Glenn's Health

[UndertheWire]

I'm glad they were able to keep it so quiet as the last thing his doctor's, family and friends needed was the press constantly asking for updates at a time when there was no good news. From the lack of questions, I believe that those who needed to know, knew.

[Freypower]

And Glenn was getting "the best" medical care. It stopped me in my tracks to read Azoff's comments in the L.A. Times that the meds for arthritis caused Glenn's previous ulcer and colitis issues to recur (if I understood correctly) and ultimately led to his death. Tragic.

I can only imagine what Glenn was enduring through that last, long tour. I noticed at the Miami show in July he had some of his fingers wrapped and it made me wonder if he suffered from arthritis (as many guitarists do). You just never know what people are going through.

Most of us had seen the wrapped fingers numerous times & knew about the rheumatoid arthritis. What we didn't know is that it would kill him.

[DJ]

R.A, of which I have, is an autoimmune disease. Your own immune system fights it's self. A lot of RA drugs kill your GI tract, I have personal experience with this, but Ulcerative Colitis is also an auto immune disease in it's self. It can cause infection in your bowel leading to infections throughout the body.Using RA drugs to modulate the symptoms of RA also weakens the immune system to fight off infection. For example some RA drugs were used when Chemo first came into the picture for cancer. It kills or slows the immune system to stop it from say "acting incorrectly". Pneumonia as we all know is a serious infection of the lungs. I know personally if I have to take antibiotics I cannot take my RA drug. With this said it's a dicey combination to fight auto immune diseases and infection in your body at the same time. Auto Immune diseases can also cause inflammation not only in joints, such as RA, but in your lungs, heart, etc. More research needs to be done about Auto Immune diseases. I also have another Auto Immune disease Lupus. In reading literature from the Lupus Foundation they do not receive enough money to do as much research as say cancer does to research these diseases. It's a sad situation, but hopefully with all the celebrity Glenn had this can bring more awareness to these diseases and how they really are just as dangers and hard to treat as cancers, etc..

Sorry if I was too technical. But I live with this "crap" everyday and wonder what's it's doing to my body..

My experience says beware of what is going into your body to help fight something that your body is doing to it's self.

[Brooke]

Thanks for this information on RA, DJ.

My husband turned 60 yesterday and he has RA (so his primary dr says) but not bad enough to take any meds for it. He has heard enough about the meds to keep him from taking it for as long as possible. He takes ibuprofen. He's still active and does carpentry work, but from time to time has pain in his back and shoulders mostly. Hopefully he will never succumb to this kind of meds.

[DJ]

Thanks for this information on RA, DJ.

My husband turned 60 yesterday and he has RA (so his primary dr says) but not bad enough to take any meds for it. He has heard enough about the meds to keep him from taking it for as long as possible. He takes ibuprofen. He's still active and does carpentry work, but from time to time has pain in his back and shoulders mostly. Hopefully he will never succumb to this kind of meds.

I hope he never has to take prescription medication for it. I also take these medications because I have Lupus, which can be very organ damaging. I am lucky it has not affected any of mine. I get pain and swelling throughout my body. There are days I do not move very well. It is nasty. But I try to keep active and positive, I have a lot of life to live.

[GlennLover]

Cindy, Glenn's wife has Lupus. They were both active in charity work to aid in research to combat the disease.

[maryc2130]

From Bernie's statement, it seemed like he didn't even know how much pain Glenn was most likely putting up with every day while they were touring. That, and the fact that there was very little publicity even when Glenn became gravely ill, makes me think he wanted to downplay his illness. I like to think it was because he loved what he was doing so much that it was worth it to him.

[Glennsallnighter]

Well sadly, despite all the prayers and good wishes sent for Glenn recovery was not to be. As a mark of respect and because I don't want his family or those close to him to read it and be involved in speculation and debate about his health issues I am now closing off the thread. RIP Glenn