleep about 3 to 4 hours per night and when I awoke, the couch or bed would be soaked from sweat. I had nervous shakes all the time because your body is totally spent and still in high gear. The doctor explained that if this condition is not controlled, my heart would just "blow up". Nighthawk has a nodule growth on his thyroid which has enlarged his thyroid which causes the cells in that enlargement to over produce. How they get that under control will be up to his doctor. They may treat the growth with radiation to reduce it, they could try and remove the nodule or they could remove his thyroid. What they do will be determined by tests on this nodule to see if it is just a nodule or if it may be cancer. Either way, it can be removed. What they did for my condition, since my thyroid was normal size, was radiation treatments. Your thyroid absorbs all iodine that you consume and uses this iodine to produce the chemicals the other body organs need. I was given a capsule containing radioactive iodine to swallow. The thyroid would take in all the iodine and the redioactive iodine would kill some of the thyroid cells. Their thoughts were that the cells killed would no longer be producing and the other cells that were over producing would create a balance in the chemicials. This worked and I gained back most of my weight I had lost and everything seemed normal for about one year and then the thyroid went into high gear again. This time the only sign I had of a problem was hair loss at the crown of my head. I had spots the size of quarters that were bare as a babies' butt. Back to the doctor and he showed me in a medical book that this was a sign of the Graves disease returning. I was then given my second dose of redioactive iodine which pretty much killed my entire thyroid. The hair loss went away and everything is back to "normal". I now take a thyroid pill every morning called synthroid which feeds my body organs the chemicals they need that were being provided by my thyroid. I now have to control how much food I eat each day or I will have a large weight gain, so, I usually only eat one meal a day and snack a little during the day. My weight stays around 175 which at 5' 8" tall is a little much, but, I am able to function each day just like I did before the disease. I do have to have blood work done every 6 months to see if my system needs the thyroid medication strength changed.

Sorry for the long post, but, Nighthawk needs to know that the thyroid problem can be contolled and he can get back to a some what "normal" life style. His will be a little harder to treat since he does have a "sugar" problem, but, still treatable.

Nighthawk, be strong and know that I am thinking of you and look forward to your return to FAOL.

[JeffHamm]

Hi,

Just let him know we all will wait for his return, on his time, and in his way. He has friends here, and always will.

- Jeff