Author: LegoDoug

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John Is Leaving

John turned 18 last Thursday. He celebrated this by launching a covert attempt to move out of the house. (Why it was covert is beyond me. He has every legal right to live where he wants; whether he was ready to do so, or whether this was in his best interests, is an entirely different question.) We did allow him to stay with his sister in Brockton for the past week, partly because we believed a break would do us all good.

Yesterday we phoned John at his sister’s house. We’ve talked to Felicia a number of times this week, but this is the first time we called to speak to John. We wanted to find out what sort of John would be returning today. We were hoping to see reflection and perhaps even repentance. Instead John told us he would be returning today to get the rest of his things. (This was one of the possibilities we were prepared for.)

When we asked where he was going, he wouldn’t tell us. He said he’d tell us eventually.

We told the kids. David cried for a long time. He is so loyal and so loving.

From last fall to late winter, John was all that we’d hoped he would become. His grades were quite good; he was clearly working hard in school, and had a part-time job in an accounting office. His attitude was excellent. He was helpful at home, and even managed to get along well with Isaac and David. For the first time in years, he behaved like one of the family, and it really felt that he was finally “home.” It was absolutely wonderful! I was so proud of him, and relished being able to brag about his achievements. We don’t know what precipitated the change, but all that disappeared, to our sorrow, by the early spring. Of late, especially the past few weeks, he has intentionally (as he admitted to our assistant pastor) been attempting to foment strife at home in the hope he could use that as an excuse to leave, not generating the level of discord he sought, but making life less-than-pleasant for all of us.

It appears John plans to live in Brockton, paying some rent, with someone he knows; perhaps a [biological] family member. He said “might have a job,” and that he intends to attend a vocational school in the fall.

I truly hope he succeeds.

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Mind-Body Connection: Rheumatologist at Brigham …

Or, how much pain can you work through on a daily basis?

How much would your body allow you to do with pain on the scale that’s typically 7 to 10? I’m frustrated, because I’d prefer to be active, being able to minister and do for my family like I once did…. and no one seems to “get” that.

—Nichelle

Yesterday we pulled off the usual logistics nightmare that involved a trip into Boston. Trish Dunn took the kids, except for John, who after a very disheartening and inexplicable episode, is spending a week in Brockton with his biological sister and her husband.

Dr. Anderson, a highly-recommended rheumatologist based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston (where Isaac was born), seemed to be highly skilled, and asked excellent interview questions. He is, unless we’ve missed some, the tenth doctor Nichelle has seen in the past two years.

Primarily, we forcused on the constant, very severe pain she is experiencing. He was able to rule out bone disease, tumors, diseases involving musculare weakness, nervous system disorders, and joint diseases such as osteoarthritis and synovitis. This left him with our old enemy diagnosis: Fibromyalgia. He explained that Nichelle had already tried most of the medications (and all of the types of medications) that normally help alleviate Fibromyalgia symptoms.

He suggested and later reiterated that he believed exercise would provide the most benefit. We twice explained very clearly that the recurrence of the debilitating symptoms occurred during a period of consistent and signficant daily exercise, and that the inability to do things like walk more than a few steps without intense pain makes exercise very difficult. He spoke of the “mind-body connection,” and how things like Yoga (although he does not “believe” in it per se) or meditation and other things that have to do with the mind-body connection can, in conjunction with exercise, be of benefit, indicating that one can change “how your body talks to you.”

He asked if she’d tried any of the various restrictive or eliminating diets, but we don’t know if he was thinking about the consideration of food allergies or sensitivities, or just throwing out possibilities. We discussed other alternative therapies: chiropracty (provided only very temporary relief), therapeutic massage (provided only very temporary relief), and accupuncture, which we are willing to try (there’s an opiate receptor model for how accupuncture actually works, which may make it ideal for treating pain), but we haven’t been able to find a practitioner covered by our insurance.

