and I rejoice

The San Francisco heat wave, our yearly week of Summer, finally breaks & I quietly rejoice. I am not made for hot weather – or at least hot weather where there isn’t a clean ocean or river or lake or large puddle to go swimming or stomping in.

September is knocking on the door of October, and if I had to choose a favorite, I think October would be it. I remember the way some of the places I have lived changed their color, the reds & oranges & hints of stubborn green flooding the air & ground as if the world was on fire, sacrificing itself in some sacred way to become the stark, haunting & beautiful bare branches of Winter.

The energy of Change is in the air. It finds its way into my blood – and my memory.

Twelve years & four days ago I decided to follow my dreams, whatever they were & whatever it took. Shortly after I was working with The Dresden Dolls & my life changed forever.

It was on this day that my beloved Bean was hit by a train in Austin & killed, a few hours and eleven years ago.

Ten years less a week ago I received an email from Mike asking if I was interested in becoming a permanent part of the Vau De Vire family.

Six years & eight days ago I first stepped into the hospice, walking in easily enough but rapidly dying one week later as my body began to shut down.

Five years & a month ago I did what the doctors thought impossible, and walked out alive.

Four years & a month ago I talked with my Birth Mother for the first time in my life.

Nov. 23, 2013

Two years & a week ago I first spoke to my Birth Father, who until shortly before that had no idea I existed.

And now I feel the story of this man should – will – change again. I’ve already begun to kick a nine-year morphine addiction & plan to have that entirely behind me in less than a week… yet I feel that is far from enough. I want more. Monumental change. I thrive on the shit. It’s my lifeblood, my constant need. When life gets too comfortable, too predictable, I have a bad habit of stepping into a dangerous dance to bring back, to summon life’s music – and far too much is dangerous these days.

The dreams I still have, but the energy to reach for them is as scarred as my liver. I will keep moving forward, doing my best to rip through the barriers, the walls both inside & out. Both physical & mental.
The failed Kickstarter shook me. It hit hard and I fell.
It’s time to rise again. Dust myself off and move on.
I will keep moving forward.
I will live to make my dreams come true.

I see the sun shining outside, feel the sharp chill of the breeze that cuts through my window. Today will be cooler…

and I rejoice.

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You haven’t the slightest idea of how strong you can be.

Even I still don’t. 

Never, NEVER sell yourself short. 

Stay golden,  Pony boy. 

maybe

Yeah, I changed the theme again. It’s not in your head. Bear with me. I’m anal.

I don’t want to hope just yet, but as the nine years of incessant morphine begins to leave my system, my mind, my body through poisoned, oily, impolite sweat – when I take it to the edge of what I can bear and a little bit more before I let myself seek the help of a pill just a few steps away so I can just fucking SLEEP without the convulsions… as the happypills, the Stepford Wives pills, the ignorance and placidity drain from my system…

I think, I hope, my words are coming back. My writing, my unquestionable NEED to get my mind out of me and down on anything I can grab (I am NEVER without a pen) and get all the shit inside of me outside because when it has beeen written only then I can release…

maybe that is coming again. Maybe I am writing again not out of honor or devotion, but out of NEED because without it I cannot survive – and maybe the words are coming back.

And maybe, we’re all in for one hell of a ride.

A fools wanderings

So now I sit on my wee couch – typically called a loveseat but it’s been years since I’ve been in love, far too long, and then, sitting with her on this it was glorious- but that time has passed  so now it’s just a wee couch. Or a wide chair. Anyway, it’s, as usual, just me on it.

But that has nothing to do with this story.

This does:

Not feeling as horrible as I thought I would, I decided to go to Oakland – aaaaall the way to Oakland to a yearly event a friend creates called ‘Baconfest’. It’s exactly as it sounds. Baconfest.
Nearly all those who come – those who have a kitchen & money at least – bring a bacon-focused dish, drink – or disaster. From bacon-wrapped, chocolate lined shot glasses – to bacon wrapped deep fried Twinkies, and EVERYTHING in between – and beyond. If you like bacon, it’s the place to be, and usually a couple hundred people show up through the night. Though I don’t hold bacon in the cult-food status that many of my friends the people I know do, I like the stuff. In small quantities these days as the sodium just begs for swelling, and I’m much more along the lines of “Fuck that swelling shit”.

