Somewhere out there in the vastness of the internet is a short video of me blowing smoke directly at the camera. How this, and little else survived my youth, is no mystery. I was not supposed to survive it. Voted “Most Likely to Die Before Age 21” in high school, no one expected me to live long enough to look back at some of the things I did, and some of the things that happened.
Weirdness did follow me. People would tell me they wanted me to go on a road trip with a group because something would happen. We found an empty tomb in an old cemetery in Macon Georgia and I went inside and took photos with a flash. A blue splattered drawing on the back of the tomb, along with an odd looking shadow that looked like something behind me showed up in the photos.
But I was point man. I would go first. If something spooky or supernatural was there I was going in. If there was a new drink or a new drug, I was there for the game. I was going to die young yet I was immortal.
Then, one day, without me realizing it had happened, I lived. And I aged.
Like the tottering veteran climbing over a fence to see the plane he once flew in battle, I am here now to report I am old. Not just old, but ancient.
Saturday, someone gave me a small jar of THC gummies. Over the counter light weight no real buzz help you get some sleep because you are old and cranky gummies. At the appointed hour, I chewed two of them, and went to bed. I slept peacefully.
At one in the morning I arose, having to pee, and couldn’t walk. I could barely crawl. I made it to the toilet but had issues standing, walking, and oddly, talking. It was a stroke. I was certain I was dying. I called an ambulance and was taken to the hospital.
“Two Gummies Dude,” is the way one of the guys working at the hospital described me. He didn’t make fun of me, but I could tell he thought I was some old geezer who got into some gummies and thought he was dying.
I held up pretty good until I started puking and that was when dignity left me.
In a few hours, I was okay-ish again. And had to find a ride back home. They told me I had not had a stroke, no heart attack, not so much as an ingrown toenail. I had a bad reaction to two gummies.
At high school graduation I swallowed a Quaalude and chased it with Jack Daniels.
I went to my regular doctor today. So now I’m wearing a heart monitor. I also had a brain scan today, and had some blood-work done, just to make sure. Three days after the event, I still don’t feel quite right. People are treating me like I’m fragile now.
As mundane as it sounds, I had a bad reaction to sleep gummies.
I should have died in an ancient crypt with a mysterious photo that was all left to explain what happened to me.
Instead, I got old.
Take Geritol,
Mike
On gummy packaging it does state to start out with a much smaller amount because the full effect might take up to an hour. Someone inexperienced might just say, “Well I took a bite and nothing happened.” Then take too much.
Personally I find that a quarter to a third of one along with a Valerian root or Melatonin will take the edge off and help me at least get to sleep.
Anymore than a little bite and I have had bad experiences, also.
Especially from making tea from my brother in law’s home grown. He is more experienced even to the point of getting busted for possession in 1973 and given the choice of enlisting or jail. He found a lot to smoke in ports touring the Atlantic on the U.S.S Kennedy. He has never quit.
For me it was a bad 36 hours worth of confusion and some paranoia.
“To infinity and beyond”, in that way was no fun.
Buzz,
I was warned well ahead of time about the time delay with gummies and have met some people who took one, then thirties minutes later dosed again. And then the show began.
I was fast asleep when the show started and honestly, why I could not walk or talk is unsettling.
However, two doctors gave me a clean bill of health so….
Getting old is not for the weak. Stay Strong 🙂
Jenifer,
it’s not for the faint of heart or weak of will, I know that much to be true.
So much goes wrong on its own. I once jumped out of a truck going sixty miles an hour and over a bridge fifty feet over a river. I was sore the next day. Now I can move my head the wrong way when brushing my teeth and be sore for a week.
Thanks for sharing! Glad your medical checks have come back OK. 🙂
It’s a wonderful any of us born before 1970 survives at all. We had metal playground equipment, played cops-and-robbers with loaded BB guns, crashed on those short, skinny skateboards with metal wheels, and took flight on our bicycles using homemade rickety ramps with dangerously incorrect angles. And no helicopter parents.
Maybe that’s why we survived: God protects idiots from themselves.
Given how old some of y’all are – shouldn’t that phrase be “Dirigible Parents” 😀
Some of us are older than that!
Bev, we were tougher because we did all those things. And hid the damage from our parents. We were trying to figure out the laws of physics for ourselves, and we did. Sometimes the lessons were painful.
Damn Otto Krekt!
It’s a wonder we survived.
Bev, the wild thing was I knew people who did crazier things than me.
And lived.
get some NAD+ from amazon. cleans out senescent cells. whatever’s left is the new launchpad.
Mous, I’ve never heard of this. I must look it up!
I’m in the same “should have been dead young” club. Honestly, It’s a miracle I made it to 35. The fact I ‘ve made it past 50 is astonishing.
I was the carnival ride daredevil. I ran through cemeteries with no fear. Nothing was scary to me. I always figured if it was my time that’s when I’d go. My peers always called me crazy, they were probably not far off.
Yeah, we are probably tougher because of the no car seats, bb guns, lawn jarts, kind of things we endured as kids. “Its 10 o clock, do you know where your children are?” There should have been another line to that that said “I’ll bet you think you do.”
I’m glad to hear you are ok. I’ve hear those things are strong. Its not like back in my youth where you could smoke a joint, then smoke another and still be ok. I hear the stuff now is more potent.
Chick, that was the one constant that alcohol had. You could drink yourself into a coma, but alcohol was pretty stable as a substance. With drugs, you got what you got whatever it was. Weed could be good, very good, or exceptional, but a friend of mine wound up in the ER because someone spiked his weed. I’ve never liked cocaine, and I never tried anything with a needle. Weed was something predictable until fentanyl became a problem.
Right now, I know three people growing and processing their own weed, and they’re careful not to let things get weird.
This experience with two gummies blindsided me.
I am glad you are still around.
“Most likely to die before 21” – your school was more macabre than mine.
The last cigar I smoked was a Cuban cigar. I did not feel right the rest of the night; so I am not going to try anything with THC. Yeah, I might be a lightweight.
As others mentioned, try small, small samples of anything you have not had before.
Tim, one big thing that has changed is I’m responsible for three dogs, a cat, and my mom. I can’t bear the idea of my dogs, or Aqaba, being put in a pound somewhere and Mom winding up in some facility where all she does is sit and stare at the walls all day.
After me, there is nothing for those in my care.
I have to be careful these days.
It’s good to have something to live for.
At 67, I can sympathize with you. After years of trying to keep up with Keith Richards, I am paying dearly. Oodles of health issues now. Coffee is my strongest drug these days. I still miss weed and Guinness but living alone in a rural area with the nearest hospital 35 miles away, I can’t partake any more. Besides, who would take care of my knucklehead dog? Regards from a fellow senior.