BJFE / BearFoot fx Guitar Effects Community

Hmmm we all have challenges to deal with and overcome.....

my obvious ones are the daily demands of Job/wife/kids

and getting thru with some braincells in tact and keeping everyone satisfied....

trying to stay in good health ( i had a heart attack a few years ago - doing much better now )

and have some fun in there too...........oh yeah and Guitar Playing !!!!!

Me.

these days, it's dealing with the economic downturn. i got terminated in may, and have been unemployed since then, but that is soon to be rectified, hopefully.

music biz is at the lowest point i have ever known. clubs hire DJs and solo acoustic guys instead of bands.

my biggest challenge is REMAINING ME in the midst of all that is happening.

i have gotten over a LOT of hurdles in my life, and continue to follow the red button on the cover of "hitch hiker's guide" -- DON'T PANIC.

but things are on the upswing....last week it looked more bleak. all of a sudden, next week, i will be going back into the studio to cut an album with Two Story Double Wide, and gearing up to play a big show in March. for some reason Wal Mart (now the largest record store in the USA) really liked our last album. So we have a chance to get a record out through them. weird.......but we ARE a white trash trailer rock band, so we fit their demographic

my sweet little Dyna Red LOVES that band.......and for our "big" show. mr. george scholz has agreed to be my guitar and amp tech for the show, and is gonna bring out one of his custom 100 watt scholz amps for me to use.

it's gonna be LOUD and PROUD. dyna red, 100 watts of harry joyce fueled fury thru a 4x12 loaded with Fanes.

Finding enough money to pay for my wedding.

I will all work out one way or another though...

ok, well i'll be honest about something I don't talk about very much. I have pretty serious health problems-- I have constant non-stop migraine headaches that go from mild to excruciatingly painful on a daily basis. Its technically been diagnosed as "a-typical migraines with daily chronic headache syndrome" which basically means they have no idea what to call it or how to fix it.

One day in March of 2003 I was... erm... gettin it on with my GF at the time and had an episode that they called an "excertional migraine". I thought I was having a freaking aneurysm or stroke or something at the time--worst pain I've ever felt in my life. For about 3 months after that I was in serious, constant pain. Then gradually over time they started to get a little better, but never went away entirely. Almost had exploratory brain surgery, but my CT Scans and MRIs came up normal so the doctors opted not to do that. I have mixed feelings about it now... at the time I was obviously very relieved not to have...yeah, brain surgery, but here we are in 2009 and while my headaches have gotten much less serious since then, still, there they are every day when I wake up.

Maybe the most depressing thing about the situation is that to manage the daily pain I have to take an enormous amount of medicine--including a ton of over the counter stuff like Excedrin and Aleve. This is a combination you are NOT supposed to take for ANY length of time because of the damage it can do to your GI tract. But, I have no alternative. So I also take acid blockers, xantac, and other stomach medicines. They don't help much. I've bled out a couple times and basically live with that being a constant issue I have to deal with. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place, right?

And the absolute worst part of it--I'm a musician. If I'm having a bad headache day, I can't play. I've had to leave concerts, cancel on people for social events, you name it. I'm genuinely afraid to be an active gigging musician because I may be completely unreliable due to all of this. I *can* get things to the point of being manageable enough to play most of the time. But I never really know when its going to be particularly good or bad. This has affected every aspect of my life. School, work, relationships, you name it. And yeah, I'm only 28 years old. The doctors tell me there is no particularly good reason to think that this won't just go away some day--they all say it should. Yet, again, here we are in 2009 and I'm still dealing with it. The headaches may have gotten slightly better, but the stomach/intestinal issues have gotten much worse.

I don't know what to do besides try and live my life as if everything was normal, even though I'm usually in some type of constant pain. If its not my head, its my stomach. I've learned to ignore it as best I can but sometimes it can't be ignored. I try to keep my head up about it and believe that it will get better even though I have no real evidence to suggest it will. Truth is, as long as the headaches continue, no matter how mild, the stomach issues will get worse and worse. Its almost like that has become the more major issue now.

I carry earplugs and a huge medicine bottle with me wherever I go. That's my life, and its my biggest challenge. Thank you, if you actually read all this.

NewarkWilder, check your PM.

Doc

NewarkWilder wrote:
One day in March of 2003 I was... erm... gettin it on with my GF at the time and had an episode that they called an "excertional migraine". I thought I was having a freaking aneurysm or stroke or something at the time--worst pain I've ever felt in my life. For about 3 months after that I was in serious, constant pain. Then gradually over time they started to get a little better, but never went away entirely. Almost had exploratory brain surgery, but my CT Scans and MRIs came up normal so the doctors opted not to do that. I have mixed feelings about it now... at the time I was obviously very relieved not to have...yeah, brain surgery, but here we are in 2009 and while my headaches have gotten much less serious since then, still, there they are every day when I wake up.

.

Holy Crap NW !!! this is exactly what happened to me !! ( tho not with your girlfriend of course )

It felt like an icepick was jammed into the back my skull ..... the pain and headaches went away -- that was mid '90s but still to this day if I have my head at the wrong angle while Im doing something I get a little pain in the same place

Damn you have my sympathy , bro.

That's f*cked Newark, I hope it goes away REALLY soon.

thanks for the sympathy guys. its a little tough to talk about since its an ongoing thing but i've been surprised to hear privately from a number of people who have had similar experiences.

I'd also like to note a special thank you to DocRock who has been actively helping me for the past week or so to find a chiropractic specialist in my area who might be able to help. He's really gone out of his way and while I've expressed this to him privately I'd like to say it one more time-- Thanks, Mike--you are an incredibly kind soul and I truly appreciate the time you've spent helping me.

NewarkWilder wrote:thanks for the sympathy guys. its a little tough to talk about since its an ongoing thing but i've been surprised to hear privately from a number of people who have had similar experiences.

I'd also like to note a special thank you to DocRock who has been actively helping me for the past week or so to find a chiropractic specialist in my area who might be able to help. He's really gone out of his way and while I've expressed this to him privately I'd like to say it one more time-- Thanks, Mike--you are an incredibly kind soul and I truly appreciate the time you've spent helping me.

No problem, thanks for the good words! It's in my nature to want to help people, and if I were in your area I'd offer to try to take care of this for you myself. I'll try my best to help you get the right help!

Doc