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Replacing the naproxen with aspirin was a dumb idea. I don't know the chemical difference between these two NSAIDS. but the pain threshold difference is... a lot. I've spent all morning attempting to recuperate from not getting any sleep much last night because the pain was so intense I couldn't sleep. I couldn't find a place by tossing and turning that it would leave me be. This doesn't bode well.
I'm used to my shoulder and elbow joints hurting. Ordinarily it's not both or all at one time, but a particular joint that possesses exclusivity. That's why its called rheumatoid arthritis. It moves around. Rheuma, roma, roam... it moves. This morning the pain was in my left shoulder, but not only there, it included my collar bone and how it connects to the spine. Great! Just fucking great. This is not good for my public image at all.
I didn't know what else to do but to get up. Maybe something I could find on the computer would catch me up in it and divert my attention away from my troubles. I came downstairs and sat down to it before I realized it was the weekend. No e-mail. No new news. I certainly didn't feel like writing, and I stopped playing the scales on my digital piano weeks ago.
A couple of days ago an old pen pal wrote to tell me that drinking aloe vera juice might help my malady. The term "juice" is a misnomer in the sense that the part of the aloe vera that's eaten is in the center of those spear-like leaves. The outer fiber shell has to be removed, and beneath that is the slimy stuff that has to be washed away.
The slimy stuff is aloe vera's way of protecting itself from grazing animals, and humans too. The slimy stuff is what the big companies use to make laxatives from. It does the job, but it does it in such a rough way that it's been banned. It doesn't take much to realize that after a couple of times of eating this stuff in the wild, and getting diarrhea that most any animal would not eat it anymore.
It takes some trouble to prepare aloe vera to consume as a medicine. That's about all it's good for internally. Externally, the list of the illnesses it cures or improves is practically endless. I've used it on my skin many times before. I've even washed what hair I got left with it. The central part of the leaf is the only thing one eats.
By the time I get the tough outer layer off, and wash the slimy stuff off under the spigot, what's left is a sliver of clear vegetable matter about a tenth of the bulk I start with. It's firm when the slimy stuff is gone, and easy to slice up any way desired. The first one I ate I shook some table salt on it to give it some taste, and it went right down the ol' gullet.
I tried a bigger piece the second time, and decided to cut it up in little bits and mix it into some cole slaw I bought to the grocery store. That didn't work as well. It felt kind of slimy like stewed okra. Ugh! I'm not sure the ritual to get the edible part into my belly is worth it.
At this juncture I'm more in need to stop the existing pain than to possibly prevent future pain. That seems to defeat all my vainglorious hope for the future. If last night is any indication of my future, it's getting very dim.
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I do not attempt to tell the God's own truth here because I don't know what the truth is or hardly ever. I try to capture the drifting thoughts that randomly appear in my imagination for reasons I may not understand. I don't know if the content I capture with these words is true or false. The Comments settings are turned off to prevent me from having to defend what amounts to little more than fanciful, sometime crude speculation. Great moments in our lives never return.
