James Michael Thaxton, CST James' battle - RSD/CRPS

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I used to be a very outgoing and focused guy, in a sense, of course, I still am. However, at the end of 2016, somehow I stepped upon the edge of an Event Horizon. Just beyond would lie a black hole of medical madness, which swallowed me in totality, down to the smallest molecules of my being.  A force beyond gravity, light, and hope...I just had to abide the dark unknown.


After crossing the threshold of the darkness, I found myself in the glow of a dim electrified gaseous light - halogenic hues unveiled my body for the first time in 18 hours of unconscious blackness. Alas, I found myself to be transformed in some manner. However, I'm too confused to know what, where, or whom my new eyes lied upon. Yet still, in retrospect, I realize now the first spark, my BIG BANG, came in the form of one of my High School friends and coworkers at the hospital in which we shared most our waking hours. BAMM, SLAP! "James, James!", another SLAP to the cheek. "James, open your eyes. James, open your....there you are. Wake up now, OK?". Opening my eyes, moments after my new creation, my "Big Bang", I could see my friend and I knew I was being slapped to awaken from something, but my masochistic angel was so fuzzy. Wait, umm, OK! She came into focus. Right in the middle of three faces so close to mine, they appeared as heads...JUST HEADS! I immediately said, with a slowness of 58 beats per minute. A name stretched out too long, but the tune was right, regardless of the ghostly manner in which I found the word escape my lips..."A----p----r-----i-----l?"