tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59811619296915841262024-03-08T14:54:02.205-06:00Tommy's StoryThis is the story of what happened to my husband/best friend. Please take a moment to read. It may save your life or the life of someone you love.
Please send emails to <u>TommysStory@gmail.com</u> if you have had or know someone that has had any of the symptoms listed & may have any types of metal implants, Titanium & Titanium Alloys, Nickel, Stainless Steel, Cobalt-chromium Alloys, Molybdenum, Tantalum, just to name a few. Even implants for teeth. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03721869907197178072noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5981161929691584126.post-430752620509371242013-03-01T16:21:00.000-06:002016-09-15T07:13:11.466-05:00The Story of Thomas James (Tommy's Story) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><strong>NOTE: </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Everyone is different. Each person’s body will react differently to certain things. It can be a heart transplant, liver transplant, lung transplant, cancer, diabetes, medications, blood transfusions, and yes, even metals. You can have one person on a certain medication and give his/her brother or sister the same medication. One may react just fine and the other may find they have a bad reaction to it. <span style="color: red;">The same goes for implants and other foreign objects. One person’s body may react just fine, while another may have an allergic reaction. </span> There are no two people built the same. My point is, if you haven’t had any reaction to implants used in your body that is great news, but please keep the list of symptoms I have provided on this site for future reference. People don’t always have an instant reaction to these things. My daughter has titanium in her ankle; she fell the week before Tommy. Once a month she has major headaches and dizzy spells. <u>Also, you may want to have your doctor start doing random blood testing every 3-6 months to make sure that the shavings from the metals haven’t gotten into your blood stream or to just do a blood count and make sure your numbers are normal. If they are and you are still having symptoms, I would also check to see if you are having an allergic reaction to your metals. Those reactions can occur at any time; right away or years down the road. Example: Metals in your mouth may be fine or they may start causing headaches a few years later. Please, just be safe. Don't over look anything when it comes to your health. More needs to be done when they put these foreign objects into our bodies.</u> They do testing every few months when you have cancer, heart transplants, and diseases of all kinds. Why not for something this major? The family should be made aware and told what symptoms to watch for. No more shoving it under the rug. Let these people know the real stories of what can possibly happen, so they will know what to watch for. </span><span style="color: #fb0007; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.</span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">This is the story of my Tommy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to get this out there to all of you so that it may answer some of the questions you may have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been trying to write this for the past few weeks now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t want to leave anything important out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Released on the 4<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> of January 2013 – Tommy’s Birthday)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Tommy loved life more than most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He came into my life on June 5<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>, soo5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was the most wonderful man that I had ever known (aside from my dad).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being with me, he also took on my three teenage daughters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You ask, “Who in their right mind would do that?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tommy would.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though they tried to scare him off, he didn’t budge, which made them love him all the more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those of you that didn’t know (and many do), I am just a tad bit older than Tommy was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I found this out, I broke it off with him instantly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, he wasn’t having that either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He pulled that, “Age is just a number card” and I quickly fell for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Needless to say, that breaking if off only lasted about two hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank God!!!</span></span><span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Okay, here goes…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">In 2009 Tommy had an accident at work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had fallen from a ladder and shattered his femur bone, also the bone leading from the femur into his hip and six breaks in his wrist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the rescue squad got out to the location to pick him up to transport him to the hospital he was still leaning against the ladder he had fallen from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The female paramedic kicked the ladder out from him not realizing that he had actually propped himself up on that ladder to wait for them to get there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She apologized and they loaded him on to the gurney to take him to the hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once he arrived we did a lot of talking about what had taken place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he couldn’t remember if he had hit his head, but he had blood around his mouth and on his lips.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also had a small bump on the front of his head and had broken his glasses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he didn’t think it knocked him out but that he wasn’t 100% sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctors would need to do surgery on two separate occasions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One to fix his femur right away and the next would be a few days later to fix his wrist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His hospital stay lasted nine days and the doctors told him it could be up to 18 months before he would be back to a somewhat normal life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, Tommy being a strong soul wasn’t going to let those words determine his future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">One day while I was sitting up there at the hospital he was complaining about the pain he was having around his lower abdomen, genital area and down through the top part of his legs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told me he wanted me to look at something, so I walked over to him and lifted up the sheets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that point I realized his skin was turning a black color.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was so bruised from having the catheter in and that was causing him all that pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I called his nurse in to show her and I asked her if it was supposed to look like that and she assured me it was not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had to call the doctor to make sure it was alright to remove the catheter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She came back within about 10 to 15 minutes and took it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said she didn’t realize his skin had turned black like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure anyone had even checked on him and the catheter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They then gave him a urinal to use because he still couldn’t get up from the bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took almost four weeks for the bruising to go away.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">On the day I went to the hospital to take him home I noticed he was a greenish color.