Do Not Disturb?

Heather got sunburned kind of bad yesterday, so today, we're going to spend some time in the room nursing her burn. Since it was close to the time the cleaning crew to start cleaning the rooms, we decided to put out the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. That's when we noticed that we didn't have a sign in the room. I went to the front desk and asked for one. They said they would send one up and deliver it to us. I asked if they would knock on the door to deliver and they said, "Of course." Kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it? (They ended up just hanging it on the door.)

Just testing a new way to publish. Hopefully, I'll write a new blog in a few days.

Save the Manatee

Limitations

Everyone goes through times where they realize their limitations a little too late to do anything about it. If you’re lucky, it’s a trivial thing when you notice, others, it could be life or death. Today was one of those trivial times for me.

Heather decided to do something with the girls to burn off some energy today, so I called my parents to see if we could bring them over to swim in the pool. Of course, they said yes and we headed over there. We all got in the pool. Riley decided she wasn’t going to be a water baby today and Heather had to take her to the park to play while Ansley and I stayed in the pool. After a couple hours of playing it was time to get out and head home. I got Ansley over the ladder and she got out. I reached up and realized I couldn’t do that. During my surgery a few weeks ago, my Doc had to remove a large muscle the runs from shoulder to shoulder off of my spine to do his work. The majority of my healing is that muscle reattaching itself to my spine. For the time being, I can’t lift any more than 5 lbs, I can’t use my arms to pull or lift anything while they are outstretched. So, as I looked at that ladder, I realized I couldn’t pull myself out of the pool. I waded over the shallow end and checked the height of the pool top to see if I could “jump” up to the top and sit myself out. It was too tall. My parents’ pool doesn’t have a set of steps going out of the shallow end either, so that wasn’t an option. And, there was no one there to lift me out. Crap. I felt like an idiot not being able to get out of the friggin' pool!! Finally, I asked Heather to go get a lawn chair or something out of my parents’ garage to help me get out. She found a small step ladder and brought it out. I used it to step out of the pool and all is well.

Limitations are ok, if you remember them before you cross them. :)

The Last 9 Months

Wow.. Have I really not written anything worthwhile since September of last year?? I have really gotten slack about this.. And, it’s not like anything interesting hasn’t happened over the last 9 months. To the contrary, too many things have happened over this time, and I think because of the severity of some of them, writing was the last thing on my mind.

On the good side, both Ansley and Riley-Kate are growing up fast. Riley has been walking since December (11 months old at that time.) She is talking up a storm and is showing some good smarts. (Must be from her mom) Ansley has been in dance class and had a “practice” recital back in December and her first real recital last weekend. She did awesome in both of them!! Heather has started running and biking. She has run a couple of 5K’s and even placed 5^th in her age group in one of them. She is working her way up to a triathlon and, later, a full marathon. That’s awesome and I’m proud of all of three of my girls..

We’ve had one real dive trip. We did our yearly manatee trip to Crystal River back in December. We had about 12 people in the group and we all had another great time.. I also did a two week TDY to MacDill AFB in Tampa back in March. We had tried to make a trip to Venice Beach during that time to do some megalodon teeth hunting but got weathered out. So, we made an impromptu trip to Crystal River and dove Rainbow River again. Another good time and I had my first raw oysters, ever, during that weekend. (Thanks Dee) And, I got a new tattoo back in October. I have the girls’ infant footprints surrounded by angel wings on the upper portion of my back. Ink done by Les Collier of Atomic Tattoo in Warner Robins, GA.

On the downside of things.. My sister’s cancer has returned. Her breast cancer has metastasized and has shown up in her brain and a couple of other spots in her body. They have been doing radiation treatments for her brain since the cancer is in an area that cannot be operated on. After three weeks of daily radiation treatments, the legions were less than half the size they were when they found them, so she will now a “surgical radiation” procedure tomorrow. They will pinpoint the legions and zap them that way. The radiologist is saying only one treatment is needed and they should be gone. She is still going through chemo for the other spots in her body. She is scheduled to go through that until, at least January 2011. Her fight is there and we are all optimistic the Docs will have her healthy in time.

On the same cancer note, Scuba Kat, our beloved dive buddy from Covington, GA lost her battle with cancer on 23 May 2010. Rest in Peace, Kat. You are dearly missed. Dive Buddy Dee and I made the trip up to Covington and went to Kat’s funeral. We got to speak to her mother again and meet her son. We wish the family well in their grieving.

