My Diagnosis: Hypereosinophilic Syndrome -- See Myeloproliferative Variant

Often, with a rare disease like HES, it is difficult to sum up what is going on for people who ask.  Until now, literature online has been too long and complex, biased or outdated -- finally here is a new link to an accurate medical report from the National Institute on Health which briefly covers Recent Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Hypereosinophilic Syndromes.  To zero in on issues relating to my diagnosis, see comments dealing with the Myeloproliferative Variant.

Click the title to open the link and read ... however, at the end of this article about my rare blood disorder you may feel confused or dissatisfied like my new Pain Specialist, who read it and confessed he didn't understand it all:  "It was gobble-dee-gook to me!"  (Such comfort!)

From our perspective, we have had plenty time (since 2004) to learn the terminology of Hematologists, yet answers don't come easily or without serious risks.  Essentially, we monitor the blood tests, use prednisone,   chemotherapy, and other drugs to try and ease multiple chronic symptoms.  Often it does feel like we are simply following the disease's path; at best merely slowing it down -- but that is the way things are with an 'idiopathic' condition when they are lacking a precise cause or trigger, and there is also uncertainty as to how the illness will track in the future for each individual patient.  Certainly this has been a major life challenge to cope with, and we thank all our friends near and far for their loving, prayerful support.

This one thing that we keep on realizing in new and deeper ways, that God cares very deeply about what we are going through:  Can you open yourself up to that in renewed faith?  It may not matter much to some who feel independently strong in easy times -- however, it is in the times when all else is failing that you need to (and can) know this profound truth: that we are not alone, we have not been abandoned.  God is as close as the mention of His name, even in the shadowy valleys ... and perhaps especially so.