Doctors along the Coast are slower to identify Valley Fever

from the Internet

The disease that doctors at first thought was lung cancer was likely carried on a speck of dust.

A few years ago, Kevin Pierce, a laconic retired sheriff who has lived his whole life in the Central Valley of California, went to see his family physician about some chest pains. An X-ray showed several nodules in his lungs, suggestive of a spreading cancer – not entirely surprising since Pierce is a smoker. He was referred to UCSF Fresno for treatment.

But when the doctors there investigated further, they realized the nodules in his lungs were not from cancer but from a fungal infection.

Pierce had Valley Fever, an illness caused by the fungus Coccidioides immitis, which grows in the hot, dry soil of the Central Valley and across the American Southwest.

“It’s hard to be a doctor in Fresno and not have to deal with Valley Fever,” said Michael Peterson, MD, a pulmonologist and associate dean at UCSF Fresno. In fact, Peterson said in his clinic’s experience, up to one-third of patients who are sent for biopsy to confirm lung cancer turn out instead to have Valley Fever.

189--a weight never seen on my scales since the 1980s.

In these last 2 weeks I have not till today thought of trying to read about recovering from Valley Fever. It's not fast, and no wonder I am so weak. Doctors on the coast don't recognize it for a long time, often, so we were very lucky the cancer man here is a thorough man. After showing us the dozens of cancer spots all lit up on the PET scan he sent me to the blood draw with 15 or so requests. 8 vials at a trip had been my previous maximum. One of them was for Valley Fever. If the doctor does not try to rule everything out that he can . . . . The eye remains a problem.

Selecting from the more than 6000 GLIMPSES

Slightly more--the first digit just changed.
Finally, under the gun, knowing my time was more limited than I imagined, I started organizing ORNERY PEOPLE on a grand scale. Now, assuming that I may after all outlive my mother, who died at 92, I am going to drive ahead until the first volume is done. I have been working hard between doctors' visits, sometimes with a mask over my right eye. I am happy with what is emerging. We are more than a little gaga at the whip-lashings.
(Mother wanted me to outlive her. She was that way.)
The Stanford ocular oncologist called today and gave us his cell phone. If the anti-fungal drug does not cure the eye (something all the ocular folks think is impossible) he will take over. A local man will take fresh photos to see if anything has really changed since April 15. But my body has no cancer. The suspicious fellow in the lung was Valley Fever, absolutely.
The local hero, the oncologist, wants a copy of ORNERY PEOPLE. What a man.

The lung biopsy for cancer went to the lab at once yesterday

It came back perfectly clearly not for cancer but for Valley Fever. That is why the doctor today said he had nothing but good news for us. We are still reeling, trying to tell people.

How do you tell the news? "I have nothing but good news for you."

That is what the local oncologist said to us today.
The very great ocular oncologist up north a couple of weeks ago said very firmly that my eye lesion and darkness meant it had metastasized from within the body. Sort of deep and wide within the body, is what we heard. We drove home dealing with a rapid death and one of us did scheduling of all sorts of tests including PET and CAT scans. We behaved well. I would never have thought I could behave as well as I behaved. I went to work on ORNERY PEOPLE and have made great progress despite many medical appointments. I have not slept a night in many months, for one reason and then this big reason. Same for the other heroic person. I emphasize: We were stupendous. But I hope I never have to do it again, I tell you.
The eye is still a problem and we may go back up north for some treatment. NO ONE believes anti-fungal pills can reduce the eye lesion. I think there is a slight improvement. Stable, anyhow, not getting worse. The eye is a very real problem, yet. But I don't have cancer.  I made none of the earlier stuff up--they were just so authoritative and powerful and all-knowing. The doctor down here gave me a rigorous set of lab tests, one of which named Valley Fever. We liked this man from the start and our confidence was well placed.
I can't carry this on farther. I have to tell the people at the Berkshire Athenaeum.
Thank you Nate for taping and mailing 8 boxes!

Old Levis Never Die

How really fine libraries can be dispersed--a McGehee cousin

In 1867 Montford McGehee moved to Woodburn and managed the plantation until 1879 when, in the general financial collapse following the Civil War, it was sold, along with McGehee's considerable library, the many volumes of which were tied up with string and disposed of at ten cents a bundle. The family holdings gone, McGehee moved to Raleigh where he was commissioner of agriculture from 1880 to 1887.

THIS IS MARGINALLY BETTER THAN HAVING SOMEONE DUMP THEM AT THE CURB, IF YOU CAN FIND SOMEONE TO CARRY THEM DOWN.

I am so very happy to have a home for my Melville archive. It's not a "really fine" library like Montford's but it is a great working resource.