Hey People! It’s been a while since I’ve posted to the blog here. As some of you may know from Facebook, I was in the hospital yet again. This time was a lot different from what started the Crohn’s  Flare to the stay in the hospital and probably will change many aspects of my life from here on out. It was NOT my usual trip to the hospital compared to the other posts I’ve made. It actually starts with a toothache if you can believe that!

Two weeks or so before I was admitted I started having trouble with a god damn tooth. It had a crown but that had come loose and the dentist said I probably needed a root canal…which I thought I had because I had a crown. I’m still not sure on that one but that was the least of my troubles. The damn thing hurt like hell. I was given several antibiotics ( I’ll add the names of those antibiotics next edit ) because none of them seemed to work. The down side with giving antibiotics to a person, or me in this case, with Crohn’s is that not only do they kill infections but they also kill the good bugs in your guts. Antibiotics are a delicate balancing act for us Crohnies. The doctors aren’t sure but all seem to believe that the antibiotics certainly didn’t help my guts. But given the fact that there aren’t really any other alternatives when dealing with a painfully infected tooth I really had no choice. Long story short on the tooth thing, I ended up just saying fuck it and had the dentist pull the bastard! I was however too late, the flare was in motion. And so, it came on pretty heavy duty. I didn’t go back to the hospital by ambulance this time! I actually didn’t think I’d be admitted however, since par for the course is; I go to the ER, they load me up on junk, after 5/6 hours or so they send me home, where I get sick again, return, repeat. Not this time surprisingly!

In the X-ray’s of my guts they notice nodules on my lungs. It was the sarcoidosis! It appears and it disappears on my lungs from time to time and this time they apparently decided to show up. Doctors decided to admit me because of the Crohn’s and because they wanted to do an MRI biopsy and get the low down on these nodules. Ok! I’m up for anything you wanna try. So the next day they get me down to do the biopsy. It’s a good thing I made one of my trademark stupid comments, because if I hadn’t mentioned “Dr. Goober ( his real name ) had farted around with my sarcoidosis back in 2008 and probably left his gum on my lung” which stopped the surgery dead in its tracks before anything started, I would of had to endure yet another form of poking & prodding. I guess the doctors didn’t read back far enough to find out that we had established I had sarcoidosis since 2008. Granted, my case file is about 4 inches thick but,…

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I haven’t been as quick to jump on the Twitter Bandwagon as most of my friends and colleges ( ie: geeks & nerds ) and not because I don’t like “tweeting” or using the word tweet. Fuckin’ A Tweet has been one of my favorite sayings for decades.

No, what I was worried about was the ownership of the tweets. It had been a gray area for awhile. What’s gotten me off my ass to finally start using Twitter was a personal assurance from Twitter themselves in response to a posting I made elsewhere. I say elsewhere because I really don’t know where it was that I had posted about my concerns, I do that a lot. Apparently I was quite vocal on whatever blog I posted on and they, Twitter, felt the need to clarify with me personally that they don’t own my tweets and that I do. And so I now encourage you to follow me on Twitter as well now.

Those of you who follow my facebook postings will know what to expect when I post on Twitter. Inevitably I will repost some of the crap that I post on facebook. Maybe some shortened versions of my so called pearls of wisdom. But I will also include some of the mundane daily events in my life because for some reason people find that stuff interesting. Being sick, trying to get off of pain killers, and just daily living sometimes is tricky for me and worthy of sharing with you all. I hope some of the babble I put forth can actually help others, but its also kinda fun to make you laugh as well.

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Radical attempt for pain relief.

I recently had surgery ( on August 26th, 2011 ) to deaden the nerves in my guts to FINALLY eliminate some if not all of my abdominal pain. Its by no means a cure, and the chances are very good the nerves will re-route themselves and the pain could return. Could be in 3 months or 3 weeks. It may never come back but those of you who have read about my shitty health and rotten luck know that the chances of that happening are pretty slim. I’ll take what I can get tho, just a few hours of relief are worth it.

The surgery was done by Dr. Al Tamimi. I really like that guy. He hate’s making small talk, so of course I annoy the shit out of him by trying to get him to make, you know,…..small talk. Social skills aside he’s one helluva doctor and I completely trust him. I have seen well over 30 doctors since becoming sick in 2003. Probably more than that if you count various ER doctors ( see the post below for a story of a run in with a jackass doctor ).

The next step is for me to do something I’ve been wanting to do since all this started. GET OFF THE JUNK! I did it before but it was kind of pointless. Getting off the pain meds while in a ton of pain obviously makes no sense at all. The problem was the pain med dosage was very high and I wasn’t getting any relief. I don’t know if getting off the Oxy’s for a few months helped but when I went back on them, they worked better than before. Still, a high dose – and of course they aren’t good for your other organs. I have heart issues now that are directly connected to the pain meds. Of course, and ironically for me, it also isn’t good for the liver!

