Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Motherhood Is...


Over at 5 Minutes for Mom, they're hosting a Mother's Day Photo Contest Give Away. The prize is $1000 real American dollars. The prize money is coming from Egg Beaters, who has generously contributed to this contest!!!


The purpose of the contest is to enter a picture of what motherhood means to you. I figured a lot of people would enter cute pictures of their kids, so I wanted to try a little different spin on just another cute kid picture.


This is a recent picture I took of my girlfriend Allisa over at Blarney Blog. It is with her newborn daughter and her inquisitive son.

I thought this picture really displayed the curiosity, innocence, and beauty of childhood and the peaceful tranquility of a mother's arms.


Be sure to check back... finalists will be announced on May 2nd, then YOU will get to vote for your favorite! By the way, special thanks to Amy for letting me know about this ultra-cool giveaway!!

Out With the Old, In With the New

I've been working on revamping my website for a while now, and it's finally live. I have a few more finishing touches to do on it, but you can check it out here. Comments and suggestions are welcome... I've put a lot of time into its design and would appreciate some feedback.

Thanks for looking!!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Our Little Angel

Isn't she cute? Always such a sweet and well behaved princess.... just like her mom. Yeah. This was the response we got when we asked for a simple thing, like "take a bite of chicken." I just can't help but bust into hysterical laughing when she does this, and she knows it, too. Imagine how she was egged on when I got out the camera phone. It's hilarious.

In other news, Sam the horse is not better. His foot is still full of infection, despite the vet visit, daily epsom salt soakings, application of medicine, and bandaging. The whole process takes about an hour, which I don't mind, I just wish he was getting better. They say it's like having a giant zit, but in a closed system (his hoof). I guess when it finally finds the path of least resistence and pops (ugh) it's instant relief. I could imagine. Hopefully within the next day or so we'll see him getting better.

This was our weekend project. We put it in ourselves. It turned out really pretty. I was totally stoked that after all the plumbing work we (I) did, I turned the whole thing on and didn't have even one leak. I have a tendency to get in a hurry and screw things up, so I really tried to take my time with this project and concentrate on each step. I was so excited I did such a good job, that in the final step (the hooking of the water lines to the valves), I reversed hot and cold. I just switched them around and figured if this was the worst thing that went wrong, I did pretty good. It's all sorted out now though and hot is hot and cold is cold. Yay!

I've been wanting this vanity for like 3 years now, I just couldn't justify buying a white toilet to replace a bone colored toilet just for the hell of it. Since the one upstairs took a shit, literally, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get my white toilet. I was just checking on lowes.com on the price of my long sought after vanity when I discovered it was on final clearance and that there was only one left within like a 200 mile radius. I got it that day.

This stands to be another busy week, and I supposed to have a horse show on Saturday, given my back doesn't totally blow out again before then...

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Where Do I Start?

I know every one is busy but this week has been almost to the point of ridiculous for me. Especially today. It all started last weekend when Vincent had that telltale "bark" of croup. This came right along with a major, cook your eggs on him fever. He spent that night in our bed (read: he's the only one who slept). He was down and out, in and out of sick to perfectly fine all weekend. Now his fever's gone, he just has the remaining cough and slightly runny nose.

Jade, on the other hand, is now taking her turn. Tuesday night she got that whiney, weepy way about her, and then came her fever. Anytime she gets a fever, she gacks. With no warning. Well, we gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed, hoping to avoid the gack but to no avail. She ended up crying and waking up around 10:30 that night. Brian went up to get her and bring her down. As soon as he hit the kitchen... gack. And then, yeah, gack again. She spent the night in our bed (read: she's the only one who slept). Enter Wednesday.

I worked like a horse all day at my real job, then took care of the kids that night when Brian went to work. Pretty much as soon as he left when I was trying to get dinner ready Jade gacked, again.

We had replaced the toilet upstairs that wouldn't flush with the one from the powder room, and put a new toilet in the powder room. Naturally, we couldn't find a water line that was the right length so we went round and round trying to get that working. After putting it together and it leaking exactly 104 times, I finally got the GD thing to work and not leak.

