after spending like 4 days in the hospital in rochester minnesota (part of the mayo clinic).  what caused me to enter the hospital was a loss of gait and motor control.  in fact i lost it completely, both gait and speech.  it was as if i had a seizure.  i was on my way to my regularly scheduled appointment with my physician, i jus lost it at perkins restaurant, where we always eat before seeing the doctor.  i lost it there.  had to have my girlfriend cut my waffle.  totally lost it.  got to mayo, and my doctor's office and he jus sent me over to st. mary's hospital across the street.  where they admitted me immediately.

so i get into the hospital and they start running all these tests.  and i don't remember much of what happened over the next 4 days.  they did a lumbar puncture and i remember arguing with them about the need to do the procedure.  a spinal tap.  they're not a very comfortable test.  and i've got bruises on my stomach all around my belly button.  here you can see for yourself.

anyway, i have scars on my back and left arm.  so, you can get the idea of where i was at all week last week.  anyway, so i get out on the 15th, and end up back in the ER on the 16th because i was unable to keep any food or meds down.  so spending 8 hours in the ER right before st. paddy's day was the highlight of my week.  but i'm doing better today.  was able to keep down whatever i ate, my problem was getting the amount of food in me to qualm my hunger pains.  but at least i was able to keep what i ate down (had shrimp basket & key lime pie for breakfast/lunch).  i'm hoping that i'll be able to eat a decent meal in the next day or two.

so i've got a doctor's appointment with my family doctor tomorrow.  hopefully he'll have good words for me.  i'm going to complain  about a cracked rib which i got while i was in rochester.  why they weren't able to take care of it before discharging me.  not a word mentioned about it in my discharge summary.  oh well.  i didn't really feel like i got the best treatment up there.  those bruises make me look like a drug addict.  trust me, i had bruises like this before on both of my arms.  it's just that i've laid off the drugs since jan. 2005.  plus they weren't giving me the drugs the way i wanted them to.  and now i'm suffering from major constipation.  caused by the huge amounts of methadone.  150 mg, 3 times a day.  and for that i usually keep the pipes in shape with 3 pills of a stool softener.  i'm sure this is getting into the TMI territory.

so i'll close out with a wish for a happy st. paddy's day, and hope you enjoyed your day.  g'day.