On my personal note, I thought I was healing up pretty good from my neck fusion surgery. However, back in February, the Doc noticed two of my ten screws were not fusing to the bone like they should, so he said he was going to have to go in through the back and add more hardware to get the screws to set. So, on 7 May 2010, I went under the knife again. The surgery went well and after a couple days in the Hospital, I came home for 4 weeks of recuperation. Everything went well and I had my first post-op meeting with the Doc last Wednesday. He pulled pout my staples, cleared me to start driving again and told me I could take off my neckbrace, but I had to VERY careful not to pick up anything heavy and to especially not straighten out my arms while I had any weight on them. He had detached a muscle in my back from my spine to do his work and that muscle had to have time to reattach itself before I could really use my arms. Easy enough. Of course, that VERY evening, I was carrying something very light up the stairs and as I lifted it a bit higher to get over the baby gate, I felt a “rip” in my neck. I came downstairs and asked Heather to look at it. She said part of it looked a bit sunken in, but other than that, no big deal. I didn’t worry about it, but, as I was taking my shower the next day, I felt the sunken area and it freaked me out. It was “huge.” So, I called the Doc’s office, I told them what had happened and they had me come in today. The doc wasn’t there so I saw his PA. After some tests and finally, some x-rays, we figured out what had happened. During my surgery, to get all my new hardware to fit, the doc had to remove the “spinous process” from my C4 and C5 vertebral bodies. What is a spinous process you ask? “The bumps that can be felt down the back are the spinous processes. They are bony projections that arise at right angles (perpendicular) to the midline of the lamina. Each spinous process is attached to the spinous process above and below it by ligaments. Sometimes these processes are absent or bifid in the cervical spine.” (Link where I got info) So, after all was said and done, I did no further damage to my neck area and even went to my first Physical Therapy session today. I hurt afterwards, but I know it’ll help me out in the long run. I’ve got 4 weeks of that to go.

So, in a nutshell, that’s what has been going on for the last 9 months. I’ll try and do better with this writing stuff again. I enjoy doing it. Finding the time to do it, that’s the problem.

At The Gym

Does anyone else think it's weird when you see cigarette butts on the ground outside of a gym?

Vegas Vacation

First blog in quite awhile.. I need to get better at this, but the free time just isn’t there like it used to be. However, today is an “Energy Day” here at work. Meaning, all military have the day off and Government workers can take a day of leave if they wish. Since I just took a week off, I decided to come on in and since it’s going to be so slow, I can write up some of this blog in a Word doc and then upload it later from home. So, that’s what I’m doing. This is your tax dollars hard at work (for a few minutes anyway.)

As most of you know, I just got back from a week in Las Vegas. Purely a pleasure trip. Evidently, a few months ago, Heather and I were talking and she asked; If I could go anywhere in the US, where would I go? I had to think about that. There aren’t many places in the US that I haven’t seen that I want too. So, after a few minutes, I told her, if I had to stay in the US, I guess I would like to go to Las Vegas, stay in the Luxor and see Criss Angel’s live show, “Believe.” Well, for my birthday, that’s exactly what she gave me: Two round trip tickets to Las Vegas, 3 nights in the Luxor and 2 front row tickets to see “Believe.”

It was an awesome trip!! We saw just about everything there was to see on the strip. We walked through most every “themed” hotel, saw the tourist stuff, the Bellagio fountains, spent an evening on Fremont Street, rode all the rides on the Stratosphere, saw Criss Angel and ate a lot of food. Notice I didn’t mention any gambling there. Not a cent. We were going to get rid of all of our quarters at the airport on the way home, but all the coin slots in the slot machines are covered and you play with bills or credit type cards. So, we didn’t even play on our way out like we planned. The only things about Vegas we didn’t like were the Mexicans standing on the sidewalks slapping Porn cards against themselves trying to get you to take the cards and the people in every hotel trying to get you to look into timeshares in Vegas. Every time we heard, “Hey are you going to be here tomorrow night?” or “You want free tickets to a show?” we knew what it was and just kept walking. It even constantly happened in our own hotel, which really got on my nerves.

The Luxor was a neat hotel. It is starting to show it’s age a bit and the air conditioning didn’t cool the room worth a crap, but it was still ok for the money. I think if we went back, we stay a bit further down the strip to be closer to the heart of things. The reason I wanted to stay there was the look of it and because Criss Angel is based there. Speaking of which, the “Believe” show as awesome!! Just seeing Criss Angel live was cool for me. Because I’m a fan and have been watching his show since Season One, I had seen 90% of the illusions before and was even able to figure out a few of them while seeing them live. But, he still blew us away with others. And, we got to see the famous levitation thing three different times during the night. GREAT show!!

As always, a couple of humorous stories came out of the trip. The first one came before we even left Atlanta. We were boarding the airplane and were standing in the boarding tunnel just a few feet from the door of the airplane. Since we were going to be putting our carry-on’s in the overhead bins, Heather and I had pulled out our books we were going to read and laid them on top of our cases so we could put them in the seats prior to shoving the cases in the overheads. My book was “The Proficient Pilot.” It’s a technical book about the finer details of being a pilot and flying aircraft. As we were standing there waiting to board, the pilot of our airplane came out and was standing around talking to some of the passengers. He looked down and saw my book. He looked up and me and said, “Hey, you mind if I borrow that? I might need it.” Everyone laughed and I told him, “Sure. And, I’ll also give you some pointers if you them. Just holler back to me if you have any problems.” He said he likes to ask passengers if this is their first flight and if they say “Yes” he likes to tell them that it’s his second and it should be ok. :) He was a fun guy.. Luckily, he didn’t need my advice and we made it to Vegas with no problems.

