Original Orient

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Real Stories. Real Tools. Real Growth.

Tag: lifestories

  • Post 2: From Debt to Keys – Building Credit the K.I.S.S. Way

    Once I got focused, my first real goal was to clean up my credit.

    I had some debts in collections, a few old accounts with bad marks, and only one thing in good standing — my student loans, which I always paid on time.

    To rebuild, I had to get back into debt — smart debt this time.

    Step 1: Secured Credit Card

    I saved up $500 and got a secured credit card through a credit union. That $500 became my credit limit. If I missed a payment, they’d keep the money. So I treated that card with respect. I charged small amounts and paid it off in full every month.

    Step 2: Store Credit Card

    After a few months, I applied for a store card. (Think Amazon, Forever 21, Victoria’s Secret — places where the card only works at that store.) I used it responsibly, paid it down fast, and kept my usage low.

    Those two lines of credit were small steps — but they were the foundation. Once they showed up on my credit report, more offers came in. But here’s where self-control comes in.

    Credit Cards Are Not Free Money

    Credit card companies want you to spend. They make money off your interest. Getting more offers in the mail doesn’t mean you should take them. It just means they see potential to profit off you.

    That’s why I stuck to my K.I.S.S. plan:

    Only use what I need. Pay it off fast. Avoid large balances. Keep the number of cards low.

    Self-control is hard when you see things you want or need, but you’ve got to remind yourself of the bigger goal.

    Milestones Take Time

    Buying a house isn’t easy. Before I could even think about getting a mortgage, I had to fix my credit, stay consistent, and be patient. It took years. I had to plan, budget, and stay disciplined.

    In the end, it paid off. I hit one of the biggest milestones in life — owning my own home — and I did it by keeping things simple and staying focused on what mattered most.

    🧠 Final Thought:

    If you’re starting from behind, just know that it is possible. It might take time. It might feel slow. But with some planning, patience, and a simple mindset, you can get there.

    Keep it simple. Keep it steady. And keep showing up.

  • Spinal Ridiculopathy 2: Three Years Later, Still Fighting

    Hey, I’m back — now three years into this journey with chronic back pain, and to be honest, not much has changed in terms of real relief. When I last wrote, I had just started a new medication: Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN), 5mg — a modified version of a medication originally used for alcohol withdrawal.

    It’s been somewhat helpful, but accessing it isn’t easy. I have to order it from an out-of-state compounding pharmacy. It costs around $90 for a two-month supply — not terrible, but I still wonder if there’s a local pharmacy that could fill it for less hassle.

    The Daily Meds Routine

    Right now, here’s what I’m taking (and it feels like a full-time job just managing it):

    Ibuprofen 800mg Tylenol 500mg Meloxicam 15mg Pregabalin (Lyrica) 100mg Nortriptyline 50mg Duloxetine (Cymbalta) 30mg Low-Dose Naltrexone 5mg

    That’s a pretty serious cocktail for someone who’s only 34. But if you live with back pain, you get it. If you don’t — consider yourself lucky.

    Let me break it down:

    Ibuprofen, Meloxicam, and Tylenol are for inflammation and pain. Meloxicam is a long-term NSAID, while Ibuprofen is more for short-term flare-ups. Duloxetine helps with both anxiety and musculoskeletal pain — though if I didn’t have the pain, I doubt I’d need it. Pain and anxiety go hand in hand. Nortriptyline is technically an antidepressant, but it’s also prescribed for nerve and joint pain. Pregabalin (Lyrica) is a controlled substance — not sure exactly why, but I have to show ID every time I pick it up. Maybe it’s because it can affect your mood, and stopping it suddenly can be dangerous. And then there’s Low-Dose Naltrexone, which I’m still experimenting with. It’s supposed to reduce inflammation and pain by calming the nervous system over time — we’ll see.

    Even with all these meds, I still have bad pain days. So yeah… sometimes I question whether they’re working at all.

