Greg Budell

“This is bad!”.

Those are not the first words you want to hear from a neurosurgeon when he sees your MRI on his computer screen.

Dr. Patrick Ryan pointed to a white line on the image- my spinal cord. In the mid-neck area, the white line was obscured by a protrusion that was impinging The Big Nerve thus explaining why I’d been dealing with months of something I called “studio neck”.

In my radio booth, most of my equipment is to the right, and whenever I turned to look at it, my neck would lock up- sometimes with a popping sound. The condition would momentarily make me look like I was auditioning for Quasimodo, head twisted until the pain passed, my back shrugged under the shoulders.

Dr. Ryan said a surgery was the only fix. That was the bad news. The good news? This would be a great story for a magazine column! I could reveal medical horror stories. Long waits. Indifferent staff. “Just another face on a gurney” kind of stuff.

I was ready to bring you 1000 words delivering the inside scoop of rotten medical care in this nightmarish year of 2022.

That is NOT the story here. It would be a complete and utter lie.

After explaining why several words ending in “ectomy” would fix my pain in the neck, I was dispatched to Dr. Ryan’s assistant, Edwina.

She couldn’t have been more professional or accommodating. Edwina was more like a concierge in a fine hotel than a medical office staffer. She scheduled my surgery for St. Patrick’s Day, my pre-op tests for the Monday before at Jackson Hospital.

Ha! A Monday at a major hospital! This is where things would go off the rails! My appointment was for 9:30AM right after my Newstalk 93.1FM morning show. I’d made arrangements to have someone cover my 3PM afternoon show because surely 930A was a suggestion, not a real appointment, right?

I was home before 11AM. It was boom boom boom for this BOOMer. Tests done and passed! It wasn’t just the efficiency of being tested. Everyone, mostly 20 and 30 somethings new in their field, was kind, courteous and friendly. “This can’t be real”, I thought to myself. “The surgery will be a nightmare”.

Wife Roz drove me to Jackson for our 6AM check in. The previous day, my afternoon show was cohosted by friend and family lawyer Jacquelyn Tomlinson. Sorry to say, I will not be leaving a vast estate, but we got everything buttoned down during a chat on the importance of a will. Anytime you have surgery they remind you of “risk” no matter how unlikely. Everything got settled. Jacquelyn helped me decide who gets my bag of whiffle balls and treasured Christmas ornaments.

When we arrived, we arrived prepared- for anything!

Once again, we were promptly greeted and seated. Within moments I was whisked to a room for the most painful of medical experiences. I’m referring, of course, to the dreaded hospital gown.

I had my first surgery in 1984. Incredible advances in medical care have occurred every year since yet somehow the hospital gown- an overgrown 50s dishtowel designed to teach the lesson of equality, remains mostly unchanged. Nobody- I don’t care who it is- can make one of those things look good.

The cheerful Jackson staff covered my feet with yellow, rubbery hospital socks. As they wheeled my gurney- on time- to the surgical staging area my view was framed by my hideous yellow feet (with festive white racing stripes).

At 7AM, a lovely anesthesiologist approached my gurney to say we’d be going into surgery right on time. BOOM! The next thing I knew I was in the recovery room sipping ice chips. Propofol is quick and effective!

I was home by lunchtime after a major surgery! That’s incredible. Other than the gown and socks, I remain beyond giddy at the excellence of everyone from my brilliant surgeon (Dr. Ryan with 7000+ surgeries experience) to the young woman who helped me into my sweatpants at check out and didn’t laugh.

So, my big expose on everything wrong with modern medicine ain’t happening. It was no fluke. They seem dedicated to great efforts in patient service at Jackson Hospital.

Home in bed, my chilly feet (still adorned in the vomit-colored surgery socks), framed the view of my TV. For several days as I healed, I watched the world around me continue its descent into madness.

Last year at this time I wrote a BOOM column called “Party Like It’s 1979”. It’s here. Inflation is out of control; gas prices are soaring and the knuckleheads in charge refuse to do anything meaningful to fix it. We’re on the cusp of World War 3 and we have a Supreme Court nominee who can’t define what a woman is.

So, I changed the channel to binge-watch The Office. It made me laugh, but during commercial breaks it was a non-stop onslaught promotion of our burgeoning Idiocracy. Relentless ads for South Park, a cartoon (they must pay the animators minimum wage- or less) of similarly voiced vulgar kids. What happened Mel Blanc and Bugs Bunny? How this shrieky shrill program has lasted 25 years is beyond Beavis and Butthead logic.

The Office runs on Comedy Central, a channel which loves to promote the man who single-handedly destroyed the once-great Daily Show- a wiseacre named Trevor Noah. He reminds me of a parakeet with a mirror. He is Not Funny.

Or clever. I finally DVR’d everything so I could FF through the BS.

The news was so infuriating I actually forgave baseball for its long lockout. I watched some ball games.

It is nice to once again turn my head without morphing into Quasimodo. Thank you, Dr. Ryan, Edwina and team!