Another story came from the trip to the Stratosphere. I had two things on my agenda when I knew I was going to Vegas: 1. See Criss Angel and 2. Ride the rides atop the Stratosphere. They have three rides up there. The “Big Shot,” which is a shoot your seat straight up in the air 150 feet type ride. No big deal normally, but when the bottom of the ride is already 900 feet above the ground, that will make your boots shake a bit. It was friggin’ awesome!! I got my adrenaline rush so big on that ride, my hands didn’t stop shaking for almost 20 minutes. After that, I rode on “Insanity: The Ride.” Basically, you and another person sit in a two-seat arm in a round configuration with 4 other two seats things. Once everyone is strapped in, the whole thing swings out over the edge of the building (900 feet above the parking lot) then starts to rotate. The faster it spins, the more the arms with the seats spread out until you are looking pretty much down at the ground. Not a bad ride, but nothing major. Then, they have the “X-Scream.” It looks like a roller coaster where you sit. However, the track is only about 40 feet long and goes straight off the edge of the tower. What happens is you get in, the track tilts forward and you speed towards the end of the track off the edge of the building. The track actually goes about 8 feet under the train, so it completely disappears and then you stop before plummeting 900 feet below. It picks you up and then drops you down and shoots you over the edge a couple times. I didn’t think the ride would be anything, but it will get your heart racing. While we were getting strapped in, I was sitting by myself and a girl in her mid 20’s came up and said, “I’m going to ride with you because I am scared to death to be on this ride.” Being the gentlemen I am and not even taking into account that she was hot, I said OK. :) She sat down, strapped in and said, “I’ll warn you right now. You and I might be REAL close by the end of this ride.” She said, “I’ll try to keep to myself, but if I get too scared I may grab your arm.” I told that would be fine but I figured she’d be ok. The gates dropped and the track started to tilt forward and the next thing I know, before we even moved, she had her left arm wrapped around my right arm and her right hand clutching my right wrist. The thing raced forward and she screamed bloody murder. The circulation to my arm wasn’t completely cut off, but I’m sure I had some pretty low blood pressure in that extremity. As it raced forwarded, lifted us up, dropped us down or whatever, she screamed, she clutched tighter and, evidently, actually had a good time. About ¾ the way through the ride, she looked over and said, “Oh. By the way, my name is Laura.” I laughed and said, “Hey Laura, I’m Dale.” There was a couple that was seated in front of us and the guy turned around and said, “Oh, you two are way past the names bit now.” We all laughed and finished up the ride. The ride ended and we all went our separate ways but the story of Laura will stay with me for a long time.

Like I said, it was a great trip. I doubt we’ll ever become regulars at Las Vegas, but I can at least say I’ve been there, done that and got the Mindfreak sweatshirt. :)

What were you doing at 4:00 am?

Over the past few days, we've noticed that our air conditioning unit would turn on to cool. but then would fail to turn off after reaching the desired temperature. It would go a degree or two below and we'd catch it and turn it off. The other night, Heather turned the a/c back on and forgot to turn it off. So, when I got home yesterday afternoon, it was 67 degrees inside the house. That's going to be a nice electric bill. :) Since the unit is cooling fine, we figured it was just the thermostat. I did some research on the web and saw the type I was going to need. I got the essentials (voltage/for a heat pump/etc) , because our original thermostat isn't made anymore. So, after heather got home from work, I went to Lowe's and got a new one. nothing fancy. Just a digital, non-programmable replacement for the one we had. I got home, took the old thermostat apart, labeled the wires and got it about half way wired when they called me for supper. The Father-in-Law had come over to see the grand kids and cook supper for us, so I didn't want to make him wait for us to eat. After supper, I went back to finishing up the wiring. Everything went together fine and I flipped the circuit breaker to run it all back one. You are expecting me to talk about a fire aren't you? Nope. Everything worked fine. The temp was low enough in the house where the a/c unit didn't come on, so I didn't give it another thought. As we went to bed, the thermostat read 74 and the house temp was 74. Good to go.