    Trying to Stay Active

    For about a year, I was working two jobs — my full-time day job and a second shift as a shelf stocker at a grocery store. That meant lifting boxes, walking miles, bending constantly, and being on my feet for hours.

    The upside? I lost weight. I dropped to around 185–190 lbs, which is right where the doctors wanted me in terms of BMI. (Though let’s be real — BMI is outdated and doesn’t factor in muscle, build, or chronic illness.)

    The downside? I was exhausted and still in chronic pain. I wasn’t sleeping enough, and my pain didn’t improve. In fact, it probably got worse from the strain. The doctors told me to stay active and stick to physical therapy — but some of the exercises just made the pain worse. So I stopped going. And guilt followed.

    Even at a healthy weight, with an active lifestyle, I still didn’t feel “better.” That’s the part people don’t get: weight loss helps, but it doesn’t fix chronic nerve pain.

    Quality of Life — What Does That Even Mean?

    All I’ve ever wanted is to live a normal life. To spend time with my wife and kids, to be the dad and granddad I want to be. But my “quality of life” has been on a slow, downward slide.

    I can’t lift like I used to. I can’t run. I can’t even really play with my grandkids. Something as simple as picking one of them up could trigger a flare-up in my back or leg — sometimes it feels like my leg might just give out. It’s heartbreaking.

    What do you say to a doctor without sounding like a pill-seeker? All you want is relief. Not to get high — just to feel normal. To be able to do basic things without your body screaming at you.

    Still Here, Still Trying

    This is where I’m at. Still managing. Still hurting. Still showing up.

    If you’re going through something similar, I see you. I know how isolating it can be to live with chronic pain that most people don’t understand. You’re not alone — and if nothing else, maybe this post helps remind you of that.

    Thanks for reading. Until next time.

  • How I Bought a House at 26 – Keep It Simple, Stupid (K.I.S.S.)

    Hey everyone — today I want to share how I managed to buy a house at just 26 years old. I didn’t come from money, didn’t have a trust fund, and definitely made a lot of mistakes early on. But with patience, a better mindset, and one simple phrase in mind — “Keep it simple, stupid” (K.I.S.S.) — I turned things around.

    Back in 2008, after I graduated high school, I moved to Sacramento for a technical school. I used credit cards, student loans, and grant money to survive — food, bills, rent, tuition. At the time, I was working at a fast food restaurant as a cook. Even when I became a night shift manager, it wasn’t enough to keep up.

    By the time I was 19, I was flunking out of school and already a few hundred dollars in debt. Add in a relationship that didn’t help my financial decisions, and it all spiraled quickly.

    A New Job, A Better Mindset

    Eventually, I got a better job — one with more stability and better pay — and started dating someone who helped me stay focused. That combination gave me the clarity I needed to start taking control of my money.

    Here’s the part they don’t teach you in school: To build credit, you need debt. And not just any debt — managed, responsible debt.

    But schools don’t show you how to budget, how to read a credit report, or how to recover from mistakes. I had to learn the hard way.

    So I adopted a mindset that helped me get through it:

    “Keep it simple, stupid.”

    No shame, no insults — just a reminder to myself not to overthink or make things harder than they need to be. Because when you overcomplicate things, you make dumb mistakes.

  • Infection By bike?

    I purchased a electric bike to save money and cut down the wear on my vehicle. Now I believe I’m cursed as I have already had a flat and I have been cut off which resulted in a crash.Even better I ended up missing work for my Favorite place the Emergency Room.

