Back Surgery

I will be having back surgery on Jan 15. It is called L3,L4,L5 fusion. It is supposed to be just overnight, but I have been hearing that some people have to stay longer.

A whole bunch of stuff leading up to the surgery coming up. MRI tomorrow. Pre-surgery testing on  Wed and Cardio wants to see me before surgery.
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Dec 31, 2018
MRI today at OSC. They have an "open" MRI - much better than going in that tunnel. Still noisy. 30 minutes always seems to take an hour.
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Jan 1, 2019
I ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon that is supposed to help with rehab.
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Jan 2, 2019
To MIH for pre-surgery testing. Blood draw, nose swab for MERSA, EKG. Lots of instructions. The nurse was very nice and helpful.
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Jan 3, 2019
To the monthly retiree luncheon. I got there early cause I had a doc appt at 12:55. Fair show up. I sat and talked with Mikey and Tom Ezell.

The cardio doc said that my BP looked good, but I told him that sometimes it was fairly high in the mornings. He didn't seem worried too much about my BP. He cleared me for the back surgery.
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Feb 6, 2019
Dr. Patel the pulmonologist said my CPAP report looks good.
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Feb 19, 2019
Back surgery today at Mary Immaculate. Very nervous.
Arrived on time - we had a little later surgery time, so we did not have to get up too early.

Everything went smoothly. They took me to the OR and did something a little different. Rather than hold the mask over my nose and mouth they just laid it sideways over my upper lip. In EMS we would have called this "blow-by." Of course, it did its job as I don't remember the doc giving me anything IV.

I woke up in recovery with not much pain. Susan was there. They took me to my room after about 45 minutes. I had an MS pump which I was allowed to "hit" every 15-20 min. I was in a lot of pain, but not too bad. As I requested they left the Folley cath in place.

Feb 20, 2019.  I'm in a tremendous amount of pain in my left hip/groin area. It was suggested that I sit in the chair to eat my breakfast. The pain is so bad that I cannot eat. Dr. Carlson came in to do his rounds and I told him about the pain. He said - "This happens sometime and it should go away."

Gender Dysphoria and Children: An Endocrinologist

Gender Dysphoria and Children: An Endocrinologist

New Computer

In my last blog, I mentioned that my HP computer had died.  Well, I tried everything, even put in a new HDD and the computer would not even recognize the new one.  So, I figured that it must have been something other than the HDD like the motherboard or memory.  I put the computer away for later giving it to Goodwill or something like that.

Beautiful Weekend

Up at the Northern Neck for this beautiful weekend.

Susan is in Charlottesville helping Jenn with the kids.  Tom had to go to Dallas to work on Wed.

Beautiful day here in Heathsville.  Lots of birds singing out in the trees.

I love sitting out on the deck in the hammock. I have to be careful and not stay too long as I'll get a sunburn.  I set a timer so that I would not be on one side for more than 30 min.

Well, it has been one full week since I got that damn norovirus.  I am still not feeling 100%  I'm having lots of trouble with vertigo.

Having trouble getting motivated.  I have the mound of bills to go through from being away over New Years week and being ill.  I also need to start to order the parts for Tom's computer.

I called Tom to ask him for more specifics about what he wanted on his computer. He told me that he had changed his mind and I could forget it. Wow! I'm so glad. I know I could build him a great computer but did not want to worry about follow up.

Computer Died

Sept 1, 2012

My 2 year old HP laptop has been acting up for the last few days and this evening it froze up completely with an indication of it being a HDD problem.

This is the second HP laptop to bite the dust in just a little over two years.  No more HPs in this family!

When I pulled the HDD and placed it on the desktop, I was able to see the three partitions and was able to save my files and photos. 

Mom is still in the hospital. Susan says that they will evaluate her again today to see what happens with her breathing. She may come home with O2. The cardiologist said that she has severe aortic stenosis. Nothing is going to be "fixed" due to her age.

I went to LAFB today to drop off an Rx and pick one up for Susan.

I wish I could remember to do this more often.

My feet have been killing me! First it was the heal - with the bone spurs. Now it is the ball of the foot area. Doctor say the condition is called Morton's Neuroma. It is very painful and unlike the bone spurs, it is with me 100% of the time. I have to walk down the stairs on my heals. Yesterday the doc injected my left foot with about 10ml of stuff. So far hit has not done any good. Next step is a small incision in the area and a cold prob goes in to "deaden" the nerve.

