The Audio Pilot's Blog: December 2010

Well, obviously it's been quite a while since I have written anything in the blog. Indeed, much has gone on including some travel, birthdays, holiday etc. It’s also fair to say that my battle with coaster-rolling has increased along with some strange computer issues which I’ve allowed to bog me down to a degree. I continue to covet your prayers for healing and peace as I take each day, one at a time. The kids are doing great and CC is her usual incredible self.

From here, keep in mind that I’m dictating the majority of this, so there may be some misspellings and transposed words from time to time.

As per usual I think the easiest way to proceed is to recall the most recent events and work my way backwards. Yesterday,

Friday, began pretty much as most other days have, and that I was mobile and feeling like I wanted to see accomplishments done before I would be unable to do things. As a result of the winter weather that we have been having, the backyard has been littered with leaves and small twigs so I chose to use the leaf blower and get the backyard looking proper. Before anyone rolls their eyes, the reason that we got the leaf blower was so that I could be doing yard work without having to put out a lot of physical effort in the leaf blower has definitely turned out to be a tool that I can use without heavy price, generally speaking. In fact, I did get the backyard looking good and fairly cleaned up without incident. The issue, and yes there was an issue, was that when I move the barbecue back into place, somehow the connection between the regulator and the tank did not remain sealed and thus propane gas began leaking from the tank. Moving the barbecue was the last thing that I did before opening the glass door to the house and leaving it open so that I could move the tools back into the garage and it was during this time that the propane gas found its way into the house and on my return trip from the garage to the backyard I started smelling the gas. Nothing blew up, thankfully, but the problem was I could not identify the smell accurately and I could not tell if it was coming from outside or inside in that the barbecue is normally resident beside the glass door so the gas was in fact outside as well as inside. After beginning to get a little light headed, I felt myself getting confused so I called 911 and told them that I was smelling gas in the house and they instructed me to gather whatever pets I have and go outside away from the house, which I did. After grabbing with my portable oxygen tanks, Annie and I waited outside and waited for the firemen to show up. As luck would have it, CC pulled up just as the fire chief pulled up, and you can imagine her surprise. I'd swear to you that it is nearly impossible for that woman to panic. I explained to the Fire Chief what I had smelled of what was going on and he asked if I needed to be checked out, I told him no, and then I explained what was going on to CC as well. Two or three fire trucks pulled up and quickly went into the house, identified the smell is propane and, I guess, immediately look for the barbecue and located the source of the leak. The firemen brought in a powerful fan and pulled the existing air out of the house and then gave us the all clear to go back inside. The Fire Chief along with another firemen, asked a few times if I wanted to be checked out on site or go to the ER, to which both CC and I expressed our appreciation but declined the offer. Absolutely worthy of note here is that Annie was outside with me with the firemen walking all around and she never barked once. We were most impressed. I was down for the rest of the day, as I was expecting I might be, but I experience no continuing repercussions an hour or so afterwards.

Thursday, I don't remember a whole lot other than feeling weak and poorly and not accomplishing hardly anything at all. My one main accomplishment for Thursday was going to Missy and Joshua's karate class with them, something I have always loved to do. My primary mistake for Thursday was choosing to try and eat something from Panda Express after the karate class with CC and the kids. Not the smartest move, though the price was considerably lighter than it could have been.

Wednesday I went to the dentist to fix a cracked filling on one of my two front teeth, and though I will spare you all the details, the appointment did not go as smoothly as I would have liked. In the course of my dentist appointments since 2007, we have learned to instruct the dentist not to use Novocain and epinephrine together, which means that the numbing shots are just Novocain by itself. Epinephrine is an additive typically used in conjunction with Novocain to lengthen the effects of the numbing agent and is also unknown trigger for HKPP. Without the epinephrine, the numbing agent wears off fairly quickly which is not necessarily a good thing. During the course of my appointment, and though I was using nitrous oxide, I asked the dentist to use a shot with epinephrine so that I wouldn't keep getting numbing shots through the course of the rest of the appointment. Within seconds of the numbing shots with the epinephrine, spasms began at the end of the appointment drew nigh. Long story shorter, I go back in two weeks for two permanent crowns to replace my two front teeth. Also worthy of note is that my dentist called yesterday morning to ask how I was doing and see if I was all right; I was and am impressed with him. As is probably obvious, I was down for the rest of Wednesday.
I'm not remembering much of Tuesday or Monday or daily occurrences before that, so that's probably it for the play-by-play.
Looking backwards, the kids had the week of Thanksgiving off so CC and I had planned a trip down to Southern California, to stay with my younger brother Scott Shuford and his family for the week and we drove back Thanksgiving Eve to Santa Barbara and then on Thanksgiving day we drove from Santa Barbara back Orangevale. The Saturday before Thanksgiving, Scotty put together a small celebration for my birthday and I got to see some beloved friends for a while that day. Another of my closest brothers, Harry, was able to attend the party and also spend the night which did my heart good.