But the event existed, and I figured it would be good to get on the other side of my apartment door for a welcome change.
I took a shower, washing of the poison stench that seeps through skin during withdrawal, saved, and hells – I even washed my hair, which is rare indeed. I didn’t do it for them, but – it needed it. It really did. The dirt wasn’t working as a styling substance anymore, and it was time for a fresh coat. Now, my hair is all purty and in my fucking face.

Put on my new birthday pants, my new hernia girdle that I just got today, a gift from a friend (it’s even BLACK!) and after a bit more primping, a few more herbs and a quick walk with The RuBeast, headed down to the BART station. On my way down Hyde I passed the usual bullshit, told the usual drug dealers to go fuck themselves when they asked what I wanted, and then came across something new!

Somewhere around the cross of Turk St I think, a rare sight –  burned out motorhome, very simalar to one I used to live in. I asked the cop what happened, and either for drama or in amazing ignorance and way too much Breaking Bad, he said “probably a meth lab.

Not a damn chance. Burned in front, and hell – just the fact that it was still there and not a twisted frame on wheels said different. If it were a meth lab, it would have gone BOOM, and taken out a lot of everything around it. Knowing where the kitchen is in that model… it was just a stupid mistake, either in jimmied wiring or a kitchen fire that couldn’t be controlled. Mr. Cop man was nice, but – dumb, at least regarding this. I try to hold onto the belief that not all cops are bad – but it’s getting much more difficult. Much more.

TO BART, paid my fare, got on the train and headed to the OaklandBootyVilleBaconFest.

I got off at the infamous Fruitvale station, and on a whim decided to call and see if anyone was there that could save me the mile walk – who knows, I thought – it might be someone I don’t know and should, if anyone will. And it would save me a mile walk & time.

I called Otto, the King Shit of Baconfest, and asked him – after a couple minutes of talking we both realized that when I entered it into my calendar I put this event on the wrong date, and never bothered to notice since.

It’s not tonight. It’s on October 8^th.

HOW I screwed up is just simply not paying enough attention, and believing what my calendar said. I AM KING FOOL.

But hell – at least I got out of the apartment, right? It cost me $8 on a crazy tight budget to o to Oakland & turn around, but on the positive side – at least I decided to call and didn’t walk to MOxy to find out then.

So now I sit at “home” again, not feeling great but not feeling like shit. Because I was weak. A couple nights ago, when the oil-thick sweat began, when my muscles started convulsing, twitching like a slow motion epileptic fit – that’s when I decide to severely taper instead of going from morphine fog-high to teeth gnashing rip your face off, and every few days I take a small dose – as I figure out the proper doses for me using Kratom to help it. So far, I can say that Kratom is holy-crap amazing, and know it will help me through this immensely.

But fuck – I need to get out of this apartment. I only had a taste tonight – but it was good.
 

 

 

Through the Brambles

As the clocked clicked on, 12 hours, 24 and further and ticking up to the door of 36 hours, I thought that somehow, the herbs I’m taking specifically for easing the withdrawals were doing far more, far better than I had expected them to – that I ever *dreamed* they could do.

I began to feel only the most minor of miseries after the 24 hour mark – energy draining, my mood faltering and becoming less optimistic and focus slowly starting to disintegrate. I felt some of the pain in my calves reminding me that it’s still there, and in a strange way I found comfort in that; here was something I knew.

But where was the rest?

Then, 32 hours after my last dose & after watching downloaded movies to the point where I couldn’t tolerate it anymore, I laid down in bed, propped my back slightly against the pillows & did my best to read more of “Look Homeward, Angel” by Thomas Wolfe. I just finished another book that morning and now desperately needed something to occupy my mind. I was tired, knew I should probably try to sleep, but the signs were coming on stronger then & felt I needed a place for my  thoughts to go and calm down a bit before sleep was even attempted.

