Terry: The show may go on without me

Never let it be said I didn’t play hurt. I just need steroids.

Thanks to my arthritic back I spent an afternoon, night and early morning in a couple of the finest emergency rooms in the area.

Terry

While my skepticism for the state of our health care insurance program slipped more than a few notches this past week, my appreciation for health care professionals in Portales and Lubbock was raised several notches.

I was in a lot of pain when our little ER in Portales began receiving multiple trauma patients and I got to be a first-hand witness to how so many jumped in during the crisis.

Once I got to Lubbock I was handled efficiently and professionally in what was obviously an extremely compacted timeframe due to insurance concerns. My hat’s off to how well they handled it.

I’ve known for a while I had spine problems but I thought it was all down lower until I got the opinion of an MRI machine and a neurosurgeon. It seems a bulging disc at the L1-L2 location can cause a great deal of hip problems. Like not being able to function or sleep. Like having only one particular position flat on a bed where you can kind of get spasms under control.

I got some good old-fashioned morphine at the RGH ER and then another dose before the road-construction plagued ambulance ride to Lubbock.

Once in that ER the goal was to get me an MRI as soon as they could get the staff recalled to do the procedure. They asked if I’d ever had an MRI. I relayed that I had to hold my wife’s hand once while she got one, but the tight space and noise wouldn’t bother me though holding still under the pain could be a problem. They had the solution — Fentanyl.

I told someone later that trip into the MRI must have been a lot like a ride in the Beatles “Yellow Submarine.” If you’re not familiar with the Beatles cultural references in that song, just Google it.

Once it was over, as the fog was lifting and the lady was taking me out of the submarine, I knew I was in trouble when she asked, “You said you’ve never had an MRI on your back Mr. Terry?”

I didn’t have a lot of time to worry because my tired body decided to take a very nice two-hour nap after that. But the neurosurgeon later confirmed the pictures they took weren’t a pretty sight. Surgery was out until we had tried injections and therapy.

Usually my body shuts down after events but this time it rebelled before I got Peanut Valley Festival completely out of the blocks. Thanks to my family and outstanding staff and board, everything was getting done somehow in preparation for the big event.

I may not see you there because my caretakers may take me out of the game or because the pain medications have dulled my memory, but somehow, some way, the show must go on.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]