-
Welcome to Phoenix Rising!
Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.
Blog entries by Howard
It's been many moons since I put a new song up on good ole youtube, so I figured I'd clue you guys in. As always, if you do decide to listen, prepare yourself for something very non-standard, and most probably (and seemingly) lacking the necessary musical cohesion people have come to expect...
Note: a rather pedestrian depiction of the past two days (minus any actual pedestrian type or related of action)
Ring Ring
Just as I awoke this morning my phone rang. That's never a good sign.
“Sorry for calling so early, are you awake right now?”
“Right now? Well, heck yeah! I'm on the...
Accomplished Feet / Accessible Wheels
My journey to appear was planned days in advance, with help from my dedicated caregiver. I had a fair amount of apprehension going into this, having gotten stuck at the bottom of the staircase the very first time I tried using the stairlift a few weeks ago...
After two grueling months of incessant never-ending agonizing pain, I finally switched into a new phase of relative painlessness. I'm not sure how that happened, but I am internally thankful.
The infection I've had seems to be under control (if that's what the problem actually was in the first...
Everything is set. Everything is ready to go.
I am leery of undergoing the procedure, but it needs to be done. No more procrastinating. Today is The Day. Surgery at 2:00 p.m.
Right now, it's 11:00 a.m., which means the ambulance transport should be here any minute. They'll be taking me (and...
Let's have some fun, shall we? I'm totally serious. We're going to have more fun than a one horse open sleigh caught in the midst of a never-ending heatwave. For the past nine days we (the Lower Desert People of Arizona) have been between 114° and 118° each and every afternoon. Imagine that! And...
Five separate (blog) writing efforts have been initiated in the past several weeks, yet I have not posted anything. As best I can tell, I'm having difficulty completing the thought. Or perhaps, I'm having difficulty determining whether or not the subject matter offered is at all worthwhile to...
Gimme a Lift
My hulking son carried me up the stairs at 2:06 p.m. this past Sunday afternoon. Yes, fortunately he's muscle bound, or we never would have made the ascent. Due to the constricted space, the initial wheelchair effort massively failed (rolling me up the stairs). And well before...
If I disclose this symptomatic information to my doctor, I suspect she'll try to medicate me, as well as having me psychoanalyzed. Heck, I'm not even sure they psychoanalyze anymore. There's probably some newfangled term defining intrusive mine probing these days - a glorious task that doesn't...
Background
The following statistical summarization includes all initial conversational interactions that have taken place since I've been wheelchair bound (nearly two years)
Note: I utilize a power wheelchair to get around. Most of my initial getting around took place within a nursing home...
I didn't want to call the fire department. No one does. Unless they have to. You see, I sort of got myself into a situation. Not immediately life-threatening, yet not exactly life-affirming either. At least there was plenty of time for solutions; dozens of minutes, a couple of hours, but perhaps...
Days Past , Days Pass
Most of the body of this blog effort happened on Thursday. Today is Saturday. Tomorrow is Sunday. Basically, that's how the days of the week work. In the United States of America, many people don't know this. Unfortunately there's a pronounced element of brainwashed...
I'm half asleep right now. But that also means I'm half awake. Let floweth thyne words, right?
So what comes next is my response to the comments received in my previous blog entry. My original stated dilemma had much to do with my future choosing, specifically, answering the following...
Greetings. I am still alive. And if you are reading this, you are still alive, too. Congratulations! Please forgive my lack of posting. I've been a lowdown dirty depressed sort of human during these recent weeks, but heck, things could turn around suddenly. Improvement is just on the horizon...
This may be a depressing unsatisfactory read. Proceed with caution.
Brief update:
I received trigger point lidocaine injections this afternoon in my stoma area, and the pain went away... for 60 minutes. Yes, it was a glorious 60 minutes!
I have a follow-up appointment on February 8th.
In...
Yes, I am still working on that darned thing, that album which remains incomplete (from last summer). I figured, who knows, I better put something out while I remain capable of doing such things. A couple songs still need some editing. And then vocals are needed and necessary. So I got to sing...
1:01 am and finally the pain has diminished in such a way as to allow my potential sleeping (while listening to Oranssi Pazuzu’s most recently released effort, Mestarin Kynsi. You see, I had wanted this album since the first came out a couple of years ago. During the big covid surge (back when I...
12/25/2023 - 0017 hours
I'm in the midst of what sounds like a war zone (out there). Round after round of gunfire, explosions on all sides, and flashing pyrotechnics are at hand. I'm not exactly sure why this is happening on what was once known as Christmas Eve —- but perhaps I missed the...
Yeah, maybe that's the first thing that came to mind when he woke up yesterday morning...
He???
Yeah, I should probably explain.
So in between storms last night, I decided to go out for a short ride into the rather brisk early evening. To take in the scene, I sat near the side of the...
Yo, people of Phoenix Rising - Lend me your ears! Or how about … your eyeballs instead?
Ummm, this will be a sort of rant. But not really. This is a copy of the email I'm sending to my dietitian / nutritionist. Why am I sending this to her? Well, why not? I have to send this to somebody. Not...