About 3:15 am, I woke up. I was hot. Crap. Well, I thought, we've had the problem with the a/c the last few nights, maybe I was just used to sleeping in the 70 degree temp and 74 feels warm right now. I'll think anything to keep me from getting out of bed. A few more minutes and I couldn't take it anymore. I was getting hotter. Crap. I had to go see what the temp said. The readout said 78. Crap. The fan was running, so I walked over to the vent in the floor and put my foot over it. Hot air. Crap! I shut off the unit, pulled off the face plate, got the installation manual and proceeded to check my wiring. My wiring looked good. Crap. So, I got on the web and started researching my original thermostat, the new thermostat and wiring diagrams for units to see exactly what wire was designated for what. After some trial and error, a lot of reading and cross-referencing, I finally figured out the problem. There was one wire that had a double designation on it. "O/B" that I had read earlier that evening as "D/B". Since there was no "D" on the wire plan, I wired it to the "B" post. Once I saw what the two designators were for and that it was actually an "O" and not a "D," I figured it need to be wired to the "D" post and not the "B." I rewired my thermostat and by 4:00 am, the bottom floor was cooling down nicely. The rest of the family doesn't even know I screwed it up. Of course, putting the story out on the web won't help me keep my secret very long, but keeping my ego intact has never been a high priority for me. If it was, I wouldn't write half the stories I do on here.

"God looks after fools and drunks" or "Not my time to die"

If you've been reading my blogs, you know this first picture is the way we store the Rag-A-Muffin in Dad's hanger. We took about a month and a half of trying to figure out how to hang it from the ceiling. It was trial and error and even a little damage to the airplane, but in the end we figured it out. The winch is mounted on the beams in the ceiling and hooks to an "eye" bolt mounted on the hanging frame that attaches to the airplane wing bolts by carbines and fabricated metal slats. Just in case the winch fails, we have 500lb rope that is secured from the hanging frame to the hanger wall and from the tail section to the far side of the hanger. It all works pretty well.

Today, Dad and I decided to meet at the hanger to try and finish up the radio push-to-talk switch I started installing last week. I got to the hanger before Dad and opened it up. After I pulled the Tomahawk out, I lowered the Rag-A-Muffin. I undid all the safety lines and then I noticed it was a bit cockeyed with the Port side wing touching the wall. So, I got directly under the airplane and pushed on one of the tires to move the wing away from the wall. As I did that, I started to lower the airplane with the wench. Now, the cable on the wench wraps over itself when it winding up, so to see and hear the airplane bang and bounce on the way down doesn't bother us anymore. It did it three times today as I was lowering it. As soon as the plane was low enough to stay away from the wall, I moved out from under it and lowered it to the ground. Easy enough a one person job.

Dad got there not long after I got the rag down and I showed what I had done on the radio last week. Once he was up to speed and we figured out the next step, we started getting everything together to solder some wires together. I didn't bring my reading glasses (getting old is a bitch) so Dad was going to do the soldering. While he was doing that, I started looking at the hanging frame and wondering why the airplane was closer to the wall than it had been originally. I decided the hanging frame had been turned around 180 degrees and it was just enough to move it a few inches closer to the wall. I proceeded to unhook the frame from the airplane and turn it around. Just as I started to spin the frame, I saw it...

The "eye" bolt was just barely a "J-hook." The complete circle that was the eye bolt had been stretched out and it was hanging on to the winch hook by less than a quarter of an inch. I told Dad, "When you get to a stopping point, you have GOT to see this." He came over and saw the eye bolt. I was just amazed at how far it had stretched. Then dad looked at me and it dawned on both of us. I was standing directly under that thing while it bounced and banged its way down just 15 minutes earlier and that quarter inch was all that was between me and a 250 lb airplane falling directly on my head. Holy shit. That's when Dad said, "God takes care of fools and drunks." That's when I said, "See. Like I've always said, when it's your time, it's your time. Whether you are standing under a 250 airplane that is hanging by a thread or sitting on your couch eating potato chips. When your time is up, your time is up." I guess my time wasn't up this afternoon. Even so, you can bet your bippy I'll be checking that stuff each time before I walk up under it again. Oh, and we changed out what was left of the eye bolt for two sections of chain that are both bolted to the hanging frame by aircraft grade bolts.

Stupid Kid

This morning, I have the day off and I take the girls to daycare so Heather doesn't have to hassle with it. As I'm leaving, I notice a few of the mailboxes in our neighborhood, including the "Tard's" mailbox have been "tagged." Meaning, they have been spray painted. All of the mailboxes in our neighborhood are brick, so there is a lot of area to paint. The three that I drive past have "13", "Will and Slocomb" and "Fuck Me" written on them. Great. Some little paint happy bastards drove through my neighborhood last night. As I'm driving out, I look in the rear view at my mailbox and there is nothing on it. After I took the girls to daycare, I came in the other entrance to the neighborhood to see the other side of my mailbox that I couldn't see earlier. Sure enough, there was white paint on it. I was the proud owner of a tag that said "19 1/2" on my mailbox. WTF??

