Headed Home

The review this morning with the surgeon was informative if disappointing. The LSI procedures will not help me. The surgeon feels I need a much more extensive procedure to "give me space" in the spinal column. It's the type of procedure that takes you out of commission for many months. I will pursue other treatments in the mean time.

Day One Complete

Tomorrow will be a review with the surgeon of the MRI's and X-rays taken today.

The day started with a 7:45AM shuttle ride to the facility. The driver, Ali, is observing Ramadan. We talked about diversity, culture and tolerance.  And the Phillies.

I was told regarding my first day to not worry about breakfast as it would be provided. Upon arrival I was ushered into check-in. Some forms filled out and signed I was handed off to technician Debbie. She took vitals and copies of my EMG reports. I mentioned I was a bit peckish, she said I needed to see the nurse practitioner.

Maria came in and reviewed my medical history forms. Included in this was "nerve man", a map of the body's neural network. I was asked to annotate pain, numbness, pins&needles and burning. As I noted all the regions in the lower limbs she was confused.
"I thought you were here for cervical, this is mostly regarding lumbar."
I knew going in that I am a tough case. The MRI's were subtle as are the symptoms. But I was confident, based on the opinion of my primary care physician and everything I'd read and seen, that I am a cervical stenosis patient. Now was the time for calm advocacy. I explained and she listened.

As we moved forward to physical tests she noted some hypersensitivity in my arms. A reflex test and my leg shot up. I think she exclaimed, "Wow! That's definitely your neck." Validation. She completed her review with the comment that, though she's not sure they can help me, she felt the surgeons were more bold. She led me to the cafeteria/lounge and I snacked while waiting for a driver.

I was then given a ride to Penn Radiology for a new MRI (the previous imaging was over 6 months old) and X-rays. Very prompt and professional. I got the feeling that LSI patients were given priority, exactly the reason why I chose to work with this group. On completion of the imaging I was shuttled back to the LSI facility. Lunch was provided and the disc with my films was taken by the driver, Kevin. He said someone would let me know what was next. I met some of the other patient families and everyone was very positive about the experience and results so far. Later an administrator came through checking people's status. I let her know I wasn't sure and she promptly returned with my appointment card for tomorrow. I called for a shuttle to the King of Prussia Mall. It's enormous! I walked until I couldn't and ended up at TGIFridays in party mode.

All this time, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking of the 2011 Santa Clara Vanguard. Percussion and guard are doing great, one more week to clean brass and visual and jack the GE scores. Take it home, Santa Clara.

  . . well, that and the engineered financial "collapse" . .

I'm prepared for whatever the consensus is tomorrow. Worst case, I'll know more than I do now. Overall, a very positive day and Mrs. Field's cookies for dessert.

Spinal Surgery

Uneventful flight to Philly, checked in to the Scanticon, lovely place, very quiet this week they tell me.

I have been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, the level that will most likely be operated on will be the level of C5/C6 with a possible Laminotomy and/or Foraminotomy.

I've had subtle numbness and tingling in my feet as far back as my 20's. I've always been a runner, daily stretching, I've always been very limber, I figured it was just minor sciatica.

I started to manifest numbness in my right hand maybe 4 years ago. I thought it was related to playing the drum set and too many aggressive rim shots and carpal tunnel issues.

Then about 3 years ago, while helping my daughter prep for the coming soccer season, I felt like I couldn't get my feet out in front of me. Later that winter I started having balance issues, especially with my eyes closed. I reported this to my doctor and he ordered MRI's.

History

So, what happened? Some drum corps people have asked if it was from slinging a contra bass. It looks to me to be the result of a 33 year old cervical trauma.

When I saw the MRI I noted the disc compression and was instantly transported back in time.

I clearly remembered a day on the high school Frosh football practice field. Scrimmaging against the JV, I was playing defensive line. My eyes on the ball carrier, at the last second I saw the blocker. Helmet to helmet contact and I felt like I was hit by lightning. I went to the ground. The ball carrier actually tripped over me and the coaches shouted, "Good tackle!”

I didn't move, flat on my back.

“Get up, Bermudez!”

The coach runs over, I say, "I hurt my neck.” He goes white.

“I can feel everything, move everything . .”

They back-boarded me, the trainer, John Manning, checked me out. They sent me home with a neck support. My father, a physician, checked me out. “You pulled a muscle.”

