'Hunter Gray' hunterbadbear@hunterbear.org [marxist]
2014-05-10 18:55:51 UTC
THE LATEST IN OUR MEDICAL ODYSSEY (INCLUDING ELDRI AND MY LUPUS CONFERENCE)
This little account is intended for family, friends, and any interested folks.
This has been a difficult late winter and early spring for the Gray/Salter outfit in Idaho. Colds and flu have hit us as they have countless others in this region and elsewhere. Baby Liam, Josie's youngest, has been to the hospital twice. Maria has been hard hit with some still continuing effects. Following her potentially dangerous fall a few weeks ago, stalwart Eldri came down with a very tough thing of some sort. She virtually never becomes ill and hadn't gone to a doctor for many years. Her illness has been a shocker for all of us. I have escaped most of these maladies.
We got her to a medical outpost called Urgent Care. A young Physicians Assistant, who struck us as quite astute, examined her and took her off to a Chest X Ray. This was understandably disconcerting since Eldri is a moderate smoker. But the X Ray detected nothing unusually sinister but did delineate a significant bronchial infection. He prescribed a strong anti-biotic.
As we concluded things with Urgent Care, I remarked cordially to the PA that "Our faith in western medicine is limited." I reached into my pocket and took out my large bear claw on rawhide neck string. Dangling that, I remarked very truthfully that "Bear Medicine is our basic approach." Looking at the claw, he exclaimed, "Is that real?" I assured him that it was very real.
But then I smiled in very friendly fashion, saying "You have done a fine job and we are most appreciative. You are a truly excellent representative of western medicine."
He much warmed to that -- and we all shook hands.
Eldri's anti-biotics have been effective but somewhat hard on her. She is now recuperating and Maria and I and Josie (who is over about every day), spend significant time assisting her at many points. Eldri has spent literal decades taking care of every one -- and we certainly take care of her.
In the meantime, my annual Lupus med conference was coming up fast. The first step was getting blood -- a week before the session with the doctor. Our Family Medicine waiting room was full of Indians and we smiled back and forth at each other -- as well as smiling at many of the non-Indians. People in medical waiting rooms like to be noticed in friendly fashion.
The taking of my blood was accompanied by the usual comments on my blood's thickness and the extreme slowness it took to fill the blood vial. As usual, I commented that was par for the last several decades. I never explain that that goes back to the friendly encounter with ETs in the darkened Wisconsin woods on March 20 1988. Since then, if cut, even badly, my blood rises slowly and, upon surfacing, clots immediately -- forming a crust. No blood flows forth. At some point in the next few hours the crust falls away, leaving a faint red tinge. And that fades fast. We have photos depicting this and it's also in my medical records.
Yesterday was my Lupus Conference Day. In the waiting room, I noted two interesting older guys, each with a heavy beard, dressed in old-time outdoor fashion -- save for contemporary athletic shoes. I was wearing my size 16 Lowa Mountain boots. Rakes and rustics notice each other and we nodded and smiled. They reminded me of our Hermit friends of yore, Dick and Jerry, who lived at the mouth of Sycamore Canyon. Then I thought about Ben Lilly, the bearded Mississippian, who died soon after my birth, but whose massive hunting exploits in New Mexico and Arizona remain very living folklore. A sentence that Mr Lilly had given his biographer, the great Southwestern writer, J. Frank Dobie, suddenly popped up in my mind: "Excessive cohabitation is a detriment to the intelligent progress of mankind." Frank Dobie didn't pursue this but included it in his first rate biograpy of Mr Lilly -- The Ben Lilly Legend (1950) and many subsequent editions.
Since my good and faithful doc, Dan Jones, left in 2010, I have had a series of several resident physicians -- all good guys, though not really that familiar with my medical intricacies. This time I drew the same doc I had last year. We visited cordially about his new beard -- I could never grow a beard even if I wished. Then we got down to business.
Bottom line: no sign of active Systemic Lupus. This absence has been the case since 2010, formally noted in 2011. It is a highly unusual situation.
