Kinfolk, Kindred and All relations,
Hello, I am named Mario. I am extraordinary husband to my wonderful wife and am an excellent father to my two beautiful daughters. I bet I live to be like HE, who says we are all the above. I love my three women with all of my heart, mind, body and Spirit's. I don't know which way my life would have gone with out my dearest Brenda. I don't know what I would do without her in my life today. She is my bride, my BFFF, and the Mommy to my beautiful baby's. She is also my nurse, motivational guest speaker, and my doctor...
...we both know what Hell looks like. Our ears know what it sounds like and we know the stench of hell. We also know what Heaven looks like and what Grace and thanks feel like. Here we are 32 years after the day we wed. And I love her more today than ever before.
There were times we would hop in our Volkswagen Bug and hit the highway's of Southern Florida. I would drive us to South Beach before it was "sooo" cool to be in South Beach. Shit, we would get into disco's and clubs with no cover charge or invitation. I would drive us down and deep into the Everglades to the most Southern shore or West and the North deep and into Seminole Nation. I would also drive us, North to Lake Okeechobee. We would take daycations to Naples, Florida on the old State Road 84. Driving was like having wings for me. Wherever I wanted to go, we would go. My God.
When my baby's started to come visit us from the other side, they went on the drive abouts with their dad. From a wee baby to grown ass women I would drive us about. We would go riding deep into the Everglades and the Reservation. We would drive us back and forth under the tunnel in Fort Lauderdale for the fun of it. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!! and listen to the echos and our laughter. I would drive us up South to North Carolina, for family holidays and vacations. When we got to our destination, we would unload our luggage and the be off on the drive.
My brothers Danny and David and I would "try" to get lost. We never did. We had become a living and respecting piece of the Everglades. Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern most parts of The River of Grass. We knew South Florida like we knew our Kinfolk. We would find our location - not lose sense of where we were. We would gather and fit our XXL body's into my Bug and drive...
...there were times I would simply jump into the Bug and just drive. Destination unknown...
...and/or destination's known. It mattered none to me because I could drive. Just drive to watch the Sun set or rise early enough to drive East to watch the Sun rise. And drive.
Until four years ago when the Meniere's moved in with my family and I.
You see, there was a time when I would drive to my job at Starbucks Coffee Company, I held for many years. I loved my green apron. I loved our partners and our product. I loved and so miss the thousands of customers that crossed my Path because of where ever it was I was at, at that particular moment. I loved my job so damned much, it stopped being a job, stopped being "work". I was enjoying it so much. I was living the life! Going back a few more years, I had the super opportunity to work for Best Buy and had an awesome time with my co-workers in the Big Blue Box. So damn much fun that this too did not seem like a job. Yes, we busted our ass's at both of these companies, but damn it if we were not like family with both company's. Sometimes we laughed, sometimes we cried and sometimes we fought like children over the silliest of matter's. But it did not matter, we always had each others back when shit got heavy or even when things got ugly. What awesome days those were. Such camaraderie. So many friends, customers, and them who became like one huge multi-ethnic community and family. I love you all and miss you too. How is it we get so scattered and yet carry that love and respect in our hearts? IDK.
Then came the Meniere's Disease while Store Manager with Starbucks Coffee Company. The illness's and symptoms early on were puzzling and perplexing to every doctor I had working with me at the time. It was haunting me because I did not know what was going on with my health. I was at that time also having major problems with asthma, which required multiple hospitalizations and also had sinus surgery's during this time. I and I mind, heart and Spirit's, were sad and heavy because I knew that things were coming to a place where the disease's were interfering with my performance at work and as a husband, as a father and child. Slowly, I was being altered right before my eyes and those who kept their eye's on me saw and observed. This was a very sad time for me and my family, friends and partners at Starbucks...
...for quite sometime during this exile the gloom had me under it's thumb. Things got bad.
I was in every definition of the word, a lab monkey. Doctor after doctor would run test after test. Laboratory tests upon laboratory tests. X-rays, CT scans and MRI's. Time and time again. One doctor would do this or that and then pass me along to the next doctor who did that or this, and then that doctor passed me on. Etc.
Finally, I was refereed to Doctor Danner, aka He-Who-Touched-My-Brain. As if sent by Great Spirit to cease the Lab Monkey routine, Dr. D., was able to diagnose me within a very short few minutes. An Earth Angel sat feet from me, He-Who-Touched-My-Brain...
...we started the business of dealing with the Meniere's with a series of intense exams and tests. Then on to diet and medications, which did not work. We went with and into a series of six gentamycin injections. Which is injected straight and directly into my left ear chamber. My God, what horrific pain! Fortunately, the pain would linger but for a very brief time. This did not work either. Over the course of many months and way too many medications from all doctors involved in my Better health Plan, it was obvious to He-Who-Touched-My-Brain and I, that we had to move on to a broader approach on this issue.
.
Through-out all of this which extended over a course of many months, my Starbucks Coffee Company, supported me in every imaginable fashion. My district manager was an incredible source of positive energy and he stuck by my side as if he was family. His business decorum was exceptional as he was an exceptional person. I was and am Blessed to have had our Paths cross. There were times when I needlessly feared losing my position because of the illness's and the amount of doctors and hospitalizations in my life. My DM and my fellow partners were very supportive and caring and tried like heck to calm me down. For them, I am thankful. Because of them, I will never forget them.
Doctor Danner and I discussed the different surgical approaches in dealing with Meniere's. So we began the process's of sawing my skull open for a lambrynthectomy. We sliced open my ears both left and right, for nerve snips or sac destruction's, doing all we could while combating and searching for something that would assist me in gaining a healthier way of life. We had an implant placed into my skull. We've had surgical procedures in clinic to remove infections and lumps that manifested about my implant.
Recently a very dear and sweet friend asked me if I ever had a second opinion about this subject. I said no, as did my wife. I began to doubt myself and my Business Plan for a Better Health and let myself worry about what my decisions on My Path. Yet "now", I remember that I did in fact get a second opinion. It came from the One Elder Doctor, who established this Hearing and Balance clinic many many years ago. He is the Elder between the two doctors and both are considered in the Top 50 in the Country. He-Who-Touched-My-Brain, would not proceed to surgical means without the opinion of the One Elder Doctor. I am pleased to have remembered this as I had let such talk create a bad dull anxiety in my Center. A memory and a happy major relief, there are two doctors who practice on helping me get to a healthier state of hearing.
I continue to take my medications to aid in my day to day. When we sawed and cracked my head open, I lost hearing and balance on the left side, thus I use a quad-cane or walker when weaker due to the Meniere's attacks. I live with the symtoms every good damned day. Still.
As a form of Physical Therapy I do simple exercise and lift light weight bar bell's, am up to a 15 pounder and have a kettle bar. Today will be day four of gardening and the semi Plank. Today is day four of pushing and pushing it good and proper, I would say. I see that my gardens are enjoying the extra and long awaited attention. So, I garden.
I am nesting. I feel this in a physical way in my Center. Or is it early Spring cleaning?
My bride informed me last evening that I am preparing for surgery. I don't debate this.
Yes, I am. And I am who I am.
P.S. I miss driving and I miss my Starbucks Coffee Company.
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