About the pig glands and why I haven't reported.
I hadn't mentioned that I took a fall on my studio steps just before Christmas. It was a very bad fall that had me shoot out about 4 feet, so, that I landed 6 feet down the stairs; pelvis and sacrum right on the tread edge. Oweee!
My back has been a mess since I blew a disc out in '86. Its now bone on bone at L5-S1 and the fall and the little fractures didn't help at all. But aside from having a really black bruise covering my butt and most of my back it wasn't all that bad. So, when the swelling and bruise subsided in January I went to take my trip to the doctor. Down the Alaska Highway and there I was.
Things went along swimmingly for quite awhile, even got back from Monterrey to Espanola and wrote the little piece about the trip. Then I decided to get some dental work done in Juarez.
Now Juarez is only about 360 miles from Espanola. Shouldn't matter much to someone who has driven 7500 miles in the last two weeks but....
I had the tooth pulled and a temporary bridge put in. Wonderful dentists. A whole team worked on me father, two daughters, and the periodontist. And, they scheduled appointments for two days next week to fit and install the permanent bridge.
I get back to Espanola for a couple of days. Now, nothing ever seems simple with me, including: why did my back go out? Was it the now more than 8000 miles? or?....
I was taking Dalacin C for the bone infection and B12 injections for the pig thing. Anyway, I take my last B12 and a few minutes later it seems every muscle in my body cramps and my joints ache like crazy. About an hour later I'm going down the steps and my pelvis tweaks about 1/2" down and forward on the left, at least thats what shows on the xray. What's ever left of the l5 disk goes crazy and the lowerback muscles go into spasm and within an hour both sciatic nerves are whacked out.
Its pretty late at night so I drive myself to the emergency room. The doctor sends me home with some percacets and valium. She says I need more but since I brought myself over too bad.
So I go back to J.D.'s. The medication doesn't do squat. At 3:00a I wake J.D. and ask him to take me to the hospital. Morphine and Flexerol injections and some peace for an hour or two. This is pretty much the last thing I remember from February 9 'till the 17th. Lucky me in a way, I was in hell.
I know we went back to Juarez and they finished my bridge and I remember a torture chamber and Mexican women with hot oil pounding and kneeding my muscles, I briefly remember seeing the sign for the hospital in Las Cruces. I don't recall Julie coming or the flight to Alaska or even the ride home from the airport.
Fentanyl, 80 times more powerful than morphine does that. It screws up the memory. Its a lipid binder and certainly works for pain but the price....
The thing to expose or mention about all this, despite the xrays, ct scans, 6 hospitals, and 6 doctors (7 if you count my doctor in Alaska), even the chiropractor in Espanola: the only real examination was done by the accupuncturist! That's right, he was the only one to actually look at the problem and diagnose correctly the situation and recommend I get home immediately for treatment. I wish I remembered it.
Back to the pigs.....
Well my blood pressure is stable at 125/80 without medication, not great, but not bad for a 55 year old guy still in pain. My glucose meter broke...but I'm on my way to the P.O. to get the new one...I'll let you know what it says.
So my glucose seems stable at 98...that is not diabetic! Guess them piggies are workin'!