When I got in, I called my cousin, who is a Sheriff's Deputy in my county. I told him what had happened and asked who I needed to call. I wasn't expecting anything to happen, I just wanted it to go on record, plus, if there was a rash of them going around town, it would just be another charge to throw on them if they ever got caught. Plus, I wanted to let them know that if I caught the little bastard in my yard again, I'd beat the ever-luvin' shit out of him and leave him for dead in the middle of the road. He told me that a lot of cars had been spray-painted over the last few weeks and I was probably lucky they only got my mailbox. He gave me the non-emergency number to call and I called them.

About 10 minutes later there was a knock on my door. It was actually my sister's brother-in-law (her husband's sister's husband; Greg) who is also a Sheriff's deputy, that got sent to the house. He got all my info and everything I knew about what had happened. Then, he walked down the street to write down each thing that was written on a mailbox. I went back in the house while this was happening. I glanced out one time and noticed a lady talking to him. Thinking nothing of it, I sat down to watch this week's episode of "Big Break: Prince Edward Island." About 10 minutes into it, my doorbell rang. It was Greg and a teen-aged boy. Greg said the boy had something he wanted to tell me. I figured he saw who did it and was going to tell me. "Mr. Hall, my name is (name withheld) and I'm the one that spray painted your mailbox." For the second time in less than an hour I'm going: "WTF???" I was dumbfounded. Come to find out, the lady I saw talking to Greg earlier was this kid's mother and she was telling him that her son had tagged the mailboxes and he was coming out to talk to him. Greg and I talked to him for awhile. He reasoning was that he got "super bored" last night and was walking around and just decided to do it. He thought it would wash off in the rain and didn't think he was doing any harm. First off, it's enamel spray paint on brick. It ain't gonna wash off. Second, you are writing on people's property and you think you aren't doing any harm?? He said he didn't think about his actions affecting my kids. I told him he wasn't effecting my kids in the least, but e was affecting the entire neighbor by doing this. Now, everyone thinks the neighborhood isn't safe and has thugs riding through it or worse, living in here now. There was about 10 minutes of talking. We asked what the things on te mailboxes meant. He said they didn't really mean anything. It was just wat come to mind when he sprayed. There was something about his story that never did settle right with me. I don't know if there were others with him and he was hiding that or what, but there was something "off" about it. I never did put my finger on it. He said he was trying to join the Air Force (his dad is in the Air Force) and he really didn't want a record. I told him I wouldn't do anything right now, but I wanted my mailbox fixed. He said he was getting with his parents and they were going to figure out a way to get the paint off all the mailboxes. It's night time now and my mailbox is still painted. I'll give him a week and then I'm going to his parents and tell them either my mailbox get fixed or I'll get with the other 4 homeowners to file charges. That will put his Air Force dreams in a bit of a bind.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not out screw the kid. We've all done stupid stuff when we were younger. Hopefully, you learn from them and become a better person in the long run. But, if he says he's going fix what he screwed up, then he better stick to his word. If he doesn't fix it and no one does anything about it, then he'll never learn. He'll just go about his merry way thinking he do whatever he wants without any recourse. I personally don't want someone like that in my Air Force.

We'll see what happens and, of course, I'll update here.

Stupid Kid.

Medical Update

For the last three weeks, I've been feeling better each day. The first week, I wore the neck brace 24/7 and took my pain meds on time every day. The second week, I didn't take any pain meds (unless I over-did it; which I did twice) and I only wore my neck brace in the car, when I was sleeping, in public and if my neck really started to hurt. (Which, again, it did on a couple of occasions) The third week, I only wore my neck brace when I was in the car and going to sleep and took zero pain meds. The range of motion in my neck felt really good, but I didn't know how much I was supposed to move it, so I never went to the extremes when moving my neck.

Finally, the day had arrived for me to have my first post-op appointment with my Dr. Since I still wasn't supposed to drive, my sister took me to the appointment. Once we got back in the room, we started looking at the pictures on the wall and tried to figure out where the cadaver bones went in my neck. BP seems to be very interested in my "Dead Guy Bones" so I wanted to try and find out for him. My sister is a Registered Nurse and has never dealt with this type of treatment before, so her curiosity was piqued also. As we were looking at the picture on the back of the door, the X-Ray tech opened the door and scared us both. She took me back into the x-ray room and I was explaining what we were doing behind the door. She asked what the Dr. had done to me and I told her he fused 4 layers of my neck. She looked through her little window and said, "Four layers??? Can you even move your neck?" I showed her what I could do and she was amazed at the range of motion. That made me feel good. After we got back to the room, the Doc showed up less than 5 minutes later. He started answering my questions and explaining a bit more on what he did.

OK BP, here it is.. The discs between my vertebrae also have bone on them. When they do surgery like they did on me, they actually remove the old disc and put in a "fake" one with wire mesh type stuff around it and the cadaver bones. So, the dead-guy bones are between my vertebrae where the new fake disc is located.