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told the nurse there was no way in the world I would take him home looking like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He could barely move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She ordered some blood work and found that he was not only very anemic but had been even when he was first admitted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said that she was shocked that it was overlooked and that he had even made it through two separate surgeries without them giving him a blood transfusion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">At that point they ordered him some blood and kept him long enough to administer it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His color got back to normal (actually better than I had ever seen his color).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told his brother Larry that even though he was going to be in a wheelchair for a while, he had more energy than he has had in a very long time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he felt as if he could go outside and leap over cars.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">When they released Tommy from the hospital we took him downstairs and got him in the car, we drove about five blocks away before noticing that he still had the IV stuff hanging from his arm under his sleeve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was like, “Oh shit”…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I called up to the hospital at the same time I was turning the car around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The nurse came down to the car and took the IV out right there in the car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She apologized and told me that she had been on night for the past 10 years and that Tommy was her first releasable patient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We both told her not to worry about it and went on our way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I had to administer shots into Tommy’s stomach for a couple of weeks so that he wouldn’t get any blood clots from the surgeries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctors sent home pain pills for Tommy to take for the pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He only took them a few times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still have them all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t believe in prescriptive medications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he would only take it if the pain got bad enough that he couldn’t tolerate it on his own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to go back for several follow up appointments after he was released.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember on one visit his color had gotten greenish again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the follow up appointment where they were going to remove his stitches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told the nurses that he felt like he was going to faint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They told him even the biggest and toughest guys get weak when it comes to taking out little stitches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He just looked over at me like these gals were nuts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had to sit him back in a chair and keep him there for about a half hour and give him water and crackers so that he wouldn’t faint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not once even at that follow up visit did they mention they might want to test his blood levels for any metal poisoning or any of the things he had been flagged for from the beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had his charts right at their fingertips and not one word was mentioned that his blood levels had been flagged when he was first admitted the day of his fall.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Tommy couldn’t move from the couch for the first month except with help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He couldn’t get into the bathroom because our door wasn’t wide enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was determined to show those doctors that he was going to get back on his feet sooner than they thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that point the most important thing to him was not letting his bosses down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were so many people who told him to milk the Workmen’s Comp and stay down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That wasn’t how Tommy rolled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He always said, “There is someone out there that has it was worse.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He felt as if being away from work was not fair to the guys he worked with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had never met anyone like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was so honorable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In all honesty, he would have made more money being on Workmen’s Comp than he did working, but to him that was stealing and Tommy was not a thief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He believed if you had the ability to work, then you should be working.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, I watched him work his ass off every single day, learning to walk all over again and strengthening his hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would use that walker to go up and down the hallway over and over the entire day while I’d be at work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He showed me what it meant to be able, when disabled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was so proud of him. </span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Tommy was released to go back to working half days exactly four months from the date of his accident, December 7, 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was so excited to get back to a somewhat normal life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of those that had been around him knew that this was a big accomplishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again, he proved he was the strongest man I had ever met.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I watched him struggle every single day for four months straight and never heard him complain about it, ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew what he had to do to get where he needed to be and that is exactly what he did.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">About two years after his fall (September 2011) he started to experience some very excruciating pain in his hip area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was bad enough to drop him to his knees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This went on for a while before he asked me to make him an appointment with the doctor that had performed the surgery on his leg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got that appointment and spoke with the doctor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did some x-rays and told us all the metals and bolts were in place and all was just fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He suggested that Tommy go through another six weeks of physical therapy again to see if that would help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, no one mentioned any allergic reactions to metals or bothered to offer to test his blood levels for any metal poisoning or any of the things he had been flagged for from the beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He just simply told him that he didn’t have enough fatty tissue around the area and that might be causing the pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two years later and this is what he comes up with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember telling Tommy on the way out of that visit that none of that made sense to me at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br /><br />Tommy went through the therapy and it helped a little.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On his follow up visit they talked a little about removal of the metals down the road if it got bad enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we left from that appointment Tommy said, “Well, I guess this is just the pain I will have to learn to live with.