My extenuated experience with illness has time and again revealed to me instances of great charity and introduced me to people of remarkable goodness. What happened on our flight proved to be the workings of the Holy Spirit. Upon entering the aircraft my mom sparked up a conversation with Joanne, the head of the flight attendants, and inevitably mentioned how we were flying to receive medical treatments in Switzerland. The truly compassionate woman offered to move me up to first class in the middle of the flight in hopes that it might give me the chance to sleep for a few hours before my first day in the Klinik. Joanne not only extended such a generous gesture, but came back at the end of the flight to have a lengthy discussion with me mom and to assure me that she was going to follow my blog. She even vowed to try to put me in touch with her friend who is a doctor in case he might be able to assist us in discovering more about my rare conditions. My heart was warmed as I landed in Zurich….and that is a good thing because the rest of my body might not be warm for awhile. In the whirlwind of goodbyes, I accidentally left my coat at home in our kitchen. In the past handful of months, just in my daily life, it’s sadly become more evident than ever, how greatly the lack of sufficient blood flow to my brain hinders my ability to think properly.

Upon arriving at the Klinik, I first had a panoramic X-ray of my jaw taken at the Paracelsus Dental Office. They are very concerned here with any type of toxic metal that might have been glued to my teeth, via fillings or oral surgery. Last spring I had my four impacted wisdom teeth removed surgically at CHOP by a wonderful doctor from the Hospital at the University of Penn (HUP). I, also, had a bilateral tonsillectomy preformed at Lankenau Hospital in the beginning of this past summer. The ENT reported after the surgery that he was ultimately thankful he had agreed to do the operation on a somewhat “high-risk” patient, because of how deeply and chronically infected my tonsils looked once removed. He admitted there was far more extensive damage from repeated insults of bacterial disease than he possibly could have seen without having gone in surgically.

We next met with my “quarterback” doctor here in Switzerland, Dr. Rupp. He is technically a oncologist, but is well trained in many fields of medicine, in particular, autoimmune conditions such as RA. He practices medicine passionately and theatrically, all the while complimented by his heavy German accent. Although Dr. Rupp traveled around the globe studying the body and health- much of his time was spent in Asia learning the art of Chinese Medicine. After our initial exam and what felt like an interrogation, I am beyond depleted. Let’s just say Dr. Rupp has a bigger than life personality! He made many off-the-cuff remarks on how unfortunate it was for this “perfect storm” to hit so early in life. Unfortunately, the Klinik very rarely sees patients this critically ill at such a young age.

I wrapped up this exhausting day with Heartrate Variability Testing, pulse measurements, helpful in quantifying the degree of Autonomic Nervous System dysfunction. Finally they did vital blood analysis under dark field microscopy, examination of a drop of blood freshly extracted from the earlobe useful in visualizing the inner terrain (“milieu” as everyone here calls it) and determining the functionality of the blood cells. In addition this technique, a vital instrument in biological medicine, allows us to gauge the states of the RBCs, WBCs, endobionts, and plasma via abnormalities of shape, size, or movement. Ultimately, it is helpful for viewing any developed structures such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. My blood was a “hot mess”, as you can see from the visual report below….

I wish I had the energy to share more, but I’m jet lagged and wiped out from my first day at the Klinik. Gute nacht!