Most other things, quite OK. Cholesterol, for example, was deemed "excellent."
But then -- some apparent diabetes had been detected. Not a whole lot but enough to raise a concern with my medic. I was singularly unconcerned.
In the family out of which I come, there is no known history of diabetes. I contracted it early in the Lupus War when I was given large amounts of Prednisone. When we ended that for my new basic med, Plaquenil, the artifical -- but real -- diabetes disappeared. But occasionally, it would appear or seem to appear. Dr Jones was initially quite concerned but modified that as we noted the ostensible diabetes would then recede.
My new doc wasn't aware of this and, when I mentioned it, may not have picked it up. And, of course, there is always the possibility that this time it isn't phantom diabetes. However, my lack of concern did concern him. "We have to handle this," he said, "or you could fall into a coma -- and maybe even die." I remained poker faced. I could have told him I'd faced Death on a good number of occasions and have never been a bit afraid of it. I could also have told him that, early on in the Lupus War, I had begun to fall into a diabetic coma. Family members moved to get me to an ER. I was still able to walk down our stairway and get into the Jeep. Somewhere en route I did pass out. At the ER, it was noted with astonishment that my blood sugar level was in the 900s.
I did turn away his suggestion that insulin might -- might -- be a good idea. On the other hand, I readily agreed to take a couple of pills. I will see him again, just on possible diabetes, in a few weeks. Privately, I think this could be "phantom" stuff -- I've had no notable diabetic signs -- but there are people who depend very much on my precense and I'm not inclined to take chances.
As I left the doc, I remarked that one of my Life goals is to exceed the age of my (white) maternal grandfather, raised on a ranch in Dakota Territory, who became a mining engineer and an arch-capitalist, and who passed away at 98 -- accumulating dinero to the very end. (Despite obvious differences, my grandfather and I always remained very close friends.)
My doc was impressed. And Life looks good to me on this cold and damp Idaho day, a little snow filtering down here and there.
Nialetch (Wabanaki --"As it will be.")
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (Mississippi et al.):
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
See our very full COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
See my new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new 10,000 word
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Photos)
This little account is intended for family, friends, and any interested folks.
This has been a difficult late winter and early spring for the Gray/Salter outfit in Idaho. Colds and flu have hit us as they have countless others in this region and elsewhere. Baby Liam, Josie's youngest, has been to the hospital twice. Maria has been hard hit with some still continuing effects. Following her potentially dangerous fall a few weeks ago, stalwart Eldri came down with a very tough thing of some sort. She virtually never becomes ill and hadn't gone to a doctor for many years. Her illness has been a shocker for all of us. I have escaped most of these maladies.
We got her to a medical outpost called Urgent Care. A young Physicians Assistant, who struck us as quite astute, examined her and took her off to a Chest X Ray. This was understandably disconcerting since Eldri is a moderate smoker. But the X Ray detected nothing unusually sinister but did delineate a significant bronchial infection. He prescribed a strong anti-biotic.
As we concluded things with Urgent Care, I remarked cordially to the PA that "Our faith in western medicine is limited." I reached into my pocket and took out my large bear claw on rawhide neck string. Dangling that, I remarked very truthfully that "Bear Medicine is our basic approach." Looking at the claw, he exclaimed, "Is that real?" I assured him that it was very real.
But then I smiled in very friendly fashion, saying "You have done a fine job and we are most appreciative. You are a truly excellent representative of western medicine."
He much warmed to that -- and we all shook hands.
Eldri's anti-biotics have been effective but somewhat hard on her. She is now recuperating and Maria and I and Josie (who is over about every day), spend significant time assisting her at many points. Eldri has spent literal decades taking care of every one -- and we certainly take care of her.
In the meantime, my annual Lupus med conference was coming up fast. The first step was getting blood -- a week before the session with the doctor. Our Family Medicine waiting room was full of Indians and we smiled back and forth at each other -- as well as smiling at many of the non-Indians. People in medical waiting rooms like to be noticed in friendly fashion.
