Some Bad News, folks.

I contacted my rheumatologist last week and send him some rather bleak pictures of my left medial calf so he could take a look and advise me. Several purpuric lesions showed up out of the blue, coalesced and started to ulcerate in several small places. This lesion is about the size of a silver dollar. So, we tripled my dose of steroids, doubled the dose of my two chemotherapies and added another medication. The pictures I took of the leg today showed a worsening of the condition despite our most vigorous efforts. I'm sorry to say that my immune system is starting to fail across the board. The two of you (Californians) that know me quite well and my brother... who knows me best of all...know that I have been through tougher times than this in medical school on three occasions but bounced back and simply refused to give up! I mean, I was studying for exams while in the hospital recovering from a nasty bout of supurrative peritonitis after a botched surgery. Then, these two wonderful, selfless people smuggled in KFC and shared it with me in the hospital and made me laugh and forget my troubles for a while....despite strong objections from the surgeons.....about the KFC that is. It was just too bad for the surgeons. Meanwhile, my brother - who is irreplaceable in my life - was here in S.C. at Clemson studying, playing hockey, making sure my wife was O.K. and caring about me from a distance... I could feel it! I just want to thank you three guys for truly caring about me through this Wegener's stuff (which may not turn out so well) and all my other "battles" I have endured and won since you have respectively all have gotten to know me. In closing, there are two photographs that I still have and had them digitally converted. These two photos mean the world to me. One is of me dancing with a beautiful California girl at a wedding and the other is one of my brother with his arm around my shoulder. He flew here to be with me for less than 24 hours, from the pacific northwest; because he cared. He sacrificed his time, effort and money to be with a very sick brother because he knew I needed him. Now, this Sunday, two dear friends and their son (who is also a physician by proxy) are coming to spend some time with me. You guys are the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!! Love to all of you.....Joseph J Palkowski M.D. (aka. Dr. Joe Wegener or just plain joe)