BREAKING news - Substance of unknown origin found
Please share this article with others but especially with runners. I believe this is very important for anyone but especially for active athlete to know about. Read and you will understand
Here what happen - the short story
In early August - around 9th of August 2020 I bought Mineral water of the brand San Pellegrino that I ordered weeks before from a reliable outlet in the hart of Bangkok (the capital of Thailand) that by experience sells good quality of products. A few days later when I started to consume this mineral water I got burned skin all over (see below picture). The burned skin was so bad that for the first 10 days I could only sleep around 2-3 hr per night due to the pain. Today, 6 months later you still can see the scars of burned skin. Further my nervous system in the upper body up to the top of the skull is damaged to the point where I have days and nights long itchy to painful reactions. This also many times does not let me sleep well. Running would be a good remedy to reduce the amount of pain and make me sleep better as running can create this physical tiredness. But as I can't run since I broke my foot I wonder how my health will look like in the future.
When all that happened in August, I tried to find hard evidences by bringing those bottles to Thai State run institutions with the hope a good analysis of the content would find something. Let's face it, the severity of the very obvious burns of my skin should suggest that what ever was in that bottle must have being very aggressive. And what could not be shown because it's not visible are the damages inflicted to the nervous system. When I got that Lab result back it showed "that there was nothing that suggests there was a chemical inside the drinking water!" I also have to mention that this Lab can only measure a substance if greater 1 ppm (parts per million) but not beyond 5 ppm. Anything below or above is not measurable with their machines. So if there was something unusual inside - it must have being really an aggressive substance but low in concentration or aggressive but low in volume.
That result of course was not to my satisfaction (due to the very obvious appearance) based on the thoughts I just wrote above. I started to do some homework and digging and persuasions with the hope of finding a "second opinion" Lab and/or facility to redo an analysis. And Yes - I was successful. We submitted all that was requested and then just needed to wait. And now it seems "they found a substance of unknown origin". Remember, San Pellegrino Mineral Water has according to their labels nothing in it then pure water. So if anything is found other than mineral water AND looking at the pictures of damages done to my body we then can ASSUME the substance found (even we don't know the name of it) must be there through outside involvement. Let me add another point just for the sake of marking the difference; only 2 weeks after I was hit with that chemical I went back to the same store and bought San Pellegrino Mineral water in 1 liter bottles BUT took it from the selves, paid and went home. I drank for the next 4 days one bottle a day. And I had no additional pain, no worsening of skin condition, no reemerging of pain driven sleepless nights. Further, as of today I am still buying the same mineral water from the same place but only taking it from the selves. I am no more placing orders - not safe anymore as placing an order means nothing is under your control.
Let me give you my thoughts why I strongly believe that this drinking water I bought on order was purposefully tampered with dangerous substances. At this moment I do not know details of found substance or substances there is, nor do I know what it supposed to achieve, and nor do I know the origin and or name of that product. I only know what damage it has done to me. I'm now explaining in details how the "ordering process" went. I'm sure you will agree that there is plenty of room for speculations.
In mid July of 2020 I went to said super market and placed an order for three (3) boxes of Gatorade Sport Drink and two (2) boxes of San Pellegrino Mineral Water in 1 liter bottles. It was not the first time I placed such an order. Also it's not the first time I'm shopping there. In fact I do 90% of my grocery shopping at this same place. I clearly remembered they said that they need about 3 days to process and prepare orders. Ok, 4 days later I went there alas nothing was ready. I repeated my order having one woman staff beside me who speaks excellent English. She confirmed that within one week I can pick it up. There was a delay in either Gatorade and/or San Pellegrino water. Just to note, the shelves where full of the mineral water but can't say this about Gatorade. Unfortunately that week I could not go as promised to pick up my order but informed them I would come on Sunday. Weekend is always the best time for me to pickup goods to bring home. But alas, when I arrived nothing was ready again. They postponed the delivery without clear reasons. Again and for the records, the shelves where full of San Pellegrino of 1 liter bottles. Finally on Sunday 9th of August 2020 - 3 weeks after the first placing of order - I collected my order and brought it home.
In the middle of that following week I started to drink water from that order. I drank Gatorade after running in the morning and late afternoon I drank a bottle of San Pellegrino. It was on Sunday 16th August after passing a terrible night I went to see my coach at the gym. At that time I had no idea what happened to me. My upper part of the body but mainly the left side and my neck was in full pain and all very stiff. It's not an ordinary stiffness. It felt like you can follow the progress of becoming stiff by the minutes. Also it felt like I was exposed to a huge fire. At that moment we could not see anything on my skin. After seeing my coach and after he helped me to stretch my shoulder and neck part my coach noticed blisters on my neck. The skin color was normal and not visibly noticeable. The rest of the day I had no pain or maybe some little pain. The previous night was terrible and the pain was so big that I wasn't able to stay in bed for 10-15 minutes. I walked, sat on other places, tried to go back to sleep. But nothing helped relieve me of that burning pain. Please remember that at this moment "I had no clue what caused this issue". Back home and in late afternoon I drank again San Pellegrino water from that same order (with no doubt I love this bubbling water). And a bit later in the evening that same burning pain came back. That night I again couldn't sleep more than 2-3 hours. I tried to brainstorm to find the cause of this problem. As the pain only restarted in the evening, I had to suspect that there is an issue with the water I bought on order. On this third day I stopped drinking water from that that same order. And the result could not be clearer. I had no additional pain on this third day. But the damage was done already. My skin color was red from from being burned. At some places I had open wounds and I felt the impact up to the top of my skull. For the following nearly 2 weeks I wasn't able to sleep properly. To my amaze, a few weeks after I started to have a complete paralysis on the left side of my face. I couldn't move anything, not my lips, my mouth, no smile, even my left eye was affected. I could not close my eye properly also I could not blink what is extremely important to moisture your eye ball. My vision decreased. Of course I went to see a Skin specialist and Neurologist. Their comments was that I contracted "Herpes Zoster" either through "Airborne Chickenpox or Direct Contact" (what ever that means). And about the face paralysis it was referred to "Bell's palsy". In both cases the hospital prescribed some medications. I have taken only the one that eased a bit the pain. But like Bell's Palsy I ignored the medication because I didn't believe it that diagnosis. The face paralysis was over after 10 days. The Herpes Zoster diagnosis is surely highly inaccurate also.
You can now understand that I don't believe "ordinary" medical services will be helpful. That is why I had to dig further down myself to find the truth. Experts have strongly advised me at least for now, not to release any details of who made this first discovery. For now this "unknown substance" I consider to be a great win for me. I truly hope they can find further details.
The most important questions now for me are; [1] what harm does this substance create to the body, [2] what are the long term consequences, [3] can a name be associated to this substance, [4] and this one is important - does the severity of injury that occurred on 1st December 2020 (read here and here and here) have anything to do with this "Unknown Substance"? I'm not saying the accident had something to do with it, BUT I question the severity of the injury. Don't forget, "this is my very first runners related injury in over 30 years of running AND it is only my second sport related injury in my life time" (the first one dates back 50 years), and this is the first time ever I broke a bone. There are legitimate questions that demands an answer and I do hope we can find those. Let's see what 2021 will bring.
This Is A Developing Story!
Please share this article with others especially with runners. This is a developing story. I believe this is very important for anyone but especially for active athlete. I sure gona write later on what the impact is on people like you and me.