Metal Anarchy

Nick Barker, who is known for his work with Brujeria, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Lock Up, and more, has shared a new health amid his battle with chronic kidney failure. The drummer says he recently battled “a life-threatening condition called calciphylaxis.”

Barker told The False Face the following:

“The health is improving day by day. I’m in a really positive head space ’cause I developed a life-threatening condition called calciphylaxis… Let me tell you a little bit about it. It’s got a 50/50 chance of survival rate. That’s how serious it is. Basically, I was prescribed a drug called warfarin, which is a blood thinner. And it made the blood vessels in my calves calcify. So I had these big fucking bruised lesions. It looks like a shark has just come and taken chunks out of my calf muscles. I’ve got some really bad scarring. And it was because of this drug. And so we caught it in time because what it started off as, it started off like a pea-sized blood blister with a little bit of bruising around it. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. It was a bit painful. And I thought, ‘Oh, I probably fucking done it in my sleep or caught something while I wasn’t paying attention.’ Bro, it was a 50/50 survival rate. And at the height of it, these lesions were so bad on my legs, my wife’s grandmother described it best. She said, ‘It just looked like raw meat.’ But you imagine all of your nerve endings — bro, it was fucking excruciating. The pain was unbearable. I couldn’t even sleep. They had me on morphine, on methadone and then this other drug nabilone, which is a derivative of THC. Basically, I was off my fucking tits, but it didn’t do anything to kill the pain. All it did was took the edge off a little bit. But bro, it felt like my legs were in a fire constantly.”

He continued afer being asked how he “turned the corner on that”:

“We stopped that medication immediately. And then to try and flush it out of my system, the docs put me on dialysis five times a week. And I was given all these intravenous drugs while I was dialyzing to help try and push it out. And all my wounds got infected. I almost got sepsis. [This was], like, last month. But yeah, it was fucking life-threatening. And even my wife, she was in tears. When we looked at the wounds and the doctor said, ‘Oh, you’re healing. This is good,’ my wife burst into tears. She said, ‘I honestly thought I was gonna lose you’ because it’s only a 50% survival rate. Because the wounds are that intense and deep, and they’re prone to infection. And anyway, so they got infected. I got fucking cellulitis. And bro, my lower legs, from the knee down, they were so fucking — you couldn’t even touch them. Even trying to put socks on, it was, like, ‘Ah!’ It was just crazy, the pain. Because it, that’s what a lot of people die from, is the infection. They get sepsis. It’s kind of like meningitis. Once it kicks in, if you don’t catch it early enough, you’re done. But anyway. I’m here. And I’m on the mend… And it was a 24/7 ordeal. I couldn’t even sleep. I really couldn’t, mate. The pain was that bad. And then we’re in bed, and if I did get to sleep, if my wife just happened to touch my leg, in your sleep how you do, I’d wake up [in pain], ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong?’ ‘My fucking legs. Ah.’ Yeah. And at one point I thought they were gonna amputate… See, I’ve got a thing with my wife. I said, ‘Look, if anything ever happens and they say they’ve got to amputate, I don’t wanna be here. I’d rather die with my legs than fucking live without them.’ Because I’m a drummer. What am I gonna do? Fucking walk around in one of those mobility fucking things with no legs. It’s, like, nah. No. I ain’t going out like that, mate. No, I ain’t going out like that. I’d rather fucking jump off a cliff.”

[via Blabbermouth]