My friend Carnacki, who I can testify is even nicer in person than he is here at Daily Kos, called a little while ago to ask me if I might post the "Got a Happy Story" diary for this evening. I hemmed, hawed, and promised him nothing, but the best little boy in the world in me couldn't let such a great guy like Carnacki down. So without further ado, my happy story follows below the fold. Carnacki and I worked hard on the West Virginia campaign for John Kerry, and we became friends during those intense and heady days.
Carnacki in the gloomy January of 2005 started Happy Story diaries to help us pass the time of the immense darkness that settled after the election of 2004. I had the privilege of posting the very first comment in that first Happy Story diary. My happy story tonight is that same comment (with slight edits for style.)
In 1999, I started to be sick on a regular basis, and the periods of my infirmity grew longer and longer. Because I was suffering from a chronic sinusitis brought about my a weakened condition, my doctor kept misdiagnosing what after two years was diagnosed as a very rare form of lymphoma. In 2001, I spent one out of every seven days in the hospital. At one time I was 12 days in intensive care, six of those days intubated to help me with my breathing. I almost died on several occasions. I had horrible edema, and at one point, I weighed more than 300 pounds. (I used to joke with my nurses that I was like the swamp creature without the vines. It always got me a laugh, and I never pass up a chance to get a cheap chuckle.)
For a great period of time during my illness, I could not even walk. Eventually, I used a cane and a walker for month after month. A long and dramatic and very experimental treatment saved my life. Today, I go to the gym four or five times a week and work out vigorously.
Everything I have is borrowed from God. Of course, that is true of all of us: I am privileged in a way a lot of people are not to know it.