I played that weekend. There was no MRI, no CAT scan in 1976. There probably wasn't much to see anyway.

I've gotten to the point now where, with minor activity, my legs are so weak I can't stand. I have no significant pain. I look fine. But if you were to walk behind me you'd see that I meander.

Why PA?

People have asked me why not have it done in Boston. Laser Spine Institute are the big dogs, this is all they do. I am very fortunate to have good insurance and am fully covered.

Monday is evaluation, new MRIs. Tuesday is pre-op prep. Wednesday is the procedure. Thursday recovery. Friday post-op evaluation and they kick me out and I fly home. I should be able to be back at work on Monday.

My thanks to all for encouragement and well wishes. I'm an excellent candidate and am in great shape for this procedure. My physician is very positive and kind of excited about my prognosis.

I am not afraid to admit that I watch American Idle. And I realize now that I had Jimmy Iovine, Butch Vig and Steve Albini mixed up in my head. It was Steve who wrote The Problem With Music.

An Original Exclamatory

Holy Cherbingitz!
Coined by one David Mahoney. Use it with discretion, people.

Rock Garden, San Jose, CA

Not sure why but my mind wandered back to 560 S. Market Street in San Jose, CA, the Rock Garden rehearsal studio where I spent so many hours in the '80's. The building is still there but it has been condemned. After reading the article, I decided to dig a little deeper and found Ed Havel, a former manager of the building. A very courteous Ed filled me in on some of the history and we spoke of a possible memorial site to attract anecdotes and the community to rediscover this SoFA "cultural" icon.

0731082339 (photo time stamp)
Originally uploaded by the_aborigine

Shot from inside J Brian's in Lawrence MA towards the end of a long and eventful day. A day full of experiences and people I will be thinking about for quite a while. And the only comment I can make now is . . . drum corps is an amazing metaphor for life.

After learning of the genre of Steampunk I poked around and found this image. I just love it. It's evocative of everything human about our technological development. Water defines us and soon we'll return to steam . . or is it dust, I always get those mixed up.

Lyle Workman : Guitarist/Composer/Producer/Songwriter

I took one guitar lesson from Lyle Workman : Guitarist/Composer/Producer/Songwriter. In a house in San Jose that maybe was his parents.

KATG Brumski Enterprises Trucking Co.

http://www.trukz.com

arr

My pirate name is:

Dread Pirate Flint

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Tho I be likin' the name to be sure, it's a good start but not the whole keel.
For if you want me to answer yer call, it'll be
The Flinty dEad abo of Dread
you'll be calling me.

"sovereign citizen party" - Google Search

Whilst listening to Free Talk Live the hosts were talking about the ineffectiveness of the Libertarian Party and the hopes that a renaming would improve the results.

With that I introduce to you the Sovereign Citizen Party
founded this day, January 8, 2007 at Noon Eastern Time in Londonderry, New Hampshire, U.S.A. by myself.

This party can be global, galactic even, as it's core belief is that any life entity is in full ownership of it's self, however that can be defined. This definition shall be expanded, defined and clarified in future and there is, to date, no logo, no T-shirts, no ineffective bureaucracy. Only this blog post.

agitate . . . agitate

Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

No pain, no gain, youth athletes injuries rise

After spending the day in Bethlehem, PA watching the Vanguard rehearse the level of physical demand was astounding. They run, spin, run backwards all with a brass intrument stuck to their faces. Great kids, heroically disciplined, the best of what Santa Clara is.

Take it home, Santa Clara.

Vanguard photo album - Photobucket.com

Some fun shots, me in a couple, from Tony!

"no one gave it to you but you can give it away" - Google Search

The circumstance is the worst expression of horror and chaos. You think, you feel this is real but it is so surreal. And yet here you are. But what do you do with it is the reality, what do you do now is the canvas, how you are human in the most inhumane . . . circumstance."no one gave it to you but you can give it away"

BAC victory concert, Worcester 05

BAC victory concert, Worcester 05,
originally uploaded by the_aborigine.

Well, I now have my Flickr site set up. And I mounted a pop filter on a mic stand this morning. And I thought and remembered and sighed many times. What a beautiful morning here today.

You're In Therapy

Thanks to Google, I was made aware that yesterday was World Water Day.

I started drinking tons 'o water around '83 when I was training to run my first Bay To Breakers. Since then I keep a giant tumbler at my desk and drink water all day. I am rarely sick.