One of the more interesting things he asked Nichelle was, “If you were on the Western frontier 150 or more years ago, how would you handle this?” Later I thought of a really good answer: “She’d become a judge, and hang a whole lot of doctors.”

Overall, it was a long, discouraging day, especially due to the added concern about John.

This morning Nichelle seemed determined to fight through and determine just how much she could accomplish before completely succumbing to the pain. She even drove herself to the lab (5 minutes away) to get the latest bit of blood work done.

Nichelle made appointments today with the Pain Management Clinic at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, and with who we hope will be a good primary care physician. Both are not until the end of July or first week of August.

Dr. Hall (who ties with Dr. Rescigno for “Best Doctors We’ve Ever Had”) called back with her latest test results: Nichelle’s vitamin D level was good, and her PTH (parathyroid hormone) level was good, which means that the hyperparathyroidism was indeed caused by the vitamin D deficiency. The importance of vitamin D was largely overlooked until fairly recently, we learned from Dr. Hall, and vitamin D deficiency has turned out to be very common, especially in the Northeast.

We’ll have some other test results, such as for hemoglobin disorders and blood cortisol levels, next week.

Later today Nichelle goes in to Mass. General for two bone density tests. The illustrious Debi Costine is providing transportation (we’re bribing her with Middle Eastern food), and Cindy Lavoix and company are coming over to our house to watch the kids (or play with our game systems; I’m not sure which), which means I get to go to work.

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Dr. Hall / MGH Visit 2

We had an excellent visit with the thorough Dr. Hall, although we are all still getting used to each others’ humor. To order the blood tests, Dr. Hall needed a diagnosis code, and was wondering what to put, so I suggested Munchausen.

Dr. Hall doesn’t believe Nichelle’s problems are primarily endocrinological, although there are endocrine issues, such as the previously diagnosed vitamin D deficiency and [probably] secondary hyperparathyroidism that she will continue to investigate. All of the thyroid tests came back fine. The adrenyls were good, and to our surprise, the various blood cell counts appeared to be normal as well.

She is going to do more hemoglobin-related tests, to look into various possible hemoglobin abnormalities that haven’t been tested yet. A blood-cortisol level test is also being done, apparently primarily because of Nichelle’s hair loss, although cortisol will affect edema as well. Last on the list of things to be tested now is bone density, both from the spine and hip. That will happen on Tuesday.

Another unlikely but possible problem is called cyclic edema. It’s difficult to treat, and it’s too early to diagnose, but it’s at least a consideration.

The next step is rheumatology. Dr. Hall referred Nichelle to a a senior endocrinologist, whom she described as “terriffic” and “very helpful,” at Brigham and Women’s. In an unexpected blessing, we got an appointment for Monday afternoon.

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Running Multiple Versions of Firefox Simultaneously

(Based on information from this entry at the Dojo Foundation BLOG. This information is for Windows machines, specifically for concurrently running Firefox 1.0.7 and 1.5.0.x, but the same information applies to other versions of Ff as well. David Schontzler’s aforementioned post covers ‘Nix machines.)

As a Web developer on some fairly complex projects, it’s important to be able to run the current Firefox browser, as well as the previous release.

These instructions are based on having first installed Firefox 1.0.7.

Locate your current Firefox profile. Normally it will be in a folder under your Application Data folder, typically such as the following:

C:Documents and Settings{user_id}Application DataMozillaFirefox

Copy the entire Firefox directory someplace convenient, so you have a backup, for when you miss a step and something goes horribly wrong. (I know—this would never happen to me, either, but I was grateful I had a backup the two times I munged this setup and had to fix my initial Ff 1.0.7 installation.) You want to be able to fix your Firefox extensions in the event your running of Firefox 1.5 tries to upgrade them, which is a one-way process.

