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"That which does not kill us only serves to make us stronger."

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GREETINGS and

To all of my brothers and sisters, to all that have a vested interest (healthcare professionals, relatives, friends) and to all who are just interested, I bid you:

About this site

"Man uses the spoken or written word to express the meaning of what he wants to convey. His language is full of symbols ... What we call a symbol is a term, a name, or even a picture that may be familiar in daily life, yet possesses connotations in addition to its conventional and obvious meaning." (C.G. Jung, 1964: Man And His Symbols)

This site is full of symbols.

1.) The very ugliness is symbolic of the ugliness - and rudeness - of Hepatitis-C.

2.) The colors have been specifically selected to convey a message:

• Red is the color of blood - the method of transmission of this disease, and what we have to give on a regular basis in order to defeat this disease.
• Pink is for the liver - the healthy liver that we all pray and ask for.
• White is the symbol of purity - while we all have gotten this disease through various means, none of us had any idea we were getting it when we did.
• And black is for our fallen brothers and sisters.

3.) The "Screaming Liver" is symbolic of the pain we all go through:

• My brothers and sisters - with the physical and psychological torment that we all endure from both the disease - and the treatment.
• The healthcare community - and let it be known here that their sacrifice is no less than ours - for they are "front-line" warriors as well. They face sleepless nights and voluntarily place themselves at risk on our behalf. Bless each and every one of you!
• Our relatives and friends - For they can see the agony we go through and yet are helpless to do anything about our suffering.

But the "Screaming Liver" is also about "coping by copping a 'tude" - about support and humor. It is about treating this disease with every bit of the irreverence and disgust it deserves! No, it is not to be mistaken for "whistling through the graveyard." For noone knows better that I just how dangerous this disease is.

About your host

I was diagnosed in Feb. 1999. While my Liver Function Tests (LFTs) had been slightly elevated for a long time, nobody had given any thought to running an HCV test on me - until Dr. Brian Baines of the Tidewater Physicians Multipractice Group played a hunch. His hunch was correct!

There is the very strong possibility that I have had this disease for approximately thirty years - but I will never know for sure!

Like others of my generation, I was an "experimenter." "They" told us, "Marijuana is bad for you. You'll either wind up dead or in jail!" And when neither of those came true, we asked, "What else have 'They' lied to us about?" And we swallowed LySergic acid Diethylamide (LSD -- acid). And it was good. And so we snorted cocaine. And we found that Freud was right - at least about that and cigars ("After all, sometimes,a cigar is nothing more than a cigar."). And so we shot heroin. And we got sick. I didn't shoot very much. I was lucky (or so I thought). I didn't become addicted to it. I quit shooting after a very few (between 10 and 20) shots. But the damage was already done!

And so now I am paying for it. This site is a part of my mission - to help increase and improve understanding and communication of this dreadful disease. And to try to do so through humor.

Thank you for visiting this site.

And now, I ask that you sit back, click at least a couple of buttons, and watch for the unpredictable and often humorous (intentional or otherwise) twists and turns this site takes.