Dean No-Show, And The Last Few Days
8/20/07 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. It looks like Dean has determined to stay south and punish Mexico instead of Texas. We probably deserve it more than Mexico does, but I'm glad Dean won't be washing any of the South Texas (and Louisiana reject) riff-raff up this way. As of this morning, only a few of the models had Dean lightly brushing South Padre Island, but most of the models have it going straight into Mexico, then turning up this way as a Tropical Depression some day. Another Invest has developed in the Atlantic with its eyes on Florida. We'll keep our eyes on it.
There has been an incredible increase in Black Widow spiders here on the land after our spring rains. Danielle killed about 4 in the root cellar the other day, and we have been seeing them all over. More on that later...
Ok, the last 5-6 days for me have been... interesting... so I'll share with you. On Wednesday morning of last week (the date of my last blog entry), I woke up and sat down for breakfast. I ate two bites and I was completely full. Couldn't eat another bite. I went through my day and I was quite tired all day, and sometimes short of breath. I wasn't hungry again until about 4 p.m. and at that time I had Tracy make me a sandwich. Once again, after about two bites I was stuffed full. ??? Ok, so at this point I start getting other gastro-intestinal symptoms that I won't share with you, but no matter how much I DIDN'T eat, I felt full and swollen, gassy, and tired. This lasted for about two days. On Friday I got up (situation remained the same), couldn't hardly eat and I felt pretty bad. I walked quite a bit that day, and then, late in the day we saddled up Pita and the children and I took her for a walk. We walked back to my new RV/Office area and I sat down for awhile while the children explored. I was very short of breath, tired, and I felt very tight in the chest.
Just after we put up Pita a guest (a new friend from Austin) arrived for a couple days visit. He is interested in learning about Agrarianism and wanted to hang out and ask questions. So I gave the guest a quick tour of the land, and then we stayed up a bit late in the dark of the porch talking about Agrarianism and, well, everything else. I went to bed late, and then couldn't sleep. When I laid down I began having chest pains, and a very tight chest, and shortness of breath (Heart Attack? I was thinking?). I even had pain radiating out to my left arm. But most of my symptoms were gastro-intestinal, and I felt sure there was another explanation. The next morning (Sabbath morning) we all got up and had a community breakfast at Double H Dining in Santa Anna. My appetite was a bit better, but I was numb and glossy over the lack of sleep and overall illness. At this point my temperature was up over 100 degrees and I was sweating profusely (which isn't strange in Texas summer heat). I was tired all the time, and as long as I was sitting down I was mostly alright. I gave our guest a more in-depth tour of the land when we returned, and we walked quite a bit. At this point my "other" intestinal symptoms increased exponentially, and I still was pretty unable to eat much. I kept our guest company all day, then that night we had Q&A so the whole community was over. After Q&A we sat on the porch again until late talking - asking and answering questions. When everyone left, I went to bed and just totally collapsed. I was asleep in probably 10 seconds. The Lord's Day morning I could not get out of bed. I was full-on sick at this point, and I was having muscle spasms in diverse places around my body. I couldn't eat until about 2 p.m., and then I had just a few bites. Danielle got me some stomach meds and I took those and they helped a little, so I got online and started surfing around to try to find out what had been wrong with me. Danielle came in at this time and told me that Chris Woods had said to the children that my symptoms sounded like I had been bit by a Black Widow Spider, and I laughed and said... "Well, I don't have any spider bites that I know of". I found a few Health sites where you can put in your symptoms and they give you an array of conditions you may or may not have (perfect for hypochondriacs, which I am not). On the first site, I put in all my symptoms and it came back with three likely suspects:
Black Widow Spider Bite
Heart Attack
Poisoning
Hmmm.... Although I suspected it at first, I'm pretty sure I didn't have a heart attack, and I am fairly certain that no one poisoned me.
So I went to another site, and basically the same thing came up (with Irritable Bowel Syndrom in there too).
I went to WebMD which is supposed to be the biggest site that does this sort of thing, and I noticed that they didn't include spider bites or any other likely Agrarian maladies in their "possibles". They just told me that I had clearly had a heart attack and I should immediately go spend millions of dollars at a hospital. I figured the pharmaceutical companies and health care criminals have already co-opted WebMD.
So then I looked up Black Widow Spider bites. Well, I found out that, although most people have pain and swelling near the bite, many people do not even know they were bitten until they have symptoms. Most of us who live out here have a plethora of bite areas from fire ants, chiggers, etc., so there is no way I could possibly account for every bite on me. But the symptoms sounded eerily like what I had suffered for 5 days - and, BWS bites often mimic heart attack symptoms. Add to this the fact that we have Black Widows everywhere and have been killing them almost daily... well, I am now settled that this was probably the culprit.
After my self-analysis, I felt well enough to sit up and watch a movie with Danielle (Fracture w/Anthony Hopkins) - and I have been slowly improving since then. Got up this morning and had a full bowl of cereal and walked down to the Office RV and back. My head has cleared up some, and the muscle spasms have almost completely stopped.
Oh... "Fracture" was alright. I like Anthony Hopkins, and there are some great performances in it. Nowhere near as good As Bourne Ultimatum though, and I hope to do my review on that movie soon.
I hope to get back to work soon.
Y'all be cool.