    Electric bike worth it or nah? That is the question I have at the moment after a slow healing from the cluster of unfortunate events that have happened to me these last few months. I have driven my bike a few times and in 1 month I had a flat that took me out. I stopped riding the bike since I didn’t make the time to fix it until months later but by now I have new gear. I purchased puncture resistance tube overlays and a new helmet full head cover ATV/motorcycle style helmet. And some biker gloves, I know sounds over kill for a bicycle but this bike goes up to 30mph and I’m traveling next to cars going 40-50 mph. After I installed the new tube and puncture liner and put the wheels back on, and I was ready to go

    Now my work week is Tuesday thru Saturday and I started riding again on the Friday before the week of my accident so that would be about 5 days of riding and then bam out again. Now on Thursday May 9th I was riding to work and had a normal ride time about 20 minutes on the bike with throttle assist. But that is not when it happened, it was on my way home just like the time i got a pin nail in my back tire and had to walk home. This time I got further home than when my bike tire when flat. I was basically on the straight a way home main road. Now if you live in Sacramento and in the more suburban area of northeast Sacramento before south and Carmichael county. This main road is Watt ave one large street spanning almost to Elk Grove and up to Roseville almost about 40mph max most of the time from a regular street to a 3 way each side.

    Lets set up the scene I’m riding with traffic going north on watt and coming up to watt and Fair oaks a busy intersection with 2 turn lanes and a bike lane that goes thru the middle of right turn and straight not to safe if the drivers do not pay attention like they are suppose to. I just rode over bridge above the American River with merging and off going traffic and a on ramps of cars coming on and past both areas with no issues. As I’m riding the bike going 28mph and coming up to the intersection and watching my areas, blind spots and cars ahead. Im approaching the intersection I see a green truck just comes into my focus, quick glance at lights and the angle of truck I realize he is changing lanes coming my way and is not slowing down, as i’m coming into the lane that separates into the bike and turning lane and this green truck is rushing to get into the turn lane and didn’t check his blind spot again as he moved. Look I am a big guy not huge but a good size dad bod on a larger framed electric bike 4in wheels and full suspension. But nope no care just like good luck Im moving over, I believe this guy had to have seen me in his rear view mirror and see me go down. Now I didn’t crash into his truck but i had to hit the brakes hard and turn the handle bars to the sidewalk direction to avoid falling into traffic and or getting ran over.

    Now I do not know about you but for some awful reason as Im falling, the heightened senses kick in you know the adrenaline time seams to slow down and I’m able to change a bit of my body position.kinda cool to feel, then the accident realization kicks in time returns and I’m watching the truck turn and disappear. No car stoped and no one said, you good? Instead I’m just cursing and yelling in my helmet. As i get up and pull the 90lbs bike up and stand it up on kick stand. Have to do a body check, hands good but gloves scraped on palm,+1 hand protection, now Arms -1 no jacket or long sleeve huge road burn above elbow. Head +1 slight scratches on face mask, that is good new all the new things i bought paid off. Now lets check the legs, left legs slightly scratches and small pain on knee cap maybe a bruise, right leg in pain, the inside knee was under the frame and with me on it to. Slight scrap on the new cap, but a lot of internal pain, paints are scrapped up and have new holes from cement plus headphones in pocket but they work. Ok total damage count road burn scraps and internal leg pain and maybe continued back pain.

    small tangent yes back pain i have been battling low discs sciatica pain shooting through my legs and pan to walk sit stand and whatever else that is another post.

    now you have a idea of my thoughts i already have low back leg pain and now i just crashed so possible made my existing injury worse. Im just watching and taking mental notes on my leg and back injuries. This crash happened on the 9th of May 2025 Friday just to give a time line. Now as im gettin my head together I’m like well I’m sore and i still need to get home. Now like a good kid Learner when you fall off just get back on and ride again but now I‘m not peddling as much since my right leg is killing me since I landed and crushed my knee when I went down. Every time i peddled my legs go up and down and the knees bends so does the pain.

    Ok I know I’m stubborn and my wife defiantly points it out. As i arrive home and come in my wife notices I’m wincing in pain as move more than normal. So I tell her what happened and of course in her ever so wide knowledge asked me if i was going to go to the emergency room? Me being me growing up in the country mountain area, I’m use to getting injured and dealing with a the problem. I tell her hey this is just my back acting up and my knee is bruised ill be fine just going to keep notes mentally.

