Post by jawbone on Jul 10, 2021 20:40:17 GMT -5
Well I did not want to have to break this news. One of my mottos for some years now is, LIFE COMES AT YA. And this is particularly true here.
You all may know or not, early this year Jolene had exploratory/lifesaving surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. Life was kind of spun way out of the usual at that point. Until then we'd been gaining momentum here in this Texas Hill Country town. It was total touch and go for a while. I honestly did not know if I'd ever see my best gal ever when I was following the ambulance to the ER that day. But Providence smiles sometimes. While Jolene was away for 12 days, she did come home, to a new apartment in town where she could recover from a major surgery in more comfort than the travel trailer we've lived in for some years now could provide.
Recover she did, and better than she'd thought! Her incision healed and she began to have hope that she could play guitar and sing again, and that was realized starting in late February.
Man did we take off! I was cooking anything she asked for and she was getting her weight back and feeling like 2 million bucks! So we got where we were looking for gigs and also we were playing on the street here a lot, like every weekend. And people were very supportive. Our philosophy was, especially during the Crap19 thing folks needed to have a bit of lightness and joy, so we were doing our part.
Up until late May things were going very well. Jo was feeling so great she was getting back busy cleaning house, washing dishes, even grabbing the folding chairs or my harp case when we were loading in up on Main Street. We don't know what actually the key single event was, but suddenly Jo was having big back pain. HUGE pain. Slipped disc or childbirth pain. So she's in hospice care and they jumped into action and got the meds going, which was managing the pain pretty well. We also found a very gentle chiropractor and he did some major adjustments in his gentle way.
Still, this was not getting better, and in fact about 2 weeks ago it began hurting her even more. So Friday we took her in and had xrays done. To that point I think the idea was, her cancer had metastasized into her bones. She has some osteoporosis and also scoliosis and sciatica, and a healed lumbar fracture from 2 1/2 years ago. So they were talking palliative radiation treatments just to reduce the pain. So xrays come back and yesterday we find out it's NOT cancer. Good news! But what it IS, is FOUR compression fractures in her lower back. So good news/bad news, right? We upped her pain med dosage so that's going well, her pain is much less. She's able to sleep much better. For almost 2 weeks everyone- me included- had had the mistaken idea that this injury was something else entirely. We are so glad we have the true picture now.
But we had to process all this yesterday, and last night we had a long deep loving honest discussion, and we decided that it's time for Jo to hang up live playing. The duo is mostly over. We hope she can still do some play here at home after a couple or 3 months' healing on these fractures. IF everything goes well.
It's hard but she and I are okay about this. She's going out on an apex. I'm losing a music partner in one sense but maybe gaining a teacher in another way.
A couple Mondays back we played a lunch gig at a place in town. I set up sound and we killed for most of 3 sets. Folks liked what we were doing, and we sure did! This was the first amped 3 set gig we'd done since last July 4th, a year ago. So of course, most of the way through set 3, Jo had a callus come loose. She told me, "Do some a capella stuff", which I did a song I've been working on for a while. It was cool. But she found a lyric sheet for "John the Revelator" in the back of our big book, and we did it. I sang the bulk of it and she chimed in on the refrain. She was tapping her guitar body for some rhythm and it all worked like, it just worked! You know it could have gone 2 different ways, and it went the right way. People LOVED IT!
That may very well be the last live music Jolene ever does. Out with a bang.
So this brings us to what the future holds. Jolene is adamant that I continue in music, which I have always planned that but to have her support is mighty fine. Now some years ago I had bought a little Regal square neck lap slide guitar. And I made a bit of progress, but along the way that guitar had to go. It was not meant to be then. NOW though, I'm thinking very seriously about getting a round neck resonator guitar and a harp rack, making some foot pedals for my cajon, and doing a solo thing for a while. Of course I have almost everything to learn about playing slide guitar. I'm a harp guy, always have been! But it just kind of struck me, why not step out of my comfort zone? Jo can teach me some of what I need, I have some instinct, and there's always Youtube and even face to face lessons.
The fact is, we have a big change going on here, but it does not have to be gloom and doom. This day was kind of expected but we can never know the date and time of anything in life when you get down to it.
I want to tell y'all one more thing, and it's about a hero. Jo had a feeling something was changing 4 1/2 years ago, but she opted to keep quiet about it and hit the road with her man. She wanted to move forward with our plan to see, and play across, the country. Her goal has always been that I would be in pretty okay shape when she is gone. And it looks like that's a fact. She is letting me move forward with her blessing and wants me to succeed.
