John Mark McMillian

We have part one of the interview done with JMM before the concert last month. Check it out here.

Work and Pain

Ok i know i am no good at this blogging thing but here we go. As Tyson sleeps at my feet (oh which reminds me, he is getting fixed tomorrow) my elbow hurts. I spent the weekend in Vegas for some fun and a UFC fight. UFC is a fighting league where guys get paid to punch, kick, knee, choke and try to break arms legs and ankles, and I love it. But that post is coming as soon as I get a few pics of the weekend. Anywho i bring up vegas cause i think it started there, the pain that is. I think i got Hold em elbow. A condition which occurs when a player gets a blister on his or her elbow from playing to much texas hold em. So my left elbow all of A sudden started bothering me on monday and when i inspected it i noticed a large blister right where i rest it on say a kitchen table or in this case a poker table. I didn't think much of it, i mean come on its a blister am i a wuss? So i went about my work day with only slight discomfort for the next two days. Today, today is a new chapter in the pain. Im gunna get a bit graphic cause its funny for those that know me and know the strange things that have happened to me in the past, ie: various nut allergies, almost killed by surfboard, bitten by some bug and taken to hospital, extreme reactions to ant bites. Ha freaking ha. So today i wake up and my elbow hurts more and now the blister is back, or so i thought. Just off to the side of the blister i feel heat and I see a pocket of nasty. As we all know this is a classic sign of infection, but why did my blister get infected? Well we can start by how I got the blister in the first place, a poker table in Vegas, but i think its more recent then that. You see I have been working at a job here in the phx that would make pest control and health inspectors ill. The building I am working on used to be KFC, right before christmas they closed it and it has been sitting vacant ever since. Recently it was broken into and all the copper was stolen from the panels and ac units and we were brought in to re-pull wire and hook everything back up so new tenants could move in. Well apart from the nasty 1/4 inch layer of grease on everything there are an extreme amount of cockroaches, pigeons, and rats in the building. The first day i had a huge roach climb my leg and almost make in into my shorts. Since the thieves destroyed the ac units on the roof the pigeons moved into the duct work inside the building leaving piles of poo where ever there is a register for the air. I opened up one panel and the bottom of it was overflowing with dead roaches, they like the heat the panel gives off i guess. The roof was nasty, pigeon nests everywhere with all stages of egg, half embryo and baby birds cooked by the heat. Well the new ac units were installed but the guys didn't clear out the birds from the duct work and now there are a number of dead birds in the ceiling some sticking half out of the registers in their last hopeless attempt at escape. This is how i think I got the infection in my elbow. We have been installing a new main panel in a closet kinda on the outside of the building, but right where we are installing it is where the drain is for the roof gutter. A roofing company came by and cleaned the roof by washing it down so all the pigeon poo and half babies and feathers and nasty drained right down then dried at my panel room doorstep. In the installation process i have been rolling around in that fine little dirt pile trying to get a 56 inch panel into a 55 inch closet. Every day i come home a pile of filth, a few days i just wanted to burn my clothes. I was taking a shower today and felt the urge to use a wash cloth and scrub myself till i bled, you know like they did in mid-evil times, a good blood letting. It reminded me of being a kid and mom would come up with that wash cloth and it felt like a cheese grater on my face. I needed a cheese grater all over by arms and legs today. I sent out a picture the other day of a few goodies I found at the job, i called it the three main food groups of KFC. If the infection gets worse I will go get some antibiotics, as far as staying clean at the job, not so much, I don't do well in pants and long sleeves due to the heat. I have been draining my elbow all day and it seems to be getting better, but time will tell. ( I had to add that part just for gross factor).




Also Kyle wrote on this after I sent him the pic you can read his thoughts here.