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Around the same time, Tommy started complaining about forgetting things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Simple things”, he called them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to Walmart and purchased some over the counter Ginkgo Biloba.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had tried this a few years before (he took if for about a week back then but didn’t seem to think there was any results) but thought he would give it a try again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was told it was good for memory loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We thought because it was all natural it wasn’t harmful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time he took it for a few weeks and decided the same thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tommy’s was a believer in taking pills of any kind, prescriptive or over the counter, unless they were vitamins or all natural, because he said he always felt like too many doctors pushed too many pills on people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Every single night when we sat on the couch after work Tommy would do his leg stretches and use his hand weight to flex his wrist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He never missed a night unless we had to go somewhere that kept us out too late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mind you, we didn’t drink, so it wasn’t too often that we weren’t home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tommy worked really hard on trying to keep himself healthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He even encouraged me on doing the same thing all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Throughout the winter of 2011 to 2012 the weather was pretty nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went for a lot of walks just to get the exercise for his leg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We rode our Harley’s on the weekends and sometimes he would even ride to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Around late May, early June 2012, he started complaining about dizzy spells.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wasn’t able to sleep at night; therefore, he was always tired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We thought that maybe if we got a new bed that would help, even though the bed we had was barely two years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He thought maybe it was too soft and we needed something a bit firmer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we went out and bought a new bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t fix the problem even a little.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within a few weeks, I’d say around late June, Tommy started telling me he was forgetting things again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Easy things like why he walked into a room or what he had just read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told him it was all about age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said he was catching up to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean that’s what we are told from the time we are children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the weeks went on it started to get worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would sit up in bed and just be sitting there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would wake up and ask him what was wrong and he would just say he didn’t know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few times he had gotten up to let the dos out and he would have to sit right back down because he would get so dizzy that he would almost pass out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking back now I remember his color changing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had a gray tint to his skin color.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His hair line started receding back really far also.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he felt like he was aging quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We just let it go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">On July 15<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> we went swimming at his mom’s house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the kids were there and it was Ashley’s birthday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stood on the edge of the slide and did a flip into the water for all the kids (show-off).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all thought this was pretty cool and kept yelling for him to do it again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got upset and reminded them of the accident Uncle Tommy had had a few years before and told them how we didn’t want him to get hurt again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all agreed and he got down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within about 20 minutes he said, “I really shouldn’t have done that, I feel kind of sick.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone that knows Tommy also knows that he had motion sickness ever since he was a child (which leads me to believe maybe it was always more than motion sickness).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So at that time, we chalked it up to that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was sick for two days straight from that flip.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">For the next few months there were more symptoms added to the list, but we thought it was all those small things that people overlooked and go through with age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were a few times that he had gotten really bad chest pains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He started taking aspirin daily, and then only a few days here and there when the pain would come on again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dizziness never did stop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In August 2012 he told me his hands had been going numb once in a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is something he knew I could relate to from a car accident I had been in a few years before I net him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mine was the right hand and he said his started to become both and not just the one he injured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a long talk and decided we were going to sell the bikes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was really worried that if we were riding and his hands went numb he would wipe us both out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said those bikes weren’t worth our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he added we couldn’t put a baby seat on the back of them (we had just found out we were going to be grandparents). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he was going to be called G-Pa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He even posted it on our Brittney’s post on her Facebook page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was thrilled about this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he could teach this child baseball because he was damn good at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said we could invest in an older car that wouldn’t take too much to fix up and then when we would get to the red lights, we wouldn’t have to scream so loud to hear each other like we did on the bikes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Looking back now, so many things were missed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to go to Virginia the last week of September for work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He called me and told me he had finally gotten called up for a new position with the Union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be with Baxter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he felt bad for the way he had to leave CEI without a two weeks’ notice after being there for 10 years, but he knew he was doing what was best for our family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will not get into all the different things that had been happening at CEI; it is not my place to do so on this blogspot or the website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One day while I was still in Virginia after an all-day meeting I tried to call Tommy; he didn’t answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried