Toe-Tapping Time

You just can’t believe how much energy it takes to be a band leader. My name is Ray, and I’m a composer, arranger, and conductor of a big, almost orchestral-sized dance band with a choral sextet.

I am 55 years old. I love music, and I’m proud of my work. It’s been featured on national television in seven different countries.

I appear on two major record labels (and associated streaming services), one in the Americas and another in Europe. I'm in the recording studio when I’m not playing live, rehearsing, or composing and arranging.

And I play live venues for six months out of the year, traveling on four continents. I’m high-energy, and my persona on stage matches that – I move around and emote like crazy, and the crowds love it, and I love it too!

About two years ago, I never felt exhausted by my massive work schedule. I loved my music so much that I just seemed to have unlimited energy.

But then something happened. I started to drag. The shows would tire me out so much that I could barely stand up for the encore.

And forget about any nightlife after the show like I used to do – fuggedaboudit!

That mattress was all I wanted. Then I started showing up late for rehearsals – a terrible thing to do to my band members and awful for morale.

And when I wasn’t performing, I just started to lie down and watch TV instead of my usual (and, once upon a time, delightful) routine of composing new songs or making arrangements.

As the months wore on, I just got weaker and weaker and increasingly tired all the time. This went on for about a year and a half.

I lied to myself, saying, “It’ll pass; I just need a rest.” I rested. And nothing changed. My friend and photographer Blair (I often have professional portrait shots made for posters and album covers, etc.) was the one who really made me sit up and take notice.

“Ray,” he told me one morning when I came in to take some pictures, “I can’t do your portrait today. You look like something scraped off the bottom of a log. You look ten years older than you really are. You look like you’ve got ten hangovers at once. You sick or something?”

I almost broke down. All my worries came flowing out. I told Blair about how I almost couldn’t work anymore; how weak and tired I felt all the time; how I couldn’t finish the album I’d started ten months ago; and how my live performances were a travesty.

About how some of the musicians in my band had quit. About how it had come on so suddenly and how none of my doctors seemed to have a clue.

Blair told me that he knew about a great clinic that sponsors this Website that specializes in helping people with precisely the same kind of symptoms I had.

I gave them a try, and the first thing they did was run a test that showed I was suffering from low levels of human growth hormone (HGH).

They assigned me to a board-certified specialist doctor who developed a customized program just for me and a prescription I’ve been following regularly for six months – and, let me tell you, that test didn’t lie.

What mystified all the family practitioners were, in my case and maybe in yours, a simple case of my body not producing enough HGH.

My life – and my zest for life – is back! My concert schedule is more intense than ever, and I love it.

My songs are the best I’ve ever written and performed in my life. My audiences are going wild and loving my shows even more than before.

And I am so successful lately that players are literally clamoring to be members of my orchestra. All because of my friend Blair and the extraordinary physicians at this clinic.

I just wanted to come here and say: If you feel like you’ve aged too fast – if you are feeling weak and tired – if you can’t do what you used to do, and life has lost its charm – do not despair. Get tested today.

Word Count: 723