Hey folks, Harry here... by the hairs of my chinny chin chin! Ya know, what the fuck. Got diagnosed with DIABETES, the lapband & I have pretty much got that under control. I work on the weight side of things - and I have to say - the last month & a half have been amongst the most exciting part of my entire life. I'm going to have an opportunity to do something for Fans that... well, wasn't a dream of mine honestly, just because I couldn't conceive of it. I've found a great way to not only expand what I get to do with y'all online, but create something that many of you have never known - and it is thrilling. On top of that, for the first time - the film producing side of my life is extraordinary. The marriage is unfuckingbelievably great... the economics could be better, but hey... I kinda have that looking up too. And this week. THIS WEEK, something happened that got me incredibly passionate about the site and what bold steps to take to make it better than it has ever been. You'll see more of that in the coming months.
But here I was - actually writing up that brief piece on Todd Solondz's new film, Patricia had just made some supper - my back was hurting from a pulled muscle - I took a couple of Advil. Ate a couple bites of my food. Pet our loving dog Rosy a bit, took a sip of the sugar-free Arizona Lemon Iced Tea that I love and then my hands began itching. Gradually at first... then I realized... this was like crazy meth-head shit I've seen in movies. I had not taken Meth. I began clawing like a madman at my hands. Patricia looks at me - comments on how red my face was. I ask her to grab me a mirror, not only was my face red, but my nose seemed to be about 2 1/2 times wider than normal. I had hard creased cascading to either side of my mouth. And then my hands began swelling up, not to Kirk sizes, but kinda. Numb tongue, BONES can fix that.
Then Patricia says, "Take a couple of Benadryl" - I do. She says, go take a shower, you'll feel better - so I head towards the bathroom and I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and my whiter than white skin isa deep ruddy complexion. My tongue is filling my mouth and I can begin to feel my throat closing up, I no longer can breathe in through my mouth - all I can do is breathe through my nose. I tell Patricia, we have to go to the Emergency Room.
We bust ass to the nearest one. I get to the admissions desk, the sweet lady gives me a look, talks into a microphone, "We have a severe allergic reaction." I begin to try to give my symptoms and she says, "Oh, I know." Very quickly I'm taken back, hooked up with EKG, oxygen monitoring devices, blood pressure, hospital gown... you name it, they started it. They begin questioning me again... I communicate I can't breathe out my mouth with the slurringest language ever. The tightness in my throat was beginning to grip my chest, but the EKG showed the ticker never being affected. My entire body was covered with raised splotches and rashes and I was flashing on shit tons of paranoid thriller plots. Was I patient zero. Nobody seemed to think so. Instead, they all calmly, cooly and with a dash of humor injected by me to deflect the tension of the situation, they did their jobs perfectly!
After I get about 5 shots and have a gas masked administering something via gas, my complexion begins to come back and all the symptoms go away - fairly quickly, it took about 3 1/2 hours for the tongue to feel normal again. But the doctor tells us that had Patricia not given me those 2 Benadryl... I'd be dead now.
Jesus Christ. 38 years without a single allergic reaction and then it's fucking Green Kryptonite. Well, till we find the culprit I get to carrying around an army of badass meds to be my first line of defense when and if a second case occurs - I've also got Allergy appointments to try and lock down what did this to me, after all... 38 years of zip when it comes to stuff like this then... Kryptonite.
I was 2 pills from death. Had I taken the shower, maybe even closer. But the combination of this amazing week and this. Crazy.
I rushed from the ER to Alamo South, as I had a midnight screening of a film for consideration for FANTASTIC FEST... and then Quint brought Greg Nicotero's metaphysically perfect monster kid masterpiece short film that he has created for ALL OF US.... and I have to say, I'm so greatful that I didn't die today. I love that I can tell you that there's a 7 minute Nicotero directed film that is the sheerest joy you'll ever see. Seriously. I love that there's a film with two amazing fucking actors doing their amazing fucking acting and absolutely hypnotizing Tim, Quint, Father Geek & I tonight. And I must keep living because... well, there's so much more that I want to share with all of you.
So thanks to everyone that was responding to my scary ass tweet feed. In the hospital, after my complexion changed, I had Patricia take a pic with my camera phone and in one of them, I pretended to be dead. It is my fave of the photos. Looking at it somehow reminds me how close I came on missing out on a ton of planned joy that is waiting to share with a lot of you. So close, just days and weeks away. Somethings that I've been working on for 7 years, some... two of the things came into my life this Christmas. One I was recruited for, the other was something that I kinda got started. No matter, don't worry too much. Shit like what happened to me today, happened for a reason.
The week I was having was so tremendous, it served to ground me and to cherish all of this that much more. Besides, God isn't corny enough to take me on the one year anniversary of Michael Jackson's passing. That's just ridiculous.
For all of you that texted, emailed, tweeted, facebooked and myspaced well wishes - I was reading them in the 4 hours I spent in ICU. Well technically the last 3 hours, that first hour was as hairy as they get. We barely caught it in time.
In particular... Greg Nicotero - your short film single handedly took me from a place of fear, to a place of celebration.
This was strictly a case of some foreign body entering my system and me going into the early dangerous stages of Anaphylactic Shock. My blood pressure was dropping dangerously low and had I been another 10 minutes to 20 minutes later to the ER, i'd be dead. Had Patricia not given me those two pills, I wouldn't have had the time to get there that I did, and I could feel that happening to me when I told her to take me to the ER.
I know this isn't strictly movie news, but I've shared every tragedy, accident and major life experience with y'all these past 14 years. I know 1000s of you personally. In addition to taking care of tracking down the evil culprit that nearly snuffed me today, I'm going to be out of this chair in the next two years if not sooner. We all have a ton to live for and man that came into focus better than a Kubrick flick tonight.
I love you folks. See you at the FAMOUS MONSTERS convention in Indianapolis, then COMIC CON in San Diego, then a ton of fun here in Austin.
Your pal,
Harry