    Saturday the 10th still in pain hard to walk right so i just move easily, end the day go home and clean my elbow since the black part on my elbow was not coming clean in the shower. So i was like ok get the hydrogen peroxide and started to pour on elbow and oh wow the bubble and stinging. Now I grew up with the generation of if it isn’t hurting it isn’t working, now that is funny since we know more now about good and bad germs. But after i dabbed the wound dry i saw the blackened skin pealing so i ripped it off and oh that hurt but now no more dirt and germs.

    Sunday Monday are my house days and family time so i can mostly take is easy thru the day and rest. Knee still hurting and limping not able to put much pressure on my right leg cause of it. My wife as many times as i know to listen to her but again I didn’t listen and go get checked out.Tuesday comes around leg feels worse and now I am noticing a larger red area. Ok now Im thinking this looks like it might be infected but i have to get to work as I’m the bread winner right now. Now this Tuesday was a challenge as I’m not really feeling ok and and my leg is killing me and now i feel it even worse by every slight side step hurts like no other. I pull up my pant leg show one of my coworkers and he was like yeah that might be infected, is it hot?- not really it is warmer than the rest and swollen. Luckily I’m able to bare it and make it through the day. On my way home i call my twin brother since he has a lot of experience with wounds and healing after he helped our mom recover from a few surgeries and he had a few as well, guess what he was like you need to go get checked it has been getting worse and getting hot in the area. I head home first let my wife know that my leg is to bad and i need to go in. I’m going to the Emergency room at Kaiser down the street from my house that is convenient.

    I don’t like the ER as they Seem to bee about moving people in and out. I did get called back quickly and they did the usual asking question getting measurements and the basic evaluation but this was quicker than normal. I saw the doctor with in a few minutes getting called back and he looks at the leg moves my knee joints around. Ok Good news your knee doesn’t seem broken but we will get and X-ray to check. Now after the 2 hr wait for X-ray results they are just like yeah we didn’t see any breaks just looking like cellulitis infection of the skin. Just like any infection if it get to the bones it will be bad. The prescription i was sent home with was called cefadroxil: generic for duricef. This is a antibiotic and usually works but I’m in a different case as i believe we barley got to the infection before it started to get really bad. So this antibiotic might have helped as it didn’t get to my bones. I was able to get a work note for Wednesday and Thursday and those days i really was trying to get better. Keeping my leg up and trying to stay off of my right leg.

    Guess what it is now Friday and i have been feeling like the infection was getting worse and it was getting harder and harder to walk. Oh and guess what i have not been eating food as i have been puking at night or just a little after i tried eating. So I should have listened to my wife again as she was asking are you going to go back to the Er? On Friday i called my work told them I can’t make it as I’m getting worse and have had a fever. After I dropped my son off at school i went home and told my wife I am going back to the Er as it is not getting better and the small red spot on my knee has now spreed down my leg and all the spots in red is feeling hot. So back to the Wonderfull land of the ER, now I’m like i was here 2 days ago and the infection is getting worse.

    This time i get called back and do the basic checks and the knee movement but this the doctor orders a huge blood panel and more X rays. Now if the question in your head is why another X-ray? I believe it is to see if the bone has gotten infected and that is a negative no bone infection no brake. All good, right? No now they have finally did what i believe should have happened the first time. Now they are going to be keeping me over night in the extended Er wing. Now they have he IV set up in my arm and I’m getting some fluids in first and then the antibiotics. They have me on Iv antibiotics and when that was over they would give me a pill antibiotic and keep that cycle all night. When the Doctors asked why I waited I responded with, i was told in about 2 days i should start feeling better. Now on the third day of this antibiotic i am taking is not working and I’m am now here again

    After the night with IV Antibiotic and pill antibiotic I woke up and was actually hungry. Now I’m not gonna lie the hospital food has increased at Kiaser my favorite was the fruit given. I asked the nurse practitioner when I would be discharged this is around 9am. The nurse came back and was like the doctors coming to check. The new morning doctor looked at my states and leg said good to go. She cancelled the 12pm antibiotic and let me go. The exiting prescription was for cefoxadril and some probiotics. Now I’m kinda broke so I only picked up the antibiotics and skipped the probiotics. Probiotics would be useful for replenishing the gut biome since the antibiotics will kill out some gut bacteria. But oh well I’ll survive for now. Now the fun part remembering to take the medicine as prescribed. My leg feels better able to put pressure on it now and the redness is gone all I see is a very dry skin but I’m feeling better sorry the only thing I could say is stay on top of your symptoms and fight for your self some doctors will just get you in and out so advocate for your self.

