I have survived some terrible health related events in my life such as an early form of experimental kidney transplant surgery following years of kidney dialysis as well as my body being submerged in ice and water to keep me alive sometimes as to my initial 23 years of running upwards of 106 to 108 degree temperatures with the kidney disease, as well as many corrective surgeries of my internal as well as external sexual organs as to my having been born intersexed, flogging injuries to my entire backside involving lifetime scare, my surviving stepping on a landmine and being shot while living under death threats my last two years of work for our Federal Government in that I worked undercover for the Inspector General of the United States Of America, my surviving of 2nd and 3rd degree burns from the waist down with blood poisoning and skin grafts, crushing injuries to my entire left side and the left arm twice as I slid backwards and sideways off the side of a mountain the last time crushing it between a truck door and a tree, radical removal of my prostate with chemo at age 23 even though I've never had cancer, radical thyroid removal, pituitary/brain tumor which recently disappeared, three strokes with the last one being massive however I've made a full recovery for the most-part including my breathing on my own as well as my speech recovery, tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis, infantile polio, perforated right eardrum from the Navy's Blue Angels jet engines, etc., etc. Nothing however, has compared to my having gone through a life and death episode of flesh-eating bacteria as I did back in 1995, for that was by far the scariest health affliction that I have ever dealt with.

Although I don't or can't remember much about this period in my life without my requesting of medical records, in that I have blocked it out of my mind; I can tell you that the reason I've evidently blocked it, is primarily because I could see my body eating itself from the inside out and remember my being able to see clear to the bone in the affected areas. I had been receiving shots of "Betaseron", (Interferon Beta-1b) in my thighs primarily, as to treatment of my multiple sclerosis. I was in my third month of treatment with this particular drug, when I awoke one morning bleeding from my rectum and urinary system. Upon my cleaning myself up as to my taking of a shower, I noticed that the Betaseron injections were evidently pooling beneath my skin, in that I could make out 2 to 3 inch diameter circles within my thighs which appeared to look much like huge blood blisters, as well as my thighs were numb or without feeling. Where as I immediately called my Neurologist and told him of this evident adverse reaction and his telling me to immediately stop the injections; I also made an emergency appointment with him for the following day.

I awoke the next day to find my condition to be much worse, in that my lower abdomen and entire legs were for the most-part black and green and without sensation, as well as the huge blood blisters had also surfaced. Needless to say I did not wait for my appointment time, but went right away to my Neurologist office. When the receptionist saw me walk in, she immediately called a nurse, who upon seeing the condition of my legs and groin area burst in on my Doctor who was with a patient at the time. As soon as he saw me he told me to go directly to a hospital emergency room, and asked me if I wanted him to call an ambulance for me. As I wasn't in much pain at the time, I thanked him and told him no thank you, that I could drive myself. In that I live in the North Georgia mountains and had driven some 75 miles to see my Neurologist, in that his office was in Atlanta; by the time I had reached the suburbs of Atlanta on my way back home towards the hospital I knew best, I unknowingly was running a very high temperature, and therefore was not thinking clearly. In fact, I was out of my head, but know that instead of my going directly to a hospital emergency room, that I went to my family physician's office. In that my Family Physician was on vacation, for some reason I looked in the telephone book and kept calling doctor's offices until I found one that could take me right away. It just so happened that although this physician's office was some 35 miles away, that the first person to examine me was a LPN who had served in Desert Storm. She told me not to move as she seated me following my examination and abruptly left the room, only to return a moment later with three physicians, who were each wearing a sterile medical mask over their mouth and nose. As this was quite alarming for me at the time, it was what they stated to me that was so horrific, for some of my blood blisters had by that time burst to reveal huge deep wounds which were all infected with pus-like drainage. This is when they having run a specimen as to one of my wounds, told me that I had a bad case of flesh-eating bacteria.

I don't remember much following that, other than I know that the Atlanta, GA. CDC worked hand in hand with my case over the initial 6 to 8 month healing period, as due to my specific case and my many drug allergies, one medication after another was tried. Eventually I healed without loss of limb, although I still have recurring bouts of cellulitis and edema during these many (10) years since, as well as loss of nerve and muscle tone in the affected areas.

In closing, one might ask if I believe in "God". You bet I do, and in fact with my having lived through all of the above and being declared clinically dead no less than four times thus far in my life; I am writing a book about my death and near-death experiences including my many trips to the light as well as my seeing multitudes of Angels, and am writing especially so upon my surviving of NF. In fact, in that my first death experience occurred at the young age of two; this experience had all in the world to do with how I have lived the rest of my life, as to the purpose there of.