Not being able to enjoy reading with a mind that wasn’t really seeing the words as any more than black scratches on paper, I gave in, got out of bed, stood up and did dome minor stretches of my legs, torso & arms, poured more coconut water into my thermos to do my best to stay hydrated. I brushed the dog hair off my feet, gave Rubes a hug and got under the thin top cover above the comforter, making certain that all the pillows were placed perfectly for the best comfort available, which under any other circumstances would have gently carried me away to dreamland within a matter of minutes…

This time, however, I wasn’t so fortunate. This time, I’m paying. a debt, and sleep is only *one* of the things I must give to the collector.

Not three minutes after I breathed the deep & final ‘sigh’ and waited for my mind to drift off into it’s odd ideas & dreams, my right leg twitched violently bringing my knee in the direction of my chest. Not to be outdone, both of my shoulders shot up in a convulsive manner – as if they were tying to say “Hey, don’t look at me – I don’t know what the hell that was”.

I’ve been here before.

I find it humorous, those that post “you can do it!” on my Facebook page. Humorous, but appreciated. They don’t know what I’ve been through already.

They don’t know of the pain that went on for months in the hospice, pain that even the morphine couldn’t touch. They don’t know that I wondered if the pain would ever even cease before I died, or every day would be like this until the end. They have no idea how many times I thought of taking away the pain myself – taking away everything.

I’ve always kept a stash of 500mg or more of morphine, secreted away but close enough so that I didn’t have to get out of bed if I couldn’t.

They don’t know how many times those pills sat in my hand as I stared at their round & oval shapes, trying to justify taking them, trying harder not to.

No, they don’t know any of that because I didn’t tell them. It wasn’t their business, and the last thing I wanted was a bunch of common bullshit attempts to cheer me up. Certainly not then, and most certainly not them… or most of them, at least.

But I digress.

This won’t be easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it will end. Like cutting away and climbing through blackberry brambles that have grown over a path, getting torn, flesh getting ripped & stained with blood & juice but persevering, knowing that once I make it through this dark thicket, leaving the parts of body & mind I don’t need anymore draped & dripping on the thorns…

Once I make it through, I’ll find a clearing of indescribably clear beauty –
And I’ll find me, waiting, and smiling.
9-23-24-16

The Fun Begins…soon (Kicking, day 0)

No ceremony, no ritual. Little more than a momentary pause as I looked at the small white pills in my hand this morning, but in that pause I thought of the nine years gone to the past, and the days or weeks of torture & agony immediately coming as I took my last dose of morphine. Ever.

I took the two half-full bottles out of my nightstand drawer, grabbed the near-full “emergency” pill container that I have kept for three years and moved them across the room to be placed somewhere clever later. Out of sight, yes – but I think out of mind isn’t very likely, at least for a few weeks or more.

If I could figure out the technique that always seems to work when I “organize” things so that they’re easier to find, only to end up lost for months when I actually *do* look for them, then that would be perfect – but I don’t think that will work. If I actually *want* to lose something or forget where it is, it seems inevitable that I’ll find it, even in the least likely of places.

I should figure out that backwards science & write a book about how to use & control it. I’d make millions.

It’s a strange feeling, kicking morphine after so long, so many years of depending on it. So many years of letting it control me.
I was half-expecting a huge mental fanfare – streamers popping out of my head, flame effects shooting out of my ears and little tiny balloons dropping from my nose, but alas, nothing of the sort. It was almost as exciting as putting my pants on.
Okay – as exciting as putting a freshly washed pair of pants on that have yet to acquire any dog hair on them, but still, not much more than that.

The exciting part – well, that will most certainly begin tomorrow, most likely as I race to the bathroom desperately trying not to crap myself in the 20 feet from my bed, or stopping in the middle of eating something for the same reason. It never ceases to amaze me how food can go through an entire body’s system almost as fast as dropping it – as if during withdrawals everything moves around and there is just one direct line from the mouth to the ass.

I think there should be an “Opiate Withdrawal Olympics”, with challenges such as ‘The 10 Meter Toilet Dash’, ‘The Cold Sweat Pool’ (judged by the amount of sweat the body produces in one night of attempted sleep), and ‘The Snot Sprint’, won by producing the most water-like mucus out of the incessantly running nose in an hour. Of course there could be many others – the most sleepless nights, muscle spasm gymnastics, distance or quantity vomiting, most creative screams of agony… it could be fun! Well… at least for the spectators.

