Today is Thursday, November 11,2010 and it is now 330PM here in Mindano, the Philippines.
Last Entry: So long ago it doesn't matter but if anyone is keeping track it was September 25, 2010.
This Entry: Of late I have been spending more than a bit of time in a nation called Guinea in Equatorial Africa. I can't really say much about that than to say that for a supposed"Narco State"there wasn't a whole lot of fun for a diehard junkie such as myself. If it wasn't for loved ones bringing me what I needed it would have been worse than Cebu,2007.
Since that fun episode is lost to history, now that BL Journals have floated off into the ether, I might as will kill a bit of time reminiscing.
Rizza,myself and Dad went over to Cebu. I had taken 2 bottles of 20mg morphine tablets for what should have been a 3 day trip... plus 1.5 days on the ferry, total to and fro. For the mathamatically challenged amongst you, that's a paltry 2000 mgs of IR (Instant Release Hypodermic Tablets). I should have been OK with 450 mgs a day and a bit to spare, especially since I was well medicated when we went through the security controls and onto the boat.
In the Philippines there is a quaint little thing called,"Philippine Time."If you invite someone for an afternoon they might show up at 8PM, or else they may not show up until the next day. I am well aware of this cute local custom,just as I am aware of the Filipinos inability to say,"No."All SE Asians are like that, its about,"saving face,"not causing shame or overt anomosity.
I planned to ask Dad on the 2nd evening about making sure we returned to Mindanao on time.The 2nd evening came and Dad was gone. Unlike Mom, Dad was born on Cebu and it is where his parents and most of his siblings still lived. Dad had gone out to Compostela to stay in his old house, to visit with the folks. They had no phone (south of Luzon it is extremely rare to even see a land line) and Dad,amazingly even now, doesn't use a cell phone.
I asked Rizza and she assured me Dad was well aware, etc.,and so forth.
The evening on Day 3 saw me eat my last tablets (I don't inject) and take the last 4 or 5 for good measure. I would rather be sick on land I thought than on an Economy berth with a couple of hundred sullen brown faces watching me shit on my self.
Morphine addicts, those of us who use IR can last at most 8 hours between fixing. By 4AM the fun began. With that wonderful mental state that makes you feel like nothing is right with the world you begin getting hot and cold flashes and then you have to pee every 10 minutes,literally.
Uncontrollable yawning begins and then sweats, stomach cramping and runny diahrrhea.
I am a very stable man and aside from my 8 days dry run when my methadone finished the previous July I hadn't had any sickness at all in decades. Poor Rizza,expecting it to be as it was when I sick from methadone...
Methadone addicts swear its the vilest opiate/opioid in the world to detox off of but most couldn't explain the pH Scale let alone the physiological processes involved.They feed off each others' blind fear and bank on old wives' tales. Methadone takes a LONG time to get out of your system... Morphine? 72 hours and the last 24 aren't bad at all.. but there are 36 to 30 hours that will bring ANYONE to their knees, especially someone like me with a 24 year run under their skin.
By the mid-morning I could no longer walk the stairs to the 1 commode in our Cebu house. I asked for a pop bottle and did my best. Then it quickly devolved to me standing at that 2nd floor window in 1 of the most congested areas in the country and simply aiming for the river below & not always getting my aim correctly.
By the evening I was literally screaming at Rizza to leave me the fuck alone. I have had dysentery in the field,etc,etc and am not used to someone fluttering around worried. I begged her to leave me on my own and I will handle it but she couldn't...and I don't blame her.What does she know about THAT? She thought I was dying.
I had a 75mg vial of Meperidine/Pethidine/Demerol but as I said,I don't inject. The Philipines loves to be difficult and these vials have little tops u have to snap off. Sure that I would fuck it up and smash a glass vial into the palm of my hand if I even had the strength I asked Rizza to get her bro Nigel. Nigel,then,was 21 & in his last year of an RN course. Unfortunately school is a lot different in the Philippines,or at least Southwestern University WAS...he hadn't a clue.
Dad strolled in at 1PM, and swore I would die. I let them push me into the car and we drove over to Southwestern's hospital.
I asked the doctor to prescribe morphine. In the Philippines there is a 2 tier prescription system. "Dangerous Drugs,"the equivalent of the American"Controlled Dangerous Substance" requires a special liscence to prescribe. This liscence,"S2" is rare. Most large hospitals have a single MD on staff at any given time who can write at will. The MD was NOT an S2.
Doctor:"What's wrong?"
Me:"I was wounded when I was 17 and I have been habituated since, here is my stack of Philippine S2 Prescription Receipts. "
Dr:"I cannot write you a prescription, I will have to page the Dr who can. Can you wait?"
*I had feces running down my leg & since I was in loose shorts... I made a very nice presentation
Me:"What do you think? Huh?"
Dr,trying to seem like he gives a flying fuck:"Would you like an injection of Nubain?"
*Nubain is the trade name for nabulphine hcl,the only opiate/opioid in the US that is unschedualed. You can find a Tylenol 3 Schedualed but not nabulphine. The reason of course is because it has practically ZERO abuse potential. Strongly antagonistic, if an addict of any other opiate/opioid (other than nabulphine) takes the substance they immediately go into severe and acute withdrawal. That said...the only place in the world where this substance is abused happens to be Cebu City,poor,poor,poor Filipinos...
I don't know if he was baiting me or actually trying to accomodate me but I gave him a lecture on what antagonism would do to me at that moment...