    wow talk about back fire get a electric bike to save money and mileage on the car and now missing work and 2 ER visits. More money gone and further in the hole. But i have my health and family to keep me up thanks for reading and the support.

    Pants down redness up
    Look at that hot leg it is red hot
    I let the doctor draw on me would you?

  • Bike Math? Lets go

    OriginalOrient origins

    The name was a result of my youngest son, he changed my old Xbox live account name to OrientalPower6 so I took OriginalOrient, since he was six and at the time it worked for his account and when i played with him im the Original you know. What does it have to do with anything? It does not and I think that is the funny part about my image that im creating with the user name and my online persona. Ok lets get back on track and continue with my original stream of thought.

    Bike math?

    In this ever growing economy and not so much increase of pay, this is just a quick view of my understanding for this current world situation. I do not believe this trickle down system that they have in place works since it barley reaches the lower class. Prices are going up and pay is not increasing as fast as the inflation. Back in the day 1 person could support a house now it takes 2 or more working full time just to make sure their is food on the table and someone to watch the kids. I don’t agree with how hard we have to work to get by. This is a quick view in my thoughts.

    I have a 2016 Ford Expidition EL Limited and this baby gets about 16 mpg city not great but for size and motor not to shabby. Yes bigger vehicle means more money but with a house of 4 kids and my wife kinda need the room. The price of gas hits the pocket when you wish it didn’t. I Purchased a Electric bike stage 3 from our big giant internet retailer. On the Frame of the Bike is called It Stands 1000w rear drive 48v 30ah lithium, it can get up to 30mph with pedal assist and about 80 miles total range. This was suppose to save me some money. Unfortunately like the saying goes takes money to make money and in some way for me is was spend money to save more money. Does that make since? Maybe not but I think it would work in the long run.

    Now if I am correct in my math I believe the bike was about 1250.00 and I drive to and from work twice a day for 5 days at 12miles their and back times 2 times a day at 24miles a day for 5 days comes to about 120 miles a week and if my truck is 16mpg that would be 7.5 gallons of gas a week. Now fuel prices have been going down but in California the price just ain’t right. So lets say $3.50 a gallon for fuel at average and 7.5 gallons a week to drive. Now by 4 weeks comes to 30 gallons and their is 12 months in a year the math comes to 360 gallons for a year saved in gas. That don’t sound write to me but lets keep going. So lets say gas stays about $3.50 a gallon and 360 gallons in a year wow approximately $1260.00 a year in gas just to work and back, this does not include the family trips to get grandkids shopping and whatever the family needs. This is gonna be about the to and from work price and can I save some money and the wear on the truck.

    so I have rode my bike and the mileage is similar to the drive maybe a little shorter since I am able to cut through shopping center lots. Lets just say since I am only doing this trip to work and back not on my lunch so it is not a lot of miles so that would mean more days. On average i am riding about 6 miles to work and back comes to only about 12 miles a day. If we compare the gas prices and the miles per gallon would come to about 0.75 mpg and at $3.50 a gallon this would be $2.63 a day of saved gas mileage. So in order to break even on the from just going to work and back, at the approximate cost of $1250.0 on sale. The total breaks down to 475 days of riding. Now if we take the days and multiply by the miles a day comes to 5700 miles need to ride wow that is a lot. Now if you include the new tubes, tire liner and helmet and other accessories this comes out to approximately 500 days or more and a lot of miles.

    I am determined to keep this up and make the bike worth it by doing this even though it might not make since. Wish me luck and thank you for reading hope you enjoyed and please if you want comment on your thoughts about this.