I had to post process the engagement pics I took on Sunday and get them posted. We were also qualifying the next day with our firearms at work, so I had to make dessert (we cook out at the range when we're done shooting). I usually make these really easy little cheesecakes for stuff like that so in my effort to make it a little healthier, I decided to use fat free cream cheese. I learned pretty quickly that you can't use fat free cream cheese for cheesecake, and had to start over when it wouldn't smooth out in the mixer. It was also one of those nights that the kids decided to stay up in their rooms partying instead of sleeping.

Well, we had to get up early and get to the sitters early so I could be at the range by 8:30. Naturally, when 7am rolled around, no one wanted to get up, and Jade was back to status fever. After tears and begging and pleading for cooperation, just once, most of the morning, we were out the door. No one ate, and we were barely dressed, but we were out the door. Everyone was medicined up. The only redeeming factor was there was no gack. I got the kids dropped off and was between Kouts and Wheatfield when I realized I had forgotten the plates and silverware for work. Rush rush rush. Try to find paper plates in Wheatfield at 8 o'clock in the morning.

Well, I finally got to the range to qualify and was settled down and ready to go. My gun, apparently, wasn't. About 1 in every 5 or so rounds was a misfeed/jam/or some other major malfunction. BIG BIG problems. The firearms guys wouldn't even sign off on it because it was such a piece of crap. It had problems at first, so I sent it off to the manufacturer. They said they went thorough it and made it all better. I shot about 100 rounds thru it after I got it back and it seemed ok. I don't know what happened between then and today, but whatever it was, it was all BAD. There was no way I could ever rely on this gun to maybe save my life, or someone else's life and it had to go. This had me all flustered and I shot the rest of the qualification like total shit. I went home for a few minutes at which time I learned there was a message from the horse barn that one of the horses was lying down and wouldn't get up. Great.

I figured if he was really ill, they would have done more to get a hold of me and/or called the vet, so I went to Cabelas and got a good deal on this gun. Sometimes you just have to take care of things when you can. After all that runaround, I got the kids from the sitter and we went out to the barn. Sam was still lying on his side but was able to get up. We diagnosed him with a hoof abscess, which is an infection inside of the foot under the hoof wall. The vet is coming out to check him out tomorrown AM. In the meantime, we soaked his foot in epsom salts and put this junk in his foot to draw out the infection. Finally the kids are in bed, the laundry is running, the dishes are done, and I am finally unwinding.

How was your week?

Friday, April 18, 2008

A Busy Weekend

I have a pretty busy weekend coming up. This Saturday a girl that I took senior pictures for is coming over to proof and order, then on Sunday I have an engagement shoot with my next wedding couple. Sunday is supposed to be really nice weather around here, so hopefully we'll get lucky. I have actually had two pretty good (as far as my back goes) days too. It's been a while - I actually forgot what it feels like to feel somewhat normal. I'm glad about that. Not that I'm suicidal or anything, but this experience has made me realize how people in chronic severe pain just want to die. It really does affect your emotions and your general well being. Ya know, just kind of wears on you after a while.
I'm also trying to update my website. Actually, I'm totally redoing my website so it'll look entirely different once it gets done.

We closed on our refinance for the house and should be getting our Colorado land money by Tuesday. It's hard to believe that's less than 4 weeks away. We also made reservations for my birthday at this lodge. We got a 2 room condo for the night, and are planning on hanging out in Breckenridge for the night. Eat somewhere nice, relax in the hot tub, just enjoy the mountains and the gorgeous town... I can't wait. Especially now since our June plans are pretty much totally kaboshed (is that a word?). I don't think we'll be doing any camping and horse trail riding by the end of June with this surgery thing and all, so even more reason to make a mini-vacation out of what was mostly a business trip of sorts.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

A L5-S1 Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion and Posterior Placement of Minimally Invasive Screws

