Surviving the Pandemic

The phrase “That escalated quickly” perfectly describes the past two years. At least for me. It was late in 2019 and I was looking forward to heading out on two tours in 2020. One as keyboardist for my long-term client Enchantment, and the other as support on a Temptations Revue gig. The latter was heading to the UK and I was itching to get out of the country. Besides that, we were coming up on a very controversial election year and my Non-Partisan canvassing partners were after me to form a team by mid 2020 to get out the vote. I was, as you can imagine, looking forward to a very lucrative year.

So there I was on New Year’s Eve 2019, backstage at the Fox Theater in Downtown Detroit, preparing to hit the stage with Enchantment. Many of my musician friends were there, performing with their respective bands. The atmosphere was electric. Despite all of the festivities, I was not feeling my best, and my stomach seemed a bit larger than usual. I shrugged it off, thinking I had just eaten a bit much and my shirt no longer fit properly. Hey, the food backstage is always good LOL. So we do our set and I meet up with my best friend and his girlfriend to ring in the New Year.

The next day, I was feeling even worse, and my stomach was even more distended. In retrospect, the next decision I made literally saved my life. I decided to go to my Supa Dansa’s home and stay with her for a few days. After two nights of not being able to sleep and having had no real bowel movement in most of that time, she suggested I go to the ER. I did so and again, that saved my life. I had my blood pressure taken and it must have been insanely high because the duty nurse asked if I felt faint, with a hint of panic on her face. I said No, I feel fine. She brushed that off and told a second nurse to admit me immediately and find me a bed. I forget the actual number, but both were in the triple digits. Keep in mind, nothing felt wrong besides the big preggo belly, which should not have been since I was clearly a dude.

So the doctor on staff asked if I were in pain, which I was. He administered Morphine, which helped a bit, but there was still some discomfort. He said I was going for an X-ray as soon as possible. No worries, I wasn’t going anywhere. Supa Dansa had her book and kept vigil beside me as I lay telling her in a morphine induced stupor how I was still going to head out on tour and get started canvassing as soon as I was free of the hospital tyranny. She smiled politely and said “Tim, that is highly unlikely.” What did she know? I was invincible. 50 years without incident, save for six stitches I received after cutting my knee on an inflatable pool. I suspect that it was sitting on top of a piece of glass, but I was six. None of the panicked adults cared.

The Doctor returned and asked if I were still in pain. I was. He came back with what I now refer to as the Miracle Drug. Something called dilaudid. As Supa Dansa kept watch, a slight commotion occurred just around the corner. Something to do with a guy in his own words being “Everything,” and at least two tasers being fired. I am just glad I didn’t have to flee because I was in a dilaudid induced stupor and Supa Dansa is 92 lbs soaking wet.

So I was examined, poked and prodded and it was determined that my colon was the cause of the secondary disturbance. Secondary because before I could go for any surgery, I was told they needed to get my BP down. Once they did, I had a colonechtomy and proceeded to lay up in the hospital for three weeks. Most of that time was spent trying to discover which meds lowered my BP and kept it at a manageable level.

When I tell you I was miserable, you don’t know the half of it. I had never been in the hospital for anything, save for the aforementioned swimming pool debacle and I had been the epitome of health for the rest of the time. Barely even a cold. I don’t like taking foreign things into my body, no weird foods or drugs of any kind. And there I was, being given several pills a day and that dang BP monitor refusing to cooperate so I could at least get some sleep. Supa Dansa slept, but me? Nope. Unless you count the three minutes of bliss before being awakened by the surprisingly chipper Nursing staff. I digress. They were amazing. But I was still very tired.

After three weeks and endless trips around the recovery section’s NASCAR track, I was released. The same day, Covid decides to actually be a major threat, so I, along with every other American, was put on lockdown. And regarding my plans? Why wasn’t anyone following my plans? The lockdown meant both tours were canceled and since it was set throughout the summer, it became obvious that my canvassing aspirations were going to be thwarted as well. I began to take on characteristics of Oscar the Grouch mixed with Emperor Palpatine. As awesome as that sounds, it was hard to maintain such a persona from my recovery bed. Supa Dansa became a field nurse and was actually quite good at it.

The decision was made for me to stay with her because her house was single leveled and my best friend’s house was tri-level. Far too many stairs. So Supa Dansa and I ate a lot, read a lot and filled countless notebooks with very bad jokes. Well, she wrote the bad ones. Mine were hysterical. We also watched more news than we should have, while dealing with masks and social distancing and walks in the park that got longer and longer. And longer. Darn field nurse.

I had been planning to get my own place before all of this happened and in the middle of it all, Supa Dansa decided to move to the far outskirts of Detroit. Because things were so crazy, we made the additional decision for me to move with her as well until I got life back on track well enough to resume my own house hunting. We loved the new place and because of Covid, both were stuck working remotely. That actually went well. I set up an office in the basement and she set hers up upstairs. I discovered I was pretty good at New Age piano and began doing livestream concerts on the Insight Timer meditation app. I have since, composed hundreds of pieces and gained a sizeable following.

These days, I have started editing videos for each one of those recordings and posting them to Youtube. It is quite satisfying and I am doing a lot of good in other’s lives. I find it interesting that my own problems evolved into what I am doing now. Helping others get through this very difficult season. I hope what I do inspires others as I have been inspired. I hope my warped sense of humor gleaned from my notebooks of jokes makes you laugh. I hope all of this makes sense and I am not typing gibberish in a prolonged dilaudid induced stupor.