I have never been the nicest person. As I've said many times before, I'm one of those people you have to get to know. Before that point, I'm generally stand-offish and skeptical of other people's intentions.
Funny that I've had a job for more than 16 years which requires me to deal with the public on a daily basis. Here lately, I find random messages from folks bother me more than they used to.
It's like I had a tank filled with some type of "able to handle random people running their mouths" fuel, and now I am slap out.
Sure, I still roll my eyes at certain emails and comments, particularly those that don't necessarily understand how this job works. I never comment or write about them.
However, I'm breaking that streak today, although the impetus for this happened a month ago now. In that time, I've rolled back and forth through my brain exactly what to say. I'm no nearer to an answer, but the more I think about it, the angrier I get. That's just not good for the spirit.
To preface, most folks who read my columns know I have several medical maladies. The first is an auto-immune disorder that causes my sweat glands to run amok and attack one another and me. I have had surgery to remove the underarm and side glands and still have some complications from that, including cramps, numbness and sometimes inadvertently dropping things.
The second is kidney failure, for which I'm on peritoneal dialysis.
I wrote a special story for our Prevention Section in September about how great my doctor at Carolina Diabetes and Kidney Center has been. I wrote about the science behind the treatments I'm going through for kidney failure.
I believe I posted the piece on manninglive.com on a Friday. It had already run in the paper, and I honestly thought of it as no more than web filler.
I got this long diatribe of an email on Saturday. It essentially called me a shill for the pharmaceutical industry, a sheep and someone who was brainwashed against "all-natural" and "organic" cures. I hadn't eaten enough leafy, green vegetables and shouldn't eat hash browns every morning.
This person told me my salvation lay in the writings and work of David "Avocado" Wolfe, a "writer" who promotes raw foodism, anti-vaccination and various methods of "detoxification," along with other practices that most scientists call pseudoscience.
In this person's expert opinion, I hadn't tried enough "alternative medicine" - i.e., snake oil - to rid myself of my medical maladies.
I was pretty hot to begin with. Hell flew through me. I hit "reply" several times, but kept closing the window. I soon noticed that the message came from an obviously made-up email.
And I really didn't know where to begin.
I eat a lot of leafy, green vegetables. The only vegetable I hate is string beans. They feel and taste like paper. I'll get to the hash browns in a minute.
I don't even know where to start with the Wolfe reference. Why in the name of Reba McEntire would I listen to medical advice from someone with a nickname based on something that goes in guacamole?
No, ma'am.
These folks who go on these "detoxification" diets amuse me. As long as you have functioning organs, your body detoxes for you. It's how you get rid of things like alcohol (although you do have a hangover). No juice or vegetable cleanse can make you "less toxic" or "alkaline" or whatever it is Snake Oil Salesman is trying to make you believe.
He writes that vaccines are unsafe and don't work. He's also discussed beliefs that the earth is flat, gravity is a hoax and mushroom spores came from other planets and can levitate off the earth and are trying to get back to the sun.
So, yes, this is a man from whom I should clearly be looking for answers.
I am going to call up Dr. Cain tomorrow and tell him that his services are no longer needed.
The hash browns comment made my raise an eyebrow, though. There was another comment within the email that I won't discuss due to the legal ramifications.
There are probably only a handful of people who know these two things. Throughout my reading of the email, I noticed phrasing that seemed familiar.
Everyone has a voice when writing. Folks tend to use similar sentence structures, vocabulary and syntax from piece to piece.
I got to thinking that this was possibly someone I knew, an idea which made me even angrier than I already was.
It also made me curious: I didn't think I really knew anyone who was into "anecdotal science." Anecdotal science is not really science, obviously. It hasn't been tested. It hasn't been observed alongside controls and double-blinds and the other aspects of legitimate scientific testing.
No, anecdotal science is when a person believes something is real because it worked for them. That aromatherapy helped with your headache? That special water helped with your stomach pain? That juice cleanse helped you feel 10 years younger?
Well, then they must truly work. And it may have actually worked. It may have been good for you.
But that still isn't "scientific proof."
I took HUMIRA for two years for hidradenitis. I injected that ice-pick-of-a-needle into my abdomen or leg every other week, and I personally believe that it helped me tremendously.
But I wasn't in a scientific study with a control group and others like me who were given placebos and the real drug.
My evidence that it worked for me is anecdotal, not scientific.
But studies exist showing HUMIRA's efficacy in several auto-immune disorders, including hidradenitis.
The email still flabbergasts me. I'm not a shill for the pharmaceutical industry. I get nothing for free. I have to pay medical and prescription bills just like anyone else. The only break I've ever really gotten is when HUMIRA gave me a voucher that made it only $40 a month instead of $1,400.
I still don't know what to think about this possibly being someone I know. I guess I will never figure out who it is.
Imagine fixing your mouth - or in this case, your hands - to tell another human being, one with serious medical conditions, that you know better than the dozens of medical professionals that person has seen.
Imagine having the gall to randomly email someone who has been pretty open about everything he's tried to deal with his health issues and telling him he hasn't tried enough.
Imagine that you're likely "friends" with this person in real life.
I probably won't ever know who exactly sent the email.
But if I do ever find out, know this: You went low; I will go gutter.
