The Day After Christmas

It is Wednesday, December 26 and we are now in the Bay Area at my parents house. We drove in to San Francisco this afternoon to see the 7:00 showing of The Nutcracker Ballet after dinner at California Kitchen, across the street from the Opera House.
The ballet was different from years past and this one was more focused on the dancing per se, than the story or storyline. We found the departure from the story to be kind of a let down for us; Josh complained that there was only one fight scene in the whole thing and that the fight was too short and wimpy. Too funny.

More later. It was good to make it through the day and night with minimal complication. Prayers we will be without issues for the next number of days are coveted.

peace

Wednesday Night Review

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

I suppose it should not come as a shock to me, but I got to thinking this morning, while installing some software, that for the time being, I cannot be left alone for any extended period of time. How strange is that? It’s strange to me and uncomfortable but it is reality and something I must accept without angst, or at least with as little angst as possible.

I slept fairly well last night and I believe that is due to changing what had been a modified pill allotment , back to its directed prescription. All that means is that I had been experiencing very slow and groggy mornings for a while and so my doc’s approval of CC’s suggestion to cut two of the night time medicine quantities back by half have been changed back to the original prescription. Wow. Still verbose even WITH effort.

*Sigh*

Annie no longer barks at my Aunt and Uncle when they come over and let themselves in; no issues at all with their entrance even through the front door. Same as for my parents too. Speaking of Annie, I’ve now watched a couple episodes of “The Dog Whisperer” and I have learned a lot and become more resolute in my convictions of how to walk Annie and treat her as well as how the rest of the family should be treating her because it will take all 4 of us to treat her the same for her to come more inline with her nature as a pack animal and human companion.

I’ve been working with Joshua on his D&D characters (he now has 2 of them and plans to create 1 more) for the game I wish to begin with him and Missy. Both of them expressed great interest in playing the game and my hopes include the probability of having some fun, family time with them. CC would rather watch the game take place or will use the “found” or created free time to do things she wants to do without worrying about where the kids are and what they’re doing.

Having played the game from the middle of my high school years through all of my college years, often playing with as many as 8 to 10 players (Seriously FUN games with much action and activity) or as few as 3 or 4 players, I have wonderful memories of the many campaigns we went on in the games seeking adventure, fun and mayhem, all within the walls of our creative minds. We never took the games seriously, though we were passionate about how we played. There was a friend of mine from my high school years who was very serious about the game, so much so that it became uncomfortable to play the game with him involved because everything was personal and real in a sense for him, it seemed. At one point, we had around 8 of us playing at one of my friend’s houses (we took over the house for the weekend when his parents left for the 3 day holiday so we played a 36 hour campaign without stopping…ingesting caffeine by the tablet (nodoze) and by the can and two liter. Anyway, partway into the game on the Friday night, the phone rang at the house and it was this other friend I was mentioning who took things in the game too seriously, and he wanted to be allowed into the game over the phone. Seems he wanted to “get even” with one of the group that was gathered and playing with us that night, so he wanted to be allowed into the game for the express purpose of killing that person’s main character. The Dungeon Master was aware of intent and wanted nothing to do with the scenario but the friend would just call back over and over to get into the game. It was suggested that the next time he called, allow his character into the came and then have the DM kill off his character via a bolt of lightening from the rainy sky and that would close the books with the guy. That was what we did and the friend went nearly crazy on the phone afterward, threatening us for what we had done to his character. After that weekend, our friendship had reached an impasse; I saw the game as fun and a way of enjoying one another creatively, but he saw the game as an extension of his reality and his character was another facet of his own personality, as in he was living out aspects of life he was uncomfortable with, as the character instead of himself.

Also, some time before that, some real rich kid in college back East couldn’t cope and convinced himself that he had indeed become one with his made up character and to everyone’s great heartbreak, his character had the ability to fly…however he did not after stepping off of 4^th story dorm room building in an effort to prove to those who didn’t believe. There will always be those folks, but the group that I cavorted with and played many, many games with, never took the game more seriously than we did take seriously who drank the last Diet Coke, know what I mean?

I’m feeling exhausted now, end of a long day of staying down for the most part. Lots of body jumps, jerking me out of my skin, almost. I think they happen when I am most tired and bodily drained.

That’s it for now-

-peace

Monday night...

Monday, December 17, 2007

Officially, our relationship with Comcast has ended, and to their credit, one of their supervisors called me regarding a letter I sent them sharing my shock and complete frustration in response to a phone conversation with one of there “Customer Service” representatives…nonetheless, it is done and our active email addresses are now, ONLY:

Audiopilot@surewest.net

V12pilot@surewest.net

WCOdum@surewest.net

Bachie77@surewest.net

Missymae@surewest.net

Joshuado@surewest.net

Think that’s enough email addresses? I’m thinking they’ll do for now…

I’ve been resting and staying down for the whole day (so far) which is much harder than one would think it is, at least for me anyhow. Even with remaining down and eating a very specific diet, I’m still experiencing intense sweats, so much so that my glasses fog and have to be wiped off, as well as my mouth becoming salty from the sweat coming from below my eyes; probably more info than most would want to know, but the original goal of this blog is to chronicle my experiences instead of just being a generic family update so I hope you’ll bear with me.