That's a hero in my book.
You all may know or not, early this year Jolene had exploratory/lifesaving surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. Life was kind of spun way out of the usual at that point. Until then we'd been gaining momentum here in this Texas Hill Country town. It was total touch and go for a while. I honestly did not know if I'd ever see my best gal ever when I was following the ambulance to the ER that day. But Providence smiles sometimes. While Jolene was away for 12 days, she did come home, to a new apartment in town where she could recover from a major surgery in more comfort than the travel trailer we've lived in for some years now could provide.
Recover she did, and better than she'd thought! Her incision healed and she began to have hope that she could play guitar and sing again, and that was realized starting in late February.
Man did we take off! I was cooking anything she asked for and she was getting her weight back and feeling like 2 million bucks! So we got where we were looking for gigs and also we were playing on the street here a lot, like every weekend. And people were very supportive. Our philosophy was, especially during the Crap19 thing folks needed to have a bit of lightness and joy, so we were doing our part.
Up until late May things were going very well. Jo was feeling so great she was getting back busy cleaning house, washing dishes, even grabbing the folding chairs or my harp case when we were loading in up on Main Street. We don't know what actually the key single event was, but suddenly Jo was having big back pain. HUGE pain. Slipped disc or childbirth pain. So she's in hospice care and they jumped into action and got the meds going, which was managing the pain pretty well. We also found a very gentle chiropractor and he did some major adjustments in his gentle way.
Still, this was not getting better, and in fact about 2 weeks ago it began hurting her even more. So Friday we took her in and had xrays done. To that point I think the idea was, her cancer had metastasized into her bones. She has some osteoporosis and also scoliosis and sciatica, and a healed lumbar fracture from 2 1/2 years ago. So they were talking palliative radiation treatments just to reduce the pain. So xrays come back and yesterday we find out it's NOT cancer. Good news! But what it IS, is FOUR compression fractures in her lower back. So good news/bad news, right? We upped her pain med dosage so that's going well, her pain is much less. She's able to sleep much better. For almost 2 weeks everyone- me included- had had the mistaken idea that this injury was something else entirely. We are so glad we have the true picture now.
But we had to process all this yesterday, and last night we had a long deep loving honest discussion, and we decided that it's time for Jo to hang up live playing. The duo is mostly over. We hope she can still do some play here at home after a couple or 3 months' healing on these fractures. IF everything goes well.
It's hard but she and I are okay about this. She's going out on an apex. I'm losing a music partner in one sense but maybe gaining a teacher in another way.
A couple Mondays back we played a lunch gig at a place in town. I set up sound and we killed for most of 3 sets. Folks liked what we were doing, and we sure did! This was the first amped 3 set gig we'd done since last July 4th, a year ago. So of course, most of the way through set 3, Jo had a callus come loose. She told me, "Do some a capella stuff", which I did a song I've been working on for a while. It was cool. But she found a lyric sheet for "John the Revelator" in the back of our big book, and we did it. I sang the bulk of it and she chimed in on the refrain. She was tapping her guitar body for some rhythm and it all worked like, it just worked! You know it could have gone 2 different ways, and it went the right way. People LOVED IT!
That may very well be the last live music Jolene ever does. Out with a bang.
So this brings us to what the future holds. Jolene is adamant that I continue in music, which I have always planned that but to have her support is mighty fine. Now some years ago I had bought a little Regal square neck lap slide guitar. And I made a bit of progress, but along the way that guitar had to go. It was not meant to be then. NOW though, I'm thinking very seriously about getting a round neck resonator guitar and a harp rack, making some foot pedals for my cajon, and doing a solo thing for a while. Of course I have almost everything to learn about playing slide guitar. I'm a harp guy, always have been! But it just kind of struck me, why not step out of my comfort zone? Jo can teach me some of what I need, I have some instinct, and there's always Youtube and even face to face lessons.
The fact is, we have a big change going on here, but it does not have to be gloom and doom. This day was kind of expected but we can never know the date and time of anything in life when you get down to it.
I want to tell y'all one more thing, and it's about a hero. Jo had a feeling something was changing 4 1/2 years ago, but she opted to keep quiet about it and hit the road with her man. She wanted to move forward with our plan to see, and play across, the country. Her goal has always been that I would be in pretty okay shape when she is gone. And it looks like that's a fact. She is letting me move forward with her blessing and wants me to succeed.
That's a hero in my book.