Then download and install Firefox 1.5.0.x, to a location other than the default location. (I recommend using a directory named C:Program FilesMozilla Firefox 1.5, as C:Program FilesMozilla Firefox is the default.) Do not launch Firefox 1.5 yet. (Be sure not to tell the install wizard to launch Firefox at the end.) If you do, you’ll need to quit the browser, and replace the now-upgraded profile folder with the one you backed up.

To allow you to clearly identify separate processes in the Task Manager process list, and to avoid accidentally running the Firefox 1.5 installation without the batch file that will preserve the Firefox 1.0.7 profile information, I recommend renaming the C:Program FilesMozilla Firefox 1.5firefox.exe to firefox15.exe. However, if you choose to perform this step, you’ll need to rename firefox.exe to firefox15.exe each time you perform an upgrade (such as from 1.5.0.3 to 1.5.0.4) of Firefox 1.5. (See “Future Upgrades,” below.)

Next, you’ll need to create a batch file to launch Firefox 1.5 and load a Firefox 1.5-specific profile:

set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1

start "Firefox" "C:Program FilesMozilla Firefox
1.5firefox15.exe" -P "Firefox 1.5"

set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=0

The above batch file presumes that Firefox 1.5 is installed in the directory specified, that the executable is named firefox15.exe, and that a user profile named Firefox 1.5 will normally be used. If you’ve used values for any of these items that are different than the recommendations above, alter the portions marked in red accordingly.

The first time you launch Firefox 1.5, the Profile Manager will appear. Create a profile that matches the name used in your batch file.

If you want to change the icon shown (on the taskbar and the Firefox title bar), create a new icon and place it in C:Program FilesMozilla Firefox 1.5chromeiconsdefault with the name main-window.ico. You can find one that has a “1.5” overlaid atop the regular Firefox icon here. You can also find utilities to change the text in the title bar itself, such as the Titlebar Tweaks Firefox extension—which, ironically, has not yet been officially updated for Ff 1.5.0.x (as of June 7, 2006). You can install an updated, but unofficial, version from here.

I have also found that using significantly different themes (skins) for my different Firefox versions helps keep them straight at a glance.

And, of course, if you prefer to make Firefox 1.5 your default Ff version, do so, and modify the batch file to point to 1.0.7 instead.

Future Upgrades

The best thing to do when one is about to upgrade Firefox 1.5.x, is rename the firefox15.exe back to firefox.exe, run the ugprade, and then rename it back. If you don’t, you’ll find that your firefox15.exe is still around, but that the upgrader has added its own firefox.exe, requiring a delete-and-rename, as well as producing some interesting quirks, like Firefox not realizing it’s been upgraded because the .exe you’re running is the old one, while everything else is new.

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Fluctuations and Patterns

Occasionally, Nichelle will have a day when she feels well. These are relatively rare. I did some backtracking on the BLOG, to try to evaluate my impressions of the pattern for the past month or so. Here’s what I found:

Great days:

  • Saturday, April 29
  • Wednesday, May 31

Partially good days (there may be a few others of these, but not many):

  • Friday, April 28
  • Thursday, May 11
  • Friday, May 12
  • Wednesday, May 24

Bad-to-really-bad days:

  • All the others, especially from May 13 until the present.

On the “great days,” Nichelle can walk, run, drive, cook, and live pain free. Such days tend to appear suddenly, and the good period lasts for no more than 36 hours, and generally just 8 to 12 hours. I think people get the impression (especially because they don’t see her except when she’s in this better state) that Nichelle’s overall health is improving. Sadly, the opposite is clearly the case.

Of late, Nichelle is spending most of her time in bed. (Previously, the couch was her base of operations.) She’s extremely uncomfortable and in significant pain just about all the time, with bouts of severe pain several times a day. The fluid shifts (swelling) in her face and elsewhere can be very pronounced. The Vicodin (just like what Dr. House takes) prescribed by the emergency department doctor—the only pain medication that has actually helped relieve the pain—is gone. Nichelle made 10 pills last 6 weeks, but doctors don’t like to prescribe Vicodin because it is highly addictive. Generally, Nichelle doesn’t like to take strong painkillers like that because they guarantee inactivity, whereas living through the pain offers a slight hope that it will diminish enough at some point for her to perform small tasks.

