Nobody Promised Life Would be Easy by Warren Fox - HTML preview

Chapter twenty three

Lou Shilton.

1997-2007

“I might have to admit you to hospital. But first I want to try something radical.”

The doctor wants to try me on some antibiotics that will be ten times the normal dose. One lot of pills to take 3 times a day with meals. Another lot, 4 times a day, two hours away from food, either side. I take them for 5 weeks and the swelling slowly goes down and the pain eases and disappears. By this time my stomach is out of order and I get diarrhea, which lasts for 72 hours. This gives me the most dreadful hemorrhoids, with pain so bad that I have to eat my meals standing up. Everything that they do for them doesn't help, but eventually I bring them under control with some herbs from a naturopath.

One day, I find a whole lot of mushrooms growing in the backyard so I take them into Margarita. She asks how we can tell if they are poisonous or not. I say that if they don't kill you, then they are OK. She cooks some for me saying she'll try some tomorrow night. Five minutes after eating them, I know I'm in trouble. Then they come back up again. The Poison Centre tells us to go straight to the doctor and get some active charcoal. This fixes the problem and I don't die, but I could have. Then I go home and write a song called Mushroom Matilda.

Later on, they decide to remove the sebaceous cyst from my chest. The operation takes 70 minutes and it sets me back for a couple of weeks but I'm glad that it's gone.

Then one day, I learn that Lou Shilton is in hospital with stomach cancer and has been given 3 weeks to live. (Lou and I invented Chassis Racing.) They give him an operation and the 3 weeks is extended to 3 months. We visit him at North Shore Hospital and he asks what I've been up to, so I tell him about the Country Music at Helensville. He expresses an interest in joining, so when he is better, we take him along. Lou sings really well and it's not long before Lou is practically running the whole show. He seems to have a new lease of life and the 3 months becomes 3 years. Sadly, on the 1-11-07, Lou succumbs to the cancer.

Another chapter in my life closes.

The End.