about 10 times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was extremely worried because this wasn’t like him at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We always talked every half hour or on a daily basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s just how we were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got so worried that I called the girls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally I tried one more time and he answered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told me that he was sorry he didn’t answer and that he wasn’t feeling the best and must have fallen asleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tommy was the lightest sleeper I had ever known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So this wasn’t normal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So for me to have to call him over and over I was concerned and started asking him simple questions, like isn’t he hear the phone ringing and was he feeling better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He just said, “I’m so sorry babe, I feel so out of it”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was only 4 in the afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told him to go back to sleep and call me when he woke up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still hadn’t heard from him and it was almost 7 P.M. so I called him back again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he had just been sitting on the couch doing nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found it so odd that he hadn’t called me back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He always called back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not once in all the years we had been together had he done something like this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked him if he was alright and he said yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t until after his passing that Ashley told me that the night I had been trying to call him, she had come home from work at 7:30 that night and was going to go out but she saw him curled up in the corner of the couch and she had never seen him like that so she decided to stay home with him and they just sat around and watch television.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said looking back it had really scared her and she didn’t understand what was wrong with him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I came home on Thursday night, September 27, 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My flight had been delayed in Chicago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I called him and told him so he wouldn’t have to be sitting at the airport waiting for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told me that he had nothing better to do and just wanted me home, so waiting wasn’t a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was always like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we even sent text messages as I was landing and pulling up to the gate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His text message said, “I see you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, not you but your plane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m so glad you’re home.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I walked up to him he seemed a bit out of it but I figured he was just tired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again I asked if he was alright.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said yes and that he was just a bit tired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went home and stayed up chatting for a few hours even though it was already late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had taken the next day off to hang out with him since he was going to work a night shift for the new company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hung out the whole entire day doing a whole lot of nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We loved those days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He went to work Friday night and again on Saturday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">On Sunday I was walking into the living room and he asked me to sit down for a minute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I started to sit he said, “Babe, I want to tell you something but I don’t want you to freak out.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a wife and this being my very best friend, as soon as those words came from his lips, I freaked out, not even knowing what he was about to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This wasn’t something that he had ever said to me before, so I knew it wasn’t going to be good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was on September 30, 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Same day as my father passed away on 1998.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a day I personally cared for to begin with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Tommy sat me down and explained to me that while I had been out of town for work he had suffered from a delusion of some sort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that point I didn’t know what that really meant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only thing I knew what it meant you saw things on the walls and stuff like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was 100% wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At any rate I was freaked out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told me it had happened the day I was trying to call him over and over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he didn’t hear the phone and he wasn’t sure what had happened in that few hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he had no memory of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was like he was seeing things and then he was out of it and couldn’t move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He then asked me if I would call our doctor on Monday and make him an appointment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He specifically said, “I am NOT DEPRESSED babe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t sleep and I keep getting dizzy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is something really wrong with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t want pills, I want answers.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was worried because our last family doctor believed in pills cures all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone must be depressed and let’s give everyone a prescription.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I reminded him that was the reason we changed doctors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said to make sure they do a test on his head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was genuinely scared and I had never seen him that way, so it scared the heck out of me too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you are married to a man that refuses to go to the doctor for things and then he asks you to please make him an appointment, you know something must be wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I called our insurance company on Monday to find out that our insurance had expired the day before on the 30<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>, 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would have to wait for the Cobra to kick in since he hadn’t been with the Union long enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We could still get in but we would have to pay and then get reimbursed once we signed up for the Cobra Act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We figured if it got worse we would just go to the ER.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The papers came on Tuesday or Wednesday so we were good to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, before the papers came I had called Brittney and told her what was going on with Tommy and she said she would meet me at the house right after work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was on Monday, October the 1<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup>, 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brittney and Derrick showed up at the house around 5:15 P.M.