Monday happenings & my new hitch cover

Monday morning is fast approaching... and there's no turning back now... I am to be at the nurses station at 6am at LB Memorial and ready to put on the fashionable gown/slippers and be escorted to have the IV started, head off to lala land and am first surgery of the day at 7:30am. The two procedures should last 3 hours and than recovery for a couple of hours. The vascular surgeons starts by making the 6inch abdominal incision and parting everything getting the space created to the front of the spine exposed, and than the Spinal Ortho goes to work, and than the vascular surgeon comes back and puts it all back in the right places and staples the incision shut. From recovery I'm assigned to my inpatient room for what should be a loooooooooooong week. I'm an expert at outpatient and it has been 20 yrs since last child delivered that I was admitted to stay. I am absolutely not looking forward to much of any part of this but the lingering in the hospital is absolutely what I dread probably the most. I am going to attach the picture that I took with my cell phone the other day at the pre-op of the hardware sample Dr. Fernando Ravessoud is going to implant.

On the left is the spacer that will "fuse" L5-S1 vertebrae together, the three wells you see on the top of it are where they will insert a putty substance of stem cell protein graft that will harden and stimulate the bone fusing from the bottom up of my own bone to strengthen the union. There are also two tiny screws holes on the top front that will be at an angle to attach to the bone from the front as well. While the two vertebrae have moved 8mm in opposite directions, when this spacer is put in the collapsed space, it won't line them up perfectly but it will move them slightly in the process, but they will no longer move and pinch down on the space between them.

On the right is a two part titanium/plastic disk replacement that will be directly above the spacer location at L4-L5. This is the first thing he will do in the procedure. The dark line in the middle of the clear vertebrae on top is the "keel" that will be dowled into the vertebrae above and below. The new disk will have some motion mobility to mimic a real disk and restore the height that has collapsed and by removing the torn damaged one.

Monday at 10am, Ashley who has been studying her butt off, taking classes for and reading reading reading patient and condition scenarios that might be tested on.. the time has come and the day is here. Three days after she will know whether she has accomplished the CA State Nursing Boards exam successfully. The timing of them on the same day is unfortunate, but was one that by the time I had my surgery date and than she returned from all of her travels (MN, HI, NY) it was too late for either one of us to realign.. But she can't change anything that happens Monday and so hopefully she will just focus on the task at hand and just concentrate on the test. She's work very long and hard..

On a sillier note:

About a year ago or more, I saw a suburban go by that had a hitch cover of flip flops and I thought that was pretty California cool idea.. and I'd like one... A few months ago I was at the swap meet with a friend and saw a guy who was selling them. But he didn't have the right sized attachment for my Explorer hitch.. so left dejected and thought I'd contact him at his Fullerton location. I forgot. But I called him a few days before last weekend and asked him if he's make sure to have what I needed on Saturday at the swap meet that I was going to be there. Below is what it is....... and good night.

the end of two people....

Today the news is full and overflowing about the loss of two individuals who for decades captured the spotlight. As a 60's baby I remember both of them in the shows they became famous on. I don't know whether they knew Jesus as there Savior, I hope they did and are now healed and know peace, but life has ended nonetheless, and if not, this life was for nothing.

Michael Jackson, became known on The Ed Sullivan show and Zoom for the Jackson Five is where I remember him at the best of what was probably his most innocent, he was talented, energetic and really stood out at a young age... And than it would seem that from that point on his life was a tragedy of parents who saw a way to make a living on the backs of there children, exploiting them and robbing them of normalcy, peace, security of the soul. And he was like a classic case study of watching what happens to an individual who is traumatized at a young age, who is unable to grow up as an adult and longs for what he didn't have. It was always another bizarre media report that just made your heart go out to him. Someone who's addiction and need for the limelight to support a career choice and yet the wishing it would go away and allow him to function as a person unknown. Sad really.. Money brought him some stuff, but it stole from him as well. His countless charges of bizarre behavior with kids surrounding him who he saw as his peers of purity and innocence he lost early. If it was true he will be judged now that his life has ended. If it was false and just another parents way of making a buck off of the strange relationship of his child with the superstar, fame proved a great thief in the life of Michael.