For the past 24 hours, Nichelle has been in and out of deep and sudden sleep periods. We see this pattern quite regularly. Also, for the past few weeks, she’s been getting a sudden and urgent feeling that she needs to get something to eat. If she doesn’t, she becomes suddenly “drained,” and experiences what she describes as being “beyond weak feeling.”

Although there have been a few more “great” days than we typically saw in the past few months, the overall picture is of slowly worsening symptoms.

So far we have no word on the test results from our Mass. General visit on May 12, which means they were either all normal or are being carefully evaluated. Our next appointment with Dr. Hall at Mass. General is on June 16.

Our church family has been helpful, and they are shifting into a higher gear this week, coordinating more cleaning help and more meal preparation.

The biggest task-related problem I’m having is keeping the house clean. I have a big work-from-home typesetting project I’m working on evenings/weekends, and that’s leaving even less time for mopping and decluttering. (Plus, Nichelle’s worse-than-previously health has given her fewer opportunities for short cleaning spells, or even supervising the kids in the same.)

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NaNi: Increasing in Wisdom (and Humor)

Naomi is now two and a half years old, in the stage many parents refer to as “The Terrible Twos,” although they haven’t been that bad for us, there is a big difference in Naomi’s willingness to obey. A few months ago, noticing her increasingly complex methods of disobedience, I remarked, “Your brain is getting bigger: You’re learning to sin in more elaborate ways.” She promptly reached up and felt around on her head. I had no idea she knew where her brain was. I wonder when she absorbed that. (We did teach her where her spleen is, because we have a friend who likes to tease the little ones by asking the location of the spleen, after the more traditional nose, ears, etc.)

Among the many things that amaze me is Naomi’s ability to completely ignore the commands we give her. She does so without giving the slightest inidication that she actually heard us say anything. She does this without regard to the urgency or volume of the command given. It’s amazing. I remember the other kids having “selective hearing,” but had forgotten how extreme it can be.

Not long after age two, NaNi announced when I got home, “My spankings all done, Daddy.” I was amazed. “You’re all done getting spankings?” “Yes.” “You mean, you’ve decided to choose to be obedient?” She replied in her sweetest, most singsong voice, as if to tell me how silly I was, “Oh, noooo.”

Another time, David was being verbally corrected for something he’d been told to do but neglected. NaNi grabbed a wooden spoon out of the drawer, held it in one hand while tapping her other hand with it, and announced with glee, “Spankin’ time!”

“By myself” and “I did it myself” have become her new mantras. She wants to do everything she can herself. She can crack and cook eggs (with supervision), helps out with the laundry, and pushes to do everything from pour a full container of juice (not a good idea) to dress herself (which she does very well, with about the same propensity of getting things inside-out as David exhibits).

She also likes to quote movies and other things we watch. Before her second birthday, she’d run around saying, “Demon llama! Aaaaaaaaaaah!” from The Emperor’s New Groove. Now she will come up with, “I’m a dirty skunk?!” (from Buggs Bunny), or “You little rascal!” and she can even do the entire “Niagara Falls” dialog from The Three Stooges. (Of course, she won’t do this on command, so I haven’t gotten it on tape yet. :: sigh ::)

She loves to sing. I am always moved when she sings, “I Stand in Awe of You,” a worship song. She’ll often be heard singing Sunday school songs or the songs in Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, which seems to be a particular favorite of late. NaNi dances, too. She loves to mimic the dances in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the “Me Old Bamboo” song from Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang. She also makes up her own dances, including a beautiful one she does to the credit music of Finding Nemo. Her favorite thing to do is pirouette, and we have to keep a dress or two on hand that she can put on because she loves the way the skirt flares out when she does that.