The Doc was pleasantly surprised at how well I was moving and said I was doing very good. He released me for minor activities. I can drive again (whoo-hoo!!) I no longer need to wear the brace, at all!! I can only pick up things that weigh 25 lbs or less. I have to do some exercises to work my neck and shoulders. I can go back to work, but I can't do all the manual labor stuff that can be involved. I can only do computer work right now. I have Physical Therapy twice a week for an unknown amount of time. But, all in all, I'm doing great!! I still have no use of my left hand, but it should come in time. I feel good and I'm determined to get my left hand back.

The next day, I had my first Physical Therapy appointment. I showed up and had gotten my Physical Therapist I had been assigned back February again. (I actually requester her) We spoke for awhile getting caught up and once she knew what all was going on, she started my routine. Heating pad, TENS machine, neck stretches, squeeze balls, wrist curls, bike you pedal with your hands and the neck massage. The end of the session neck massage is worth my co-pay alone!! Last time I was doing physical therapy, it was trying to help a problem that couldn't be helped. Now, I feel like it will actually do something. MK (my physical therapist) was very impressed by my neck motion also. However, she is still very worried about my hand and arm. So, instead of just doing the neck stuff like the Doc has ordered, she is also working my hand and arm at the same time. She even had another PT specialist come over and look at my hand so she could get another opinion on how to work it. She said we'll step it up each time I come to work it out. I've got all the faith in the world in her (which is why I requested her again) so I feel she'll get me back my hand in time. So, that is where we are. I have PT appointment # 2 tomorrow morning.

On a family note, the baby is doing awesome!! She is still a dream child. Ansley has come around and has really warmed up to "Baby Sister." So, everything is good with the kids at the Hall Household.

I also have some great news about the Rag-A-Muffin. It flew on April 18th. I'll write about that day tomorrow, probably.

PS: The picture up top is not my x-ray. I don't have a copy of my own, so I just grabbed one from the web that had a 4 layer fusion done. They are missing one set of screws in their neck. but it's close to what mine looks like.

Adrenaline

You ever notice what adrenaline can do for you? A couple nights ago, I woke up about 2:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep. I figured I could go out and watch a bit of TV to see if I could clear my mind and get back to sleep. While I was watching something, I heard a noise upstairs. Both of the girls sleep upstairs, so I muted the TV to listen. I heard Ansley cough but something didn't sound right. I decided to walk up and check on her. I walked up the back set of stairs so I wouldn't have to open the baby gate in case she was still asleep. I got into the computer room and heard another noise. Then, I knew what was happening, she was getting sick. I ran from the computer room through Riley's room, down the hall and into Ansley's room. It was pitiful. She was sitting up in bed, both arms drenched, the front of her nightgown soaked and all in her hair. She was crying lightly and then started to heave again. I yanked her out of bed and ran down the hallway to the bathroom with her so she could stand over the toilet and not get any more on her. As she was getting sick again, I called into the baby monitor down to Heather that we had a problem. She came right up. We got Ansley all cleaned up with a bath and new clothes and got her down in the bed with us so we could keep an eye on her. She got sick, slightly, one more time that night and nothing more after. All we figured was it was something she ate the day before.

But, what I was meaning about adrenaline; Since my surgery, the Doc put me on very specific restrictions. One of them is not to lift anything over 10 lbs for at least 6 weeks. I don't exactly know why or what damage/setback in healing it would cause, so I just follow the rules. However, when your baby girl is sick and you don't want her to get sick on herself any more, all that goes through your mind is grab your 26 lb precious one and run her where ever you need to take her so she feels better. I didn't even realize I had done it until about 45 minutes later when we finally got back to bed. And then today, she fell off her chair at dinner and hit her head. She sits right next to me, so what did I do? I turned quickly to her and scooped her up off the floor. That's twice in 48 hours I've done that. So far, no residual pain or seemingly setbacks, so hopefully, I'm healing enough where I didn't screw anything up. Adrenaline is a funny thing.

April 2009

The last time I sat down to write a blog, I was amazed at how it was already February 2009. Now, the next time I sit down, it' s April 9th. Wow, time flies. But, life goes on and we do what we can in the time we have and pick up the next day where we left off today.

In the last entry, I mentioned that I would going to see my Doc and was expecting to be referred to a Neurosurgeon to get my hand/neck/arm fixed. That is exactly what happened. I saw the Neurosurgeon. He scheduled me for three rounds of spinal injections that would put steroids/pain meds directly in the area hoping to restart the nerves. I took one shot and showed up two weeks later with no improvement at all. He told me that we could take another but, in his professional opinion, the only thing that was going to help me was surgery. He diagnosed me with "Degenerative Disc Disease." He said that 4 layers of my neck (C4-C5, C5-C6, C6-C7, and C7-T1) had collapsed on themselves to the point where my nerves weren't being fed the impulses. etc they needed to work or grow the muscles. The only thing that would fix it would be to separate the vertebrae and open back up the passageways. So, I said, "Let's not waste any more time. Let's schedule the surgery." That was Wednesday, the 25th of March. Next thing I know, my surgery is scheduled for a week from that Friday, April 3rd. They are going to fuse all four layers of my neck. I will get titanium plates screwed into my neck bones to keep them the proper distance apart and then they will place cadaver bones somewhere int here to also aid in the correct positioning.