Supercalafragelisticexpealidocious. The above title is what I get to have in the beginning of June. I went back to the doctor today for my final pre-operative discussion. I decided to go ahead with the fusion. It's pretty cool how he described it. I guess they now can go in with just a small incision from the front, near the belly button, get around all of your internal stuff, and actually do the majority of the work from there. Then they flip you over and place the screws and supportive rods from the back, again with just tiny little incisions. Pretty amazing.
The doctor actually had a model of the very hardware he will be putting in my back, and I just can't believe that they don't totally need to disect you even to get at the area where they operate.
I don't think it's going to be as big of a big deal as it was, say, 10 years ago. He said I should only have to be in the hospital for 3-5 days (I guess that's a long time with today's standards though), that I should feel like total dogshit for 2 weeks, that I'll need about a month off work, and that I should *barring any major complication* be back to mostly normal in about 3 months.
Plus, I'll get one of those cool little cards that will get you on an airplane even if you beep like crazy going through security.
I feel better now just knowing that 1) there's an end in sight and 2) that there is a very good chance that I'll be close to 100% again this year.

Early Voting

I am hardly a political person. In fact, I really hate most everything about politics and the whole "political engine" especially being from an area so plagued with bad politics. I attended a Barack Obama community meeing last night in Valpo. It was in this little po-dunk like 200 square foot building in the run down part of town. Surprisingly, there were many, many people crammed into this teeny tiny little space. I went mostly to see what the gig was and what Porter County was doing to forward the Obama campaign. Probably the most interesting thing I learned was of this early voting thing. Apparently it's nothing new, and I'm probably the only idiot who didn't realize it existed, but did you know in Indiana you can vote (not absentee) anytime after April 7th for the May 6th primary? That means no fighting the long lines at your precinct, no figuring out what to do with the kids... it has many clear benefits. You just look up the early voting location in your county, and go vote. Any time you like. Isn't that cool? I plan on going this week to get it done.
The other clear benefit is that I can spend my day off of work drinking - given I remember to stock up on booze before Election Day.

Just kidding. According to the Obamaholics at the 13 step meeting, it's a great day to get out and give people rides to the polls and stuff like that. Uh, no. These people were like chanting and rallying and stuff right there in the 200 square foot dungeon. I'm all about supporting your guy (or gal) but that was a little extreme. I just wanted to say, "If Barack Obama loved you as much as you love him, maybe he'd give you a little money to rent out a respectable building, or buy you a computer to do your work thats not 1)donated and 2)from 1980." Oh well. I guess if we didn't have people less cynical than I we wouldn't get much done.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Discogram, Schmiscogram

I survived the dreaded discogram. My biggest disappointment was that there wasn't ANY disco music, NOT ONE disco ball, and not even A SINGLE pair of platform shoes. In fact, think my doctor probably wasn't even born yet in the 70's. All joking aside, I'd like to have a stern word with anyone who claims it was the "most excruciating" thing they have ever endured. Granted, all doctors are different, and I suppose the procedure can be done many ways, but I'd hardly qualify it as excruciating. In fact I'd be stretching it to call it much more than "a little worse than what's going on on a daily basis."
They took me into the OR, and gave me some nice, nice Versed on the way down. That got me in the mood for a martini. Then they put me on the table and juiced me up with whatever magic potion they use and I was totally out cold. This was for the "careful placement" (not jamming, as I described it) of the very long needles into my spine. Luckilly, I have zero recollection of this. Then they woke me up, pretty much all the way, but by that time all the numbing stuff around the needles was well in effect, so I was oblivious to the fact that I resembled a porcupine. Then they injected the stuff into the discs themselves. This was the only mildly un-fun part of the whole thing. They effectively "reproduced" the pain I was having, probably about 2 points higher on a 1-10 scale than what I deal with usually, but nothing that made me want to die or anything. Then that was it. I got to the recovery room, got some more good stuff in the IV, had a sip of Sprite, and went home.
I've slept just about all day today, and I'm pretty sore, but that's about it. The meds help, and Brian took Jade to Granny and PapPaps all day. He and Vincent ran around, so I had the house totally to myself. I'm just more concerned that my body could physically literally sleep for like, 20 hours straight. I guess I must have needed it...

