Archive for January, 2008

Having moved around quite a bit since high school, there have been many friends that I lost touch with.  From time to time, I do a google search and try to find a website or some other way to re-contact them and see how their lives are progressing.  I had a good friend at UWF that moved to Orlando and then eventually moved back to Wisconsin. 

When I met him at UWF, he complained of Gulf War Syndrome, and started to suffer from memory loss to the point he could not achieve academically (in Chemistry).  Over the course of a few years, we hung out and went diving.  Having been a former member of Special Forces, he was very directed.  If we planned to do something, he would plan and execute like no one I have ever seen.  There was no detail left to chance.

He had unexplained weight loss and hair loss, and some memory loss.  It was identified that he had some upper respiratory problems.  Then when he said he was in the Gulf War, they would say “Oh, it’s nothing.”  I saw him go from being a straight-A student to a C student in no time at all.  He wasn’t prepared for that, so he unenrolled, and moved to Orlando.

While in Orlando, he had stopped school and started working as a stonemason.  He told me of a landlord he had that was “out to get him.”  She was stalking him, etc.

The last time I visited him, he had a bunch of exhibits that his landlord was leaving rocks at his door as a “warning.”

Eventually, he sought treatment and committed himself.  Last time I talked to him, he was moving back to his hometown in Wisconsin.

Well, I searched for him yesterday evening and found this,  this, and this.

I hate to see my friend in this sad state.  I wonder if it could have been averted if he would have gotten the proper treatment for his Gulf War Syndrome, a condition that many still think does not exist.  For example, this site, which calls itself BioFact, and is the first site that Google returned when searching for “Gulf War Syndrome Symptoms,” then introduces conjecture when they say “Is it a real disease?” and then answers it “probably not.” stating that it is probably a sham.  Last I checked “probably” usually indicates an opinion.  And this is the same type of dismissal that “probably” drove him insane.

If things stay the way they are (i.e. OSU playing some SEC team for the national championship), in a few years OSU might have a whole quarter of highlight film for their pep rallies.

Maybe, just maybe…

It looked a lot like last year…jump to an early score, then nothing for the rest of the game.  I know without a Big 10 championship game, they have a longer idle period, but I know some septo- and octogenarians that have more than 15 minutes of fight in them.