One time when NaNi was preventing me from working at the computer, I asked her to go bother Isaac instead. She was very, very skilled at this. She started with sticking out her tongue at him a few times, with appropriate sound effects. When that didn’t produce the desired result, she walked over to him and started slapping him all over. Then she tried to push him out of his chair. This skill must be instinctive in little sisters.

Whenever we’re in the car, NaNi urges me to, “Do Burnout, Dad. Crash the cars!” (Referring to the style of driving in one of our favorite games for the Xbox.) Then she’ll add, “Pleeeeeeeease. Pretty pleeeeeeeeeeeease.” I can imagine the result, “But, officer, she asked so nicely …”

Before Isaac’s birthday, I was asking Isaac about who he was going to invite. I teased him about Amy, a girl who follows him around constantly. I asked Isaac if he was going to invite her, and NaNi interjected, “Amy not come, Amy’s a slacker!”

Naomi has also learned to use the computer mouse effectively, at exactly the same age Isaac and David did.

She nearly completely potty-trained herself mostly before her second birthday. (she still wets a bit, so she gets Pull-Ups; we’re not pushing the issue, especially as she can change her own Pull-Up.) And for some reason, she prefers to flush the toilet with her foot.

Someone taught her to ask, “Are we there yet?” That person will be found and punished appropriately. (For the record, NaNi claims to have taught herself that particular clause.) Generally, though, she merely asks, “Where are we going?” repeatedly while we are out.

She’s been riding a bike with training wheels for many months now, and has taken it on short trips (about a block). Saturday she wanted to ride it to the park, so I accompanied her. She actually rode the entire 1.11 miles all by herself, only stopping to throw some rocks in a puddle. Then she spent the next hour and a half playing in the park, and climbing like a monkey on a spider-web-resembling 7-foot-high climbing thing. Her upper body and arm strength has improved rapidly in the past few months, and it really shows in the things she is able to do while climbing. She can also now climb into the treehouse on our swingset, and is trying very hard to master the monkey bars.

I love all her jokes. Tonight she had a blue tongue (from drinking a blue-colored soft drink), and Nichelle commented, “You have a blue tongue, what have you been drinking?” NaNi’s laughing response: “Bath water.”

One of the things that most impressed and intrigued me of late was when she and Nichelle were talking about her third birthday (not until October). Naomi said that she wanted to invite Cody. Cody is Isaac’s friend, but NaNi is in love with him. Nichelle said that Cody was a little too old to invite to her birthday party, so NaNi suggested, “I’ll take off my head, and put Isaac’s head on. Then Cody can come.” She also tried to pull off her head, and later that night asked Nichelle, “Mommy, [will] you cut my head off?” What simple brilliance!

I shouldn’t be surprised at all this, though; after all, she is Naomi Wilcox.

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NaNi Empowered

Last night on the way to church we were on Route 102, and Isaac and I were talking about the time we rode our bikes to about the same place, but had to turn back because I had a leaky tire.

Naomi piped up, “I come? I ride my bike, too?”

I explained that she was still too small to ride that far (she’s only 2.5 years old), but she disagreed:

“Yes, I can! I’m Naomi Wilcox!“

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36 Hours / 12 Days and Counting

12 Days and Counting

Endocrinologist 3, with Mass General, has given Nichelle an appointment for May 12 at 1:00 p.m. Nichelle is thrilled. Please pray that this doctor will be determined to find out precisely what is wrong with Nichelle and treat her, or immediately send her to someone who will.

36 Hours

Nichelle experienced about 36 hours of “normal” life this weekend. She was without pain, and had no trouble walking or doing regular activities from Friday afternoon through late Saturday evening. We even got to go to our church visitation program Saturday morning.

She went to church on Sunday morning, but experienced a rapid degradation again. By the end of the service, she needed help getting down the stairs, and needed someone else to drive her home. (I was at home with David, who was sick.)

