This is a levy of blessings from my Aunt. I've included a Picture, because You Can't imagine A Thousand Blessings until you've seen them.

It would be the first thing I remember seeing after opening my eyes and looking into my wife's. I relaxed my head and looked straight up. The Cranes suspended from an I.V. hanger which which attached to the ceiling, directly above my head by about four feet up. I must say, Next to Stephanie, The Cranes became one of the most influential aspects on my coma-state, and one of the most positive enablers to my healing and mental waking state. Anyway, The Cranes are steeped in Japanese Tradition and I'll include what I've come to learn below. (If you need input on what I'm journaling about, read my past two blogs on Enchanted Folk, as well as Stephanie Roberts' entries)

~Text Pulled From WikiPedia Below~

“Thousand Origami Cranes (Senbazuru or Zenbazuru) is a group of one thousand origami paper cranes held together by strings.

An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy beasts (others include the dragon and tortoise), and is said to live for a thousand years. Hanging a Senbazuru in one's home is thought to be a powerfully lucky and benevolent charm.

I've been asked more than once, "What was is like while you were asleep? Was it anything

at all?" I figured that may be a little easier to share right now then some of the more heavy

stuff. Although, I must say...it gets pretty deep ;}
In my coma I went to a very particular place, specific indeed. And that is where I stayed.

Even When I woke up it would take Stephanie a couple of days to convince me I was still in

the hospital in the mountains of New Mexico. She would eventually get a postcard with the

Hospitals letterhead to prove to me where I had been. I personally was still in my hospital

bed in a healing-temple-hospital somewhere in Asia. Really...Asia.
The only thing I experienced in the "sleep" was as close to altered-state/real experience

as I've ever been. It was a single whole experience. I've yet to recall a single dream from

the Coma. Just my memories of a healing temple in Asia with Family present, Surgeons, Asian

women in some for of traditional Asian uniform, a box fan, and the most beautiful Healers. I

could only describe the healers as a Monk of sorts. I knew they were there for my benefit,

but the were not meant to be seen... Even now I feel like I need to respect their

anonymity... as soon as I would catch a glimpse of one of these monks they would disappear

out of sight, usually by ducking down against the wall or sometimes by simply going outside.

I did see them though, in full description.

The outside of the temple...It's landscape etched in my brain; deep to the core where it

can't be weathered off. There were actually two Temples with a waterfall between them. The

healing-temple-hospitals looked like a pagoda. They were perched high upon large pyramids.

The pyramids were like flagstone rock stacked to the sky. Every surface of the rocks and

pyramids were Red like the Bamboo Coral... redder than any red porsche or rouge-rouge

lipstick. The Healers would sit on the edges of these pyramids and meditate. When they

finished their meditation they would jump out into the waterfall lake of water below... an

impossible feat due to the fact that the pyramids were so big/wide. No human could jump from

the halfway-up-the-pyramid-point and survive... but the monks did it for sure. After they

jumped in the water they would climb back up to the temple and go where needed in the temple

and start the process over again. I think alot of my Altered State was due to my Aunt and

Uncle, and my two Cousins. It was one of the most peaceful and healing places I've ever been;

and trust me, I was there. And My Love was by my Side the whole time.
Well, that's all I have the energy for now. This blog takes me most of the day to get

through because of all the pain and my current lack of motor-skills. Typing, spelling, and

some general hand-eye coordination has been further than compromised... I find out more about

myself as the pains change and my medications change... medications they gave me in hospital

make Morphine and the Such look like Tylenol.

So Good Night For Now,
And Until Tomorrow,

~MAtt

BTW, Thank you to those who have shared your stories with me recently.
And yes, I am open for discussion concerning my experience and I have no

reservations on the subject. Sharing my current experiences and what I went through in

the hospital is,... well, I think it's therapeutic.

