Over 2 years ago I visited a free clinic located around Union Square in order to investigate what can only be described as colorectal problems. After examining me, the physician told me that I probably had hemorrhoids. However, she wrote me a referral to see a gastroenterologist, which I promptly dismissed.  About a year later I went to the same clinic and received the same diagnosis. I had hemorrhoids, but I might also want to see a gastroenterologist to get a second, more comprehensive, opinion. Of course, I ignored this recommendation.

Fast-forward to approximately 5 months ago. I’m feeling fatigued, my bowel problems have progressed in an unfortunate direction, and I’m having a multitude of other symptoms. I take several rounds of inconclusive blood tests, make an impromptu visit to the ER, and am no closer to understanding why my body is falling apart.

I’ve been told by friends that as a patient I have to be an advocate for myself. It’s something that I’ve failed to do-to my detriment-many times over. If there’s one lesson to be drawn from my example, it’s that you need to be insistent and unrelenting in advocating for your needs. Physicians are not omniscient, even if they have some of the answers. If you feel something is awry, don’t wait until it’s too late to speak up for yourself.

It might save your health…or your life.

Several months ago I noticed a grinding fatigue, which prompted me to seek medical attention. Over the past month this condition has worsened considerably, in addition to being augmented by several other very unpleasant symptoms, which doctors have explored and attempted to diagnose. So far, without any definitive judgment. Although it’s nice to have some diseases ruled out-especially ones from which other relatives have suffered in the past-winnowing the potential pool of illnesses from which I suffer has the corresponding effect of increasing my anxiety. I’m sure my fellow hypochondriacs can appreciate this dilemma.

I’m still investigating what’s wrong with me-beyond mounting despondency-because, is there really any alternative at this point? The process is much too drawn out for my tastes, but I’m undoubtedly in the same boat as scores of others, waiting nervously to discover why it feels like their bodies are rapidly falling apart. Over-dramatization (possibly?) aside, this experience has reinforced for me the notion that there are few things more important than one’s health. Even politics and culture, which have always fascinated me as an adult, are cast in a pall by my experiences over the past few months. Which isn’t to say that these things aren’t pivotal in some sense, having your sleep, diet, and general enjoyment of life depleted puts things into perspective, so to speak.

To use a hoary quote attributed to novelist James Lane Allen-if Google search hasn’t misled me, which it probably has-adversity does not build character, but reveals it. In this respect, I’ve been found wanting. The obsessive interest I have in my own difficulties hasn’t abated, and  fortitude has definitely been in short supply. That said, the concern expressed by friends and family members has been welcome, as has the advice for mitigating some of the worst symptoms of my own making. For that, they deserve my gratitude.

In spite of my more dark imaginings, I honestly don’t know what the future holds. However, I’ll try to keep this online community apprised-as discretion permits-of what’s going on.

Cancer is universally loathed and feared. I’ve lost cousins, grandparents, and friends to this disease, and I’m sure our readers could tell their own terrible stories. That’s why it’s important to help those who are currently fighting this disease. One of them is a local woman whose dreams of becoming a nurse have been postponed by acute myeloid leukemia.

She’s currently hosting a very successful fundraiser intended to defray the costs of an expensive immunotherapy treatment for this disease. You can contribute, if so moved, by visiting her GoFundMe page.

Update: Photos of events held throughout the country. 

Tomorrow will see rallies held across the nation expressing support for President Trump and his platform. Presumably, there will also be counter-protests, although hopefully this time the participants will be able to restrain their penchant for savagery, destruction of private property, and unrestrained violence against those peaceably assembling. While there will be a rally in front of the White House, there will also be smaller local rallies, including one in Suffolk County. To find the location of your rally, Main Street Patriots has helpfully assembled a list of contact information for local organizers.

Good luck, and stay safe!

h/t The Conservative Tree House.  

The Soho Forum is a fantastic new institution which explores important philosophical and political issues, many of them topical in nature, through rigorously argued debates. An upcoming event might be of particular interest to our readers, as it features libertarian economist Benjamin Powell and the head of the Center for Immigration Studies, Mark Krikorian. They’ll be debating the proposition that American should have free migration, barring certain disqualifying features on the part of potential migrants, e.g. direct ties to terrorism, contagious diseases.