Hampton's 400th Anniversary celebration starts today. Just so happens it coincides with the annual Black Beards Festival. I am going down today to listen to the CalypsoNuts.

Jenn and Tom arrived yesterday and they brought Billy Rae and Miley.

Eric and Elizabeth came and we had a big dinner.

Tom played Blazing Aces on Wii and surpassed me within two hours!! I will have to work on that game.

Today is Veterans Day 2009.

Hurricane Ida came ashore yesterday on the Florida Panhandle and the remnants of the storm are now affecting us here in Hampton. The rain started last night and has pretty much continued all the way till now. It is a pretty gray, damp, and dreary day. The TV weather news is saying that we're going to have rain all the way until Saturday and that we are actually having a nor'easter.

Applebey's and Golden Corral are offering free meals to veterans today. I thought about going out to Applebee's but this weather is not very pleasant, so I think I will stay in.

As usual I am listening to the scanner and there is a emergency situation going on in the James River. There was supposed to be a swimmer in the water and Newport News sent out investigations and so did Isle of Wight and Virginia Marine resources commission. It wasn't too long that it was discovered that these people were in a canoe and the swimmer was back in the canoe and they were headed to the Pagan River in Smithfield. It amazes me that in this technological age with nearly instant communications capabilities that we cannot communicate better with cities surrounding our own. From what I heard on the radio no one made any attempt in Newport News to contact Smithfield. I was tempted to call Newport News dispatch but I decided against it. Let them waste their gas and time if they want to and have their heads up their asses. After I heard Smithfield Fire Department had found these canoeist and were clearing the scene, I decided to go ahead and call Newport News Fire dispatch. They seemed interested in what I had to tell them and they did pass on information to command that they should call Smithfield Fire.

Through a number ways I just realized that my 16 year e-mail address-skypilot@writeme.com is no longer forwarding e-mail to me. I have over 800 e-mail messages in the queue mail.com. They now want $30 a year for the service. I can keep the e-mail address but it will no longer forward the e-mail. I have a lot of work to do because I need to go through all of that e-mail to see where I need to change e-mail address to one that will forward. I am sure that there are at least 30 to 40 sites that I will have to visit to change my address.

Rainy day and pretty heavy rain at times. Very unusual for this time of year.

I am off to Newport News and other errands. Went to City Hall to drop off the pictures from the Employee Fest.

Then to Plaza Azteca to drop off pictures to Hector - he was the entertainment at the Employee Fest.

And then to the sleep doctor to have my CPAP checked out. Everything is ok with the CPAP machine.

When I got home there was a message on the answering machine. It was from my cousin, Mike. My uncle Mike passed away today around noon.

Mike was 86 yo and the last of the "Greatest Generation" of my maternal family. Mike was a great guy. He enlisted in the Air Crops in 1943. He served as a radioman, dorsal gunner on a B-17 flying out of England. His B-17 was shot down over German in Oct 1944 and he spent the rest of the war as a guest of the German Luftwaffe. Mike was a real hero. On his way to bail out, he heard that the tail gunner was wounded and trapped. While wounded himself, he risked his life to help the tail gunner exit the plane. Uncle Mike will be missed.

I feel so fortunate that I got to spend a lot of time with him last year. I visited him on two occasions. It was during my second trip in December that I found out more about his "shoot down."

Went to Riverside Regional Medical Center yesterday for my pre-op labs and x-ray. It was pretty busy and I was there for nearly two hours. I sure hope my brief visit to RRMC is better than my 4 days stay at Mary Immaculate Hosp last year. It really ticks me off that I will not know the time for my surgery until the day before the procedure. Susan is supposed to take me and Joe will pick me up. Susan just started her new job and I hate to have her come all the way back from Norfolk to take me to the hospital. I sure like the valet parking at RRMC. It is so nice not to have to look for a parking space way out in the "back 40!" And, there is no tipping!

Ace Hardware called to tell me that my lawnmower was ready. The small engine guy told me that there was nothing I could do to keep the situation from happening again. You cannot buy gas in VA that does not have ethanol. Someone mentioned that gas without ethanol can be obtained in N.C.

