Sheep Farmers Make for Poor Doctors

My Great Grandfather swore off hospitals saying they were merely places to go when you were ready to die. I think he might have had a point. I dislike Doctors and if you get nothing else from this post, just keep that in mind. I am also frugal and will do almost anything to eliminate a co-pay.

Well as most of you know I was in a logging accident and kind of had to go to the hospital. It was bad enough that they kept me there for 4 days, but in that time they found other things wrong with me. The biggest was that my pituitary gland is non-functioning. This made a lot of sense as over the last few years I have been really sluggish and not getting much done. In the old days, I could slog out 60 cord of wood or more per week, but now I am lucky if I get 40 cord, and often less.

Now the reason my pituatary glad is destroyed is a story unto its own. As I said, I dislike Dr's and when I was working at the shipyard I was welding up a rudder and dropped slag into my sleeve that burned my elbow. Well time went on and it got infected...really infected. Not wanting to pay a co-pay or tell the shipyard I got burned, I figured I would self-medicate. It is a hallmark of approach to life and eliminating Dr co-pays. Well as a sheep farmer I have plenty of antibiotics for sheep kicking around and a sheep just so happens to be the same weight as humans...180 pounds, meaning 7 cc's for a sheep is 7 cc's for a human. So I sterilize the syringe as I do not want to do anything unsafe, then shoot myself up sub-courteously with Pen-G confident that it would kill the infection.

Contrary to what you might think, it did not, in fact after three visits to the emergency room later I contract a staph infection/mersa and have to go on the highest antibiotic there is, 2 hours of injection, twice a day for 2 weeks. But because of the staph/mersa it killed my pituitary gland function...

So a few years go by and then I get hit by a spring pole cutting wood and while at the hospital they did every test imaginable and came to the conclusion that I need some pills for lack of pituitary function. I was bummed because these are take-for-the-rest-of-my-life kind of pills, but honestly I was so lethargic, so beat, so exhausted that I had to do something. I have a farm, 4 daughters and a wife that count on me...

So the Dr says I will probably have to increase my dose because 50 grams is not going to be enough, but that she likes to start low. I am thinking about the loads of wood I need to get out so I figure if 50 grams is good, (1 pill) then 100 grams is going to be even better. Recovery here I come...

It nearly killed me...

Wednesday I was so sick that I could not get anything done. I was extremely thirsty, extremely tired, could not catch my breath, would cut a tree and have to stop and just sit on a log waiting for my body to recover, aches, pains, headache...it kind of felt like a heart attack only I had just been tested at the hospital so I knew it wasn't.

So I go to my local hospital that night, but they could care less. I sit in the emergency room for a few hours and am not even seen...so I tell them just what I thought...being in control mind you, but telling them precisely what northbound orifice the southbound facing hospital can place themselves in before I walk out, vowing to never return to that hospital again. Not to mention forever swearing off all Drs and Nurses.

Then on Thursday I am even worse. I got three more twitches and I can get my load out, and it is all I can do to even move. I survive the day, but it was a brutal night, so Katie takes matter into her own hands and calls the Dr's Office. They are really concerned because I am showing signs of going the opposite way and so I get some blood work done and they call me back immediately. I am a full percentage point higher than I should have been which was why I was having such dire symptoms, I was nearing the lethal range. So told me to stick with 50 grams of pills and hopefully that will be the right amount.

We'll see!

 

Your not as tough as ya use to be , take a break for a minute
I hope ya get feeling better man

 

I am thinking I am close to using up all of my nine lives.

I was going to use that as a user name but was afraid of what the shortened version might end up being. LT works for now.

 

Nobody likes going to the doctor. But we aren't in the zombie apocalypse so there's no need to be sterilizing needles and injecting sheep antibiotics into yourself. I do admire your determination but you said it yourself. You have a wife and 4 kids to provide for. That means that your health is the most important in the household. My friend had an antibiotic resistant staph infections and almost died. Don't play around. At the least find a doctor who will prescribe amoxicillin for emergency situations.

You are lucky to be alive and you made the 9 lives cat joke before I could. Lol

 

I hope you feel better soon. MRSA is no joke and dang if that pituitary gland isn't incredible. It's only the size of a small pea, but as you proved, it's a matter of life and death. Thank goodness we have meds to replace its hormones.

P.S. Dr.'s make poor sheep farmers as I am learning. I love to read your posts about our new sheep adventures. You tell it straight. I'd love sit and chat with you someday about sheep and firewood.

 

Umm.. If I were you I would leave the doctoring to the Doctors! So far you are 0 for 2, 3 strikes and you could be out!!

Gary

 

Yeah me and the wife figured it up, in 43 years I have burned up 8 of my 9 lives. Better ease off on the throttle some.

I really cannot complain, I have lived a good life, full throttle and enjoyed it. You guys do not see this, but on my email signature it says, "I have no intention of arriving in heaven in a preserved, well manicured body, but rather I am going to rush into heaven on my bulldozer, totally beat up, utterly exhausted, jump off my bulldozer after doing a big power turn and yell, "Woo Hooo, another Sheppard has just arrived!".

 

But maybe you don't want to do that for a really long time!

 

When I was younger I was not so honest as I am now...embellishing things shall we say. Now, in my later years I am trying to regain some integrity and try to thread the needle of always telling the truth, but sometimes staying mum if only to keep people from getting angry. In other words, it is best to always tell the truth, but the truth does not always need to be said. The older I get, the more I try and stay mum on things and be peaceful, Blessed are the peacemakers after all.

As for meeting up...who knows, I know a lot of people in central PA. Granted that is a very big place, and for whatever reason everyone says they are from Lancaster, PA using the county where they are from instead of the town like we do here in Maine, but who knows, you might know someone I do. Every year for the firewood Bee at Fair Haven Camps, the bulk of the guys (30 or so) come up from central PA. On a bulldozer forum last year a guy on that site saw the pictures I posted and picked out a guy at the firewood Bee that worked at his shop. Talk about a small world!

I don't drink beer, but I would buy you one and have a coffee with you...my treat, and as frugal as I am, that is saying a lot.

 

I hope all goes well with your condition. Sometimes it's hard to slow down and take a break but we have to and it helps to preserve what life we have left! As we are all getting a little older we can't live life like we us to when we were in our 20's.

Do your family a favor and take a break to heal and thank God for all of the good health that he has given you! God bless!

 

Sheesh, what a scary story. If this isn't a wake up call for you, I don't know what is. I know you want to meet the lord, but he isn't ready to meet you. He has plans for you here with your family and friends. I too had a real bad infection and they were talking amputation, thank God it didn't come to that. Stay strong and heal up.

 

I think the title of the thread says it all. Leave the doctoring to the doctors and sheep farming to the shepherds!!

 

Sounds like if you don't slow down and start listening at least a little bit, you will be paying a heavy price within 20 years...whcih is till young.

I don't like doctors either, but they do know more than us and are willing to share that knowledge. But then, I flat out tell them that "I do not take drugs long term so you should come up with another plan....."

Good luck

 

I met up with one of my school teachers a few years ago. He told me whatever you are doing to your body today will catch up to you in 10 years.

 

After I hit 50, I believe this is a very true statement!

 

With me 52 is the new 62

 

Then you're really going to have a time once you hit 60!