Hello Robert

[erinkj]

How have you been doing? I kept up on all the posts during hurricane Ike and I am very glad that you came through that well. My husbands brother and sister live in houston also. The sister had no damage at all, only power loss but, his brother is still living in a hotel with his family! He is an electrical engineer and makes real good money but, his insurance company is giving him a real hard time about making his home livable...He went on a 5 week vodka bender after Ike....not good! he has Hep C and underwent interfuron treatment 9 months ago....DUH...After 5 weeks of vodka he was so bad off that the only way he could prevent shaking or vometing was to drink more! So, last week his wife forced him to the E.R. he was there for 4 days and is now in outpatient treatment 3 days a week and taking(? an antagonist so he cannot drink, cannot recall the name) He is doing much better now. Hubby has another sister who lives in college station so, they got no damage from Ike. My oldest stepson has been abusing xanax for several months now. I was unaware of this until about 2 months ago. I of course did my best to inform him of the consequences but, well; he is 23 and now's it all...UGH...so, a month ago he had a grand mal seizure. Turns out he had been taking anywhere from 6 to 12 mg's xanax per day for several months. The day he had the grand mal he only had 2 mg's all day and the rapid dose reduction brought on the siezures. He was rushed to the E.R. As soon as I heard what had happened I asked him if he had told the dr about the xanax which, he did not. Then, I told him whu he had the seizure (xanax withdrawl)so, that freaked him out. I made him go into his family dr and come clean. Dr put him on a lower xanax dose along with lexapro (EEK!) (At least I know how to help him get off that if and when the time come's) before going into his dr he was having petit mal siezures daily and the E.R. dr's kept switching him from anti-siezure med to med....KID'S....If the twit had listened to me to begin with!!!!Anyway, he is now gradualy switching over to valium from the xanax and doing well. He drinks to much though...Between him and his younger brother (the one we sent to re-hab for banging dulladid) they are trying to re-live all of their fathers youthful drug foolishness.....They think they are "10 feet tall and bullet proof" I can only hope that they will "CHILL OUT" with age like their dad. (I only hope they do so at a younger age than him) I thank God on a daily basis that these boys were not around during the LSD, mesculin, payote and lude days.....Their dad did them all....So glad I did not know him then freaky stuff. I can happily report that both of my stepsons are currently doing well despite their recent slip up's. As for myself, I am well but, very busy. I have not been posting allot in the past few months. I am a full time student and I will graduate with my Bachelors in August (FINALLY) then in Sept 2009 at the age of 36 I begin my Masters. Better late than never! Life has been hectic but good enough. I am now a step grandma! hubby is 10 yrs older than me so, his boys are 21 and 23 unfortunately, we rarely get to see our new grandson (he is 4 months old now) as they live 2 hrs away and his parents split up. My daughter and her fiance'e are expecting in march and they live 20 miles away. We see them daily so, at least we will be close to our next grandbaby...Good thing I have not forgotten how to change diapers. Many post's back, I read about your past trips to the yucatan, Mexico. Hubby and I get down that way twice a year (only once this year scince airfare went way up)....I also remember when Play Del Carmen was nothing more than a boat dock and very tiny village....The growth rate down there is astronomical and scary...Never have liked Cancun and Cozumel is so big now with all the resorts etc. Last trip we stayed in Tullum and it is getting quite large to, it is sad realy. One of our best friends lives there or else we would probobly stray farther off onto roads less traveled. Jorge is a Lacandon Mayan Shaman. He married us last year on a deserted strech of beach in Sian Ka'an....He built our Altar and put it all together so beautifully....It was wonderful. We are bringing him up to Iowa to spend a few weeks with us next August....We met him 5 years ago by coincidence and have been soul friends since! Anyway, I have rambled long enough. I just wanted to give you a shout and say hello. Sorry your trip to Panama has to be put off...I hope to go there someday also....Until next time, God Bless you Robert....Peace....Erin

[Robert_325]

It's always good to hear from you. It's too bad we can't make our children learn from our mistakes. It seldom works that way and the results can obviously be catostrophic. So sorry your son had to go through the seizures. They were so tough to deal with for me. It was like living in a dense fog. I remember people asking me questions and I knew the answers but just couldn't get the words to come out. I still believe that I had a stroke rather than a seizure at one point as I couldn't speak in complete sentences for months. I was terribly messed up though. I remember that for sure. I hate benzos so badly. They came so close to killing me. There are just very few instances where I would suggest them. Like for seizures from longterm CNS problems or extreme panic attacks. But for the most part we both know they are garbage when abused. Just so dangerous to take and kids abuse them so badly. The script drs make opiates, soma and benzos so easy to obtain so mixing them they end up in a coma or worse. All these freakin script drs that pass them out like candy. I wish they would bury those guys UNDER the jails.

I was disappointed that my Panama trip was cancelled for now but we just bought a new church facility and it just turned out to be a very bad time to leave town especially with IKE hitting Houston. We will still go next year and it will still be fun then. Not like I have never been there before. I just really love it in that part of the world. The guy in Panama who runs our foundation there was at my house last Thursday. He gave me a standing invitation to come anytime and said I always have a place to stay for free. So I know that I will be going in the spring whether my pastor goes along or not. Airfare is not that bad and having a free place to stay makes it very reasonable. I would like to spend a good month or two down there working with the foundation doing missionary work. It makes me feel good when I am doing things like that to help people. There is such a HUGE alcohol and drug problem in Central America. Our foundation does a lot of really good work in Panama.

It was good to hear from you Erin. Stay in touch. As always God bless.