- Heroic Talk Show Guest
-
- Note - I received this from a recent guest who shall
remain nameless. All during our live program conversation, I had
no indication whatsoever there was an acute and terrible crisis going on.
This guest performed so far above and beyond the call of duty, I
remain in awe to this day. You have to laugh...with the guest...at
such incredible circumstances endured so the show could continue. -
JR
-
-
- Hey Jeff -
-
- (About an hour ago) I woke up on the floor, completely
confused and wondering what just happened. Then I realized whatever happened
didn't "just" happen, but had occured six hours ago. I looked
around, took stock and realized then what must have happened. Then, with
the added realization that I have no memory of finishing your show last
night.
-
- I called xxxxx and asked if he had been listening last
night. When he replied "yes" I asked if I had actually finished
the interview. He said, "Yes, of course, why? I said, "Did I
sound funny/weird/normal?" He said, no more than usual, why?
-
- Thank God. Okay. At least I was successful in containment.
Here's what happened...
-
- To start with, I'm not sure exactly what was happening
to me during your show last, but I was struggling through most of it. I
was in agony.
-
- It started as a piercing sharp pain stabbiing into my
brain from my neck while I was waiting on hold two minutes before your
show segment with me started.
-
- By the time you had introduced me the stabbing pain had
resolved into a full blown raging headache that crowned my brow and forced
my eyes to wince half-closed. "What the hell is this?" I was
thinking as I was squeezing my neck trying to force the pain back enough
so I could coherently talk with you.
-
- Then I started to get scared because my body began tremblling
and sweating profusely while I felt like I was being hit by waves of hot
air from a blast furnace. Then, in a split-second, in the middle of a sentence,
the hot feeling turned to cold and I was suddenly freezing - and tremblling...
and this headache was ripping the top of my head off, and forcing tears
out of my eyes.
-
- When you started reading from that article is the point
when I actually started to lose conciousness. I was literally fainting
- passing out in the middle of a radio interview. So, I jumped to my feet
and started pacing - desperate to not have this happen and terrified that
it might. You know that feeling when you are nodding off while sitting
up and you startle awake and catch your head from falling over? That was
me for about a half hour last night. It was the strangest feeling and something
I have never felt before. It was happening WHILE I was pacing trying to
make it stop. It wasn't like I was falling asleep. It was like a brain
freeze seizure that required an immense force of will to ignore, and push
through and past and remain not only conscious but coherent.
-
- With about 40 minutes left to go in the interview, this
whole brain-seizure/trembling thing lurched into a new direction...my stomach
was suddenly included in the fray. In my mind, I am thinking, "Passing
out in the middle of a sentence is one thing, but throwing up while on
the air is not an option, buddy."
-
- Have you ever tried to NOT throw up? The awful thing
about nausea is that it is all encompassing. I'm looking at the clock.
There's twenty minutes to go. Now I am trying to control two
involuntary reflex actions that are coming at me in strobbing waves - nausea
and fainting.
-
- Maybe if I quickly deal with this stomach thing during
a commercial break, I can make it through the rest of the show without
stopping in midsentence somewhere along the way to vomit. I had to avoid
that at all costs (for obvious reasons). My attempt at a pre-emptive forced
gastric evacuation was a complete failure and added a complication.
-
- I had eaten a large meal not long before the program,
and though my body and stomach appeared to want it to leave, it (the meal)
was not going to move.
-
- When I put my finger down my throat, my abdomen and stomach
bunched to push the meal out but my esophagus would not yield and instead
of release I got intense pressure and pain as it felt like my stomach was
literally splitting open inside me.
-
- And now we are back on the air. Now I am choking,
gasping, swallowing (like when you are trying to control your stomach),
panting, gripped with searing, inexplicable head pain, my stomach and abdomen
in a cramped vice, tears running down my face, hand cupped over the phone
so nobody can hear any of this (hopefully) and the other end of the phone
stuffed in my ear with the show and reality as a focal point to concentrate
on to help maintain consciousness. It was torture.
-
- I don't remember finishing the interview.
-
- The last thing I clearly remember from last night is
my cat coming up to me as I was doubled over with the phone in my hand.
She was meowing profusely and had a very puzzled look on her face. Then
she began throwing up on the floor beside me. I presume that was
around one AM last night (because xxx said I finished the show then).
-
- I next thing I remember, I am waking up on the floor
beside my couch with my cat licking my face. I stand up. It's seven thirty
AM and last night's spaghetti meal is all over the floor around me, mixed
with kitty vomit and my clothing. I feel completely fine. Well-rested even.
-
- Okay, so... what the hell was THAT?
-
- I see three possibilities.
-
- 1) I was struck with food poisoning mixed with
bad timing.
- 2) I am somehow sick and dying and that was the
first event of total system failure.
- 3) I was attacked by an outside agency using remote
technology.
-
- 1) Food poisoning, while always possible, is unlikely
in this case. My meal was spaghetti. Though it did contain a small
amount of beef, I prepared it myself and am a stickler for meat quality.
I obtained the beef from a trusted butcher (not a grocery store) and am
certain it is fine. I even have some raw uncooked left over and it appears
fine. My stomach is a rock when it comes to beef. I rarely throw up even
when I am nauseous from stomach contents (save alcohol). However, it is
granted that there could have been something in that meal that made me
sick.
-
- 2) Unlikely.
-
- 3) There are two things that make me feel sick like that.
Alcohol (what I experienced last night was like a sudden onset intense
alcohol hangover)... and the E wave emanating from a fluorescent light
or a gas plasma tube. (next portion deleted)
-
- So, if someone fired an E-wave at me (or in my general
direction) that was INTENDED (tuned) to disrupt... I would feel it... similar
to the way I felt last night during our interview. And I am wondering
if my kitty would feel it, too.
-
- So, either I got food poisoning and my kitty threw up
also in reaction to my nervous energy...or nameless bastards tried out
some tech on me and my cat just for the hell of it.
-
- The thing about food poisoning is, you generally don't
feel spiffy six hours later. I did.
-
- The thing about an E-attack is the timing.
-
- xxxxx
-
- ps
-
- So, I apologize if I messed up last night's interview.
xxxxx said it sounded okay but there must have been times in there where what
was going on here was coming through. I really, really tried hard to remain
casual whilst fear was seizing me and havoc was occurring in my body. To
me, the thing that got me through it was the feeling that no matter how
bad this feels right now, if I let it through and allow it to interfere
with the show, then it will feel a thousand times worse. My feeling was
that whatever this is that has a grip on me is actually going to kill me
if I let it win...and stopping the show because of it would be IT winning...so
that fighting for my life and coherently finishing your show were the same
thing. Literally. That's how desperate I was last night at about the 1
hour and 50 minute mark.
-
- Having to fight to remain conscious...while not knowing
why...feels like you are dying.
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