Two years after my MVD surgery, checking in with how I’m feeling. Also: tattoo ideas, gettin' paleolithic, different chorizos.
Get The Whole Story: Please check the Microvascular Decompression tag page to hear all the updates about my MVD surgery.
last borscht thing: Matt came over and had lunch and he said "it was the best borscht I've ever had." Nami was there
not like he's Lithuanian or anything.
I think Lithuanians eat it cold
Steve was talking about white borscht
Shout outs to Nathan Mary Butters and Tibby- thanks for the catnip hot sauce
Very Stable Genius is a good neck tattoo
I went to reddit to see if there were any posts about Epstein-Barr causation and there was only one in the Multiple Sclerosis forum and the study was met with an ambivalent reaction
We had white beans, kale, and dry chorizo stew. i talked to the butcher about the dry chorizo -- joe: "is it chorizo, or is it choriz?"
"I'm in recovery again" update to my 2nd surgery in January 2020 - meds- relapses- where I'm at now
in Omicron isn't milder for everyone I canceled my dental appointment but i just had it. I wore two masks for the first time
At the periodontist's office all the doors are open because Covid so you hear everything- gross!
Thank you
Printer Poem
JOHN HOPPIN: Yeah, 'sup, 'sup, 'sup. 'Sup.
My friend Joe was in a band in college and it was called SUP and he was like, "Get it? Get it? SUP. It stands for Sand Under Pressure. Get it?" And we'd all be like, "Glass? Glass?" And he was like, "No! Sand Under Pressure is rock." They were a jam band in Colorado, SUP.
This is the MVD surgery update.
A lot of people come to the website looking for information about MVD, microvascular decompression surgery. That's where they popped a hole in my skull and did some little robot surgery to take me out of pain in my trigeminal nerve. I was having trigeminal neuralgia. My doctor said, "Hey, try this thing, MVD. It's like a surgery- it's brain surgery. It's pretty invasive, but you can be out of pain." And I was like, "No, I don't think I'll do that. I think I'll just take pills." Those kind of worked and worked, and then all of the sudden I was totally drugged and I was like, "This is not working for me. I got to change." And they were like, "What about that MVD surgery?" So microvascular decompression, I did it. I was out of pain for about three months, then it came back and it was horrible because you're so traumatized from being in chronic pain anyway, that when it goes away and comes back, it's really traumatic and difficult.
But I wanted to go on from that, actually. I'm going to give more of an update later, but let me just hit the- hold your horses.
Okay, the last borscht thing.
Matt came over and he had lunch. He had borscht for lunch and he looked off in dreamy eyes, and he was like, "This is the best borscht I've ever had." Nami was there. She cut it all up, so I feel like maybe… But it's not like he's Lithuanian or anything. Best borscht he's ever had, I was thinking like, "Have you ever had another borscht?" But I'll take it. I didn't ask him that. I only thought it.
Anyway. Not like he's Lithuanian or anything, and I think Lithuanians eat borscht cold. I called my friend Steve, he's Polish. He was talking about white borscht. I don't even understand. Borscht is like the reddest thing, but they have white borscht, I guess. That's it, borscht is over. We're out of borscht. I have two quarts in the freezer that I'm going to eat with the family at some point, but that's it. The pumpernickel bread is gone.
I got to give another shout out to Nathan, Mary, Butters and Tibby.
They sent me a hot sauce bottle, a little tiny one, and it's not a real hot sauce bottle. It's like a furry cat toy, and it was full of catnip. I threw it on the floor and my cat went nuts. So, thanks to Nathan and Mary the people. Mary, thank you. I couldn't remember her name, remember? And then Butters the dog and Tibby the cat. They love the sauce! They're the fans, okay. I don't know if they're a thing, if they're an item, if they're married, if they're friends, whatever. I realized, I was like, "I could do the wedding" and that's kind of presumptuous, but I'll preside over a ceremony where we acknowledge that you're friends. I'll preside over any ceremony. Remember the block party, the wedding, friendship ceremony, recommitment ceremony. I preside over anything. Okay, thanks for the catnip. The cat liked it.
I had an idea.
