The two videos posted here are from last year. The first one is the same one they are running in a nationwide campaign this year as well edited to this years dates. Couldn’t find one on youtube so… The dates for this years UFO Festival in Roswell, NM are July 3 thru 6.
I thought I knew what Pain was. I have experienced some severe pain at different times of my life. I live in a world of constant pain and have fooled myself into believing I knew the worst. I was wrong.
Being the anti narcotic freak I am I chose not to have pain medicine during the post surgery part of the treatment procedure I went through Tuesday and Wednesday. The surgeon inserted a catheter into my back so I could have injections directly to the damaged area in and around my lower spine. The injections had enzymes that break up scar tissue but don’t affect the nerves. The doctor had told me that they would cause “extreme discomfort” so I translated that to mean they would hurt really bad. I didn’t know the agony they would bring. I was brought to tears yesterday morning. I have never experienced pain so extreme.
Doctor Alexander is kind, helpful and very understanding. Even though she knows my adamant stand against my narcotic intake she still recommended the pain meds. Since they wouldn’t let me smoke my weed up there I told her I wasn’t going to have anything. She tried, so the pain I went through was all my fault. When the first post surgery injection hit I felt like my legs had been dipped into boiling water. The severe screaming pain lasted about 5 minutes.
I considered the meds seriously after that injection. When the pain subsided my stubbornness kicked back in and I opted to go through it with the next injections without drugs. I am not sure if I did the right thing but I paid for it.
I felt great between injections and walked around the hospital freely. Feeling kinda grungy I asked the nurse about a razor and a comb. She disappeared into a closet for a moment and returned with both a comb and an old fashioned safety razor. I combed my long hair and prepped my face for shaving. Having scraped my face with disposable shavers with angled blades for so many years I forgot the old style razors were different. Whacked my cheeks and chin up quite severly. I have many cuts to show for it.
Even though the food was bad….not good doesn’t describe it….it was bad, I had a quite pleasant stay in the hospital. I met an old guy that was in extreme pain. He was waiting for a procedure when I met him and he was just down the hall from me the next morning. When I dropped by his room yesterday he smiled and said, “There’s that nice young man from yesterday”. I haven’t been called “young man” for years but when an 84 year old brother calls me that I know 50 seems quite young to him. I visited with a sweet dietician and some kind student nurses. I had a nice physical therapist stop by with instructions on the exercises I need to do to keep better. The nurses aides were all very nice and the lady who cleaned my room was so wonderful. I was so happy to have so many wonderful folks around to help I feel blessed. They were all great and then there was Valerie.
Early Wednesday morning I went out front to have a smoke. The parking lot was empty so I didn’t have to go far to be isolated and not worry about getting caught. They did tell me to bring any regular pain meds with me so the joints I had were following directions…or so I tell myself. I got a nice little buzz on and wandered back into the hospital to await my next scheduled injection. (turned out that was a couple hours away so I shoulda waited to have the weed) I walked back into the wing my room was in and saw a stunning woman walking down the hall towards me.
“Rocky, I presume.” she said. “I’m Valerie and I’ll be your nurse today. Doctor Alexander will be up shortly but for now is there anything I can do for you?”
Her sincere smile made her even more beautiful. Her friendly attitude and the obvious care for her patients made me feel comfortable and I knew that I would be cared for well. I wasn’t disappointed. Her kindness lasted all day. I’m sure I bugged her but she treated me as if she had nothing else to do except care for me. We all know that nurses do all of the work and the doctors couldn’t even find their own prescription pad without them so we know she was busy but she never let on that I wasn’t the most important patient in her day.
Her smile was unwavering. Her sweetness never faded, even for a frustrated moment. She jumped to help and even took time to chat for a minute here and there. Cheery and happy she made my ordeal much easier. The pain faded quickly because of her presence. I thought when I left…”Damn. If I were only 20 years younger”.
Yeah….she was that special.
All in all it wasn’t a bad experience. The pain was intense but brief. The care was good and even though I had to go to the cafeteria to get Rice Krispies (no way the hospital cooks can screw up cereal) I feel rewarded by the people that came into my life. Even if it was during a short stay in the hospital.
Today has been filled with those pre-surgery jitters and other weirdnesses that come with getting ready for a hospital stay. I am kinda scared. This is my spine they are going to be cutting into and the percentage of success is about 60%. While the chance of paralysis is there it is less than the chance if the procedure isn’t done. So naturally I am terrified.
I will be absent for at least 2 days and mayhap longer.
