You almost lost me

The side effects were just too bad, that Linzess nightmare awhile back

It started with paranoia then gave way to profound fatigue so I went to bed.

Hell met me there, a new kind with seized spikes of lost breath and shakes

Rotational episodes this time then bouncing off the bed with gutteral screams of agony.

What to do now? Thousands have punched my life this decade of intermittent/daily misery

When I can’t even think to pray just stare blankly into my mind’s eye, lids pulled tightly closed.

The visual anomalies reminded me of another medication side effect in a Mexican hospital

When the pregnant young nurse shook nervously as she gave me medication in the middle of the night.

That night I learned the terrifying reality of black boxed hallucinations that you cannot stop or control

You hold on for dear life, wondering if you will ever come away with your sanity, if the side effect ever ends.

So Tuesday night I recognized the pattern from 2009 that ramped up to a break in mentality,

Desperately pleading for a way to think clearly, to get out of the scene stuck on repeat.

“Ozone” came into my consciousness, not spoken just present all-of-a-sudden in my thoughts

But how when I am convulsing, wretching air, terrified of injury as my head and neck thrashed so?

“Just start” came the next words, “yeah right” were mine that followed, sorry, “pray tell how?”

We found a way, my distraught beloved and I. Water spilled about and I rolled around in a desk chair unable to walk.

It was ugly alright: running a medical device that can hurt you while your head drops to bang on the table a few times midway through,

Somehow I got the treatment in me, terrified this time of doing it wrong.

You can damage your lungs you know and perhaps Steve’s if ya miss a step or two.

I drank the water: 400 ml of 70 gamma was the strongest I knew how to process

And within 2 minutes the worst of the wretched, hellish nightmare was over. Then I wept.

A few rebound shaking episodes broke through before it was all over that night

Lying on the bed staring into the darkness this time just dark no weirdness in sight.

If I did not have my medical ozone system I am convinced that tonight I would be in a psych ward somewhere not here

Drugged with anti-psychotic medications, facing weeks of infirmity that’s if the drugs could be cleared from my system at all.

I don’t respond well to medications that affect the brain or “second brain” of the gut

Even a “pediatric dose” can create a crisis ranging from gut issues to this, the worst.

Several days later the seizure threshold remains too low to function yet at my baseline

I’m doing as best I can and taking rescue remedies more often, or rather via nurse Steve, even with the episode earlier tonight.

Be wary of Linzess Gentle Reader. JJ

When the mind doth calm

Almost unbelievably, the change of more than Spring has begun

I never thought it could though wish for it I did with all my might.

Because you can only see from where you have been unless given to dream

But alas I don’t do well with fantasy: give me something real I can touch, I can feel!

Years with my mind in the craggy place of sickness but yet wired just the same

Astounded I functioned at all as I look back at my years from there to here.

So the consult among the experts, the one we had to persist to even get

Held the critical link to a change in medication becoming the magic pill, so to speak.

More days, more nights free of seizures than ever before have opened up my world

To the wonders of being, the tasks of life, the longing embraces of my beloved so sweet.

With more road to travel in this journey of recovery, I still do not fear it ending soon.

When the mind doth calm the seeds of true hope and love are born I can see:

My Lord hath brought His goodness and in it I will simply dwell for now, alright.

Psalm, Psalm 107:29, waves, Bible, storm, Jesus, calms the sea, hope, trials

Something that’s of worth

Hey how about playing this:  The Heart of Worship

When the music fades
And all is stripped away
And I simply come

Longing just to bring
Something that’s of worth
That will bless Your heart

I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required

You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart

I’m coming back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about You
It’s all about You, Jesus

I’m sorry, Lord for the thing I’ve made it
And it’s all about You
It’s all about You, Jesus

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve

Though I’m weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath

It’s all about You…

Matt Redman speaks to my heart with his ballad on guitar:  words I can’t seem to get out any other way.  You see I have laryngitis!  Tee hee.  It hasn’t been fun lately on top of everything else so Ima gonna keep it simple and just dwell in the presence of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ . . .  Dwell with me for a spell, Gentle Reader.  The lover of your soul is waiting!  :J