The week goes by and the morning of my surgery comes up. Heather and I get my Mother-in-Law to come watch the girls while we go to the Hospital. Everyone says I will be in the Hospital from 1 to 3 days. Luckily with it being a Friday, maybe heather won't need to take any time off if I can come home within the 1 to 2 day mark. We are checked into the Hospital by 0650. By 0730, I'm in my room dressed for surgery, got my IV's in and I'm waiting for them to come get me. Heather and my parents are there with me. They come and roll me into the surgery area and give me my "feel good" shot. Awhile later they roll me into the operating room and get me on the table. I remember the mask going on and thinking, "This stuff isn't working." That's the last thing I remember until I wake up in recovery.

Once I wake up enough, they feed me a few ice chips and then wheel me into my original room. They go and get my family and tell them, as soon as I wake up enough and the Doc checks on me, they start my go-home paperwork. Huh??? The Doc said the operation went so well and I lost so little blood (only three tablespoons worth) he saw no reason to keep in the hospital overnight. Awesome!!! So, I went home that afternoon and I wasn't even the Hospital a full 12 hours.
I've been at home since then. I had a chest cold the day after my surgery and that hurt a whole bunch!! Every time I'd cough, it felt like I was coughing up my entire chest. But, it was slowly gotten better over the days. The only "post-op" pain I've had was my throat. Since they had to move it out of the way to work on my neck, it has been very sore and swollen from all that. Each day that goes by the pain gets a bit better. The neck itself is ok. I can't go without my neckbrace and I'm scared if I do go without it, I'll over do it, so i keep it on for safety reasons if nothing else. I have a follow-up appointment in the 28th of this month and we'll see how I'm doing by then. Doc will release me to do certain things in "baby-steps" so even if I am doing ok on the 28th, I still won't be able to pick anything up or drive. We'll see how it goes..
I've had a few visitors stop by the house. Thank you for doing that!! It was awesome to see some folks. My family, my In-Laws and especially Heather have been GREAT during all this. I appreciate each and everyone of them.

Thanks for all the emails that have been sent also.. They make my days go by quicker..
That's where we are, medically, for right now.. As soon as I get an update, I'll post it here..
I've got other stuff to talk about (kids, ultralight, etc) but I want to keep this as short as possible, so I'll more another blog or two in the coming days talking about those...

Already February 2009!!

Wow.. It's February, actually it's already half way through February and I'm just making my first blog of 2009. That's pretty bad. Ok, so here's what's been going on since 21 December. Christmas was awesome!! Since Heather was 8 1/2 months preggo, the In-Laws decided to come up here for Christmas instead of us driving down there. So, the only traveling we did was the 6 mile trip to my Parents’ house and back that day. New Year’s Eve was about what I expected. Heather and Ansley were I bed and asleep by 9:30. So, I spent the evening on the computer talking to a few friends, hanging with my dog and playing Guitar Hero.

January 7th, we had the scheduled c-section for the new baby. We were at the hospital at 0600. 0700, Heather was in-processed and in the staging room. 0730, she was wheeled into the delivery room. About 0745 I was brought into the room and 0755, Riley Kaitlyn was born into this world. A beautiful little girl just like her big sister. Although, Big Sister Ansley has had a bit of an issue sharing mama and the spotlight. But, we have gone from “Mama, you come home, leave her here” the first time Ansley visited Heather and Riley in the hospital to “I wanna see Baby Sister” now. She has come along way in a month and we are very glad she did. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it wasn’t rough going there for awhile.

That Wednesday night, while staying at the Hospital, I slept on one of those couch/bed things they have in the Hospital rooms for visitors. My left arm was killing me, but I chalked it up to just being a bad thing to sleep on. Thursday night, I went home to shower while my Mother-in-Law stayed with Heather and I had to take some pain reliever because I was still hurting pretty bad. Heather came home Friday and her Mom with us. Thank goodness, because the pain in my back/arm was getting worse. Friday night, it was so bad, I decided to go to the Dr the next day to get it looked at. Come Sunday, I had lost the use of the last three fingers on my left hand. To make a long story short, after 5 Dr. visits, x-rays, a regime of steroids and pain meds, an MRI and an EMG test it has been decided that I have a herniated disc in the C7-T1 area of my neck. The Doc put me in 4 weeks of Physical Therapy. During my initial eval, the Physical Therapist told that because of what she was seeing, she was only going to schedule me 2 weeks of PT. If there wasn’t any significant improvement by then, she was going to forgo the next two weeks and have me go back to my Dr. We did the two weeks and there has been very little improvement. I go back to see my Dr. Monday (tomorrow) at 1510. At that time, I expect him to refer me to a neuron surgeon for surgery to fix it. We’ll know for sure tomorrow afternoon.

