As you can probably guess I have been on the wrong end of a lightning bolt on two separate occasions. The first occasion in 1971 in St. Lucia (BWI) just gave everyone a big laugh and didn't seem to have caused any visible damage except to my ego. Ralph and I were sitting on a desk in the site office of La Toc Village hotel construction site, waiting for a sudden rain storm to stop when a lightning bolt destroyed a tree about 100 yards away and induced a current into our telephone line. The phone of course was on the desk where we were sitting and Ralph and I were thrown about 6 feet on to the floor in front of four startled associates. I am not sure how this looked but I can still remember how it felt. When it was obvious that we were only shaken up everyone laughed their heads off, except for Ralph and I. We didn't see the humor for some reason. We soon forgot about it as much as you ever forget such things. Three years ago I was in the Dominican Republic in my friends house with him and two other people. It was raining and lightning was crashing all around us while I was washing a few things in the sink of the open ranch style kitchen. Probably it was lucky for me that I just was drawing my hands away from the sink when lightning struck an arc from the sink to the ends of my fingers. I will never forget what a wierd feeling it was to see lightning shooting out of the ends of the ends of my finger tips. It froze me there for a moment giving me a pretty good jolt before it pushed me backwards across the room. Somehow I managed to back-pedal and remain standing. I didn't need any explanation as to what had happened and I was now standing about ten feet away from the sink cursing and swearing and looking at my hands. My friends were laughing at me. This was nearly as shocking as the lightning. In all fairness I think only one person really saw the lightning arcing from the sink to my fingers. They only saw me flying backwards and trying to stay on my feet. Since I seemed to be ok they thought it was a great joke. They didn't even realize what had actually happened until I explained. I was becoming an authority on being struck by lightning.I now hide under beds during thunder storms. Since I had no obvious propblems, burns or anything, I soon forgot about this event too. It was a great story to tell in the bars but trying to explain to people that I had actually been struck twice by lightning did seem to strain my credibility. I never heard of anyone other than me or Ralph who had ever been struck and lived. I have since given up mentioning this too often unless I give the long winded version I just gave you. Shortly after this event I became extremely ill for three months but this was attributed to two types of intenstinal parasites that I had acquired during my two year stay in the Republic. My son came and convinced me to go to Montreal where he was living at the time. Since I was broke and still trying to get on my feet and am of Canadian nationality I decided to go back with him.I hadn't been in Canada for nearly 20 years at that time.Most of my adult life has been abroad. I thought I was getting better and was job hunting and getting myself organized when I started to have trouble again. I thought the parasites had not been completely erradicated and were making a comeback. I had cramps in my hands and in my thighs and feet. I would be alright then suddenly get these pains, dizziness and become totally exhausted. Lying down(not sitting down) has been the only relief I get from these attacks for 2-1/2 years now. It is common for me to have to lie down 15 times a day for varying periods of time until the attack passes(sometimes only minutes, sometimes hours.). Then I feel much better and get up for awhile. People see me and think I'm completely normal between these attacks. I can still run up three flights of stairs when I feel good or walk 5 miles. I can always manage to make it home when I get these attacks on the street even though I am always afraid I will one day have to lie down on the sidewalk which would be embarrassing. For two years I saw many doctors and had many tests done. Thank goodness for the Canadian social system. The doctors could find nothing wrong(I don't think they could find their asses with both hands). I could hardly explain to my family and few friends what was happening because it seemed illogical. I finally ended up at a psychiatrist. I was ready to believe that I may have some hysterical ailment but I knew that the pain was not the product of my over active imagination. The psychiatrist admitted that I wasn't suffering from depression any more than anyone else but still tried to get me on some horrible drugs that I tried and categorically rejected. He was very helpful in referring me to whoever I wanted to see. I was now making my own diagnosis and viewing every doctor with more than a little scepticism. I got the impression that they were convinced I was a welfare bum content to sit at home and do nothing. I told them that I had been struck by lightning twice and asked them specifically if this could be the cause. Since I couldn't show them any wounds or anything they rejected this idea.(All of them). None of them knew anything about such things and never bothered looking it up so I finally had to.(buy a dog and bark yourself). Finally after being diagnosed as having arthritis in my cervicle vertebrae(neck) I went for treatments that made me worse and worse. I never had any trouble with my neck and now I did. I stopped the treatments and gave up on doctors. This was a couple of days ago and I have had this problem for nearly 3 years. 13 doctors had been no help at all. Countless bloodtests, x-rays and other assorted tests only found the problem in my neck. That's when I decided to see what I could find on the net. In two hours I found most of the information I needed to explain all my crazy symptoms. - catracts (which I had right after) -pain(which I have during my attacks) - fatigue( which I have 16 times a day) -mental capacity (can't concentrate or learn like before). Some symptoms I had and there were other possible symptoms that I don't have. I need to get my brain back. I am an artist who doesn't draw or paint any more and a writer who can't concentrate enough to submit a book that is 99% finished. I have trouble writing this letter in a legible form. Thank goodness for word processing. I hope this site does some good for people like me who don't understand what's happening to them. |