And now, off to do some final preparations – give Ruby a *really* good walk, enjoy some of the last sunshine I might be seeing for a few days, clear a direct path from bed to bathroom, send letters to my Mother & Father thanking them for their birthday cards (finally) – whatever else I can think of.

I’ve decided to document the fun with pictures. Here’s one I have titled “Before the Descent” aka “Keep the fog outside of my head” aka “oh, shit.”

See you all in hell. Be grateful you’re just looking through the window.

Open During Construction

Keeping with the whole “change” thing I have going on, I’ve also decided to change from the theme that I’ve used on WordPress since time immemorial. Some of you may have noticed – if you keep track of that sort of thing.

Or maybe you just felt as if something was a bit… different, but couldn’t put your finger on it. It started eating away at you, wondering what it was but also wondering if you might be going just a little bit crazy or being overly distracted by something else you aren’t sure of, but caused you to put the coffee grounds directly in the pot instead of the filter this morning.

Well, I can’t say for certain if you’re losing your mind or not – or if it’s already long gone for that matter. I can however tell you that I’m in the process of changing the theme for my blog, so that is one less thing you have to worry about.

It’s not you, it’s me.

As I figure out more of how I want it to look & what this theme is capable of, it will continue to change as well.

I regret that I can’t comfort you any more than that, however – though I’m sure that there’s a perfectly good reason why you put your socks on your hands instead of your feet this morning. The main thing is that no one noticed, right?

At least, no one as far as you know.

Just… maybe take a few days off from social media, and whatever you do, don’t visit YouTube. Or watch the news.

falling apart to fall back together

Four days, and as the clock relentlessly ticks down I count every hour with a strange combination of sheer terror and wary excitement, my emotions swinging from one to the other like spectators heads in a high-energy tennis match.

Two days ago I picked up my last Morphine prescription, and as the bottles were handed to me I looked at them with a feeling of triumph. This is it.

I mostly know what to expect. I’ve done this before, 28 years ago, and again a bit more recently when my motorhome was towed with all of my meds inside. It’s not what I remember that frightens me the most, though those memories still clutch at my mind and sink their diseased claws in when I try to make myself believe that I’m strong enough.

No. It’s the things I know I don’t remember that frighten me the most. The whispered shadows of the nightmare, the parts that my mind gratefully thrust out of my memory in an act of self preservation. The small things that are lost in the fog.

The Fog.

It’s surrounded me for over nine years, from when I finally gave in to my doctor’s concern & offer of something to help with the pain that twisted my face, carving each line on it deeper like a Halloween mask of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”… the only difference being that my screams, I kept inside. At least when I could.

With the first pill they finally went away, and I was so grateful I almost cried, even through the personal guilt and failure of feeling like I wasn’t strong enough, that I had finally lost to what for so many years I had conquered when necessary, not even taking so much as a Tylenol-3 or even an aspirin when I broke my leg skateboarding, tore apart the tendons & dislocated my shoulder when my van rolled 5 times across I-5, and hundreds of other minor bangs, bashes & aches. Those, I knew, would all pass, and all I had to do was hold strong and stand my ground. This time though, instead of fading, getting better & finally going away, the pain only increased. With each day, with each strip of flesh on my legs that caught under my fingernails while the poisoned fluid pooled and the unbearable itching multiplied, the pain grew and my conviction deteriorated…

There were, of course, many, many  times I needed them, so if I chose not to take that first pill then, it was just a matter of time before I did. When the cirrhosis decided to go to town on my body, it’s two favorite places to destroy were my legs and abdomen – and it was like a category-6 tornado in a trailer park. From the swelling to the point where I couldn’t bend my legs & had to cut the legs of my pajamas to be able to squeeze into them to the itching so horrid from the poisons my liver couldn’t process I cut myself open with my own fingernails, to the pressure from the swelling in my abdomen & legs so severe the fluid actually started pushing out of the skin on my calves and pushing my intestines out of my navel, to the pain from the occasional infections that slipped right by even the highest doses of morphine – I was certainly grateful for it at times…

 
…but as the months & years continued and the pain slowly subsided, when I began to wonder and doubt how necessary the morphine was anymore, I knew I was screwed. Sure, there was still the mild constant pain from my calves that never fully healed or grew back more than the thinnest layer of protective skin, and there was still the occasional breakthrough pain in my abdomen – but nothing I thought – that I think – that I can’t deal with. Nothing so bad that my body’s own pain killer can’t handle it. Nothing so severe that the mind/body & quantum healing practices I discovered and used in the hospice and the surprising strength I found in my mind can’t handle it.

