Perpetual Novembers; Spring Eternal in my Mind; Late-Summer Labyrinths: A letter to Dr. Jess Madden

Monday, March 16, 2015

A letter to Dr. Jess Madden

I've been in contact with Jess for over a year now. It was through her website that I finally understood the relationship between apple cider and alcohol that caused the same horrible allergic reaction; that I didn't have an allergy to apples or alcohol... That the connection between the alcohols and the apple cider is Sulfites... what is placed with the apples or the grapes or other fermentable fruits etc to control the formation of molds... For years I had horrible reactions without understanding what was happening. It was also through Jess that I understood that the issue of histamines or why some people find themselves taking anti-histamines through their lifetime is because those people lack a certain enzyme in their stomachs to metabolize naturally occuring histamines we obtain in certain amino acids in our diet. Considering that Jess has battled with Celiac Disease and a constantly increasing array of issues with allergies since childhood and through medical school, I felt she was the most adequate person to ask how to approach the prescription of powerful pharmaceuticals for "reversing" arteriosclerosis and their risks...

Hi Jess, long time no communication. Everything was going real well with the "diet" (off wheat products for a year now and my digestive tract is much different... However, I've stumbled across ideas that if a person has problem with gluten, they probably will have problems with zein in corn... I mention this because my wife and I spent December at her family's home and on the road, where we found ourselves eating much corn tortillas and tamales and suddenly I found myself with very similar issues, as if the corn was mixed with wheat...

But, this is NOT why I write you today. Thursday I had a heart attack... and I ran 3 miles in the middle of it... Since I thought the pain in my throat and lower jaw was from an alergic reaction to soy in chocolates I ate in the morning (since "high quality" dark chocolate caused immediate headaches and joint pains in January, while I have no problems with pure cocoa beans), I didn't seek a cardiologist until Saturday, after receiving the results of bloodtests I had ordered on Friday that showed high AST and high Lactic Acid in my blood stream. Saturday evening I had an angiogram done and had two stents placed in two of my heart arteries. The artery that was blocked was the smallest of the arteries and the cardiologist said that it was too late to change that situation and that it really doesn't make much of a difference. Towards the end of the placement of the stents, I had an allergic reaction to the Iodine placed in my heart for imaging... My pulse increased from 68 to 200 and my body went into uncontrolable shivering/spasms... all because no one asked me if I have a history of allergies to clams... I've eaten long-necked clams 3 times in my life and with the same horrible reaction... It took them 30 minutes to control the reaction. In the meanwhile I lost consciousness. And when I came too afterwards, I couldn't see for a few hours... Although the mishap was the falt of the doctors or the nurse who didn't ask me if I had alergies to seafood (a reaction to yodo in the image resonance ink supposedly is less than 10%, although this was the first time occurance for my intervention cardiologist), they still charged us for the cost of all of the medicine used to control the reaction.

Considering this mishap or the lack of asking questions before prescribing powerful drugs, I've put on hold taking any of the 4 drugs the cardiologist prescribed me yesterday... One says, "not to be used if the patient has a history of asthma or respiratory problems" But, the doctor didn't ask me if I was asthmatic (I was but supposedly ceased being diagnosable... my asthma has been called "Seasonal Asthma" and appears often in response to allergic reactions, like mold spores, dust particals and who knows what else triggers it...)

Do you know anything about the risks of people using Statins and other drugs for arteriosclerosis who have a tendency towards allergies or who do not metabolize histamines adequately?

As I'm sure you know, not taking the statins or the blood thinners or the platelet unstickers seems reckless on my part. Then again, taking whatever drug prescribed by a doctor who I can assure you doesn't truly know all that's behind how those free samples given him by his pharmaceutical rep, also seems extremely reckless.

Ross

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Unfinished "Self-Portrait at 33"

Something I've dreamed of painting since just after my ultimate surgery in 2001. I post this now since I don't know if I will have the chance to work on it before going back on the road on Sunday... The problem is I've been sick for the past 5 days, painting this for the past week, a few hours per day. Whatever the sickness is, it isn't anything I've known and seemingly changes every day. In order to guarrantee my being well anough for the intense work for the following month, I may have to leave this hanging until I return at the end of August...

"La Sonrisa de Amarillo" (Amarillo's smile).

"La Sonrisa de Amarillo" (Amarillo's smile). José and Nicolas were commenting that I should sell the shirt I use for painting, since it is covered with paint. And then José said, "better yet, I'll give you one of my shirts to paint..." It was a joke. But I took it seriously. He has shirt he bought 4 years ago in Zacatecas with a copy of a painting of a bull in a bull fight. However, the print was erased from the shirt years ago. So, I decided to use the space that had the bull. "Amarillo" (Yellow) was the dog at my in-laws ranch when Margarita and I met. Due to a bad fight, he was left with one side of his mouth and one of his ears mangled, which gave him a permanent half snarl with one fang sticking out. He died years ago. But we often mention him...

