M.E. And Me

August 8th was International Severe M.E. Day. (Myalgic Encephelomyelitis). I have had this illness for 19 years with 8 years of partial remission from using probiotics and bovine colostrum to heal my gut and boost my immune system.

I'm not in remission anymore and the viral load that has plagued me roams mostly unchallenged in my body and my brain.

In 2012 a bronchoscope confirmed I have Herpes Simplex I in my lungs. Between 2012 and 2014 the flares occurred throughout my body - lungs, stomach, inside my left hip, the upper part of my neck and then finally it moved into my brain.

Since then there is less specific pain but I have started having episodes - like TIAs -as the virus does lobectomies in my cerebellum. I don't know how long it will take, how far it will go or what it will take with it. I have yet to find a doctor with any idea of how herpes works in the non- HIV herpes world.

Teen Night at the Grizzly Rose

I'm just home from what I thought was a chaperone effort with my friend Jeanne; her daughter S. at the Grizzly Rose Saloon in Denver, CO. S. Is 14 and I used to party and dance at the saloon back in the day so I thought it would be a teeny bopper sleaze show. I mean that's how I treated it back then so I just extrapolated that it was sleaze bag training.

And yes it was just like that with everyone but S. There was no moping around as a wall flower or overcompensating by line dancing until your mascara sweated off by this girl.

First she danced the swing with her mom to about 5 songs. Then she rode the mechanical bull while I held the table. Then she insisted I come back into the roping room so she could show me how to rope. 

About roping: it's kind of ridiculous that I spent my whole life around livestock and rodeos and no one thought to teach me how to rope. Especially because I hit one horn of three of the four tries. S. is a beginner