Michael Bunker
There has been an incredible increase in Black Widow spiders here on the land after our spring rains. Danielle killed about 4 in the root cellar the other day, and we have been seeing them all over. More on that later...
Ok, the last 5-6 days for me have been... interesting... so I'll share with you. On Wednesday morning of last week (the date of my last blog entry), I woke up and sat down for breakfast. I ate two bites and I was completely full. Couldn't eat another bite. I went through my day and I was quite tired all day, and sometimes short of breath. I wasn't hungry again until about 4 p.m. and at that time I had Tracy make me a sandwich. Once again, after about two bites I was stuffed full. ??? Ok, so at this point I start getting other gastro-intestinal symptoms that I won't share with you, but no matter how much I DIDN'T eat, I felt full and swollen, gassy, and tired. This lasted for about two days. On Friday I got up (situation remained the same), couldn't hardly eat and I felt pretty bad. I walked quite a bit that day, and then, late in the day we saddled up Pita and the children and I took her for a walk. We walked back to my new RV/Office area and I sat down for awhile while the children explored. I was very short of breath, tired, and I felt very tight in the chest.
Just after we put up Pita a guest (a new friend from Austin) arrived for a couple days visit. He is interested in learning about Agrarianism and wanted to hang out and ask questions. So I gave the guest a quick tour of the land, and then we stayed up a bit late in the dark of the porch talking about Agrarianism and, well, everything else. I went to bed late, and then couldn't sleep. When I laid down I began having chest pains, and a very tight chest, and shortness of breath (Heart Attack? I was thinking?). I even had pain radiating out to my left arm. But most of my symptoms were gastro-intestinal, and I felt sure there was another explanation. The next morning (Sabbath morning) we all got up and had a community breakfast at Double H Dining in Santa Anna. My appetite was a bit better, but I was numb and glossy over the lack of sleep and overall illness. At this point my temperature was up over 100 degrees and I was sweating profusely (which isn't strange in Texas summer heat). I was tired all the time, and as long as I was sitting down I was mostly alright. I gave our guest a more in-depth tour of the land when we returned, and we walked quite a bit. At this point my "other" intestinal symptoms increased exponentially, and I still was pretty unable to eat much. I kept our guest company all day, then that night we had Q&A so the whole community was over. After Q&A we sat on the porch again until late talking - asking and answering questions. When everyone left, I went to bed and just totally collapsed. I was asleep in probably 10 seconds. The Lord's Day morning I could not get out of bed. I was full-on sick at this point, and I was having muscle spasms in diverse places around my body. I couldn't eat until about 2 p.m., and then I had just a few bites. Danielle got me some stomach meds and I took those and they helped a little, so I got online and started surfing around to try to find out what had been wrong with me. Danielle came in at this time and told me that Chris Woods had said to the children that my symptoms sounded like I had been bit by a Black Widow Spider, and I laughed and said... "Well, I don't have any spider bites that I know of". I found a few Health sites where you can put in your symptoms and they give you an array of conditions you may or may not have (perfect for hypochondriacs, which I am not). On the first site, I put in all my symptoms and it came back with three likely suspects:
Black Widow Spider Bite
Heart Attack
Poisoning
Hmmm.... Although I suspected it at first, I'm pretty sure I didn't have a heart attack, and I am fairly certain that no one poisoned me.
So I went to another site, and basically the same thing came up (with Irritable Bowel Syndrom in there too).
I went to WebMD which is supposed to be the biggest site that does this sort of thing, and I noticed that they didn't include spider bites or any other likely Agrarian maladies in their "possibles". They just told me that I had clearly had a heart attack and I should immediately go spend millions of dollars at a hospital. I figured the pharmaceutical companies and health care criminals have already co-opted WebMD.
So then I looked up Black Widow Spider bites. Well, I found out that, although most people have pain and swelling near the bite, many people do not even know they were bitten until they have symptoms. Most of us who live out here have a plethora of bite areas from fire ants, chiggers, etc., so there is no way I could possibly account for every bite on me. But the symptoms sounded eerily like what I had suffered for 5 days - and, BWS bites often mimic heart attack symptoms. Add to this the fact that we have Black Widows everywhere and have been killing them almost daily... well, I am now settled that this was probably the culprit.
After my self-analysis, I felt well enough to sit up and watch a movie with Danielle (Fracture w/Anthony Hopkins) - and I have been slowly improving since then. Got up this morning and had a full bowl of cereal and walked down to the Office RV and back. My head has cleared up some, and the muscle spasms have almost completely stopped.
Oh... "Fracture" was alright. I like Anthony Hopkins, and there are some great performances in it. Nowhere near as good As Bourne Ultimatum though, and I hope to do my review on that movie soon.
I hope to get back to work soon.
Y'all be cool.
Michael Bunker
posted by Michael Bunker at 8/20/2007 06:39:00 AM
3 Comments:
Bless your heart, Michael. I agree with your self-diagnosis. Glad you're feeling better and no one poisoned you. :)
Speaking of movies, maybe you'll be interested in "Arachniphobia"? :-)
Seriously, glad you're on the mend, that did not sound very pleasant....praise God he brought you through!
Will be looking forward to you "Bourne" review, as we just recently saw it too.
Hey Spiderman,
Glad you are feeling a little better. I didn't know those little buggers could cause so much havoc to the whole body.
Haven't seen "Bourne" yet but I'm looking forward to your review.
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