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I took half, no drugs for you!

Chances are if you are here you know I am in the hospital yet again. Same old tired story; a Crohn’s Flare, my heart is doing the poopie dance, extreme PAIN, uncontrollable barfin’ and generally feelin’ like shit. So needless to say I certainly did not need to go thru the horse shit I had to go thru in the ER at Littleton Adventist Hospital.

It started like this. As soon as I got up I knew I was going to be sick. As things usually go I started throwing up. What sucks the most about throwing up is I throw up all my medication. I’m on such high doses, especially of pain meds ( which I am in the process of trying to ween off of ) that if I don’t get a full dose in me and keep it in me I’ll eventually start withdrawing.

Shels called the ambulance,…my good friends at Elk Creek who know me since I’m a frequent flyer. Besides the fact that they were training a new guy who couldn’t start my I.V. once that was taken care of they loaded me up with anti-barf’n medication as well as some pain meds. And its down the hill and to the ER we go.

The first time.

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Wow.

Our cool li'l duder, Dweez

It’s been a helluva week. At the age of 5, Dweezil “the Buddy” our black pug went BLIND, rather suddenly. Roughly about a week ago the normally upbeat albeit crazy hyper Dweezil suddenly seemed depressed for lack of a better word. My wife even took him across the street to the Vet, believe it or not – it’s his favorite place to go. He likes to visit Dr. Heidi there. We thought that would cheer him up. It sort of did, but you could tell there was something wasn’t right with him. And then I took him to play ball on the front deck.

He seemed fine at first and then the big orange ball that’s almost the same size as him rolled past him and he didn’t see it. Right then and there I knew and my eyes filled up with tears. He may have had a little site then but it quickly got to the point where Dweezil was bumping into tables and walls and such. My wife Shels was and actually still is pretty devastated. It breaks my heart to see our most outgoing, friendly, playful Pug radically change like this, for now. I hope.
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Inventor of the original "D'oh!"

If you are even slightly a fan of old time comedy shorts, I’m sure you have seen this “THAT GUY”! James Finlayson was born in Falkirk, Scotland on the 27th of August 1887. He served his apprentiship as a panel beater. ( No idea what that is ) As well as the Hal Roach Studios, James worked for Mack Sennet and LKO.

Bald-pated, handlebar-mustachioed actor, remembered for his “double take,” who was often Stan and Ollie’s foil in Laurel & Hardy shorts and feature films for more than a decade through 1940.

Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, has said that Homer’s “D’oh!” was inspired by James Finlayson’s use of the same exclamation.

His famous moustache was a phoney that he only wore in films. He appeared in 33 Laurel and Hardy films. James died on the 9th of October 1953 of a heart attack.

Read more about James Finlayson on Wikipedia

That’s how much I just shelled out for medication!

A tad expensive?

Yes, Three Thousand Seventy Nine Dollars and Seventy Five God Damn Cents! For Cimzia, a realtively new Crohn’s drug. Let me back up a bit. Some of you who follow me on Facebook may be aware that I have been in and out of the hospital several times over the last 3 months. This has been an especially bad flare up for me. The last stay my doc’s decided to try yet another drug on me called Cimzia. Two injections in the stomach. Fun Fun. The thing is you have to have a series of injections when you start taking this medication, like every two weeks and then it’s once a month,…I believe.

The kicker here is, there’s no way of telling if this is going to work or not unless I start the process so I am literally gambling on the hope that this time Cimzia will work for me. Cimzia is alot like the Humira that I took and didn’t work…and like Remicade ( which gave me serum sickness ) which needless to say also didn’t work on me.

Without getting too far into the nuts & bolts of this crap, these drugs are either RAT or HUMAN based drugs. The DNA or some shit is used, whatever it is it creeps me out so I try not to think of THAT part too much. Click the links for the drugs in this post if you wanna know more about the Franken-science aspect of them. (continue reading…)

Beware, Scammers are EVERYWHERE!

While I myself have never been taken by a online scam I have seen how it can ruin peoples lives. The thing is usually the scammer isn’t some internet genius running a well thought out scam. Its some low life former Soviet Block piece of shit or a bunch of knuckleheads in Africa or Asia pulling their scams from Internet Cafe’s. Sure it can be good ol’ Americans too.

The biggest cog in the scam machine isn’t some software or web site hack it’s the USER who either ignores the tell tale signs, the obvious signs, or blindly races in ignoring their instincts. Chief amongst those signs is the oldest words of caution that have existed since the invention of advertising. “…if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.” There now is a new breed of scammer. They run commercials on TV and try to pull you in with incredible deals. There are also scams that appear to sell overstocked items, or legal seizure of assets. So how does this work, and what are your options?