Today was a dreary day. Overcast all day and a little rain. Not feeling so good. Sure hope I am not coming down with the flu. They would probably postpone my surgery. I hear that I am in for quite an ordeal with my shoulder surgery, but it can't be any worse than my knee replacement surgery. I am a little worried about sleeping - I have never be any good at sleeping in where other than in bed. I have heard that it is really hard to get comfortable laying flat in bed. Oh well, my easy chair is pretty comfy. I think I am going to ask for some sleep aid meds.

Rained quite a bit last night, with thunderstorms. The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend with temps in the mid to low 70s. That will be nice for yard work. I have to borrow a mower cause mine is still in the repair shop. Hopefully Stretch will let me use his. I need to put down the fall grass seed.

I heard from my cousin Mike that his dad (Uncle Mike) is not doing well. Mike says - "Dad is getting weaker. He will likely be moving down to the other floor soon and out of the apartment. The fluid build up is competing with the kidneys. If they flush him too much the kidneys malfunction. He is hanging in there and goes up and down. The Tampa folks went to visit today. No report yet."
I'll call Mike later today to see if he got a report from Chris's family that visited.

I checked airfare to ORL - $164 round trip. Not a bad deal and much cheaper than driving. Of course I will have to rent a car.

Susan is teaching an acquaintance to drive.

Well, Bay Days went ok. I worked the City Hall first aid site from 6pm until closing at about 10:30. Nothing really happened expect a little boy fell and had a small abrasion on this scalp.

The USAF Langley group called the Blue Aces played on the main stage. They were very good and I have made a not to try to see them again. It was weird seeing a people dance and sing while wearing BDUs.

I didn't work Bay Days on Sat.

Bay Days again on Sun from noon to closing at 6pm. Again nothing much went on - put on two band-aids! It was fun watching all the people.

I have decided that it is good not to be an ALS provider any more. I can just sit back and watch other do their thing, and help out where needed - not to be responsible!!

Went out this morning and filled two two gallon container of gasoline - just in case the power goes out. The Tropical Storm is supposed to drop 2-3" of rain. I'd rather be ready.

This is IAFF MDA "Fill-the-Boot" week. I went out and took some shots of three stations working intersections.

Getting ready to go to Pittsburgh on the 5th of Sept for the Imhof reunion. I called my cousin Maggie to see if I could stay with them, but they are going out of town. I could stay with my other cousin Peggy, but Susan says the she does not have A/C. So, I went on the Internet and found that there is a USAF Inn at the Pittsburgh International Airport. I was able to make reservations for the three nights that I will be in the area.

My Review of PRO-106 39,000-Channel Digital Handheld Scanner

RadioShack

Always be in the know with this digital handheld scanner.

PRO-106 39,000-Channel Digital Handheld Scanner

The Best

SkyPilot49 Hampton, VA 8/28/2009

 

4 5

Pros: Clear Signal, Lightweight, Excellent Reception

Cons: Difficult To Program

Best Uses: Emergencies, Listening to local PS

Describe Yourself: Avid Adventurer

Primary use: Personal

This is my 6th scanner and my second Radio Shack/GRE scanner. The Pro-106 is by far the best scanner I have ever had. It also has the best "ears" of any scanner I have ever owned. I am able to receive a city FD that I have ever been able to copy.

A third party programming/control software is a must because these trunking scanners are tuff to program manually.

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I needed to do some things around the house today.

I noticed that the spa cover lid removal mechanism was messed up. When taking the system off, I found that the bracket by the wall was severely rusted. So, I sanded off the rust and painted with Rust-Oleum. Everything went back together, but I could not use the same screw holes.

I had an idea about refilling the spa. I connected both 100' sections of the garden hose and spread them out in the back yard. The tap water temp was 79 degrees and the temp of the water coming out of the hose was 90 degrees!!

I needed to do some things around the house today.

I noticed that the spa cover lid removal mechanism was messed up. When taking the system off, I found that the bracket by the wall was severely rusted. So, I sanded off the rust and painted with Rust-Oleum.

In order to put the cover mechanism back on, I had to drill new holes on for the from latch. It went back on ok.

I also drained the spa and put in new water.

Have not been feeling well the last two days. I have horseness and sore throat.

Looks like the steroid injection is wearing off. I don't have any neck or arm pain, but I wake up with just a section of my right hand numb.

Rush Limbaugh made a great joke today:

What do Barrack Obama and God have in common?

Neither one of them have a birth certificate!

I made it through the day and finally got some sleep from about 7:30 to about noon.

I am feeling better and maybe the steroid injection is working.