SPDF Day 52 minus 10: Hunger strike is most dangerous once food intake is attempted.As I have experienced and......

SPDF Day 52 minus 10: Hunger strike is most dangerous once food intake is attempted.

As I have experienced and said for almost a decade now, the long hunger strike is most dangerous once food intake begins. This is always the case, and in my personal experience, by far the most clear, in this 52 day fast.

Part of the reason that returning to the world of food is so particularly dangerous for me at this time is that it comes after 3 years of surgeries and chemo fighting cancer. But, never the less even on my hunger strikes before the cancer, that the time of reentry is the most dangerous time, was true.

Since the beginning of this Stop Palestines Death Fast I have gone from 175 pounds down to now 145 pounds. Four of those pounds lost since I began attempting to consume food 1 week ago Thursday afternoon, 10 days ago now. 

Remember this when you gain the courage and sanity, the humanity, to realize that you value the well being of others more than you value your own life... to be yearning to use this Death Fast weapon yourself, for the future of every one that you care about. The body, when switching from consuming itself for food to consuming external calories, is the most dangerous, the most tiring, and in some ways the most difficult part of the hunger strike.

This Sunday morning is my second day here at Georgetown University Hospital. They are keeping me here with this NG tube sucking what little body fluids enter my stomach for several reasons: 1, watching to see if emergency surgery is required, 2, hoping that by taking several days using this tube to fully decompress' my intestines that what was a full bowel obstruction may completely resolve without the need for surgery. 3, they prefer to not do surgery on weekends.

Friday evening is when they inserted the tube; within one hundred and twenty seconds almost 2 liters of fluid gushed out, and for the first time in, well, the first of now four obstruction episodes, that lasted for 2 hours beginning the prior Saturday morning, my stomach began to stop aching, and to be without the large distention, and to feel fairly normal.

My stomach continues to feel normal and to be without the distention. Unfortunately, now the pain is in my throat because of this NG tube. The pain meds that occasionally I accept from them barely touch the pain of swallowing which otherwise is an 8 or a 9.

Of the four extreme pain episodes that began last Saturday morning at 1:30 a.m., it is unclear to me and to the surgical team here whether they were four distinct obstruction episodes, or whether they were one episode of partial blockage that never fully resolved and finally became a 13 hour complete blockage. The reason that matters is because if we knew, it would inform whether surgery early next week is the best option. 

In my view, & I think that they concur, if it was four distinct episodes that each began within 18 hours of me attempting to take food, each time, then that would suggest that surgery now to remove the causal scar tissue is in order. If, however, it was one long episode that never fully resolved, then this 2 or 3 day reset, taking all pressure off of the intestines through the use of this NG tube, then that would suggest to forego surgery at this moment and see if I can return to a normal eating pattern without surgery. I suspect that that decision will be made by us today or tomorrow.

There may be hospitals in the country or the world that are as good as Georgetown (GUH), but I seriously question whether there are any that are superior. This Is an extremely competent kind, professional staff from the people in housekeeping, the technicians that continually take my vital signs and blood, the people that wheel me around the hospital for tests, of course the nurses, and the doctors, although at least one of the surgeons has the bedside manner of a stone. GUH is a testament to how entirely possible it is for a large group of people to live and maintain extreme humanity and caring. It is a miraculous blessing to my attempts to live the life we are all created to live, 1 completely committed to serving the neediest of humanity, as pitiful, and totally impotent, as my attempts obviously are. With whatever time I have left I expect to continue to miserably fail in my attempts, and to never ever fail to make the attempt. Full effort is full success, the only full success, there is none other, as Gandhi rightly said.

Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to grab my 7 inch tablet and a charger as I hobbled to the health care clinic after the first seven hours of this fourth episode on Friday, where they kindly called an ambulance for me and sent me off to the hospital. as a consequence, when I am NOT sleeping, or too distracted by pain, I can at least be fighting for my tormented, terrorized, tortured family in Palestine, online.