Dear Friend and fellow Seeker, I invite you into my world with the following update story... Bright lights above me and voices all around. Slowly I open my eyes to the blurry scene of the recovery room. The pain intensifies as I become more alert. On the wall, I see a clock. It is 1:50 pm. Ok, good. My back surgery was supposed to be over between 2 pm and 2:30 pm. The surgery must have gone well... A nurse comes over and asks me if I am in pain. I try to say, "Yes," but no sound comes out. The nurse must have seen me trying to say, "Yes," because moments later, I feel relief, and my eyes close as I slip back into sleep. It was a peaceful sleep, as all had gone well with my surgery. A little while later, I feel someone shaking my shoulder. My surgeon is probably here to tell me how great things went. But instead, he says, "Mike, I am really sorry, but we couldn't do your back surgery. There was a problem with placing the catheter, so we had to cancel your surgery. The risk of infection was too high. Urology will come by to explain everything to you."How was this possible? Well, what happened was that a series of incompetent urological physician assistants could not place my catheter for the surgery. In fact, they were so rough and had such poor judgment that they perforated my urethra and caused all sorts of trauma. It seemed as if they were blindfolded and playing pin the catheter on Mike. The damage had been done by the time they called an attending urologist to come to the hospital. Because of the swelling and trauma, the doctor could not place the catheter or see a pathway with the laparoscopic camera. So, instead of my L3-L5 laminectomy with spinal fusion, I had surgery to place a suprapubic catheter. This catheter goes from outside your body directly into the bladder. And this thing f**king hurt. It felt like I was impaled from the side with a metal rod. I will spare you the details, but I spent nine days in the hospital suffering from pain in both my back and front. After a week, I had a second surgery to attempt to place a regular Foley catheter and remove the suprapubic. Finally, after entering the hospital on June 13th for back surgery, I exited on June 21st without back surgery. My parting gifts were a Foley catheter and bag and significantly increased pain. Then I spent two weeks recovering/suffering at home with the catheter. When it was finally removed, my true recovery began. I am happy to say that I am almost back to my physical condition before entering the hospital! Mind you, that wasn't a great condition. My back was so painful and negatively impacting my quality of life that I decided to have surgery. The most painful thing of all has been, and continues to be, the profound negative impact on my mental health caused by this ordeal.Both my severe anxiety and depression were triggered in a big way. I hadn't felt as mentally unstable since two years ago, before I started receiving help in various forms. Still, my elevated anxiety persists. I am experiencing regular panic attacks (fortunately, on the minor side), not sleeping well, and am easily triggered. The thought of trying to have the back surgery again is frightening to me. My depression is a whopper. Due to the hospital staff's inability to complete the most basic of all medical procedures, I am now relegated to suffering from my back pain for some unknown amount of time. And that is assuming that my anxiety will allow me to trust that I will have successful back surgery. My quality of life will continue to be very low. And let's not forget about my family's quality of life. They have been picking up my slack, which now needs to continue. It's ok. They will have the time since my medical issues resulted in the cancelation of our family vacation. I won't continue with my sad tale. You get the idea by this point. So why did I tell you my great sob story? Firstly, I wanted to explain where I have been and why I haven't posted any new YouTube or Newsletter content in the last month or so. Second, I wanted you to understand my environment and get an idea of my negative experiences during this extreme test of the limits of Celtic Practices. How do the Celtic practices I have been testing, using, and promoting fair when put to a monster test that stretches the limits? I will start with my disclaimer that from the beginning, my goal has been to find and test ancient practices and customs that provide supplemental relief from the symptoms of anxiety and depression. These practices have always been meant to be complementary to standard medical treatment (medications, therapy...) With that being said, clearly, the Celtic practices were not enough to pick up the slack left by medications and therapy during this extreme time for me. Although it would have been nice if they did, expecting a complementary and supplemental set of practices to pick such slack is unfair. However, I do believe my current bout of anxiety and depression would have been significantly worse if not for the Celtic practices. In the almost a year that I have been testing and incorporating Celtic practices into my life, I definitely feel that they have had a positive impact. Both taking the edge off and making me feel peaceful. I do not in any way deem my Celtic practices as a failure. They have done for me all that I have hoped for. I plan to continue them regularly while researching and exploring other ancient possibilities of supplemental relief to anxiety and depression. Note that I can only speak from my experience about the implications and results of incorporating Celtic practices into one's life. So, I very much encourage you to try them for yourself. And please let me know how it goes for you. My YouTube channel has numerous videos about Celtic Practices. Also, my free guide "10 Celtic Practices to Level Up Your Mind and Relieve Anxiety and Depression" will describe what I think are the 10 best practices that I have come across and tested. If you do not have a copy of the free guide, please click on the below free guide link. I am very happy to be back producing content for you! There will be some great stuff coming as we journey through the dog days of summer. Thank you again for your support and patience. On Monday, May 1, 2023, I released my free guide, "10 Celtic Practices to Level Up Your Mind and Relieve Anxiety and Depression." All subscribers were sent their very own copy of my Celtic goodness. If you did not receive it, please let me know, and I will make sure that you do. You can contact me at mike@guarneriny.com. Also, if you know someone else who might be interested, please direct them to http://join-free-guide.mikeguarneri.com . Here they can sign up and receive their very own copy of the guide. I am here to serve. With a skeptical mind and an analytical eye, —Mike Guarneri "May the Road Rise to Meet You!" Who is Mike?Mike is a recovering accountant making his way through the world of Druid, Celtic, and Pagan traditions. His goal is to uncover truly valuable ancient customs and practices that upgrade your mind (and life)—and here's the key—without any of the b.s. you find everywhere else! P.S. - My awesome interview with Eimear Burke, Chief of the Order of Bard, Ovates, and Druids, is available on YouTube and your favorite podcast platforms. Check it out, you won't regret it! |
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