Page 133 - "Mississippi in the 1st Person" - Michael James Stone (Demo/Free)

Branches, bushes, dragging in the river was taking it’s toll on me.
Having some medical issues it appeared I was not healing normal

or fast. At 60 that was ok. With Crohns Disease it was little con-
cerning. With an ostomy like I had an ileostomy it was discon-
certing. But still doable.

Snags had got my arms somewhere,
the funny thing was the scratches
had not gotten smaller but larger and

each minor scratch became scabbed.

I wondered but since it was slight
pain I mostly ignored.

A lot more painful was slic-

es I had on my hands and
fingers. I have no idea how
they got cut except my pad-

dle gloves were finger tip exposed and my hands
would swell from paddling and shrink and it seemed to

cause these wounds to open and close and not heal.
Having stopped I dressed them and use ointment on
them.

I really did not know what this was because it did not hurt,

it did not itch and it did not spread but a couple of weeks
later at a River Angels house I would be told by a native I

had poison oak. That would have explained some malaise.

It is probable that this was Poison Oak and I was able to ig-
nore because of the other issues.

While these were concerns …….,being on the Mississippi

River with over 2.000, miles to go I just toughed it out and
did the best I could for them and kept going.

Later problems would arise from these issues…..