On 3/19/2026 the results of my labs ordered by a neurologist (a voltage-gated-calcium-channel antibody, VGCC-Ab, test) came back as 79.8 pmol/L. That’s in the high range (normal is 30 pmol/L). In lay terms, this means I tested positive for Lampert Eaton’s Myasthenic Syndrome (LEMS). LEMS is a paraneoplastic syndrome that is usually associated with some type of cancer, most commonly small cell lung cancer (SCLC), an aggressive metastatic type of lung cancer.
Since 7/2024, I had reported to sick call at FCI Pekin and FCI Thomson with well-document symptoms of adenopathy. Most of my issues have been in the axillary (thoracic) nodes, starting at pea size and now presenting at over 6-8cm or ping pong size with significant pain and tenderness. I have even filed BPs to get help and got the standard BOP BS back. Several outside specialists also noted the severe enlargement of the axillary nodes and even diagnosed me with adenopathy using an ICD-10-CM diagnostic code that the BOP providers have refused to move over to my BOP Health Problems List as a diagnosis.
The BOP’s denial of my health issue and its great delays in any testing, referrals and treatment has likely taken days if not months off my life. I cannot get the testing or the CTs required by my neurologist done due to an overwhelmed public health system some 1.5 hours away that does not like taking inmates.
Update: I finally got a CT but it’s been eight days and no one will give me any information concerning its findings. The nurse told when I went to sick call this week that she could not discuss them until the regional medical director or acting clinical director signs off on them. Thomson doesn’t feel any need to hurry the results or to advise me. I sit sit here as a medical care 4 some 90 days after being approved for a transfer to a medical center and was told by the nurse it could be a year before I leave — IF I leave.
The background: Staff doesn’t want any inmates to get a final diagnosis that might get them out the door with a compassionate release/reduction in sentence. I have 16 outside consults approved by the URC and 10 of those are set for appointments. My 770 medical transfer is approved, but there’s no bed space. What they’ve done in the past is transfer me before I get anything finalized. So then I have to start all over again.
I am getting zero treatment for my LEMS, rheumatoid arthritis, cervical spinal cord damage, lumbar DDD, COPD (I cannot use a CPAP/BIPAP due to esophageal issues) bulbar ALS (provisional diagnosis), polyneuropathy, and nerve damage. The meds for the LEMS, RA, ALS, polyneuropathy and nerve damage are non-formulary because they are too expensive.
I am told at any sick call, that I am a unicorn with too many diseases that are untreatable by the FBOP so why are you here? We cannot do anything. The HSA and my doctor there is NO WAY I will get the treatments I need much less in the period I need them in. But they refuse to put me in for compassionate release.
When I do finally get my formal diagnosis for ALS they cannot document it because the BPA504 does not allow it; it’s not in their 200 allowable codes. Ironically, none of the 200 codes are CR-eligible.
Health care is getting worse here. We have two NPs to do everything — NO doctors. The NPs are tired and cranky and just skim through people now to get by. They have also reduced the out trips for Medical to just two a week due to staffing issues, cancelling three of my trips already and another 12 for other inmates.
Just this week, another inmate had an emergency during the night. His emergency button did not work and after three hours of banging on the door by his cellmate, a CO came to check. The inmate was coughing up bright red blood. The CO called the lieutenant, who told the inmate it was not an emergency and to go to sick call the next day. He merely told his cellmate to move his bedding from the top bunk to the floor “to make sure he did not fall off his bunk and get hurt.” The following morning the inmate went to Medical and had to be AIRLIFTED to the hospital in critical condition. As of now, his condition is unknown.
This is the eighth time this year that the emergency buttons did not work. More inmates have died of health-related issues in the past 16 months than from abuse when this place was a SMU. Something must change. Inmates are dying due to the BOPs neglect.