I had a tattoo idea and I was thinking about Danny Trejo. You know Danny Trejo? Is he in From Dusk Till Dawn? I feel like he should be. Danny Trejo is like, he's got tattoos, he was born Dan Trejo in Echo Park, LA. He was a child drug addict and criminal. He won the lightweight and welterweight boxing titles in San Quentin. Anyway, he's an actor, man. He cleaned it all up, he changed his life around. He was in Machete, From Dusk Till Dawn. So, Danny Trejo, he knows Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Can't forget Bobby D. Anyway, I had an idea for a Danny Trejo type character. I had an idea for a neck tattoo, but it's not a character. I had an idea for a real person who's a buffed drug addict criminal, and maybe reformed or not. Maybe the San Quentin boxing champ or not. I thought they could get a neck tattoo. I thought they could get a neck tattoo, "Very Stable Genius." Danny Trejo type character.
We were talking about Epstein-Borscht last time and I went on Reddit
to see if people in the multiple sclerosis subreddit were posting about the Epstein-Barr causation. I did find one, and people were very ambivalent and they were like, "It won't help us." There was a lot of… People were not stoked. I thought it was a game changer. So, in the multiple sclerosis subreddit, even identification of a leading cause for MS is met with ambivalence. I shouldn't feel bad that I posted this podcast there and no one cared, because no one cares if you… I wonder, I wonder if I shouldn't hate on it, I bet things are good there, but man, it can be a tough crowd. That's all. But I'll still be getting up, I don't care about a tough crowd, we'll see about a tough crowd.
Speaking of borscht, I've been cooking. We had white beans, kale and dry chorizo stew.
I talked to the butcher about the dry chorizo and how it tasted. I was like "White beans, kale and chorizo. That's Portuguese." And he was like, "Hold on, hold on. Is it chorizo? Or is it choriz?" And I'm like, "What? Dude, how many chorizo… I thought it was one thing to have fresh chorizo and dry chorizo, but what's a choriz?" It's awesome, at a food place- when you go down a rabbit hole, you can always go deeper. It's like the What's The Matter With Me? Podcast.
In Omicron Isn't Milder For Everyone, I canceled my dental appointment because I was freaked out, but I just had it and I was concerned.
When I pulled up, I put on two masks for the first time.
You know how they say that, like "You can wear two masks. Two is better than one." I've always been like, "Yeah, but two is twice as crazy as one," right? At the same time, two is better than one, I hear you, it probably works better. But wearing a mask can be fraught and wearing two masks is twice as fraught. But I did it and it was all good.
Everything is wide open because of the surge. They have the front door of the office wide open, all of the exam rooms are wide open. At the periodontist's office, all the doors are open because of COVID, so you hear everything and the periodontist's office is gnarly. Last time, they were like, "Looks like your tooth is fused to your jaw bone so I'll have to get a chisel and chisel it off." I'm just sitting here in my exam room, waiting for the doctor to come in and I'm like, "Good Lord! 'Fused to your jawbone', 'chisel it off!' Where am I?" I'm in the paleolithic era or something. Do you come in with the hammer and hit me in the head and knock me out?
Then, this time they were going over to the cost and they were talking about pus. There was pus coming from some person's tooth? I don't know. You hear everything! I was like, "Ah! Just get me out of here." And the guy comes in, he's like, "You're fine, you have some residue." He gave me one of these squirting jets of water syringes. It's called a microjet that I just squirt in my face while I'm brushing my teeth. In my mouth.
I'm in recovery again was the last update. Microvascular decompression, it still goes on.
I'm still in recovery. I'm traumatized when I wash my face, when I shave my face. I don't like the water to be too cold or too hot. I like it to be roughly my skin temperature. Just shocking in my face, I don't want that.
My second surgery was in January 2020 and I started using some meds because I had some very short shocks and they were hardly painful, but they let me know they could be. So, I started taking some meds. I'm on a lot less medication than I was when I was medicating to combat trigeminal neuralgia with carbamazepine and gabapentin, right. That's called tegretol and neurontin. Every drug has two names, a generic and a brand name. Anyway, I'm not on any gabapentin and I'm on some carbamazepine but it's not very much. I'm not on a lot of medication and I'm recovering, but I needed some meds because I have…
Like on Christmas, it rained a lot here, so there was a lot of atmospheric moisture and things going on and some type of barometric stuff and pressure. I felt maybe less than 10 overall, total. Less than 10 times, for just a super brief micro flash, I just felt that I could feel my trigeminal nerve. It was not like flashing pain. It wasn't flashing red, but it was on. I was like, "That thing is supposed to be off." That freaked me out. I didn't take more meds, I just kind of stayed the course and it went away. It's been away and I'm traumatized, so I'm going to knock on wood. It's been away since Christmas.