As for the Rag-A-Muffin ultralight, we’re about 3 weeks away from it flying again. The wing has been patched, and we’re updating a few things on it. Hopefully we’ll have some flight pics and vids of it soon.

So, as you can see, it has been a bit non-stop around the Hall household lately.. But, everyone is doing good and life is good. I’ll update my situation when I get some definitive news.

Florida Trip 12-14 Dec 08

I know I haven't written in awhile. Life just seems to get in the way of sitting down and writing lately. But, right now the 2 1/2 year old and the 8 1/2 month pregnant wife are both taking a nap, so I thought I'd sit down and do a quick blog.
3 of my dive buddies and I went to Florida last weekend on our yearly manatee visit. Dive Buddy Dee and I started this 3 years ago and we've been going ever since. Originally, I had 18 people say they would go on the trip, but as usual, when it came time to put down money, everyone except 4 of us backed out. So, Dive Buddy Dee, M2, F+10 and I headed down to Florida in Dee's RV early Friday morning.

Our first stop was Blue Grotto in Williston, FL. We signed in, got our fills, geared up and went diving. We went to Peace Rock, and then down into the cavern exploring all there was too see around in the "horseshoe." When then worked our way back up and into the Fresh Air Bell where we took a couple pictures. Then we worked our way slowly to the surface. After we got our, we refilled our tanks and just BS'ed during out surface interval. I took off the top of wetsuit different than I normally do. Normally, I just peel it off inside out. But, since I thought I'd be putting it back in soon, I worked it off my arms instead of sliding it off inside out. (This will be brought up again a little later) After about an hour being up top, and none of us were warming up, we decided to cancel the second dive. So, we loaded up all the gear and headed to our second stop of the trip, Crystal River, FL.

We got to Crystal River and F+10 went and checked into his hotel. M2, Dee and I were staying in the RV to save some money. After he was checked in, F+10 met us at the restaurant and we all sat down for some beer and a good meal. After we ordered and were having out first beer, I reached to my right wrist to play with my KIA bracelet I wear in memory of Cartney. It was GONE!!! I reached all up my sleeve to see if had moved, but my arm was bear. When I realized I had lost it, it felt like someone had kicked me in the chest. I never take that bracelet off for anything and now it was gone. I thought long and hard about it and then I remembered, I slid my wetsuit off instead of turning inside out and that must have been where it had come off. I knew I had a spare at home and I would call Blue Grotto on Monday, so there was no sense of worrying about it now. But, I was VERY bummed by not having it.

The next morning, we went to breakfast and stopped by the two dive shops in Crystal River we were going to be with the next two days. Bird's Underwater and American Pro Diving. We talked to the people int he shop and did some souvenir shopping. We then got our gear ready and headed to AmPro again to get ready for our Drift Dive down Rainbow River. It was an awesome dive!! It always is.. 60-80 foot viz, max depth of about 20-21 feet and a 1 knot current. Just a relaxing dive down the river. We got cleaned up and then headed to "Cracker's" for our dinner. Another awesome place to eat in Crystal River. And, as always, we left there too full!!

Sunday morning, we met at 0600 and headed to Bird's for our manatee snorkel. We got there, got signed in and left the docks right at 0700. They took us to a place called "Three Sisters." Last year during our trip, I swam for 10 minutes before I even saw my first manatee. This year, I stepped off the ladder of the boat and couldn't even move because 5 manatees were right there in front of me!! It was amazing!! To make a long story short, there were more manatees than I have ever seen and the majority of them were playful. In the hour and a half I was in the water, I don't think I went any more than about 30-45 seconds without a manatee on my hand or in my face. It was the BEST manatees visit we have ever had!!! After our hour and half in the water, we got back in the boat and were back at the dock at 0900. We waited around for the DVD's they made of our swim and then headed to lunch. After lunch, we headed back home to GA. We were in my driveway by 1645. It was a GREAT trip!!

On Monday, I called Blue Grotto to tell them what I had lost and to see if anyone had turned it in. The guy told me he hadn't seen anything like that, but he would take down my name and number and call me if anyone did turn it in. He also asked where we parked on Friday. I told him and we hung up. About 10 minutes later, my phone rang and it was Blue Grotto. He had gone out to where we were parked and he found my bracelet right where I told him it might be!!! He said if I would give him my address he would mail it to me. On Thursday of that week, it showed up in my mail!!! How cool is that???

The pic is me holding Manny in the fresh air bell at Blue Grotto. The video is one I shot while swimming with the manatees.

I also want to wish each and every one of you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!
**D**