I almost never drink coffee but I do like the occasional Coke and Monsters . By the by the way, I bought the Coke product Full Throttle; horrible bat urine tasting crap.

So have a nice fresh drink of tap water (Penn & Teller had a classic "Bullshit" episode last week about bottled water hype) today cuz most of the world does not have good water.

This lead to my posting to my beloved Q3 clan The Mac House of AssWhip. Then the Benster posted how he was reading about the water situation on the international space station. Which then lead the discussion to the consumption of one’s own urine. The latest media frenzy is, to me, yet another example of our ongoing glacial evolution. What a prudish, retarded, hypocritical lot we are, driven like frightened equestria into the burning barns of our own dark fears. In many places on this round world, urine is consumed. It is bacteria free and clean. Have I drunk mine own? No. Would I? Prolly. The smarter we get the dumber stuff we do.

So, packing water, my son's venerable dinosaur top sheet and nail clippers, I made my way to my Haverhill studio. I had a little more than an hour and a half before I would need to depart for rehearsal for St. Mark's Easter music.

In the door, I opened the windows and unpacked my King 3B+. Performing a good iteration of a Claude Gordon Systematic Approach first part, I put the horn down and donned my Puma racing shoes. I then proceeded to crank on my Slingerland five piece and, really, I am playing well these days. I am almost half way through my residency at the River’s Edge studios and I am getting the results I was looking for. Right on the way home from work, I can pop in and practice horn, bass and drums at maximum volume and most aggressive intent.

At the end of April, when I load out and set up back at home, I must eliminate all impediments to recording a three to five song demo. The time has come.

Now, how about a nice, tall, cool glass of urine and butt sweat!

Paper footballs

And those little boxes where you draw a picture and it ends up inside, you look in the little hole, what were those . . *runs off* . . sound of googling . . . ah =) And a million paper footballs. Made ‘em outa gum wrappers, it’d put your eye out. And my favorite paper airplane. In Portugal, I was jacked up all morning knowing later I was going to go to the highest place I could find in our hotel and send one out into the plaza. There were many, it was splendiferous, no one seemed to mind.

Folding and creasing in beautiful symmetric ways, as human obsession, are only a little ironic as they lead us to the “holy grail of modern molecular biophysics”. I bet I can make those planes to a very tight mechanical tolerance. I could . . with joy . . make them everyday like a worker in a Chinese sweat shop.

As we inch closer to our density, we come closer to the vanishing point of misuse, arrogance and dogma. Be as a child means ready to distrust and fear, cower or run away as it does to be open and ready for new experience. The elimination of human suffering can only occur with the elimination of other sundry humanities and there will be no chance to choose. But it is this chance, this frighteningly unpredictable circumstance that is the true reason for our being. Why are we here? Irony.

Now, I gotta reset my Linksys access point . . .

lookin' down the barrel of a 44

Welcome to the ‘90’s. My former homemade blog will now rest though I intend to continue to update the links bar as it is my homepage. Having read in Time’s article about blogging (and the “Kenneth what’s the frequency” effect) that men do not blog as much as women and often abandon their sites, I have decided I need to be attentive and utilize this vehicle. Web beard’s as long as mine have seen the medium blossom to close to what many of us envisioned. The information age . . . That’s only if pr0n and spam are your kinda information. Blogation is a form of deference and accountability. To those most concerned about the erosion of individual rights I say, what do you have to hide? If you hunker down and do not communicate and assimilate, there is little chance you can change the world. One must express oneself even if it brings hardship if your real intent is to be part of the solution. What is the problem? That we are stuck on this rock in the middle of nowhere that is beautiful and serene but also volatile as all get-out. The recent tsunami tragedy is not a large enough example that we need to get off the religious wars/who’s-god-can-beat-up-whose-god thing. I am gravely concerned that in some modest home was the one genius 12 year old Iraqi boy, splattered by ordinance delivered by military machinery of the United States, who could have solved the one problem that would onleash heaven on earth. Having stated in 1994, "The most powerful force in the universe is irony", I am still pulling for a medium sized asteroid to come in at an oblique angle and take out a major portion of a westernized nation.

OMG, did I just say that? Yes, yes I did. Look, even if it was my house and family, I am still on the side of minor galactic chaos as a means of slappin’ us upside and waking us up to the necessity of pulling things together towards science and technology and maybe having options besides being frozen, drown, baked, stabbed or squished here on beautiful mother earth, my aboriginal home.