But, as usual I have been doing the familiar. Puttering around the house with music blaring. Today it has had a great deal of Grateful Dead mixed in. Comfortable with the tunes I relax more when Jerry is singing in that cracked, raspy voice he had. Kinda makes me feel that everything will turn out ok in the end.
I was in Monterrey when the band filmed this video. It was a series of daytime shows and the first day every one was wondering why the elaborate light show array was set up. That night, about the time the Monterrey Bay fog was rolling in over the hills surrounding the Laguna Seca Raceway some hippies came around the campground announcing a free show. We went back into the music arena and were treated to the filming of this video. It took multiple nights to film it and the campground scene called us back but I was there in that crowd for quite a while 2 nights running.
It kinda describes how I am feeling right now. A little blue, a little weird and”A Touch Of Grey”.
The media is somehow making a story of this. I guess they think the non-thinking Rush O’Reilly folks need another outdated Clinton/Reno thing to whine about other than presidential splooge on an interns dress.
The headlines blaze the fact that Elian Gonzalez joined the communist party. He was one of 18 thousand kids that were inducted last week.
It’s expected of the Cuban school kids.
I’m still wondering why this is news. “Story” From MSNBC
In this election year I have been wondering how to cast my vote. Not totally on board with Obama I am searching for a reason to support a candidate. I found this little ad that makes me rethink everything I have said so far. Take a look and see if it can help convince you to vote Republican as well.
Shell shock, now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is claiming casualties all over our country. Soldiers come home not always able to make the distinction of being here or back under attack. Victims of the war even while back in peaceful surroundings.
I knew a Viet Nam veteran who was an officer in that conflict. Crazy George, as he was known by everyone, was a jumble of paranoid nerves that was always set to explode. His trips to the V A hospital to get his meds sometimes led to extended stays in the psych ward for a few months. I have seen him hide from “Charlie” when an Asian person walked by. He was always looking around sure someone was out to get him. Years after the conflict in Viet Nam was over he still lived in the jungle…in his mind.
In trying to help him they experimented with drugs and therapy to no avail. He couldn’t come home, always staying behind to be with his “brovets” (as Buzz calls them) that didn’t survive. He fought back against all those he felt were threats and was eventually shot to death by the Baton Rouge City Police while laying on his back, unarmed, in his own bedroom. (RIP my old friend)
Alicia at Last Left Turn Before Hooterville wrote about the hell that is coming back from war. Quite a disturbing post considering my old friend was just one victim of this horrible way of life returning vets face. So many new faces of this horrible condition are showing up in our hometowns as kids…yes kids…(I mean no disrespect at all as most of the soldiers fighting in Iraq weren’t even born by the time I finished college)…return home with fresh horror every day.
So they put them on new experimental drugs. Chantix is the popular one now. It, like so many other “anti-depressant” drugs is linked to violence and suicide. ABC’s Good Morning America did a story about this this morning. I haven’t figgered a way to embed the vids from there so I will post this link to ‘Disposable Heroes’: Veterans Used To Test Suicide-Linked Drugs. The story from this morning along with the vid clip I want you to see.
I guess there are many more casualties than the 4100 official KIA’s the DOD lets us know about.
Again I ask that everyone do whatever it takes to let the powers that be know we don’t want our fellow Americans over there anymore.
The Big Muddy is set to overflow in Iowa and Illinois. The levee system there isn’t high enough to keep the big river back.
Reading so much about this brings me back to when I left Louisiana on the Thursday morning after Katrina hit. Days after the flooding started FEMA is still asessing the way to help. Not really doing much except looking.
We left that day heading west on Hwy. 190 til we got to I-49 north at Opelousas. There were rescue crews form all points north and west lined up on the shoulder of the freeway headed south towards New Orleans. I-49 ends at Lafayette and Hwy 90 continues to N.O. from there. The FEMA rats had all of the volunteers stopped and forbidden to go any farther. Fire departments, water rescue groups and hospital/emergency health folks had poured from their hometowns to rush to the needs of a city which had fallen to disaster, but the feds wouldn’t allow them to go do the work they had gone for.
I wonder if the people of Iowa and Illinois will think about this response and equate it to the FEMA disaster that was the Gulf Coast just a couple of years ago. Wonder if they will vote according to the response come November.
(UPDATE) Sorry if I gave the impression we were Katrina Victims. We had moved to Roswell one month before and had just returned to get our last load of furniture and stuff. We were just as appaled as we would have been if we had still lived there though. We were some of the lucky ones.
Alien Trucker
June 29th, 2008 by Rocky 
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