To be continued...
Last Entry: So long ago it doesn't matter but if anyone is keeping track it was September 25, 2010.
This Entry: Of late I have been spending more than a bit of time in a nation called Guinea in Equatorial Africa. I can't really say much about that than to say that for a supposed"Narco State"there wasn't a whole lot of fun for a diehard junkie such as myself. If it wasn't for loved ones bringing me what I needed it would have been worse than Cebu,2007.
Since that fun episode is lost to history, now that BL Journals have floated off into the ether, I might as will kill a bit of time reminiscing.
Rizza,myself and Dad went over to Cebu. I had taken 2 bottles of 20mg morphine tablets for what should have been a 3 day trip... plus 1.5 days on the ferry, total to and fro. For the mathamatically challenged amongst you, that's a paltry 2000 mgs of IR (Instant Release Hypodermic Tablets). I should have been OK with 450 mgs a day and a bit to spare, especially since I was well medicated when we went through the security controls and onto the boat.
In the Philippines there is a quaint little thing called,"Philippine Time."If you invite someone for an afternoon they might show up at 8PM, or else they may not show up until the next day. I am well aware of this cute local custom,just as I am aware of the Filipinos inability to say,"No."All SE Asians are like that, its about,"saving face,"not causing shame or overt anomosity.
I planned to ask Dad on the 2nd evening about making sure we returned to Mindanao on time.The 2nd evening came and Dad was gone. Unlike Mom, Dad was born on Cebu and it is where his parents and most of his siblings still lived. Dad had gone out to Compostela to stay in his old house, to visit with the folks. They had no phone (south of Luzon it is extremely rare to even see a land line) and Dad,amazingly even now, doesn't use a cell phone.
I asked Rizza and she assured me Dad was well aware, etc.,and so forth.
The evening on Day 3 saw me eat my last tablets (I don't inject) and take the last 4 or 5 for good measure. I would rather be sick on land I thought than on an Economy berth with a couple of hundred sullen brown faces watching me shit on my self.
Morphine addicts, those of us who use IR can last at most 8 hours between fixing. By 4AM the fun began. With that wonderful mental state that makes you feel like nothing is right with the world you begin getting hot and cold flashes and then you have to pee every 10 minutes,literally.
Uncontrollable yawning begins and then sweats, stomach cramping and runny diahrrhea.
I am a very stable man and aside from my 8 days dry run when my methadone finished the previous July I hadn't had any sickness at all in decades. Poor Rizza,expecting it to be as it was when I sick from methadone...
Methadone addicts swear its the vilest opiate/opioid in the world to detox off of but most couldn't explain the pH Scale let alone the physiological processes involved.They feed off each others' blind fear and bank on old wives' tales. Methadone takes a LONG time to get out of your system... Morphine? 72 hours and the last 24 aren't bad at all.. but there are 36 to 30 hours that will bring ANYONE to their knees, especially someone like me with a 24 year run under their skin.
By the mid-morning I could no longer walk the stairs to the 1 commode in our Cebu house. I asked for a pop bottle and did my best. Then it quickly devolved to me standing at that 2nd floor window in 1 of the most congested areas in the country and simply aiming for the river below & not always getting my aim correctly.
By the evening I was literally screaming at Rizza to leave me the fuck alone. I have had dysentery in the field,etc,etc and am not used to someone fluttering around worried. I begged her to leave me on my own and I will handle it but she couldn't...and I don't blame her.What does she know about THAT? She thought I was dying.
I had a 75mg vial of Meperidine/Pethidine/Demerol but as I said,I don't inject. The Philipines loves to be difficult and these vials have little tops u have to snap off. Sure that I would fuck it up and smash a glass vial into the palm of my hand if I even had the strength I asked Rizza to get her bro Nigel. Nigel,then,was 21 & in his last year of an RN course. Unfortunately school is a lot different in the Philippines,or at least Southwestern University WAS...he hadn't a clue.
Dad strolled in at 1PM, and swore I would die. I let them push me into the car and we drove over to Southwestern's hospital.
I asked the doctor to prescribe morphine. In the Philippines there is a 2 tier prescription system. "Dangerous Drugs,"the equivalent of the American"Controlled Dangerous Substance" requires a special liscence to prescribe. This liscence,"S2" is rare. Most large hospitals have a single MD on staff at any given time who can write at will. The MD was NOT an S2.
Doctor:"What's wrong?"
Me:"I was wounded when I was 17 and I have been habituated since, here is my stack of Philippine S2 Prescription Receipts. "
Dr:"I cannot write you a prescription, I will have to page the Dr who can. Can you wait?"
*I had feces running down my leg & since I was in loose shorts... I made a very nice presentation
Me:"What do you think? Huh?"
Dr,trying to seem like he gives a flying fuck:"Would you like an injection of Nubain?"
*Nubain is the trade name for nabulphine hcl,the only opiate/opioid in the US that is unschedualed. You can find a Tylenol 3 Schedualed but not nabulphine. The reason of course is because it has practically ZERO abuse potential. Strongly antagonistic, if an addict of any other opiate/opioid (other than nabulphine) takes the substance they immediately go into severe and acute withdrawal. That said...the only place in the world where this substance is abused happens to be Cebu City,poor,poor,poor Filipinos...
I don't know if he was baiting me or actually trying to accomodate me but I gave him a lecture on what antagonism would do to me at that moment...
To be continued...
