by Lewis
During my senior year in High School I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. At that time, 1963, there were only two treatments available, Prednisone and surgery. Prednisone did not control the bleeding and after several months I had surgery, my colon was removed.
Since I did not have a colon my Ulcerative Colitis was pronounced as “cured.” Unfortunately, I developed secondary symptoms during a period of extreme stress 35 years later. The secondary symptoms were Pyroderma Gangrenosium (PG), literally a large open gangrenous wound on my abdomen, which encircled my ostomy stoma.
The local teaching hospital tried many treatments, Prednisone (80 mg a day for years), silver ion ointments, human growth hormone, Remicade and several chemotherapy drugs but was unwilling to perform surgery. The costs alone were astronomical – $100.00 a day at the pharmacy and $8,000 each month for the Remicade infusions. I met my deductible by January 15th each year.
After several years my Gastroenterologist referred me to the University of Chicago Hospitals where she had done her postdoctoral studies. At University of Chicago Hospitals they had much more experience with PG than my local teaching hospital had had. The Gastroenterologist said that I had been missed diagnosed in 1963 and that I actually had Crohn’s disease and that it had been in remission for over 40 years. He recommended doing surgery there. Surgery was performed in the Fall of 2004 and they did a wonderful job.
But when I returned home I learned that I had developed MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria) during my stay at Chicago. The only option was for my surgeon here in Atlanta to open the incision and let it heal from the inside out. The healing period was over a year long. Imagine if you can, having an open wound 8 inches by 8 inches and an inch deep on your belly. Several years later I developed abscesses near the surgical wound.
Because of the Crohn’s and years of Prednisone I heal very slowly (weeks or months as opposed to a few days for “normal” folk.) Deidre, my wife/nurse/best friend/partner, was talking to an old friend and mentioned my slow healing. Our friend, a nurse in another state, said that her husband,a MD, was using a new technology (Kangen Water®) with his diabetes patients and having wonderful and almost immediate results.
She lent us a Kangen Water System to see how it would work. I never drank water. I had consumed 2 to 4 liters of Diet Coke a day for decades. I stopped the Diet Coke and it was agony. I drank my body weight in ounces of the highest pH water from the alkaline water machine and in three days my latest abscess had healed! Yes I had diarrhea and headaches, but I’d had diarrhea for forty-five years and chronic pain for decades. I am a trained research Physicist. I have a BS and MS from Vanderbilt University in Atomic Physics and I really didn’t understand how “water” could make such a difference. I knew it worked and since I am pragmatic by nature it was now time to find out why it worked. I researched the Internet (cheaper and faster than buying scientific journals) and now I am convinced that there is science behind the claims. My only complaint is that I did not have the 2.5 pH water at the onset of the PG in 1999.
“I am sure that I would have been able to avoid years of pain and saved Blue Cross/Blue Shield literally hundreds of thousands of dollars.”