Coming as it does on the heels of President Trump’s controversial executive order, this should be a fascinating discussion. You can reserve your tickets and RSVP at this link, and find details of future events by perusing the Soho Forum’s website. Regardless of your views, vis-a-vis immigration, I hope all of you in the New York City Area take advantage of this opportunity.

Despite the encomia heaped upon the late Fidel Castro over the past few days, from both tyrannical regimes and morally inverted Western leaders, the man who turned Cuba into a tropical gulag had no redeeming features. He ruined his nation, turning a once a thriving-if troubled-island into a testament to the failure of socialism and hellishness of totalitarian rule. That’s why this weekend’s tribute to the scores of victims of Castro’s dystopian regime, which you can RSVP to here, is necessary. Those who do not learn from history-or refuse to acknowledge its truths-are condemned to endlessly repeat it. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation should be applauded for shining light upon the brutalities of one of the few remaining Communist dictatorships.

You can find the details of the event below. I urge everyone in the Washington D.C. Area to stand with the men and women whose voices Fidel and his machinery of coercion tried to extinguish.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation invites you to join us in commemorating the thousands of victims who suffered and died at the hands of the Castro regime in Cuba. A candlelight vigil will take place on December 4th, 2016 at 4:30 PM at the Victims of Communism Memorial on the corner of New Jersey and Massachusetts Avenues in Washington, DC. 

We ask that you join us in standing with the Cuban people, remembering their past suffering, and hoping that this event marks the beginning of a truly democratic future for the island.

Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016

Time: 4:30PM-6:00PM

Location: Corner of New Jersey and Massachusetts Avenues, Washington, DC 20001

To the surprise of no one, the reporters, editors and publishers whose revolting fealty to Hillary Clinton, exposed in excruciating detail through Wikileaks, resulted in an historic loss for the Democratic Party have learned nothing from Tuesday’s Trumpslide. Instead of reflecting upon how media institutions rigging the primary process against Bernie Sanders, then conducting an embarrassing, 9 month-long editorial jihad against Donald Trump, might have led voters to reject the chosen one, they have spent the past 2 days regurgitating stories about fake SJW-created hate crimes.

Sadly, even the seeming exit of Hillary and Bill Clinton from public life has not prevented Clinton cronies from exacting their revenge upon the few courageous dissenters within the mainstream press. The most recent infuriating example being VICE’s termination of Michael Tracey, a genuine journalist, who was fired for daring to question Lena Dunham and acknowledging the electorate’s universal distaste for Hillary Clinton as a public figure.

You can read the forbidden piece in its entirety here, but more importantly, you can support Michael and his ongoing efforts to bring us factual reporting by contributing to his Gofundme page.The effort by our deeply crooked media institutions to suppress truthful, vital journalism, as well as continued attempts by the Clintons and their cronies to exact revenge upon their enemies, will not end with the conclusion of the 2016 presidential election. We need to ensure reporters like Michael Tracey have the resources necessary to bring us the information our paternalistic media wants to drop into the memory hole.

One of my favorite spectator sports is live debating. Although not all debates are as riveting as the Nick Gillespie-Walter Block confrontation which occurred last night, this election cycle has taught us all the entertainment value of a good one. Hopefully, the showdown between my friends Todd Seavey and Anders Mikkelsen and the Harry Carson and Mark Horowitz-from the anti-capitalist, conspiracy movement known as Zeitgeist-will prove as fruitful as illuminating as the Trump-Clinton debates.

You can find all of the details on the event’s Facebook page and RSVP at the Meetup page. I hope to see you there!

Occasionally I’ll ask our readers to help out directly in the lives of people suffering. In this case, it happens to be a personal friend who’s undergoing severe medical hardship. Domenica recently suffered a heart attack and is now facing a series of emergency surgeries-while simultaneously dealing with an inept hospital bureaucracy. A mutual friend has decided to help her financially weather this storm by establishing a Gofundme page on her behalf.

I would urge everyone to give what they can-if so compelled-to a hard-working woman who’s  been temporarily sidelined.