Nichelle wrote in an e-mail earlier today,

Of course, I was grateful for feeling “normal,” and for being pain-free for the first time in a very long time. I give Praise to God, my Lord and Savior, for His great love and care, and for each of you for your continued love and support and many prayers.

I find Nichelle’s worsening illness is wearing me down (after 13 years with these symptoms appearing periodically, the last 7 of which have been difficult, and the last 2 of which have been extremely disruptive both in symptom severity and percentage of time per year they have been present). I noticed this weekend while she was well that I was dampening out any feeling that might be described as “experiencing hopefulness,” as such feelings have been rewarded repeatedly with crushing disappointment. I still have hope that God will lead us to a treatment eventually, but it seems to have become my own quest to destroy the One Ring—even as we may be getting closer to Mordor.

Addendum: May 2, 2006

My goodness, I was in a funk yesterday! My reading in Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones) coincided perfectly with my mood, and was exactly of what I needed to be reminded. Now I know why it’s taken me so long to get to that particular chapter: God was orchestrating the timing.

All things may seem to be against me ‘to drive me to despair,’ I do not understand what is happening; but I know this, I know that God has so loved me that He sent His only begotten Son into this world for me, I know that while I was an enemy, God sent His only Son to die on the Cross on Calvary’s Hill for me. he has done that for me while I was an enemy, a rebellious alien. I know that the Son of God ‘loved me and gave Himself for me.’ I know that at the cost of His life’s blood I have salvation and that I am a child of God and an heir to everlasting bliss. … Faith reminds itself of what the Scripture calls ‘the exceeding great and precious promises.’

…

I do not suggest that you will be able to understand everything that is happening. You may not have a full explanation of it; but you will know for certain that God is not unconcerned. That is impossible. The One who has done the greatest thing of all for you, must be concerned about you in everything, and though the clouds are thick and you cannot see His face, you know He is there. … Now hold on to that. … Nothing can happen to you but what He allows, I do not care what it may be, some great disappointment, perhaps, or it may be an illness, it may be a tragedy of some sort, I do not know what it is, but you can be certain of this, that God permits that thing to happen to you because it is ultimately for your good.

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Analyzing the Symptoms

A Brief Update

There are no more good days. Occasionally, Nichelle will have a few hours when she is able to be somewhat active, but it appears that even days like our 1/2-day MFA trip are now impossible. The pain is more severe, and Nichelle’s general debilitation is both more severe and the episodes last longer. Walking any real distance is nearly impossible, although she did complete a less-than-30-minute trip to Wal*Mart last week, this is exceptional. There are unexplained symptoms, like the tiny purpura spreading through her skin, as well as inexplicably normal test results, such as for free T4 (one of the thyroid hormones) and cortisol.

It’s very frustrating. Our most dedicated doctor admits that this is outside his specialty (neurology), and other doctors seem unwilling to exert the effort to find the cause of these problems. If we were to diagnose based merely upon symptoms, my conclusion would be hypothyroidism on top of fibromyalgia. However, the hormone tests run so far for hypothyroidism have been negative. (But hormone problems are often difficult to diagnose, and may defy test-based diagnosis for years.)

Symptoms such as she is now suffering go back all the way to 1992, although they have been increasing in severity enough to be very troublesome for about the last 7 years, the last two years have been much worse. More detail and history are available by clicking on the fibromyalgia category for our BLOG.

Nichelle has copies now of most of her medical records. We are leaving no stone unturned. The common theme expressed by doctors is, “I dunno.”

On the bright side, the illness did make shopping for Nichelle’s birthday presents easy: DVDs from Amazon.

By the way, if you haven’t read this post about Nichelle, you should!

