alt Hacker NewsJob loss and cortisone mania
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Interesting to see Cortisone mentioned on HN. I was diagnosed with Thymus Carcinoma in 2020 (peak COVID), long story short, with God's grace - all healed in 6 months. In 2024 it reoccurred, then Chemo, then healing. 2026 has been tough for me, they found growth on one kidney, small and slowly growing, got it removed. Then doctors recommended immunotherapy, said it would be safe. But like the article, immunotherapy messed me up - extreme muscle weakness and caused inflammation in a lot of muscles even heart. Then I am on cortisone for last 2 months, getting the immunotherapy out. This has been quite hard, even harder than chemo.
Anyways, for you folks - life is a gift, I did not see many conventional "healthy" days since I turned 40, but with faith in Christ I have been healed many times, lived so many years and worked as a normal programmer. Things may have looked very difficult at some points, but faith and love of Jesus pulled me through.
If you have good health, take care of it and personally live a - "holy" life, the rest follows. I know I may sound strange but my biggest regrets have been when I messed up in life by hurting others or living selfishly with no self control.
It's kind of strange that our existence has come down to working in an often unfulfilling job almost all of our waking time, and only finding fulfillment when you're out of a job.
I've been through exactly that.. I've just completed 30, and I was lay'doff on my 29's. This such weird-dread-inducing modern world is so weird man.. In the past the anxiety of having bread next-day was completely attached to your hard-work.. nowadays it doesn't feel like that.
It fascinates me a topic that I was reading a couple days ago in a magazine (a old-professor of mine from college wrote it) about young people fantasizing about living in the past rather than the future.. and that could only mean that people is really anxious about the future.
Weird times.
Glad you seem to have found a way to deal with it. Have been dealing with a handful of severe health issues myself the last few years and it does get nightmarish at times, especially as one scratches out candidate causes.
IMO accessibility is an under-discussed benefit of the recent AI improvements. I've recovered from my RSI (typing injury) enough to use a keyboard a moderate amount but doubt I could ever go back to shredding through a codebase like I used to. In an earlier era I might have left the field entirely.
But still, even if all one has to do is read diffs and mumble to Claude, there's no getting around fatigue and brain fog when it's severe enough.
> I didn’t have any respiratory symptoms, but low energy, joint pain and general feelings of stiffness. Every move was a show of strength
This guy should get his thyroid checked.
Sorry to hear about your illness and job loss--though we don't know each other. As a fellow human, in addition to the words, I can share some of my own perspective:
The things that were meant to be, will be. That's for acceptance. But we have free will (sort of). And that's for action.
Also, highly recommend these books so that you can also take a more active role for your health (but you need to exercise extreme caution and critical thinking as some of the stuff in there may not be valid or valid anymore):
1. Back to Eden (J. Kloss) [says in one section on pregnancy that expectant mothers must avoid all meat--which is bad advice. But there are some good ones there, nevertheless]
2. Let's get well (A. Davis)
3. You can get well (A. Davis)
It was my last day at a company that was wrongfully firing me. I fought ruthlessly. In the morning I was fit and fine. By night I had a 104 F fever. It is astonishing how psychological issues significantly affect physical health.
Hi. I'm here on HN to post occasional very dry remarks, and to tell people about their autoimmune conditions. (You'll see my other post from yesterday on the ADHD story.)
You should visit this website, from a nonprofit funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, and maybe show your clinician the linked clinician guide (sift through it yourself, to see how many independent subsystems you have symptoms in).
Hadn't been out of a job for 10 years, but was still in his 6 month probationary period. Does that mean he left a job at one company for this one, only to be laid off almost immediately after??
Sorry to hear about the job loss. As for autoimmune problems: these can often be related to vitamin A and carotene. Try staying well below the vitamin A RDA for both combined for a while and get enough protein, Zinc, Molybdenum, fiber, to support the pathways that metabolize it. Not medical advice obviously, but good nutrition is important (helped my allergies, as well as diverse other conditions).
I was on Prednisone for a year I got what was described as moon face.
I didn't get any mania, but the bottle of pills had Delusions of Grandeur listed as one of the side effects, which my partner would always point out whenever I had an idea she didn't like.
Additional advice: check your blood iron levels including saturation etc. Haemochromatosis can cause same symptoms and stays undiagnosed in men for 10 years in average.
I have an autoimmune disorder and i want to warn you that stopping the steroids may cause your condition to regress quite a bit. I have used corticosteroids periodically for my condition and it helps cover the condition during disasters but theyve never caused the condition to go away, it always comes back after i stop them. Albeit in a better state i can manage more easily, but it's 100% possible to regress all the way back.
So please be careful after you're off the corticosteroids to not restart the things that might've contributed. Good luck, autoimmune disorders are hell.
Sorry that you've been going for through all of this.
For what it's worth the auto-immune issues can happen in periods of high stress. The low-energy, joint pain, etc, that could all have been a result of the stress from losing your job. The body is crazy and we underestimate the extent to which our minds and the stresses of life can influence our bodily health.
> In some phases of my life, I can take a giant step back, and look at it like from a bird’s eye view.
This is exactly what I'd be doing. Think about where the world is heading and how you might best position yourself for that world and where you want to be in it. Look at least 10 years out. Overly optimising to solve immediate problems is rarely the best move longer-term. For this reason sometimes these forced-reflection periods can be beneficial in the long-term if they shake you onto a better path.
Best of luck man. It's good to hear your optimistic. I hope everything works out exactly as you hope in the end =)
Sorry for your job loss, glad you’re feeling better. Hope you find a great gig soon.
Attitude is everything in tough situations and your positivity is inspiring; thanks for the post. Cheers
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author here: Hey, that's my post on the frontpage, what is it doing here?!?
I've been working on my blog lately, and having only a few posts up and no readership, I'm now blown away by all the comments and mails and support I'm receiving. Thank you so much everybody!
It's a privilige to live in Germany, where I have public health insurance, and access to great doctors and staff. I'm tapering off the cortisone right now (I'll be taking it for six weeks in total, so I dodge a lot the strain it can have), and am now on another medication. I don't feel comfortable sharing my condition / medication due to me being on the job hunt, but maybe one day. Thanks for all the pointers, too.