Post op, watching our civilization crumble at the hands of The Nincompoopery was a much larger pain in the neck.

(If you have a comment on this column, email me at gregbudell@aol.com. It's still fun to hear from new people!)

Greg Budell lives in Montgomery with his wife, Roz, Stepson, Sho, and dogs Hershey and Briscoe. He’s been in radio since 1970, and has marked 16 years in the River Region. He hosts the Newstalk 93.1FM Morning Show with Rich Thomas, Jay Scott & Jessie Lynn, 6-9 AM Monday-Friday. He returns weekday afternoons from 3-6 PM for Happy Hour with sidekick Rosie Brock. Greg can be reached at gregbudell@aol.com.

Allergy season is probably already upon us, certainly just around the corner and SO many people suffer from seasonal allergies that we really should be addressing the “why” and not just treating the symptoms. Approximately 40-60 million Americans suffer from what we call seasonal allergies, basically spring and autumn reactions to the increase in pollen count in the air. Why is it such a high number? And why is it such a greater percentage of the population than it was a few decades ago?

The answer, I’m afraid, harks back to our standard “Western” problem of surrounding our selves with SO many chemicals daily – in the air we breathe (Air-conditioned air is the highest!), in the products we put on our skin and hair, in the products we clean our homes and workplaces, in everything we touch or that touches us! We bombard our bodies with SO many chemicals daily that our immune system is in constant overdrive trying to filter out these “bad molecules” so that the “good molecules” can thrive. Very simplistically put, but you get the gist. This is the main reason that we are constantly being warned about low, and high, levels of inflammation in our bodies and that they are the root cause of so many diseases that really are unique to our generation – Alzheimer’s, dementia, cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, autoimmune disorders…yes, all these existed before, but not in such significant numbers. In previous decades they were rarities, now I can guarantee everybody knows somebody with everything on that list! This is not a good thing.

I mention this because there is a general theory that we are seeing such a rise in seasonal allergies for the same reason. Our bodies are already so overloaded with chemicals that our immune system is in a constant state of overdrive, so that when any allergen – dust, pollen, pet dander – enters the body, what it should normally be able to deal with effectively and calmly now shoots it into additional overdrive. That is to say that when the body’s immune system is already overworked and stressed, introducing a tiny little particle of dust or pollen can send it into a complete overreaction.

If the immune system and inflammation levels within the body were balanced, then the reaction to the allergen would be normal, your body would deal with it and expel it; however, today for too many people these reactions are exaggerated and for some, lethal. So where do you start? Well, of course there are over the counter pills you can take – Zyrtec, Aleve, etc., which are yet another chemical compound for your body to deal with and they are also only helping with the symptoms not the root cause, which is why you must take them EVERY YEAR. We can suggest a few essential oils which will also help with the symptoms, but be gentler on your body, but I’ll get to those shortly.

To help your body deal with the allergens on its own you need to de-tox your lifestyle. Switch to organic food where possible, organic skincare and haircare products, environmentally friendly cleaning products, open your windows and let some fresh air in, drink water not soda….even if you can start by just addressing one or two of these and then work up from there, you will be surprised at how much better you are feeling generally and how less affected you are by things like allergies and say, the common cold.

To help with the symptoms of allergies in the meantime, do consider going a more natural route. It will help your body cope better and you will feel the effects just as well, if not better than with drugs.

1) Eucalyptus – my favorite for any sinus issues. Use 1 drop in a bowl of boiling water and put your face over the bowl with a towel over your head to create a tent to hold the steam in. Breathe in for 30 seconds to a couple of minutes. It really helps to open the airways and get you breathing more easily. You can also use in a diffuser, or just a drop or two on a tissue in your pocket. 2) Tea tree – is excellent at destroying air-borne pathogens. Great antibacterial agent, antifungal and anti-inflammatory. Best used in a diffuser in the home and/or diluted as a household cleaner. 3) Lavender – has calming properties, which are good when your allergies have flared up. It’s also a good anti-inflammatory, so useful for those inflamed nasal passages and airways. Again, best diffused, but can add a couple of drops to a warm bath or to a tissue to breathe in as needed. 4) Peppermint – great for helping open up congested airways. Diffuse in your home or breathe in from a tissue, do not apply undiluted to the skin. 5) Lemon – great antibacterial and smells so good! Can also help clear sinuses and reduce congestion. Good immune system booster. Diffuse and/or use in household cleaners.

email: nyrbhalla@gmail.com I web: us.nyrorganic.com/shop/tracybhalla I www. LogHouseAromatics.com

Tracy Bhalla, independent consultant with NYR Organics and founder of LogHouseAromatics.com; after 25 years of using homeopathic remedies, it was time to take charge and complete my Aromatherapy Certification, which I achieved April 2020 and since founded LogHouseAromatics.com as a source for useful essential oil and general natural health information and a place to purchase certain products. email: nyrbhalla@gmail.com I am here to answer any questions you may have. 60 BOOM! April 2022

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