Symptom Frequency Possible Diagnoses
Severe edema (fluid shift) with weight fluctuations of 5 lbs. in the course of a day. The swelling varies in intensity, especially around the face, but is always bad. Continuing. Cushing’s Syndrome, Hypothyroidism.
Significant weight gain (over 65 pounds) in the past year, despite healthy diet and a significant daily exercise regimen (until last fall, when exercising became impossible). Constant. Weight tends to suddenly shoot up every few weeks. Cushing’s Syndrome, Hypothyroidism, medication interactions (from the tricyclics used to prevent migraines and sleep problems).
Burning sensations, primarily in the hips and back. Many hours each day. Fibromyalgia, hypocalcemia, secondary hyperparathyroidism.
Pain. Moderate to severe pain nearly always. Episodes of severe, stabbing pain on a daily basis. More than one episode per month of pain as severe or more severe than unmedicated childbirth. Daily. Fibromyalgia, migraines, hypocalcemia, myofascial pain syndrome.
Difficulty walking or standing. Constant. Currently able to maintain only a decreasingly short amount of activity at a time. Unknown.
Rapid deterioration of “normal” health over the space of 1/2-hour (normal as defined by the current baseline: still not very good, but able to function with only minor or moderate difficulty). Daily, when basal health is temporarily good enough to demonstrate a decline. Hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia.
Extreme discomfort in having anything touching the skin on her arms. (Skin sensitivity.). Weekly. Unknown.
Pins-and-needles sensations all over, especially the head. Daily. Fibromyalgia, secondary hyperparathyroidism.
Periodic cognitive difficulties. (This is the only symptom that has been less severe than a year ago, we believe because of partly successful treatment of sleep-disturbing migraines.). Several times a week. Hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia, hypocalcemia.
Sudden or prolonged exhaustion. Nearly daily. Hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia.
Painful, unusually strong sensitivity to having anything cold come in contact with skin. Constant. Fibromyalgia.
Feeling very hot or very cold not in conjunction with actual temperature. (Feeling extremely cold often immediately precedes episodes of severe pain.) Night sweats. Daily. Hypothyroidism.
Occasional inability to grip small items, such as table utensils. A few times per month. Unknown.
Inability to raise arms or hold an item such as a cell phone against her ear or face. Constant. Cushing’s syndrome.
Difficulty putting weight on wrists to support. Constant. Possible bone problems, hypocalcemia, secondary hyperparathyroidism.
Hair breakage/brittle hair. Hair loss on arms, legs, and hands. Continuing. Hypothyroidism.
Small spots that look like dark freckles that are appearing all over the skin and slowly multiplying. The ones that are a couple of weeks old are now increasing in size. (I had previously labeled these as purpura, but Dr. Hall told us that purpura describes such spots only when they are caused by platelet problems.) Continuing to increase in number. Unknown.
Severe pain in the bones of her wrists, feet, collarbone, and ribs. Constant. Secondary hyperparathyroidism, possible bone problems, hypocalcemia.
Stretch marks and skin discoloration over an ever-increasing number of areas. Continuing to worsen. Cushing’s Syndrome, may be secondary to the significant edema and weight gain.
Dizziness. Several times a day. Fibromyalgia.
Nausea. Several hours each day. Hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia.
Low body temperature (1 degree or more below normal) most of the time. Constant. One or twice a week temperature approaches (but does not reach) normal. Hypothyroidism.
Low calcium level (hypocalcemia). Current. Vitamin D deficiency, parathyroid problems.
High PTH (Human parathyroid hormone) level. Current. Parathyroid problems, could be secondary to vitamin D deficiency.

