Miraculously, without antibiotics or vasopressors since Sat (when we decided to place him in hospice care due to poor prognosis), my uncle appears to have made a recovery from septic shock on his own. His blood pressure is back to normal, and he is eating soft foods and drinking again. He is alert and watching TV and talking to me. It appears he may be discharged back to the personal care home tomorrow. While he still has many challenges (weakness, stiffness, tremors, incontinence, cognitive impairment) and may still have significant organ damage, I’m cautiously optimistic his body successfully fought the sepsis infection. This makes me wonder if our common LRRK2 G2019S genetic variant truly gives us superpowers. All four of his blood culture bottles grew gram-negative bacteria that included both klebsiella pneumoniae and proteus mirabilis. He had a fever, his lactic acid was 3.8, INR of 1.96, white blood cell count of 23,500, high neutrophil count, creatinine of 2.66, and his BP stayed in the 60s/30s in the ER even after fluids. His recovery from septic shock at 78 years old is amazing, given he only had treatment in the ER for one day. LRRK2 protein is highly expressed in immune cells. Genetic variants such as G2019S create a hyper response to infection. While that can be protective in some situations, the hypothesis is that chronic inflammation damages certain vulnerable brain cells (hence causing Parkinson’s in some people). pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs… From the paper: “It will be interesting to define if increased susceptibility of the LRRK2 KO mice to Salmonella and Listeria infection translates into protection by LRRK2 gain-of-function mutations such as the G2019S mutation. Since some of the pathogenic mutations in LRRK2 are very prevalent in human populations, it is tempting to speculate that gain of function mutations in LRRK2 are protective against certain types of infection in specific human populations and might therefore have constituted an evolutionary advantage.”

Got my MRI results today (check out my brain & spine!). My brain looks great, but it looks like we found the source of the worsening numbness and tingling in my legs. I’ve got a large 8 mm herniated disc in my L4/L5 spine. No wonder the neurologist wasn’t successful in obtaining a CSF sample with a lumbar puncture last November. Carson and I are headed to Bethesda, MD for a NIH research study in August. Looks like a lumbar puncture isn’t possible, but I can still participate in the other testing. I’m getting referred to a neurosurgeon for a consultation. Not sure if surgery would be recommended yet…might start with other conservative measures first. I’ve also got some mild degenerative changes in my cervical spine, but my lumbar spine is concerning because of my neuropathy symptoms.