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all sat down and started going over all the symptoms that he had been having for months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We literally were trying to remember and list each one that he or I could remember.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Below is a list of most of them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br />1) Fatigue<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">2) Dizziness<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">3) Fainting Spells<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">4) Shortness of Breath<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">5) Chest Pains <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">6) Heart Palpitations<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">7) Little or No Appetite<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">8) Numbness in Hands or Feet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">9) Delusions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">10) Hallucinations<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">11) Loss of Weight<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">12) Pail Skin Color<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">13) Aging Rapidly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">14) Difficulty in Concentrating<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">15) Memory Loss<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">16) Laps in Time or Even Days<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">17) Weakness<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">18) Itching and Rashes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">19) Irritability</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">We had decided that since we weren’t sure what was all going on we were going to have him stop drinking soda (he drank a lot of soda) and start drinking even more water and Gatorade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we were all sitting there he made a few calls to the guys he used to work with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One was to his old boss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he came back in from talking to Gary (one of his old bosses), he just sort of stood there like he was in some sort of daze or trance, lost in space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I called out to him like 4 or 5 times and then he looked like he was looking right through me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This freaked me and the kids out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told him to come over and sit down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids had never seen him like this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been seeing it a lot over the past few weeks only never put it with something being wrong with his health.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Later that night we had gone and got him bottles of water, Gatorade, fruits, more healthy foods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We even picked up a new bottle of that Ginkgo Biloba for the memory loss, in hopes that it would work this time around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also got him his first laptop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was really excited about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This way he could track everything and chat with me on Facebook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So along with his daily Men’s Vitamin, a Vitamin C, the aspirin and the Ginkgo pill, we really thought we had everything covered that would matter until he could get to his doctor appointment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Tuesday he went to work and wasn’t feeling well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lady he was working for hadn’t given the mandatory 15 minute breaks the Union requires or even let them take a lunch break.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was not happy about this at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told him to leave and go back to the hall and get back on the list and hope to get on over at the Google job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He left there and came to my work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t know until after he passed away that one of the gal’s I work with said that while Tommy was there that day, she had said hello to him and he walked right by her as if he hadn’t heard her at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tommy wasn’t like this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He always went out of his way to say hi to everyone and people knew that about him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was very well liked by everyone that ever met him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even now looking back on that same day, he sat down in the chairs by the window and I thought he was reading a book and just waiting for me, but when I asked him what he was reading he didn’t answer me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked him 5 times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I walked over there and he said he must not have heard me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was only 20 feet away from him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was all abnormal looking back now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went home and just hung out all night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a good night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had Wednesday off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We chatted back and forth on Facebook all afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had dinner ready when I got home and we talked about what he should do until he got called back up off the bench.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He decided to go to work with his brother temporarily. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The next morning (Thursday the 4<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> day of October 2012) we woke up and he told me that he hadn’t slept well at all and was so tired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was lying on the couch with my legs on his lap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We talked until it was time for me to shower and get ready for work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I left about 6:30ish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were used to leaving at the same time together every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had done that for all the years we had been together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He walked me to the door and gave me my kiss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he had better get in gear before brother Brian got there to pick him up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He asked me if I wanted him to start dinner or just go set gas for the lawn mower if he got home before I did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told him it was completely up to him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Here was a man that had so many things going for him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He loved his family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had his house the way he wanted it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had just gotten the windows and doors, the house painted and the new walk done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He loved his truck and ha loved his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was so excited to be back in the Union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That meant everything to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was so proud of that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was so proud of him as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a decision we had talked about for months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew he wasn’t going anywhere with his old company and this was going to be good for him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">On Thursday morning, October 4, 2012 I had my happy go lucky husband and within a few hours of me leaving for work he was gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people said maybe he had been depressed and to this I only need to say he wasn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you had even been around him for any amount of time you would have known how happy he was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I no longer feel the need to explain that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it will be a section in the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as for here, I knew him better than anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Depressed was the last thing Tommy was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I can understand it though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I tragedy like this happens the first thing we are taught as children even is that someone must have been depressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t think it could have been an allergic reaction to the titanium metals put in his body that were supposed to make his life better,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They never told us what to watch for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since this has happened I have learned more than anyone person should have to know. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is something the doctors should tell people while they are shoving these foreign objects in to people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While they are making billions of dollars a year to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have lost family members to depression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have lost many friends the same way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would have stopped a long time ago had I thought for even one second that depression was what killed my husband Tommy Harvey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know differently.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The sad part is, we saw all of these symptoms for months and never thought for a second that it could have anything to do with the metals they used to cure his breaks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had I known anything I would have had my very best friend at the ER as soon as the first symptom hit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t until know that I have had so many others come to me with the same symptoms and the same problems that I now know the cause of my husband’s death is due to the lack of care from his doctors and all those involved in his care or lack of.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">My main concern now is to help others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To bring awareness to these things that are going on and have been for so many years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctors have known about these symptoms and have been shoving them under the rug for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too many years to let it continue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Laws need to be changed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Tommy Harvey was that guy that always said, “There is always tomorrow.” Or “Someone always has it way worse.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even a few weeks before this happened we went on the Suicide Prevention Walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suicide was something Tommy didn’t believe in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We talked about it openly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will never call his death a suicide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe he couldn’t have been in his right state of mind when this happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe he had to have gone into a hallucination state of mind at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was dressed and ready for work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had the house all locked up, alarm set and the couches coved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was ready and excited to be going to work with Brian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The police that were here at the time promised they would check his blood levels in the autopsy for anything out of the ordinary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had told them all of what had been going on with Tommy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was said in front of a house full of family members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They said they would make sure this happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Family members even called down to the place where the autopsy was going to take place and they also said they would take care of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only things they tested my husband’s blood for was drugs, tobacco and alcohol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The three things Tommy Harvey did not use. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lead detective was on vacation a few weeks after Tommy’s death when I kept trying to call him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think he may have been getting married.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So his Sargent told me that they had 7 suicides that month and were very busy, but that they saved me a sample of his blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were kind enough to give it to me 7 weeks post death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the companies I called to have it tested told me that if the coroner’s office wasn’t going to do what we asked as a family then they should have had that sample to us within 10 days of his death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They knew this and just didn’t care because when I called the coroner’s office the day before Thanksgiving to ask why they didn’t do what we asked, the guy on the phone just kept saying the death was obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter what I would say after that, he just kept saying, “Yea and”, over and over until I hung up on him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I just want them to be responsible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want blood tests made mandatory for people with implants of any kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not everyone will have an allergic reaction, but some will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tommy did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They make enough money off of this; they need to take it more seriously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human lives are valuable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our loved ones matter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Blood work should be done every 6 to 12 months to check for corrosion and or shavings of the metals into the blood stream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They check every 6 months for cancer patients.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These people should be considered just as important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is traumatic injuries that require these implants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It needs to be taken more seriously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have found in so many cases that these implants cause major headaches, dizziness, discoloration of the skin and so many other problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once removed, the symptoms are going away, all of them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">So if there is anyone out there that is going through anything like this, please keep a list of the symptoms with you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make a chart and keep it on your Fridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put a check mark next to whatever symptom you may be having and always mark the date.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This way you have something to refer back to when you go to your doctor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your doctor tells you there is no way that it could be related to the metals, please get a second or even third opinion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have looked into so many sites and chatted with so many hundreds of people that have been through this and their symptoms were shoved under the rug until now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please check out the different sites I have added to Tommy’s Blog and Website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please don’t give up and know that even though you may feel you are dying or the pain is something you will have to live with for the rest of your life, it just is NOT true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am here is you need me as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Always.