Hi Bob,
I hear you. Please let me answer as best I can. I regret there isn’t a quick simple answer.
I’m sitting here this morning having coffee while my meds kick in. I’ve started to feel good enough, and was just going to the shop when I saw your post. That’s pain med for my lower back, SI joint, right hip, groin, and leg. Lyrica for Neuropathy in my legs and feet. I had Shingles lately. That’s left a creepy numb painful feeling in my thigh and areas effected. I am answering, not avoiding.
The one waiting most urgently, is me. I go to the Dr. today. Another required interruption. I take the handful of meds prescribed by several Doctors who treat my needs. They use their knowledge to work with what they have, what they can, to help me. I recently had a series of CAT scans. And a series of X rays. The results show that my back has continued to degrade. The discs are narrow and shot. Arthritis has made the painful bones brittle. One Dr lately told me they wouldn’t even hold screws now. I have very noticeable Scoliosis laterally and front to back. I walk like an old stork. The double cervical fusion from 20 years back is full of bone Spurs. It hurts like heck and limits range of motion. I suffer from chronic Migraine Headaches.
Please realize that I suffer with all of these things at once and every day. I don’t even get to pick one or two from the list. It makes for what could be described as a miserable existence. However; you note me going to work. Making a variety of projects which pay the bills and taxes. There isn’t any but work, to whatever degree I’m able on a given day. That explains why there is less gun work. I can’t devote the painful time for what used to take a month when I felt good and worked two efficient shifts per day. Now things take forever, and the last half would be done in the dark.
I have submitted to every test and treatment my Drs have ordered. I’ve taken every med they have written. I greatly appreciate that they have kept me going. They’ve been unable to “fix” me. I live in pain. You have noticed my projects. Thank you. I tell readers regularly, they are fine work I draw from my skills and experience ... to keep the lights on.
How did “I allow” this state to exist? I didn’t. When I was at my peak, my hands started going numb. Have you seen my Die work and engraving. Numb hands scared me to death. It arrived with a very painful neck. I went to a series of Drs which ended with three surgeries over a year or two. Replace two neck discs and fuse the joints with plate and screws. Hope that cures the problems. No ... you have Carpal Tunnel. Have an operation. Do the open wound version to hope for better results - you are an engraver - you need this. Hope it cures the problem. No. You need the other hand done too. Each thing is a healthy younger man surprised by the problems and expecting cures from the procedures, Next, I’m a healthy younger man working a min of twelve hours a day, and my hip is killing me. Investigate. X-ray. Therapy. Still hurts. More xrays. You have several damaged discs. The nerves are pinched. The damage is there, the nerves go to the areas that hurt. We need to reduce swelling. Epidural Injections, expertly places, helps ... for a while. Then it hurts again, and again, and it’s 2022.
You know, as a healthy younger man with recurring severe pains, I have a lot of killer headaches. Let’s MRI that head. Good. No tumors. But you have Chronic Migraines, and a bad back, And your neck is growing bone spurs.around your replaced discs. Etc etc etc etc. And that’s how it goes. I didn’t expect it to all go like this. And I hoped each experience would have a solution. Instead, in a few months, there’d be an additional problem. Further degraded this or that. Nothing remains stagnant. The body only degrades. It would seem so at any rate.
Well what am I going to do about it? First, I work long hours thru severe pain. This keeps the lights on. Taxes paid. Minor progress on some gun stuff (pointless to show a few threaded holes in a part, a trigger group lever, etc. People want to see holes in targets. Want to see finished guns. Videos. Stuff blown up. Now, I’ll be careful how I say this part. I want to be accurate and fair. Yes, this doesn’t help the guy waiting ... directly. But it does effect him. Here goes: I have made hundreds of guns. There’s a momentum needed to keep a business moving. To keep the public involved. To keep Gary whistling in the shop. (Whistling doesn’t hurt ... yet). There have been too many things that stopped to keep up excitement. Like showing. Like shooting. Like posting. Like friendly discussion. “Yeah Gary, you need to do more of those things.” Example: No 6 Outryder 50 Caliber. A beautiful rifle. Still posted for $4,500 plus shipping. If someone would like to buy that, that would buy some shop lighting to work on a ledger gun. That was the plan. And the price hasn’t gone up. You know anything else that hasn’t? I also have access to a 25 Caliber Nebula 2. A great piece. $4,800. A Customer Rifle of a close friend.
As regards getting notices. I didn’t think anyone would like to get a copy of this post every once in a while. Especially when it’s here all the time, with interesting projects I have been making. The plan was always to stay alive, stay in business, use generated funds to buy work time on ledger items. So far as continued degraded bones and discs and headaches ... they are out of my league. I’ve been praying and going to my Drs. They are good people who have kept me mostly functional.
Gary