Thursday, April 3, 2008

The Phone Call I'm Not Pissed About

Usually I get really peeved when I call someone and don't get a call back. Not so much with friends and stuff, really just with professional or service providers. I just don't understand how anyone can perceive someone as reliable enough to do business with if they can't even return a simple phone call.
But this time, it's different. The cute little MA at the back doctor's office failed to call me back with my scheduled time for my discogram, ie: torture test from hell. I guess I'll need to call tomorrow, but today, I'm really not all that put out to tell you the truth.
Actually, I feel pretty good today. I even went for a short walk on my lunch break on the county roads near the post.
The babysitter took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese today. Hooray. I'm sure by Saturday they'll both be puking, coughing, and/or snotting... at least we'll get our money's worth.
I'm cutting this short tonight. I just wanted to do a quick update.
Oh yeah. I wanted to throw this statement out to those of you interested in police work. You decide - guilty or innocent...

Q: What do you think should happen to the person who did __________ (insert class A Felony here)?
A: "Well, if it's ___________ (insert name of enemy), I think they should go to prison. If it's anyone else, I think they should get lots of community service. Like picking up garbage on the highway."
Q: Do you think the sentence should be influenced by their cooperation with the investigation?
A: No.

Community service for a class A Felony? Seems a little light to me....

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

This Sucks

Well I went to the back doctor for my follow up this afternoon. The news is less than good. I was correct in my previous post to conclude that my disc/s were herniated. I also noticed the dark color of my discs on the MRI. This dark color (as opposed to the milky white of the "healthy ones") means that they are degenerated. The darker the color and less milky white, the more degeneration. Nuff said. The treatment is where the news is, well, dismal.
The MD ordered a "discogram." No, this isn't what you send your lover from the 70's... "Attention all men. Impress your lovely lady with a special surprise, a real blast from the past - send her a discogram and get your groove on!" It's really not that fun. At all. Just google it. Reports say it's an "uncomfortable procedure" to "it's the most excruciatingly painful thing I've ever done." As the doctor put it, it's "a non habit-forming procedure." Ugh. The whole idea of the test is to elicit pain.
Here's the problem. The fact that I have at least two problem discs, both with degeneration and bulging, he's unsure if the pain I'm having is from the disc compression (the degeneration) or from the bulges. Incidentally, the treatement for the aforementioned conditions is completely different. If the pain is from the compression, I need a spinal fusion on at least one (possibly two) levels. If the pain is from the bulge, a discectomy (like I had before) is the solution. Enter the satan "discogram."
In this procedure, they put you on an x-ray table, and insert a needle into the disc of your spine. This is thru many many layers of skin, muscle, and, oh yeah, around that huge nerve that runs the length of your entire body. And the whole objective is to elicit pain. To reproduce the pain you are already having (or not). Then they shoot this radioactive dye into the disc to put pressure on it to see if it elicits pain like or unlike what you are already experiencing. In other words, if it's the same pain (only much much worse) it's the compression that's the problem = fusion. If it's a different pain (but none the less, pain) it's probably the bulge = discectomy. The only problem is that you have to be the one to determine which type of pain it is, hence, no pain medicine pre-procedure, and definitely no mood-altering good stuff during. That would defeat the purpose. I guess it's so uncomfortable, you get 3-5 days off work just to get over the test.
As you can tell, I'm really looking forward to this.
So that's the good news... how's everyone else doing?

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Houston, We Have A Problem

I lied. When I said I went to the chiropractor for my back pain, and voila it was better, I was only partially correct. I was correct in the sense that I felt better then, but as the days have progressed, I am back to bad. Actually, I am back to worse. It got to the point that I just can't stand it and I'm really tired of using Vicodin just to get through a day.

Today was my day off, so I went to the doctor. Not just any doctor, I went to the one that did my back surgery in 1997. He ordered a "stat" MRI and X-rays and I follow up with him, films in hand, tomorrow. Of course, due to the fact that I now have "films in hand" I had to look at them. I figure I'm qualified - I've seen them before and I know how to Google "herniated disk." Here are the results:

The first is the sample MRI of a herniated disk (this one's not mine):
And here's mine:
Now, I'm no doctor but that doesn't look good for me as far as I'm concerned. I guess I'll hear the real verdict tomorrow. Until then, it's vicodin and red wine all the way...