Hey Andy,this post just broke my heart,i cannot even imagine what you must be feeling,i myself have drifted away from the forum but its a place i can never forget,had it not been for you or this forum i don't know how i would have taken care of my child the way i did,so thank you for that , may you have all the peace you deserve.Love,Zaini.

Lisa,
It's your birthday and I never forget. Happy Birthday.

This year, Pat went to join you. It was just last month and after her 6 year fight against cancer, she left to go back home. When my dad left, you were there to comfort me and help me along. When you left, Pat was my rock and supported me through the long months of sadness that followed. No one is here for me to fill that role this time. I stopped participating regularly in thalpal when Pat was diagnosed 6 years ago, so I could focus on helping her and I don't know if I can once again redirect my focus and come back here. It's going to take time for me to feel any kind of normal and I know I have no ability to offer support when I am constantly sad. I hope you understand how hard it's been in recent years. Watching my wife slowly die has left me feeling empty and alone.

I guess I can say .. I told ya so ..
"Iron Load Toxicity in Medicine: From Molecular and Cellular Aspects to Clinical Implications"
Abstract
Iron is essential for all organisms and cells. Diseases of iron imbalance affect billions of patients, including those with iron overload and other forms of iron toxicity. Excess iron load is an adverse prognostic factor for all diseases and can cause serious organ damage and fatalities following chronic red blood cell transfusions in patients of many conditions, including hemoglobinopathies, myelodyspasia, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Similar toxicity of excess body iron load but at a slower rate of disease progression is found in idiopathic haemochromatosis patients. Excess iron deposition in different regions of the brain with suspected toxicity has been identified by MRI T2* and similar methods in many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Based on its role as the major biological catalyst of free radical reactions and the Fenton reaction, iron has also been implicated in all diseases associated with free radical pathology and tissue damage. Furthermore, the recent discovery of ferroptosis, which is a cell death program based on free radical generation by iron and cell membrane lipid oxidation, sparked thousands of investigations and the association of iron with cardiac, kidney, liver, and many other diseases, including cancer and infections. The toxicity implications of iron in a labile, non-protein bound form and its complexes with dietary molecules such as vitamin C and drugs such as doxorubicin and other xenobiotic molecules in relation to carcinogenesis and other forms of toxicity are also discussed. In each case and form of iron toxicity, the mechanistic insights, diagnostic criteria, and molecular interactions are essential for the design of new and effective therapeutic interventions and of future targeted therapeutic strategies. In particular, this approach has been successful for the treatment of most iron loading conditions and especially for the transition of thalassemia from a fatal to a chronic disease due to new therapeutic protocols resulting in the complete elimination of iron overload and of iron toxicity.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37629109/

i'm just turned 64.  Was diagnosed beta thal in my mid 20s.  Unusually for a beta thal person i have pretty serious hypertension.

The last 8-9 months i've been taking 500mg magnisium daily.  It's helped lower my BP by a lot.  i don't understand why.  Just know that if i stop taking it for a day or 2 then my BP is up high again.

Been on around 6000IU daily of vitamin D3 since Covid-19 started, and that's had a lot of benefits, but it didn't do anything for my BP.

The benefit i can most easily experience from vitamin D3 supplementation is that now i don't seem to any more be susceptible to respiratory infections as i have been all my life.  Used to catch the flu a few times a year and it'd completely sideline me for a month.  i'd catch bad pneumonia every couple years.

Haven't caught flu once since i started supplementing with vitamin D3.

Altho, the masking probably has something to do with that.  i still wear one when i go to public places where there're lots of people.

Lisa left us 20 years ago. Her memory lives forever.
I want to wish Lisa a Happy Birthday in Heaven. Smile down on us, Lisa. We need some blessings.