New House/Studio Guadalajara

Over 20 years ago our friend José "Montaña" bought a parcel of land in the center of Guadalajara. His uncle who was a constructor/mason helped José build the brick house that has 6 bedrooms. Not long afterward, José entered into his older brother's Indian crafts importation business and decided to sell the crafts in fairs around Mexico. His brothers were one of the first people in Mexico City to enter into the Krishna movement that gave them certain perks. While José became vegetarian 4 years ago, sells the Indian furniture and crafts etc, has a giant shrine to Ganesh in his house and hosts the Mahareshi at least two times a year, José doesn't consider himself a Krishna. For at least 15 years José experienced extreme success in the fairs and was able to send his children to private English Language schools (his oldest son went to University in Texas and Married there),was able to visit with his children the U.S. and India and even bought the "castillo" (castle---an insider joke) next door. For years he used it as a store house and for a shop where Mary had workers fabricating crafts and Mexican/asian Indian style clothing. Then, about 4 years ago, Mexico entered into the international economic crises and José began losing money in the fairs. (I, on the other hand, have managed the situation and the coffee business well enough to be able to improve our economy over the past 2+ years, although this year we lost half our fairs (my decision not to enter into suddenly horribly violent zones where the people are fleeing and have fair to go out to the streets.) Out of desperation, José put the house he built on the market and moved his family into the "castillo"; his children were not happy. The "castillo" was built in the 19th century and has very high ceilings and wonderful giant windows and a terrace surrounding the second story kitchen. After a year on the market, One of José's Asian Indian suppliers bought the house and decided to put it on the market. A year ago, dreaming of having an artist studio/house in the center of Guadalajara with it's majestic tree-lined streets, I asked José to contact the Indian suppliers to see if they would sell the "guest house". José replied that he couldn't locate the Indians' representative in Guadalajara. And that ended that fantasy. However, a year later, upon returning to Guadalajara, Margarita called Mary who asked Margarita if we were in need of a house. We had just rented a house for 3 months (a house infested with cockaroaches). However, I had to see the house. The moment we set foot in the empty guest house without kitchen, bathroom, closets, I was hit with the return of the dream I left behind when we left Guadalajara last November. This time I could see all the projects we would begin over the next 10 years. So, we decided to rent the house and hoped that the 32 day fair in Guadalajara would be good for us; and it was. So, now we are "building" the kitchen, we bought a new refrigerator, are having a stainless steel restaurant sink fabricated for us, are looking for good furniture, looking into nice tiling and thinking about the future one more time.

"Hummingbird Goddess of the Mountain"/"Diosa Colibrí de la Montaña"

Crucified Pregnant Woman

(Unfinished Painting November/December 2010). This was the last painting I worked on before putting aside the painting and drawing for 6 months. I don't have any artist training. I haven't ever taken a painting or a drawing class. I don't know anything about anatomy and I have NEVER seen naked pregnant woman, let alone a naked pregnant woman on a cross. That created a hell of a headache working on perspective and shadowing... How does a head hang with the arms spread outwards to the side? My dilemma. After the fair of Tepic, I asked my friend José "Montaña" to take it with him to Guadalajara. Truthfully, it created so much stress that I really didn't want to see it. The problem is that we don't have a house of our own. I don't have a studio for storing my work and supplies...

Stream of Consciousness Drawing "Your Turned Back/The Cold Shoulder" July 11, 2011

In La Isla de Mexcaltitan, Nayarit

The story goes that the group of Mexica indians had a dream one night of the great city of Tenochtitlan they would construct 200 years later in the Valley of Mexico, now known as Mexico City that later on became known as the Aztec Empire. The dream was had on the Island of Mexcaltitan, Nayarit. Upon leaving his "home" on the edge of the river Antigua in Veracruz, Cortez journeyed to the center of what is now known as the Republic of Mexico and conquered the Aztecs, with the help of the Totonoco indians of the region known as Veracruz. Cortez destroy the Grand Tenochtitlan, probably the largest pre-hispanic city in the Americas and constructed churches and cathedrals where the ancient temples and pyramids had been...

Pico de Orizaba in the Morning

I took this photo during our Sunday morning walk. We found a wonderful route that circles Margarita's parents' house; great for a jogging route. When I've run in Mexico, Margarita was my running partner. Back in 2005, when we were running in the Lakes, there were many times when Margarita ran faster than I ran. But, I always passed her on the hills... The wonderful thing about this route is that it passes through the woods, coffee plantations and sugar cane fields; a lot of hills as you can see... So, we've decided that, if we have a strong finish of 2011, we'll buy land here and build a house.