Farrah Fawcett best known as one of the trio on Charlies Angels the tv show which she only did for one year before walking away to do other things. She became the poster child for the feathered hair style. Her protrayal in the TV movie "The Burning Bed" was outstanding and showed her talent for acting. She was also a sculptor of some beautiful work. She had physical beautiful but that wasn't all that there was to her, although she flaunted it in some choices she made during her career. She had a career in which fame also showed the ugly side of what entertainment spotlight is relentless and costly. She was a mother who loved her son, but yet he struggled with his parents fame and drugs have him at rock bottom presently and jailed when his mother died. There was a recent documentary that she and Alana Stewart made with a home video camera about the fight against the anal cancer that was spreading throughout her body and the treatments she sought out in America and in Europe. The role of her life. It was very poignantly done and showed the good, bad and ever so difficult days and steps of cancer.. That fight has now ended in this life.

What will be the legacy of our lives as our loved ones look back? Did we seek only fame and fortune or to be a Jesus follower who was a sinner saved by grace and lived as blamelessly as possible above all.. the latter is what I want as my legacy.

just thinking outloud.. weather, health, goals, Lakers

It's been awhile since I put any time into this blog and there is really nothing outside of routine going on to share unless it comes to me as I'm writing.. and my routine is well, not others routines!

Yesterday we had an hour of sunshine and today we had some throughout the afternoon, which in CA we aren't used to being without in the stretch of the calendar that it's been gloomy. It's really even been beyond gloomy skies, we actually have dark cloud patterns that just run all day long, some drizzle, thunder/lightning at times, and the temp barely creeps above 70 degrees. I'm a fan of this weather, because it won't be long and the temp will soar and we will long for days like this for relief. I'd have to say that while summer in CA used to start in May and run hot and hard till end of September, it's like it has in many recent years swung to a later start and deeper into the Fall. I have friends who went to Seattle Saturday for their daughters graduation,she text that they have great weather there, really.. Seattle.. the normally rainy weather of the northwest location.. what's wrong with that picture..

Let me recap the physical situation(s);

1. The left hand is improving greatly since the distress I felt after surgery when the fingers were like cement and curled. But the tissue is coming out of the trauma post surgery and is becoming much less painful in using it or in the stretching of the fingers as it has been. Much relief on my part... I still go to P/T once a week for evaluation, a good massage and stretch to keep on track with where it is. But I've stopped wearing any one of the many braces the P/T has fashioned over the last month to keep the fingers in a straighter position during the day. It's amazing the moldable things she can create to tend to what is going on or needs to be treated. At night I do wear what is like a broken finger splint. During the day the middle/ring fingers droop less. I keep stretching them straight throughout the workday and use a heated corn bag and massage at night.. It's nearly behind me!

2. Last Thursday I had a nerve block for the upper area of the back, 8 injections in the neck. A few days of muscle soreness, some bruising. This area was aggravated weeks ago with a walk I spoke of before, where I dared walk all the way to the corner of my street and a little beyond, it was the return trip that was dreadful. The spasms, migraine was consistent after this.. It's feeling much better with more mobility in the head turning radius and no spasms. jury still out on the headache..

3. I have 10 more days at the office before reporting for the major back surgery on Monday June 29.. I am dreading the process, but am assured and confident that the ortho and vascular surgeons are the most competent and skilled in our Region for what needs to be done. So should all go as planned, it will be 3-4 days in hospital (ugh) and than home to recover. It will require patience in recovering from the abdominal incision and not pushing the limits of to much to soon. Than whatever P/T will be required after six weeks of incision healing time. The fusion will be the vertebrae L5 S1, and disk replacement of L4 L5.

While I was going through the lesion in the left ankle for the last two years and that was needing to be removed, but since unable to do this type of procedure is documented as only considered experimental and not FDA approved. Leaving only one option was to surgically "toy" with the lesion to self heal it as best we could by irritating it with holes drilled into it. The result was better the second time around but was still causing pain. Being that I've been dealing with the back pain which keeps me from walking any long distance, it's not been stretched to the limit and so is good as far as I'm concerned. ha ha ..

I couldn't have imagined still being immersed in such debilitating pain and from so many other parts of the body as it has me (us) going through. Don't ask "what's next" is a statement people could say, but I don't have time in between to even consciously put time into a thought like that... I've not had anything as easy as "take this antibiotic for 10 days" and you will be good as new... PLEASE that would have been a dream scenario.