There’s only one small problem. My brain has completely shut down all of it’s own natural pain killers. Feeling unloved & un-needed, the receptors that normally block everything bad have gone on to other tasks where they feel more appreciated. I wish I knew more of the science of it – it’s not entirely endorphins or dopamine but a combination of the two along with some other things. That’s what I kind of know. I know the human body is fucking amazing. We all should kiss ourselves every day and thank it for all it does for us.

I know without any question, without the slightest hint of doubt at all – what I know intimately – is that the human body is in constant pain. Anyone who hasn’t experienced the feeling of not having any help at all from your body to dull pain cannot even come close to imagining what it’s like when you feel EVERYTHING.
I don’t feel as if I can explain it well enough right now, nor do I want to.

But I want my body back. I want my mind back, and all the things working as they should  again. I want to feel alive again- with all the pain, passion, love, joy, excitement & fear.

So here we are, nine years later. And I’m fucking done. Things need to change and that is the most obvious one. The feeling of the morphine sticking felt thorns of stupid into my brain is over – or will be soon. First, I need to pay for those lost years, and I know I will – dearly – but every second will be worth it. Nine years of mental fog, nine years of suppressed emotion – the passion, love, excitement, joy, happiness and everything else a person feels on a daily basis has all been muffled, like my mind & heart trying to speak to me through a sealed door.
(Hm. That’s an interesting mental picture.)

On September 21st I will take my final dose of morphine, hopefully for the rest of my life. On the 22nd I’ll begin to feel the withdrawals. They don’t come at once, of course – they gradually build, if I remember correctly, over about three days – but it’s like sticking your hand into a put of 75 degree (Celsius) water. It’s not boiling yet, but it sure as hell isn’t pleasant.
This ought to be interesting.

But WAIT! That’s not all!

To make things completely absurd, I’ve also decided to quit smoking at the exact same time. I mean hell – If I’m going to change my life, I may as well just jump right in with both feet. Get rid of all the things that I’ve been wanting to quit.
In a way I suspect that it will give me something to laugh at myself about – like when you stub your toe and hop around like a fool, feeling like a dumb-ass and laughing through the pain – except in this example I’ll be writhing in pain, wanting a cigarette, and laughing at myself because only someone who is a complete and utter fool would consider quitting both morphine and cigarettes at the same time, and I’ve always held the self-imposed title of “Fool” quite proudly at times such as this.

But there’s something else which is more of an experiment than anything: I have this notion that kicking morphine AND cigarettes at the same time will somehow drive the point that I am now (or will be horribly soon) a non-smoker home a bit harder, because I know smoking is going to be the hardest one in the long run – and I’m in this game to win. So far, I haven’t died 100% of the time, so I’m doing pretty good I think.

When the door is opened, when the fog clears and for the first time in nine years there is no drugged buffer repressing all of the beautiful and horrible things inside of me, I suspect it will be one hell of a ride as I become accustomed to feeling *everything* again – I mean hell, in preparation I’ve cut down the regular dose of 60 – 90mg through the day to one 30mg pill in the morning, and was nearly bawling during parts of the movie “Pete’s Dragon” I watched earlier tonight.

As I said, it’s going to be one hell of a ride. It should make for some interesting blog posts as well.

I should probably apologize in advance to anyone I offend, but honestly – if you get offended, it’s your trip, not mine. Fasten your seat-belts, put on a couple extra layers of skin – and Lighten Up. Things are likely going to get a bit crazy.

Wish me luck.

And please – I’d like it if you commented, if you wish. It will help me not feel so alone.
Comments & ‘likes’ left on my WordPress blog are MUCH more appreciated than those on Facebook, as well.

Four days until I begin to rip myself apart. I’m excited to see what the rebuild will look like.