Two things, one they all work in slightly different ways but I’ll try to break it down and two, these scams usually leave you unable to do anything, you are left holding the bag. That’s what makes it frustrating, after all is said and done and you look at the big picture in hind-sight you have no one to blame but yourself most of the time. Of course you never would of made any mistakes if these scammer bastards didn’t post their scams in the first place.

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Kind of literally. It’s time for one of those bitchin’ about my health posts including my Crohn’s situation, my heart developments, and just the general state of feeling like shit. This is by no means a pity post. The best way sometime to see results is to put this kind of stuff out there and see where the chips may fall. I do so at the risk of getting some well meaning but not really helpful suggestions. Trust me, I’ve heard most of them. They are like a bad penny,…um whatever the hell that means.

They're out to get me!

Some of you ( and I thank you ) have read my previous posts on my many hospital stays. This post is not about that stuff. This post is basically to share the fact that I am at my wits end with this disease. I know for a fact that many people, unlike me, lead very productive lives with Crohn’s. My situation is different. All those with Crohn’s have different situations and I understand that. I’m posting to get the message out that I need to approach this thing a different way. I am willing to travel to any part of the planet just to have a day where I don’t feel like ass.

So lets back up here and explain a few things, like what I deal with. I always wake up with gut pain. I take meds before bed and I do get OK sleep, sure that could be better too. But my day starts with pain. So the pills are popped and the morning ruined as I wait for things to kick in. Kick in enough for me to be able to sit upright. Thats an accomplishment. Some days when I get past the start of my day one would see me and think I am 100% healthy. Partly I put on a good game face but sometimes, yeah, I feel OK. But at some point that will fade away. I still have blood in my stool. I still run to the head 6 – 10 times a day. When I do have a doctors appointment, other than with my G.P. Dr. Scheeler ( who at least gets some things rolling in the right direction ) it’s usually radiating me in some diabolical machine that, thanks to 6 years of testing, give me a fear – claustrophobia that is off the scale so I have anxiety and usually can’t go thru with the tests. Physically I get sicker. Its lame, I know that. I try to endure it. It doesn’t work and usually my protests fall on deaf ears. Dr. Scheeler already thinks I have had way too much radiation as it is. I joke and I say “Cure me before you kill me – yes, its on a T-shirt now! ) but it’s true.

Dr. Sabel at South Denver G.I. has basically thrown his hands up in a matter of speaking. You know he’s at his wits end when he’s the one suggesting I get a second opinion, and he’s the best in the Denver area. I’m proud to have him as a doctor and since we’ve known each other so long I can call him friend and know he’s giving it to me straight, and he really doesn’t know what to do with me at this point. He suggested The University of Chicago’s Gastroenterology Department. I’ve also looked at Penn State Hershey Gastroenterology – UCLA’s Digestive Disease Center – Hell even the Royal College of Physicians & The British Society of Gastroenterology in London. I wouldn’t rule out Gastroenterology in China for Christ’s sake! Like I said, I will go to ends of the earth to find some kind of relief. (continue reading…)

I just bought a couple hundred bucks worth of software for doing podcasts so I really do hope someone plans on listening to this crap I plan on doing.

Top Secret Plans for the max murdok program

I entertained the idea of doing the “show” live but it really is a logistical nightmare for one person. If I had more people involved it would be a different story. I may, who knows, do a show or two live for shits n giggles but with being sick every other Thrusday doing podcasts seem easier. For starters I’m going to do a show every um,…time I feel like it. I’d like to do one show a week but since I haven’t done this I don’t think I’ll plan on a weekly thing. If things go great then maybe, yeah.

Topics will be almost no existent since everything is a topic in my opinion. Saying I have a topic in mind is pointless. But so we will have something to talk about I will post some of the ideas here and on facebook because that is where YOU come in. Yes YOU!

A lot of this show will need you’re involvement. Since I have no set duration in mind for the show, no set start or end time, having you “call” in and shoot the shit will be a big part. Of course I will rattle on about god knows what, play some music, do some news – the lame typical shit, the real meat n taters will hopefully come from you guys. It’ll work this way. You’ll need Skype, or AIM/Instant Messenger, Yahoo Chat, MSN chat whatever the hell else is out there for chatting and a MIC. Yes, you are to be recorded. You ring me up once the show starts and we go from there. If you do not have a mic, break the hell down and get one. I’ll friggin get you one as long as you call in and say funky stuff or whatever. Most computers have mic’s – they are like $10 bucks. Get a MIC already would ya? As for screennames & such to use to contact me & the show I will probably make a few new ones and post those later. Just be prepared would you? I may even take phone calls. Yes, on an actual phone.

How will you know when to call? Well prior to when I plan on doing the show I will work up some topics, content, horseshit and set a time on when I plan to actually record the show. Then its up to you to ping me via whatever you use to talk online and we go from there. I may send out emails to specific people too, begging them to get online n talk to me. (continue reading…)