The Narrow Path Ministries

LOML = love of my life

TheEditor wrote:Homer and Paidion,

Homer, I assume the LOML must be a reference to your wife? But unfortunately, I am not hip with the interweb lingo.... . But there is definitely an inflammatory process going on with my wife.

Paidion, you were a math teacher correct? Here is my question with an introductory statement. After years of mystery symptoms, up to and including a crippling depression, I finally was able to direct my doctors to run certain tests, and ended up being correct in my hunch. I had something called hyperparathyroidism. In short, the 4 glands "para" to the thyroid gland, act as a thermostat to control calcium levels. Typically, with this condition, one of them becomes a benign adenoma and continues to falsely tell the body that it needs calcium, triggering a release from the bone's storage of it. The only option is surgery. I had the 4 gland hyperplasia variety, which means that all 4 glands remained normal, but were engorged and overactive. Again, surgery was the only option. Now, here is my math question: The odds of my getting this condition are less than 1 in 1,000. Actually, the variety I had is more like 1 in 2,000. My wife, in addition to some other problem yet to be determined, has now tested positive for classic hyperparathyroidism, the odds of which are maybe 1 in 500. What then are the odds of 2 people living in the same home coming down with the same condition given the infrequency of said condition?

Regards, Brenden.

(I have no idea about the probability question.)

How odd that this disease, which, prior to last weekend, I had never heard of, I've now read about in multiple accounts. The comedian, Garry Shandling, who died of a heart attack recently, disclosed that he had it. Perhaps it led to his heart attack. I learned of this by way of this article in The Atlantic.

I hope I'm not being insensitive, but I take notice when something you've never heard of suddenly is noticeable all over the place.

You and your wife have been on my prayer list, and you will continue to be so.

Thanks Michelle!

Interesting read. Yes, his joke about being an older Jewish man resonates. The symptoms are vague and tend to be treated as symptoms, not in view of curing. For instance, I had hypertensive spikes (which landed me in the hospital on several occasions). I had fatigue, weight loss, depression, aches and pains, anxiety, etc. The list goes on and on. After years of this nonsense, I finally collected all my medical records and scoured them. I found one aberrant reading on Calcium--only slightly elevated. So, I googled and came up with this possibility. I asked my doctor and she ordered 2 tests; Ionized Calcium (this is different than the Serum reading you normally get) and PTH (Parathyroid Hormone) levels. The Calcium was high, and the PTH was "inappropriately normal", meaning, it should have been low due to my calcium being high.

I went to an Endocrinologist and had some other tests. The bottom line? My bad glands were telling my body to free up calcium from my bones, even though I didn't need it. My kidneys were saying "Hey! There's too much calcium" and they excreted it through my urine. I was literally peeing away my bones. They did a DEXA scan and said I had great bone mass if I were a 55 year old woman....but not (at the time) a 46 year old man. I had to push and advocate to get a diagnosis and treatment. Indeed, our bodies are, as David noted "in a fear inspiring way, wonderfully made", but when something goes sideways, it can throw you way off.

In my case, some of the damage was permanent. But some of the symptoms cleared up. Personally, I believe this condition exists more frequently than we know, because all of the symptoms can be treated with drugs. Plus, many of them are swept away with "Oh, you're just experiencing anxiety..."

Regards, Brenden.

Brenden, did you press for your wife to be tested?

Yes. It appears she has the same thing. Although this diagnosis was incidental. There is still no reason as to why she had the myositis. The hard muscle swelling is still present, but not nearly as painful. She does have a positive auto-immune factor and also elevated RA levels.

Regards, Brenden.

Brenden, if there are no other factors involved, you just multiply together the probabilities.
For example, if you toss a fair die, the probability of getting a six is one sixth. If you toss two fair dice, the probability of BOTH being sixes is one thirty-sixth (or 1 in 36).

So if the probability of your having hyperparathyroidism is 1 in 2000, and that of your wife getting it is 1 in 500, then the probability of your both getting it is 1 in a million.
Now that is only if there are no other factors. But there may be other factors even if the disease is not contagious.

For example, cancer is not contagious. Yet there is a much higher number of couples who get cancer, than would be expected from probability calculations alone.

Hi Paidion,

Thanks. That is interesting. We have discussed it and the only thing that we both could think of that may have had a deleterious effect on our health is we lived for 5 years in an apartment that had a very serious mold issue. I do not know if there is a causal link between mold spores and gland function or tumor growth, but it is the only environmental factor we could think of. It was at the end of our stay there and shortly after we moved from that residence that my problems began.

Regards, Brenden.