And I need to figure out whaat kind of art project I’m going to make out of these:
(I haven’t counted them, but I suspect I have about forty that I’ve saved over the past couple years = when I remembered to.)

 

 

or in, I will. (Spittle)

And then there is life.

Life that I fought with my life for begged for because I didn’t do it entirely alone – they came expecting me to dies, to be able to say “I was there” and maybe the darkness in my heart I have let speak too loudly.

We invent and re-invent ourselves. You do.

I was the one who since 19 expected to die at any moment, get sick and say farewell to no one, Walk into a forest, into the Sea and have it done with.

It proposed a problem. At 19  the news came that I was dead that I had HIV that every

That every dream meant nothing, therefore I gave nothing to this life, my life, the thread cut short.

How does one live when…

I hated hearing him. A phone call that said I was dead and it made things simpler, I didn’t have to plan anymore but something went wrong and I kept not dying but with every breath I expected to, still do but not as much.

I;m tired, sleepy, weary and I will write more tpmorrrow –

Maybe.

Imagine living a life where you expect to die , KNOW you will get sick at any moment.

I didn’t hold couldn’t hold on to anything yet I kept going and against all I am still here still here and so fucking beautiful and confused and…

Through all my years, I know that by far is to exist without living. Even in a life that is nothing but pain, you still feel alive – and everything will pass…

And I, in pain or in ecstasy. Will continue.

Empty gestures

 

The wheels begin to spin again and decisions are made. Life turns from existence to living.

Just a couple decisions – the morphine and the shiny new liver have sparked an interest in living that I haven’t felt for foar too long. Even with the Kickstarter campaign, I knew that it was just a unsurmountable dream but it was a good dream and I fought like hell but here’s the secret:

A few weeks before I launched, I had already started making plans in my mind for someone to take care of Ruby. I had/have a shitload of morphine saved up, and it would have been an easy death – and with the failure of the campaign (as much as I didn’t want it to) maybe the people I call chosen in my life would finally understand. Understand how much that meant to me. MEANS to me.

But life goes on, and I needed a new one – and the only way I could figure out how to make the changes I needed to were through immense pain. ARE through that pain.

I have things I need to do so I can believe that this life means something again, and those things will happen.

Interesting that just the thought of a drastic change makes me smile more, makes me want to live. More.

I still have a lot to do – and one thing is accepting that those whosay they love me, adore me, will support me – are and have been only speaking with the money I needed & still need for the herbs that keep me alive.

They were wonderful, and I am grateful for what they did to help me – but I see much more clear than most give me credit for, and while they offered cash, I still wasn’t worth their time.

All I wanted was some face to face time over a meal or even coffee – and with very few exceptions, they were never there for that – as much as I begged,  pleaded, and trusted.

Yeah, you’re family alright – the same kind of family that raised me, but never visited me in the hospice. The same kind of family that talked about love but never showed it…

I think of a friend who blathered on about how much more he wishes he could have done, but when the most important part of my life – the campaign – came aboutl he was silent, asn didn’t donate a dollar. This is a ,am who saved my life, but he was nowhere around when this new life needed to be saved… and of course there are others…

Now it is entirely me. I will not beg for the herbs that keep me alive anymore, and deal with it because I need to. I will never ask t be kept alive by your hand again.

Thankfully, there are three people who help without asking and those I appreciate and trust. I *might* be able to make it – or I may not, and die while waiting for a liver transplant… nut I will not ask for your financial help again – and I know better now than to simply sit across a cup of coffee with you.

You have shown me who you are.

Not long ago I was reminded what a true friend is.

The wheels spin, and changes will be made. I am not alone anymore.

I’’m hoping that the next post wpm

T ne so much of the rant that this grew into = but I son’t hide anything. Those who read deserve all honesty.

 

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

 

It’s time.

I drifted off to sleep last night with a hundred (or maybe 10) thoughts in my head of how weary of this life of thesamegoddamnedthing day after day, pretending to exist in the world around me with a head full of morphine, digging as deep as I can, past the haze & the hollowness just to feel all the things that nine years ago flowed with such purpose, vim, vigor and passion to the tips of my fingers, and from there it was a direct channel to my heart and all of the things that boiled inside.