So in facebook chatting with a cousin in Texas recently, she's vacationed with us in Jacksonhole for family reunions years ago when our kids were young, and she was yet without kids.. She has recently begun to work out, and eating healthy.. And we've been discussing a possible meeting in the near future of this hike. I'M HOPEFUL... We have been talking about our two Jenny Lake hikes in between Jacksonhole and Yellowstone and while back in our younger days it was awesome.. There is a shuttle boat you take across the lake to the hiking trails on the other side of "Inspiration Point" and "Hidden Falls". On the second hike, a few of us decided that the line for the ferry was really long and that we'd take the 6.6 mile hiking trail around the lake and "meet" them on the other side, well actually it was a race.. I'm sure in my memory that while we were hiking our tails off when the boat of our exuberant relatives who were crossing the lake were jeering us... Someone else also remembers that we beat the boat, or that we weren't far behind them landing on dry ground. The hike from the boat dock up is about 2.5 hours to the Hidden Falls of 80 ft waterfall and than onto the narrow ledge that leads you to a "spot to overlook" the Yellowstone valley, Snake river is a 420 ft climb in a mile. It is not an easy hike but breathtaking and exhilarating for our large group of VanMeeterens who made it all the way, young and old. good times.

google "jenny lake" and read and than take this in some time on a must do vacation spot. This trip is what I will be posting a picture copy of on my bathroom mirror or refrigerator in inspiration to work hard after what will be a successful surgery in order to get the activity of my life back on track...

And than, let me end with a "woo hoo" for our LA Lakers who just finished winning the NBA Championship..
Have a good week ~

We the people...

California votes down the legalizing of same sex marriage (twice) with Prop 8, and then courts heard the appeal and voted to uphold the vote, but allow any same sex marriages that occured prior to stand. And yet the economy proceeds to take a dump leaving the state with a huge vacuum of potential tax revenue loss, due to the loss of jobs at 10% and spending that has dropped. Below are bits and pieces of what appeared in the LA TIMES last week.. this is what I suspect will be the pre-cursor to what will be the next push towards the voters as a way to bring the bankrupt state (from our governments reckless spending) into a economical boondoggle. The government like the media and entertainment will keep the liberal agenda in the forefront of "what they want to be normal" by producing movies that "normalize" the bizarre and immoral behavior and than the weak minded will relent and say "oh, live and let live" in order to add money to the coffers of what is going to be a tax burden given to the people in some way.

LA TIMES:

• The phones started ringing at the Timberholm Inn in Stowe, Vt., in April, as soon as lawmakers voted to override a gubernatorial veto and allow same-sex marriage in the state. "It doesn't go into effect till Sept. 1, but people are thinking ahead,"
  
• In the five years since legalizing same-sex marriage, Massachusetts has gained $111 million in spending from gay weddings, according to a new study published by UCLA's Williams Institute, which studies sexual-orientation law and public policy. "That's money buying flowers, hotels, caterers, hiring a band—all the things that go into a wedding," explains M. V. Lee Badgett, a coauthor of the study.
  Typically, same-sex couples spent about $7,400 per wedding, says Badgett, an economist who is also director of UMass Amherst's Center for Public Policy & Administration, and one in 10 couples spent more than $20,000. And then there were the wedding guests: "We estimated that each same-sex couple was associated with $1,600 in hotel-occupancy tax revenue," she says.

• Last year In California, chief economist with the San Francisco controller's office Ted Egan adds, the controller's office published an analysis estimating that same-sex weddings, officially legalized in California in June 2008, would bring in almost $20 million in spending over two years, and $1.7 million in additional taxes and fees. That revenue stream came to a halt in November, after California voters approved Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

In the past the California voters overwhelmingly voted yes for a prop 187.. Prop 187 was passed by the voters on Nov. 8, 1994 to deny public benefits to illegal aliens in California. The state of California goes into debt for the last 10 years annually $10 million dollars in providing schooling and medical care to the illegal immigrants. The courts overturned the WILL OF THE VOTERS again and again.. I believe that immigrants here ILLEGALLY should have to go through the process regardless of how uncomfortable a process it is.. and yes, nationwide 12 million illegals should be sent back to Mexico to do it correctly.. I as a taxpayer do not want to pay hard earned money in order to make others comfortable forever because it's "not nice" to send them back.. The government has avoided having to do anything that is "uncomfortable" for there careers but we sit in this mess because of it.

Christ preached compassion and love, but that the the laws of the land must be obeyed (give to Ceasar what is Ceasars)... we can't pick which ones suit us and only abide by those.