In all the videos I've made over the last couple of months...
You almost certainly didn't notice that my physical health was rapidly worsening.
To look at me, you wouldn't have recognized that I was going through the worst health crisis of my life.
Well, actually, if you look really carefully at my videos from the last couple of months...
There was one very subtle sign that I was ill.
Look at how large I was in this video from April of this year.
That was pretty much my "normal" weight for the last couple of years.
I hate to admit that, but yeah, I got fat in my 50s and 60s, but...
Look at me today, 20 pounds lighter.
I didn't lose 20 pounds since April from being on a diet...
Or eating healthier, or anything like that.
I lost 20 pounds because of a medical condition...
That caused my own immune system to attack all the muscles in my body.
It's called Polymyalgia Rheumatica.
I really started noticing it in June...
When I retired from my "real job" at the nuclear power plant.
When I had been working, I rarely sat still for very long.
I was always moving around, doing things, but...
When I retired, sheltering in place at home because of Covid-19...
I was sitting still a lot more often, and for longer periods of time.
And that's not a good way to be when you have Polymyalgia Rheumatica.
I would wake up first thing in the morning with horribly painful, inflamed muscles.
But then, once I woke up and started moving around...
My muscles would gradually start loosening up over the course of the first few hours of the day.
And then, by ten or eleven AM, I wasn't in anywhere near as much pain as when I first woke up.
In early June, that pain first thing in the morning was about a three on a ten scale.
But over the coming weeks, it got worse and worse.
I want to show you a little video clip that's going to shock you...
Because you're going to see me in a way you never have seen me on video before.
By July 16th, my condition had deteriorated so badly...
That I would have severe pain just from sitting down or standing up.
I put a camera on a tripod...
And let it capture the truth of my situation at 5 o'clock that morning.
Watch, and listen... To my reaction to just sitting down on a chair.
It was like what I imagine being a hundred years old feels like.
(Groans)
(More intense groaning)
(Sigh of relief at the pain subsiding)
Okay.
And now, watch and listen as I try to stand back up from a sitting position.
(Very painful sound)
(Censored)
...pain in my knees, Just to get out of a (censored) chair!
So, that was my reality, first thing in the morning on July 16th...
A pain level of nine out of ten just from getting up out of a chair!
About twenty hours later...
Roughly one in the morning on Saturday the 18th...
I was in bed sleeping, and I needed to get up and use the bathroom.
But my muscle pain had increased even further...
To the point that it simply became physically impossible for me to roll over to the edge of my bed and stand up.
Only with the assistance of my wife, and pain that was literally ten on a ten scale...
Was I able to get out of bed and stand up.
And that took about five minutes... Just to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom like a one hundred year old man.
With that level of pain, I really didn't have any choice.
I had my wife drive me to the emergency room at our local hospital.
And thank goodness, the right doctor was working the graveyard shift that night.
He did some testing...
Recognized my condition was Polymyalgia Rheumatica...
And gave me a dose of a steroid that's pretty much a wonder drug for PMR patients.
It's Prednisone, and it works wonders at eliminating inflammation in your body.
But it takes about six hours to kick in on the very first dose.
So, after they gave me that first dose of Prednisone in the emergency room...
They sent me home Where I could wait for the meds to kick in.
So, when I left the emergency room... The meds hadn't kicked in yet...
I felt just as bad as when I arrived...
And to simply try to get in to my wife's Toyota Camry... And sit down in the passenger seat...
Created another round of pain that was ten on a ten scale.
She drove me home, and that's when I reached my absolute lowest point.
In our driveway, trying to get out of the passenger seat of my wife's car...
I simply couldn't do it. It was too painful.
Even with my wife trying to help me get out of the car...
I couldn't do it.
The pain was as bad as being stabbed with a knife.
So, the only thing I could do was to call 911...
And have the paramedics come to my driveway and rescue me from my wife's car.
Once they got me out of the car... And that only took about two minutes...
I was able to walk on my own power and get in to bed to wait for the meds to kick in.
But that was my low point, right there... On my driveway at about 4 AM Saturday morning...
This old man needing a fire engine full of first responders...
Just to get him out of his wife's car!
Later that morning, the Prednisone started to kick in, and the worst was over.
And that's when I shot this video clip you're about to see...
Which I posted to Facebook, but with privacy restrictions in place...
So that only about twenty of my closest friends and family could see it.
Hello, it's Saturday morning, July 18th And I have a special message for...
You and a few of my other very close friends.
This video isn't available for public viewing.
If you're seeing it now, It's because you and I are close. And i'm sure you know it.
So, the headline is that in the last 24 hours I've had the worst day of my entire life.
But I'm here to tell you that everything's going to be OK.
And I'm getting better...
Due to some excellent treatment I got overnight In the emergency room at Arroyo Grande Community Hospital.
And I'm going to be just fine.
And by this time tomorrow. I will be back to the Jim Zim that you know.
For the last two months, I haven't been that guy.
For the last two months I've had tremendous inflammation in all the muscles in my body.
And over the course of those two months, It's been getting worse and worse and worse.
And creating a lot of pain in my muscles... Making me very stiff and unable to move.
And it's just been horrible. And things really came to a head in the last seven days or so...
Where it just got unacceptably bad. Just horribly, horribly bad.
My medical condition is called Polymyalgia Rheumatica.
And...
For the last two months it has been untreated.
Nothing significant, other than some NSAIDs, has been given to me to relieve my pain or the inflammation.
But last night, finally, in the emergency room...
They were able to confirm the diagnosis of Polymyalgia Rheumatica...
And begin what is actually a very, very easy treatment.
It's super easy to treat Polymyalgia Rheumatica. There's one drug that is 100 effective in treating it.
I've just never been allowed to have it...
Up until last night about 3:30 in the morning, this morning.
I got my first dose... A very very strong dose...
And here I am five or six hours later, and it's started to kick in.
And I'm doing much better now.
And I know that it takes about 24 hours for this drug to fully kick in.
And by this time tomorrow, I'll be back to the guy that you know. So...
I know some of you have known about what's been going on with me. And I'm sure you've been worried.
I just want to let you know you don't need to worry anymore.
I'm going to be okay. I'm already feeling better.
By this time tomorrow, I'll feel great. And...
I don't want you to worry about me anymore. I'm fine.
Well, that's my story. The worst few hours of my life...
During the early morning hours of Saturday, July 18th, 2020.
Things have gotten hugely better for me since then.
The Prednisone is a wonder drug for people with Polymyalgia Rheumatica.
Other than the carpal tunnel syndrome in my left hand, Which is an entirely separate issue...
I'm feeling really good right now.
And the Carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand...
Which I had surgery on about a month ago...
Has almost completely gone away now. So, that's great.
So, hopefully, it'll be another 40 years...
Before the 100-year-old version of Jim Zim makes another appearance!