Two years after my MVD surgery, checking in with how I’m feeling. Also: tattoo ideas, gettin' paleolithic, different chorizos.

Get The Whole Story: Please check the Microvascular Decompression tag page to hear all the updates about my MVD surgery.

last borscht thing: Matt came over and had lunch and he said "it was the best borscht I've ever had." Nami was there

not like he's Lithuanian or anything.

I think Lithuanians eat it cold

Steve was talking about white borscht

Shout outs to Nathan Mary Butters and Tibby- thanks for the catnip hot sauce

Very Stable Genius is a good neck tattoo

I went to reddit to see if there were any posts about Epstein-Barr causation and there was only one in the Multiple Sclerosis forum and the study was met with an ambivalent reaction

We had white beans, kale, and dry chorizo stew. i talked to the butcher about the dry chorizo -- joe: "is it chorizo, or is it choriz?"

"I'm in recovery again" update to my 2nd surgery in January 2020 - meds- relapses- where I'm at now

in Omicron isn't milder for everyone I canceled my dental appointment but i just had it. I wore two masks for the first time

At the periodontist's office all the doors are open because Covid so you hear everything- gross!

Thank you

Printer Poem

JOHN HOPPIN: Yeah, 'sup, 'sup, 'sup. 'Sup.

My friend Joe was in a band in college and it was called SUP and he was like, "Get it? Get it? SUP. It stands for Sand Under Pressure. Get it?" And we'd all be like, "Glass? Glass?" And he was like, "No! Sand Under Pressure is rock." They were a jam band in Colorado, SUP.

This is the MVD surgery update.

A lot of people come to the website looking for information about MVD, microvascular decompression surgery. That's where they popped a hole in my skull and did some little robot surgery to take me out of pain in my trigeminal nerve. I was having trigeminal neuralgia. My doctor said, "Hey, try this thing, MVD. It's like a surgery- it's brain surgery. It's pretty invasive, but you can be out of pain." And I was like, "No, I don't think I'll do that. I think I'll just take pills." Those kind of worked and worked, and then all of the sudden I was totally drugged and I was like, "This is not working for me. I got to change." And they were like, "What about that MVD surgery?" So microvascular decompression, I did it. I was out of pain for about three months, then it came back and it was horrible because you're so traumatized from being in chronic pain anyway, that when it goes away and comes back, it's really traumatic and difficult.

But I wanted to go on from that, actually. I'm going to give more of an update later, but let me just hit the- hold your horses.

Okay, the last borscht thing.

Matt came over and he had lunch. He had borscht for lunch and he looked off in dreamy eyes, and he was like, "This is the best borscht I've ever had." Nami was there. She cut it all up, so I feel like maybe… But it's not like he's Lithuanian or anything. Best borscht he's ever had, I was thinking like, "Have you ever had another borscht?" But I'll take it. I didn't ask him that. I only thought it.

Anyway. Not like he's Lithuanian or anything, and I think Lithuanians eat borscht cold. I called my friend Steve, he's Polish. He was talking about white borscht. I don't even understand. Borscht is like the reddest thing, but they have white borscht, I guess. That's it, borscht is over. We're out of borscht. I have two quarts in the freezer that I'm going to eat with the family at some point, but that's it. The pumpernickel bread is gone.

I got to give another shout out to Nathan, Mary, Butters and Tibby.

They sent me a hot sauce bottle, a little tiny one, and it's not a real hot sauce bottle. It's like a furry cat toy, and it was full of catnip. I threw it on the floor and my cat went nuts. So, thanks to Nathan and Mary the people. Mary, thank you. I couldn't remember her name, remember?