To whom it may concern:                vaylem@cableone.net

My dad is dying, panting and gasping for every breath, all slumped over
most of the time in his chair.  He's got emphasyma, COPD and whatever
other labels he's been given, but they don't mach up with his
symptoms and he cannot be the only one to have this problem!  Those
lung D/O's start from the top & work their way down, don't they?
He had pneumonia as a small child with no hospitals to tend him.  As a
grown, most stubborn man in his late 50's or early 60's he got it
again.  It's been postulated he lost the lower half of his left lung
with the childhood bout and quite possibly the bottom of the right lung
walking because of it - pneumonia - all one winter with no doctors
or hospitals utilized.  Unless someone's got a clue what's really
wrong, he's done w/ Western medicine except for the constant O2
he'd expire immediately without and the albuterol of which he uses
more than he should.  He has his own oximeter to track blood saturation
and feels better with lower numbers, strangely, down to a point.  I'm
an alcoholic, 20 years recovering come cinco deMayo of this year, but
I've got him drinking a cup full of 14%'ish fortified table wine
- cheap stuff - TID & it raises the numbers temporarily and,
possibly, gives him a bit of respite, but it can't help much or for
long.

He did the sheep new cell (stem cell) treatment in Mexico with some
sort of doctor of a homeopathic bent.  First time, he came up like a
miracle!  He was walking miles at a time, eating and sleeping better
than before he got hit with whatever this is.  A month later it waned.
He got a "booster treatment" (one primary ingredient was hydrogen
peroxide) and he came up like another miracle again, but it waned
again, too.  Even after a full 2nd treatment with eight'ish new cell
shots around the lung area harvested from a baby sheep again, each time
he waned, he waned a bit further.  Now he's just riding it for as
long as he lasts, I guess.

This is a near genius man in electronics, written up x2 in national
publications (e.g. popular science) and one whom I've never been able
to give a chore he couldn't tackle & do it well!  He's literally
good, expert, even, in most every occupation I can think of short of,
maybe, a  brain surgeon.  He's from that best generation that
appreciates everything, wastes nothing and has the moral standards our
United States used to be made of!  He never wasted a minute when he
could be working on something and be productive.  Wireless, remote, but
fully live and "in-person" classrooms around our valley with
microwave dishes pointed at the local jr. college (the College of
Southern Idaho) was his last big project.  Kids in another town could
attend school in their home town taught by the professor at the college
in Twin Falls, here, each seeing the other (& hearing) on big screen
tv's.  They're begging him to just consult, but he's not even up
to that!

What can this be?  It's not any of the common disorders.  He wasn't
one to contribute to ill-health activities.  He should be able to
breathe or at least be helped, but everyone who doesn't know what
he's got wants to call it something they know about so they can add
another patient to the list, it seems.  Some honorable and some
less-than-honorable men & women in the field of medicine have tried to
diagnose and treat him, but they don't know what it is and he simply
cannot be the only one on earth with this particular set of symptoms I
see to be atypical for the run-of-the-mill aforementioned diagnoses.
Please think it through, ask more questions if needed and respond,  If
he had a prospect that made sense with what is known, he'd travel,
but he's done with those who can't even admit when they don't
know.  It is the absolute truth that the more we learn, the more we
know there is to learn - yes?  Some don't see it - even very
intelligent people!  What do you say?