I drifted off to sleep last night with ten (or maybe 5) thoughts rolling around in my head of how I had come to loathe this incessant fight for health, battling the swelling in my abdomen & legs every single day, the membrane-thin skin that tears like paper from the open sores caused by nothing more than scrubbing a bit too hard in the shower, the Fatigue, the Fatigue, the Fatigue.

And I woke up with the same conviction to change these things. Life has become nauseatingly uneventful, every day trying to battle the fatigue to conjure up the energy to create something new and, not being able to, feeling as if I’ve failed the day. That I’m not appreciating this life as I should, that I’m not fucking LIVING – and this needs to change.

By the end of the month I will have gone through the pure fucking hell of kicking Morphine. I need a little excitement in my life, and hoping I can race fast enough to the bathroom on legs that want to detach themselves from me & go other directions should be enough – at least for the time.

Then, more fun. Because I deserve it – and hell, this will be something *new*! I like new things, even if they’re used. Frequently especially if they’re used.

Sooooooo…

At my appointment with my Doctor on the 12^th of this month, I’m going to open up talks – this time, for the *first* time, instigated by me instead of him, & more positive this time – of a liver transplant. He’s going to shit fucking rainbows. He’s been gently pressing me to get on the list for a transplant for years.

I have mixed feeling about the liver transplant. It seems like the easy way out, in a sense. Just take out the old one that’s killing me and put in a brand new shiny one… one that could easily go to someone else who needs it more. And I still believe that I can reverse my cirrhosis, do it myself… but there is also no way to determine if the herbs I’m taking are helping, as the test that would show that wouldn’t be covered by insurance unless there’s a good reason, and my guess is using herbs to fix what Western Medicine says can NOT be fixed wouldn’t be considered a good reason.

But it’s time. Time to change things, time to rip myself apart & put me together again – this time whole, with the pieces that have been left behind over the years found & fit & made to work again.
And I’m willing to take the easy way out – as long as it isn’t *too* easy.

It’s time.

A little Everything

Another birthday quietly comes & goes with the slight disbelief & perhaps even small discontent that I made it another year.

I wake up late this morning, make my coffee, do the morning stretches to try to regain a scrap of the flexibility that, along with my strength, was eaten away during the 18 months that I spent in a hospital bed, and after I adjust the pillows climb back into bed, set the laptop on my lap & start to scratch words. I’ve found the bed is best – at least for the swelling in my legs. Keeps it down.

A conversation yesterday with a wonderful old friend & former lover about everything under our suns, and ending with tentative plans for a cross country trip in Spring – renting an RV and taking a few weeks to cross the country to her home in upstate New York. Likely plans. Almost definite plans.
I need to do something. Something that *means* something. The Kickstarter for my book crushed me as it fell to nothing but rubble of hopes, dreams & the plans I had which would have changed everything in my life, given me a purpose, a value.

I wonder why my life, my happiness depends so incredibly much on doing something, creating something, helping someone – I know that there are many who are content to live their lives in a mundane existence, and that’s all they seem to need. They seem to be happy – but that’s not me.  That’s not me.

I need to taste everything, experience the deepest pain and joy as I can, and truly feel PASSION, feel alive in this world, feel like I’m more than just another inconsequential pawn.
I need to breathe the fervent, blood red breath of life deep inside me, feel it fill my lungs, my heart, my soul, and match it with my own.
I need to swim to the deepest dark depths of the sea and feel at home there with creatures that understand that all I want to do is learn. Where are my fucking gills?

Where have I gone? Where is the music that I once danced to, the fevered rhythm of life? Have I fallen prey to my own sickness? Have I given up?

I can’t. I want to. I can’t. I’m tired. I can’t. I can’t.

Sometimes I think some of us live only to beat the odds. To be able to say “This is what I know.” And, just maybe, help someone else. Help them open their eyes, to see a little bit more beauty, to believe a little bit more in their dreams. To see how perfect we can at least make the world around us – or at the very least make it better.

I am not more courageous, not any more special than anyone else. I live in the same world.

I’ve just seen more of it than most – and because of that, in spite of that – I’m willing to keep fighting to make it a little bit better.