The official diagnoses, which have not helped with a treatment or identified the causes (most are merely descriptions of symptoms), for the most part, the following:

  • Fibromyalgia
  • Myofascial pain syndrome
  • Secondary hyperparathyroidism
  • Vitamin D deficiency
  • Hypocalcemia (probably caused by vitamin D deficiency or parathyroid problems)
  • Neurosomatic syndrome
  • Periodic limb movement disorder (believed being successfully prevented with medication)

What We’ve [Mostly] Ruled Out:

Fibromyalgia is, itself, generally diagnosed by ruling out everything for which a definitive clinical test exists. Here are the few other things that have been ruled out:

  • Lupus (this has been repeatedly tested for about the past 10 years; it has always been negative)
  • Heart problems/heart disease
  • Diabetes
  • Sickle cell anemia
  • West Nile virus
  • Lyme disease

In addition, Cushing’s Syndrome seems less likely than hypothyroidism, due to the fact that some classic symptoms of Cushing’s are absent.

This analysis is hardly complete; there are certainly other possible explanations of these symptoms. If you have other suggestions, please let us know. Personally, I think it’s just Munchausen Syndrome. (Or maybe it’s Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, just like in The Sixth Sense.)

At any rate, keep praying.

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Remote Debugging Attachment to a WebLogic Server

Don’t believe everything you’ll find online. If you work in a moderately complex environment (meaning, you’re running a managed server instance via an admin server instance on WebLogic), you’re sure to be led astray by the dozens of articles offering guidance into this elusive technique. You don’t have to emulate Ray Milland, if you follow this advice:

If you Google “Remote debugging WebLogic” you’ll find a host of discussions about modifying the startWebLogic.cmd or startWLS.cmd files. Ignore them all (assuming you’re using WebLogic 8.1 or later)! (Also remember, never verb a noun.)

Let me review the scenario that I am actually addressing here:

  • You will be remote-attaching to a running WebLogic instance, rather than launching the instance from within your IDE. (I use Eclipse, because I’m cheap—and because version 3.1.1 really works great, unlike its predecessors—but these instructions apply to just about anything.)
  • You run your WebLogic application as an instance under a WebLogic managed server, and start/stop it using the Remote Start options in the WebLogic console.
  • You’ve tried desperately to get your debugger to attach, or your breakpoints to be hit, to no avail.
  • You have deadlines looming, and if you don’t get this one problem solved, you can never see your family again.

Okay, perhaps I went a bit overboard on the scenario, but if you’re reading this, I expect, like me, BEA’s WebLogic isn’t a platform you use every day, but one that you need to work on occasionally.

The key is that most of the documentation presumes you won’t be running your application from the WebLogic Server Console, and gives no indication that the JVM arguments, in such a case, go in a completely different place. Here’s how to prove to the world that you weren’t going insane:

  1. Log on to the WebLogic console, via http://{servername}:9999/console. YMMV as far as the port number (after {servername}) is concerned.
  2. Using the navigation tree, click on the domain on which your application resides, open the Servers branch beneath it, and click on your application’s name.
  3. With the Configuration tab in the top row selected, click on the Remote Start tab in the second row. (Be sure you don’t have Control selected in the top row, otherwise you’ll think I am just as batty as the authors of the previous 743 help documents you’ve read.)
  4. Scroll down to the Arguments: field, and add your debug settings to the JVM arguments in that field. In my case, I added -Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=8787,server=y,suspend=n, which (among other things that are too cool for me to share) allows the debugger to attach to port 8787 (address=8787), and the server to start without waiting for a debugger to attach (suspend=n).

  5. Click on Apply.
  6. Then click on Control in the first row of tabs, and be sure Start/Stop is selected in the second row of tabs.
  7. Finally, you’ll need to either gracefully or forcefully shut down the server by using the links provided, and then restart the server. (You’re actually only restarting your application; the ambiguous language surrounding server is another problem.)
  8. Attach Eclipse to the server by Configuring a new Remote Java Application under Debug … Feed it parameters of the server name and 8787 (or whatever port you provided in the JVM arguments).

  9. Debug your problem.
  10. For goodness’ sake, go home and see your family!

Drop me an e-mail using the link in the sidebar, or leave a comment, if I’ve goofed anywhere. I never claimed to be perfect. Sheesh.