Here is another story from the book.

Born Under a Bad Sign

This story takes place on one of our trips down from the states as the family was having Roberto’s Bungalow’s built in San Pancho. Almost every time I get the shingles I leave and go to Mexico to get away from the stress and pain. I left the United States with my shingles and my suitcase and I wasn’t feeling so good.

The first day down there I came out of our new casa and I had forgotten that they put in new curbs. Me and my shingles slipped off the curb and fell to the ground and sprained my ankle real bad. It threw all my muscles totally out of whack and my body was hurting. I was walking downtown later that day and I was having a hard time getting around with my sprained ankle and I was trying to get up a curb and tripped and slipped and fell into a flowerbed and ripped and scraped my leg and I laid there and watched it bleed.

I knew at that point that I should probably be careful because things were not looking so good for me.  I had a sprained ankle and had a gash on my leg and my shingles were killing me. The next day I noticed that my limping had thrown out my back and my hip was starting to hurt. Just before I left the states I had gotten a cortisone shot to stop the pain in my hip, (which was going to be replaced) but it only lasted about 6 days into my trip. So now my back is out, my shingles are driving me crazy, my hip is killing me I am limping on my sprained ankle and I have a big gash in my leg.

I thought to myself…nothing else could possibly go wrong….could it?  The next day Jane and I went to a nursery in a little village (La Penita) up the coast and we were there to pick out new palms for the Bungalow’s. I was walking through the nursery and the palms were thick and it was really humid and about a hundred degrees and I was hot and soaking wet. We got the palms picked out and we got back in the car and I started to itch and I looked down at my arm and I had about 500 bites on my inner arm and it was blood red and then I lifted my shirt and I had about 1000 more bites and it was all blood red also all over my side. I felt a little shaky and horrified and thoughts of suicide entered my mind, but I hung in there.

I went to the doctor in our village and he prescribed some lotions. I went back to the Bungalow’s and was rubbing the lotions on me and I noticed one of the lotions he had given me had a “no human’s circle” on it and I read it and it was for ticks for dogs. I used it anyway. All the lotions mixed together made my skin feel a little better…hungry for a milkbone, and ready to chase a stick, but better.

Three days later I was hiking in the jungle and I was bit about 500 more times by what someone called noseeums….No see ums…they are little bugs so small you can’t see em. I was out of my mind in pain at this point.  It was a real weird feeling…it felt like water was dripping out of the wounds at all times. The next day I was back in the jungle and looking for ocean view properties when I looked down I noticed my leg had this big black large spot on it so I looked closer and I wanted to scream…. I had about 500 tics on my leg…lucky thing my friend I was with had some yard guard spray and he fogged me up and down and they all died. Now I know what you are thinking right now…what the hell is wrong with Earl….why does he keep putting himself in those kind of places?

I had been to the local doctor 3 times in the first 3 weeks and felt kind of stupid, but I was on a mission. The week before I left I was out swimming in the pool and I put my arm over the edge of the pool and I got a bite that felt like a sharp knife just stabbed me. That night I went to bed and woke up not being able to breath…my uvula had gotten the size of a cell phone and was stuck in my throat and chocking me to death.  I couldn’t believe that all of this was happening to me…I went to the pharmacist in town and he told me that the swelling of the uvula is usually what happens when you get stung by a scorpion and I was not surprised at all…..I just believed that because I didn’t die everything was gonna be ok……I love this place……