Since I’m on the topic, it’s worth mentioning, even again if I have already done so, that when I sweat, it’s not from feeling hot as one would think, I feel very cold and skin-wise am cold and clammy to the touch; something NONE of the doctors have even TRIED to share a thought on. Right now, I’m sitting on our bed, typing away, while I’m wearing a long sleeve shirt, Emu moccasins/slippers, silk long johns (they breathe better than any other long john fabric I know) and my pull on cap, yet I’m very cold to the touch and feel as close to “normal” as I can. You’d say, “Take off the cold weather stuff, once you’re indoors (especially if the over-all temp is about 70 degrees) and your body will level out.” But unfortunately for me, I become even colder and chills (violent muscle spasms) start up when I dress “normally”. If I go outside now in this pretty cold season, I have to dress twice as warm as anyone else. Those of you whom I got to see during the Summer and Autumn months where the temps were in the 90’s, will probably remember that I was wearing long sleeves, vests, hats etc, which would “normally” be unbearable in that heat. Either my body’s thermostat is just as whacked as my muscle make-up is or I’m fighting some kind of virus which is causing fevers that my system addresses normally, except that I take a fair amount of Tylenol each day that will mask any fever temperature. Personally, I think my system has begun to glitch, either due to some kind of virus or genetic disease.

I had BBQ pork for dinner with steamed rice, a small sweet potato and some salad, but it wasn’t until I ate 1/3^rd of a sugar cookie that my back began to ache painfully. Definite reaction to the sugar.

That’s it for tonight.

Some pics

Back Home

It's Sunday night, December 16, 2007 and CC and Josh brought me back home from another visit at Kaiser this weekend. I was admitted straight from my doctor's office visit where I had another attack My potassium at home that morning (Friday) was 5.5 which is 2 points high then when I was admitted my potassium had dropped down to 4.0 and then was in the range of 4.5 by the time I was released this morning.
I was admitted with the diagnosis of pneumonia but the second MD to come see me said that he doesn't think I have pneumonia but instead bronchitis and that my potassium is not a factor (never mind that when he came to talk with me both times, he didn't have the correct lab numbers regarding my K+, anyway. Odd that he used the phrase "I don't know what it is that you have, but I'm certain it's not...". that seems to be the Kaiser phrase).

I'm still sweating like crazy, VERY frustrating. The home nurse thinks it is because I am fighting some kind of "bug" and that I don't show a fever because of the Tylenol I take, however my body sweats like a fever and I feel the after-effects of the fever.

CC just left with Joshy to go and pick up Missy from her friend's house in Rocklin and then they plan to hook up with my cousin and Aunt and Uncle to go look at Christmas lights on a near-by street to the friend's house. I didn't feel like going anywhere, especially sweating like this and just feeling over-all crappy.

I'm going to go lay down and just keep this short. It's good to be back home, as it always is.
Your prayers are coveted for me and my family.
-w

back in the hospital - more news later.......
From, CC :o)

Coming back...

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Lots of darkness in these past few months combined with very bright lights of family, friendships, histories and even some ideas. The darkness is always there, perhaps it has always been there, just less pronounced, awaiting its opportunity to obscure one's global/spiritual view.

As real as the darkness is, more real and tangible are the bright lights, distracting, if you will, me from the daily oppression.

I guess I didn't begin on a very telly-tubby note, huh? Live by the scope, see by the scope and continue to pray for better vision and sights.

My energy is pretty low these past days.

A few days have passed since I started this entry; now it is Friday, December 14, 2007 and I have had 2 or 3 more hard attacks, I think one per day. One of them scared me bad, like the fear from when I was in the Rec Hall at work last year. This time though, we didn’t go in but CC and my aunt took care of me here.

I have a walker now as well and have needed its use a number of times since its arrival. I never imagined that I would need the use of a handicap placard or cane or even walker by the age of 44.

We have been waiting (until last night) for a call or appointment with the Endocrinologist from Kaiser SFO, who we saw a couple months back and who had promised to do a very inclusive and thorough examination of me and my history…last night she called (after CC had scheduled an appointment with her following no replies or correspondence from our phone calls and emails, but I was too weak to travel to SFO and back in one day trip, so a phone appointment was arranged instead) and the bottom line of her call was to suggest that I might be taking “some *other* medications that neither she nor the doctor may know about” and essentially that whatever I’m enduring is not an Endocrinology problem, regardless that Neurology and EVERY other department I’ve seen says it is. She wants nothing to do with me or my care. Sound familiar?

I’m beginning to get angry, so I’m going to stop this entry and begin a new one later-