The taking of my blood was accompanied by the usual comments on my blood's thickness and the extreme slowness it took to fill the blood vial. As usual, I commented that was par for the last several decades. I never explain that that goes back to the friendly encounter with ETs in the darkened Wisconsin woods on March 20 1988. Since then, if cut, even badly, my blood rises slowly and, upon surfacing, clots immediately -- forming a crust. No blood flows forth. At some point in the next few hours the crust falls away, leaving a faint red tinge. And that fades fast. We have photos depicting this and it's also in my medical records.
Yesterday was my Lupus Conference Day. In the waiting room, I noted two interesting older guys, each with a heavy beard, dressed in old-time outdoor fashion -- save for contemporary athletic shoes. I was wearing my size 16 Lowa Mountain boots. Rakes and rustics notice each other and we nodded and smiled. They reminded me of our Hermit friends of yore, Dick and Jerry, who lived at the mouth of Sycamore Canyon. Then I thought about Ben Lilly, the bearded Mississippian, who died soon after my birth, but whose massive hunting exploits in New Mexico and Arizona remain very living folklore. A sentence that Mr Lilly had given his biographer, the great Southwestern writer, J. Frank Dobie, suddenly popped up in my mind: "Excessive cohabitation is a detriment to the intelligent progress of mankind." Frank Dobie didn't pursue this but included it in his first rate biograpy of Mr Lilly -- The Ben Lilly Legend (1950) and many subsequent editions.
Since my good and faithful doc, Dan Jones, left in 2010, I have had a series of several resident physicians -- all good guys, though not really that familiar with my medical intricacies. This time I drew the same doc I had last year. We visited cordially about his new beard -- I could never grow a beard even if I wished. Then we got down to business.
Bottom line: no sign of active Systemic Lupus. This absence has been the case since 2010, formally noted in 2011. It is a highly unusual situation.
Most other things, quite OK. Cholesterol, for example, was deemed "excellent."
But then -- some apparent diabetes had been detected. Not a whole lot but enough to raise a concern with my medic. I was singularly unconcerned.
In the family out of which I come, there is no known history of diabetes. I contracted it early in the Lupus War when I was given large amounts of Prednisone. When we ended that for my new basic med, Plaquenil, the artifical -- but real -- diabetes disappeared. But occasionally, it would appear or seem to appear. Dr Jones was initially quite concerned but modified that as we noted the ostensible diabetes would then recede.
My new doc wasn't aware of this and, when I mentioned it, may not have picked it up. And, of course, there is always the possibility that this time it isn't phantom diabetes. However, my lack of concern did concern him. "We have to handle this," he said, "or you could fall into a coma -- and maybe even die." I remained poker faced. I could have told him I'd faced Death on a good number of occasions and have never been a bit afraid of it. I could also have told him that, early on in the Lupus War, I had begun to fall into a diabetic coma. Family members moved to get me to an ER. I was still able to walk down our stairway and get into the Jeep. Somewhere en route I did pass out. At the ER, it was noted with astonishment that my blood sugar level was in the 900s.
I did turn away his suggestion that insulin might -- might -- be a good idea. On the other hand, I readily agreed to take a couple of pills. I will see him again, just on possible diabetes, in a few weeks. Privately, I think this could be "phantom" stuff -- I've had no notable diabetic signs -- but there are people who depend very much on my precense and I'm not inclined to take chances.
As I left the doc, I remarked that one of my Life goals is to exceed the age of my (white) maternal grandfather, raised on a ranch in Dakota Territory, who became a mining engineer and an arch-capitalist, and who passed away at 98 -- accumulating dinero to the very end. (Despite obvious differences, my grandfather and I always remained very close friends.)
My doc was impressed. And Life looks good to me on this cold and damp Idaho day, a little snow filtering down here and there.
Nialetch (Wabanaki --"As it will be.")
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (Mississippi et al.):
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
See our very full COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
See my new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new 10,000 word
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Photos)