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I know I didn’t owe any of you an explanation about Tommy, but I felt I needed to speak for him since he was my best friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also did it for all of you that truly loved him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted you all to know that Tommy wouldn’t have left all of us if he had the choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He loved life and all the people in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when you’re reading this blog or website today, just know that Tommy was sick and didn’t even know it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please take the information I have given you and try to help another person that may have the same symptoms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is one thing I am certain of and that is, I will never give up on him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew him and how he felt about life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were so open with each other on every topic that could come to your mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Some have asked me if I think it’s possible to have a reaction to the titanium after 3 years, my answer to that is YES.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>100% yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I personally think Tommy had a reaction every time his blood counts were off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we didn’t know what the cause of each symptom was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think they should have tested him within a few months of his surgery and every few months after that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also that when we went back in 2011, complaining of being in so much pain they should have done more for him than a few x-rays and a few weeks of therapy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had his charts, they knew what those blood levels were from the very beginning & they knew people all over the world had been complaining of these same symptoms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have paper work dating back so far it would shock you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It still shocks me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we had been told about his blood levels from the beginning, we certainly wouldn’t have been giving him aspirin for chest pains and the Ginkgo Biloba for the memory loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead we would have been tracking his blood levels and we would have known how serious all of these symptoms really were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would have also known that people that have anemia or other blood disorders and take these medications on top if it can and have caused hallucinations and suicidal tendencies. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><strong><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></strong></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #23ff07; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">You can contact me on here or in a personal email that is set up to accept emails for Tommy's Story. Below is the address:</span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><a href="mailto:TommysStory@gmail.com"><strong>TommysStory@gmail.com</strong></a></span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Laura </span><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">- Tommy's wife</span></span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: large;">I want to thank all of you that have taken the time to read this and to those that have shared it with others. Between this Blog and the Website, there were over 35,000 hits. It has made it to 64 different countries. There has been so much response. We need to keep getting it out there. We need to make a difference. Together we can do it. I believe the good Lord is working through all of us. Someone has to make a difference. These innocent people need to be taken care of and not just pushed to the sidelines after surgeries like this and others. Those that have blood disorders of any type need to be told about them so they can do follow up testing that might just save their lives. Again, I can’t thank you enough for taking the time from your day to either read & or re-post.<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"><u style="text-underline: #C1C1C1;"><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Update below on 5/17/2013:</span> </span></u></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">When people ask me how I can post Tommy’s Story every single day, my answer is pretty simple; because I have to. If posting can save just one life that will mean that Tommy’s being taken so soon wasn’t for absolutely no reason at all. Tommy would have wanted to help others. I would have preferred a different way. If me getting this information out to another family who might not have known before Tommy’s Story was written (just like we didn’t), then all of my efforts and the efforts of Team Tommy will have been worth every letter typed, every post that was posted, every shirt made, every bumper sticker stuck, every endless sleepless night, every tweet ever tweeted, every email received and every one sent with information back in return.</span> </span></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"> <span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">When I said I do on June 17th, 2006 to my best friend, I meant I DO FOREVER!</span> </strong></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u style="text-underline: #C1C1C1;"><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">For better or worse</span></u><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> – this has been the worst and I still must push forward and share what happened to him.</span> </span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u style="text-underline: #C1C1C1;"><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">In sickness and in health</span></u><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> – he got sick. I must tell how that happened in order to stop it from happening to someone else.</span> </span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u style="text-underline: #C1C1C1;"><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Until death do us part</span></u><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> – he has gone home by no choice of his own, but I am still here. Only now it is for the both of us and I will honor that and carry on until I meet up with him once again on the day that I take my last breath. So death doesn’t really part us at all. It’s just a temporary delay until our eternity together. </span></span></span></strong><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: large;">Please know I do what I do because it is who I am. I hope all of you have a wonderful day. <o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span><span style="color: #c1c1c1; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Laura</span></span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><strong>Here is the link to Christa David's story about her mom:<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></strong><br /> <strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.steelstandingbook.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">http://www.steelstandingbook.com</span></a></span></span></strong><br /><br /><strong>Visit Tommy's Memorial Page at:</strong><br /><strong> </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/TommyHarveyMemorial"><strong><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">https://www.facebook.com/TommyHarveyMemorial</span></strong></a><br /><br /><strong>Follow updates to this blog on twitter at:</strong><br /> <a href="https://twitter.com/Tommys_Story"><strong><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">https://twitter.com/Tommys_Story</span></strong></a></span><span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "candara" , "sans-serif";"><o:p><strong>Please feel free to leave comments below!</strong></o:p></span></div>
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