Slashdot Mirror
Patrick Volkerding Battles Mystery Illness
sethadam1 writes "Calling all Slashdoctors! Pat Volkerding, maintainer of Slackware Linux, needs your help. This morning, he posted his very detailed account (mirror) of his battle with Actinomyces here on the Slackware FTP server. Patrick has given his blood, sweat, and tears to the open source community for years in Slackware, one of the oldest surviving Linux distributions. If you can, please help!"
I'm going to rip off his quote but here's what's at the end of his msg:
"
BTW, my login quote tonight was "Snow and adolescence are the only
problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough." heh.
"
Hey, if he could joke "Last Post" then we can too.
Karma-whoring article text:
Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 10:43
"Last post?"
Hi folks. If you're reading this, I thank you. Perhaps you'll have a role to play in bringing about the miracle that I desperately need. First, I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates lately in Slackware -current and stable... I know there are a few outstanding issues that need to be addressed. However, I've been too sick to work for a couple of weeks and now I am away from my computers and at my parents' house in Fargo, North Dakota where my only online access is through an AOL dialup. I have told only a select few people about what's going on thinking that I did not want the internet at large to know about this, that I'd get it taken care of and get back on track without a major problem. Now, I'm hoping that this will get seen by a lot of people and that if it hits Slashdot that some kind medical geek will help save my life.
I've generally been a pretty healthy guy. Nobody I know would characterize me as a hypochondriac by any stretch, so when I raise an alarm it tends to be for real. I'm going to give a timeline and run through all the symptoms I've had (so if that sort of thing grosses you out, you can stop reading right now). For the rest of you, here goes. This is going to be long, but hopefully somebody who can help will read it...
This all began quite some time ago, perhaps as long ago as May of 2001. I was preparing Slackware 8.0 for release and working really hard. A pain developed in my shoulder, and (too busy to do anything about it right away) I ignored it and continued to keep working. It got to be pretty bad and one afternoon in early June I was rushed to the emergency room at a hospital in Concord, California. I was sweating, feverish, with a weak pulse of around 50, experiencing chills and seeming to be on the verge of passing out. The doctor who saw me did a chest X-ray and didn't think it was too unusual. I was told it was probably bronchitis and was sent home with a presription for ciprofloxacin which mostly cleared up the problem. Still the pain in my shoulder seemed to vaguely remain. By mid October of 2001, I was in bad shape again. My parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told them some more Cipro. They found someone who was able to help me out with a 60 day supply (no small task as this was right after the infamous Anthrax mailings when all the newspapers were running articles about Cipro and people were trying to horde it). I finished the two month course of antibiotics and felt better. Not perfect, but significantly improved. I chalked the events of 2001 up to stress, but in retrospect I am not so sure. I had similar problems in 2002 and 2003 that were also knocked back with some antibiotics, but the pain in my left upper back (and some kind of "presence" there) never did fully clear up. Tests for TB came back negative.
Fast forward to May of this year. I found myself complaining about "my usual pain", as I had started to call it, more and more. I was starting to wonder if I was even going to be able to make my annual camping trip out in western New York state at the beginning of July, but I did go. I figured the sun and a little exercise would do me some good, and I did feel a little less like I was "fixin' to die," but upon my return to California things started to do downhill for me again. This whole time I was coughing up some strange stuff. Some of it was white and reminded me of dental plaque. In spite of being a dentist's son I've never had the best oral hygiene so I'm familiar with plaque. The "plaque" I was getting out of my lungs was some nasty stuff and smelled just like dental floss used after a couple of days without brushing. Yeah, I know I should be better about that, but tend to stay up late and if my wife is already asleep don't always turn the light on and wake her up so I can brush before bed. To help me avoid more tooth decay my dad bought me
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
"At least he has a sense of humor." I agree, exspeically when he knows when it might be his time.
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
Please take him to a doctor/hospital immediately. Forcibly, if necessary.
Feel Better Pat! We love your Distro. Looking forward to version 10!
Patrick,
Many of us Slackware users want to help, is there a way we can send you money to help with this?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.