Until Next Time Friends and Aquaintences

AlteredState, Meet Real-Time World ;}

side note, I can't seem to get blog inserts or formatting to work right today... I'll have to try tomorrow.

so pics and vids will follow next time

   I've heard people say they've been reborn. It usually got under my skin,... hearing the superficial tones inflected in their voices. And now here I am, Reborn. The words roll off my tongue easy and sweet like cantaloupe.  It's truly as if everything I do is for a new first time.

  By now you may be feeling like you missed something in the story, but don't worry, I haven't said much, and I'll get to it all eventually.

   Well, it's been a while since my last entry. My creative process was somewhat derailed by a few things including an impromptu move from a moldy house. The mold had Stephanie and Me sick with pneumonia amongst other quite a few other pangs. We moved during Easter weekend...with little to No help. I ended up with multiple back herniations, and one doozy of a completely blown out L4-L5 disc. The blow-out was causing some pretty severe nerve damage/pain through my legs. I was shortly-there-after basically bedridden. To make a long story short, I went in for routine back surgery on May sixth 2008...I wouldn't leave the hospital until late afternoon on the twenty-third. Way too early, but way to late ;}

   It would be some time around the fifteenth of May when I would find out I had been in a Coma and had multiple emergency surgeries to repair damage done during the routine discectomy... Two severed pieces of my Anatomy were to be fixed with harvested vein from my inner-upper leg. It would be my primary vein and primary artery aligned with my spine that needed a miracle and a good surgeon to go along with it... There were to be many surgeons. The routine back surgery had gone awry. Apparently, the doctors and nurses began to realize I was in somewhat of a bit of trauma when I finally passed out after vomiting for hours from bleeding almost completely out on the inside. Before I passed out I was complaining, because I could literally feel my stomach and chest filling up. From what I understand they resuscitated me for a couple of hours while waiting for the emergency surgeries.

   If you've ever read Stephanies Blog, you may know a little about the whole of it all. The first night of the repair surgeries I would receive 32 units of blood... that's 2 Full Bodies worth. Thank You to everyone whose ever donated blood, because I just may have gotten some of it. The wild thing is that the blood only stays valid for a couple of weeks. The even wilder thing is that it takes the body a tad longer to produce it's own blood. You can do the math. Can you say creative visualization ;}

    Stephanie saved my life many times in the hospital... more stories to share...I'll get to them some other time.

    I have one specific image embedded my head...Burned into my imagination, because I've just been told the story, I was still asleep...It was this:

     While I was my coma my stomach was splayed wide open for days. The wound goes from my chest to my pubic bone below the waistline. The open wound would clearly show up in pictures taken even from the sides of the bed...so They had to wait for those days to get the swelling down just to staple it up. Plus I had a dome in the wound that was discarding all the hemoglobin I bled out into my body. A sort of seran-wrap kept my organs in the cavity of my stomach area. Every so often the wrapping would need changing..... now that I have given you the setting, this is my most beautiful image:

One day My organ-fortifying-seranwrap would need a change. That day Stephanie held my organs in her hands and kept them in place, as a nurse would redress the bandages.

Good Night to You All,

And Thank You All

Who Have Sent Me Thoughts and Blessings,

Matt McCann

  Evening all, I've been a busy one posting photos most of the night. There are some more I still have to distill, but I've got a nice bit already uploaded and Captioned. Some are either from conventions/events or adventures...others are like photo-journal entries.I updated some of my profile too.

  Enjoy, and thanks again to everyone who has befriended me since I've joined. I've come to meet some extremely unique and wonderful people since joining Enchanted Folk.

Ray Bradbury in San Diego.

This Was My pick for Best in Show '07. There is the larger version in my Photo Directory.

Where'd the Car Go?

HummingBirds, You just have to view the detail'd version to see/appreciate these delicate creatures.

So, that's the Raw Post for now.

Here are a couple of photos I couldn't resist taking. That is to say, Stephanie snapped them. Anyway, I was doing the dishes a while back and this watermark on my shirt was a result. What do you think it could be? Also, Stephanie has had too many chicks and bunnies.,, look for her blog to follow-up on that story. To see the larger versions of these images, you can look in my photo gallery.