Posted by Jaeda (204.116.181.77) on May 18, 2001 at 16:23:47:
Some months back my best friend finally signed onto this board. He was posting under his familiar nickname of Bo. His email address was vapar@mindspring.com. I'm not sure if anyone here had any further contact with him than just welcoming him on board or not, but since he was a member.. well... I guess I should just get to the point.
Bo died last night. He was a CH and Migraine sufferer and the last diagnosis was toxic encephelopathy - directly spawned from the chemical and biological warfare agents he was exposed to while on boarding parties (searching other ships/boats) during his service in the USN during the Gulf War. He was one of thousands with "Gulf War Syndrome" that the government seeks to deny - in fact, when I last spoke with him he reminded me how he was decorated for his service on board a ship that the government now says wasn't there. We see how that works, don't we?
His wife is an RN. She found him dead in his bed, having aspirated on his own vomit (the part of me that is still trying to smile says, "He just had to be a musician to the end, didn't he?") ... it was only a matter of time though as they had him on morphine for the head pain and fentalyl or something like that in patch form, etc. He'd suffered seizures and had lost most of his ability to speak - he professed he felt like he sounded like a retard and couldn't walk without a cane. The only positive I can see in all of this is that he is no longer suffering.
For those of you here, whether you knew him or not, I want to share with you the words he shared with me.. words that may help some of us get through the pain... "Let's just take it a minute at a time. Just one minute at a time." ...
I know that he was an advocate of this message board and his heart went out to all of you and he was very thankful to have found this board where there were more than just a meager handful of people who could empathize and understand what he was going through.
I know that he would wish for all of you to continue to, "Be strong," as that was his constant reminder to me.
If you wish further information or if you knew him, feel free to contact me.
Jaeda@cat-basket.org