notmovingpictures Episode 9: Don Goes Solo Again And Rants

True to form it’s been several days since I uploaded the latest edition of the notmovingpictures podcast and I’m just now getting around to writing about it here. What can I say? Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you would like them to. In episode 9 I went solo again since Tommy had shoulder surgery and there were things on my mind I just couldn’t wait to get out. The one thing that propelled me forward to do the show immediately was when I went to pick my son up from school. The parking lot has an entrance and then you have to go in a U shape to get to the exit. A truck was partially blocking the exit and an SUV was sitting in the street blowing it’s horn repeatedly. This lady roars in through the exit and then has the nerve to yell at the driver of the truck about how it’s not a parking spot. I couldn’t hold my tongue at this point so I yelled out that it was an exit not an entrance. It took several times before I swear she looked over but I don’t think she could tell where it had come from.

For some reason I got wound up over this. Some people are just pure idiots who think the world revolves around them and although they don’t have to follow the rules everybody else does, especially when it makes their life inconvenient. Idiots. I also talked about jury duty and how I believe the people who try and get out of it without a valid reason are part of them problem with this country. Their mentality kind of mirrors that of the lady driving the SUV. I also delved into the controversy over the Muslim unrest of the horribly done anti-Muslim movie. I’m not going to say the name of it because that would only give the makers of that piece of garbage even more attention. Really if you’re a Muslim you shouldn’t be upset over it because of how laughable it is. The production on it is so bad you might as well say there was none.

Lastly I talked about how two Russian scientists who are self described UFO experts have predicted that a cataclysmic earthquake the like of which has never been experienced in our recorded time would hit Lima, Peru yesterday. It would be the so strong that it was felt in parts of the United States and would be the first in a series of three that would ravage the world. Many Peruvians were feeling anxiety over this news. Once again it was much ado about nothing. There was no earthquake which is no surprise. The thing that should have alerted everybody that this was so preposterous was that they stated they gained their knowledge from decoding information left in places like Machu Picchu by aliens thousands of years ago. It seems that false prophets are everywhere these days. That wraps it up. If you feel the need go to www.notmovingpictures.podomatic.com and check out this or any of the other episodes. If you do let me know what you think, so feedback would be nice. Until next time, take it easy and don’t sweat the stuff idiots say. Life goes much better that way.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Busy Days Never Seem To Go Away

Just because I haven't written a great deal on the blog this past month it doesn't mean that I haven't been busy. Quite the opposite actually. My wife's condition had been steadily deteriorating day by day which meant that I was forced to pick up the slack as much as I could. My last post on the day of her surgery detailed what my days had been like so I won't rehash any of that. Suffice to say they were busy. Since then my mother in law has helped out a great deal with everything, especially our son, so that has eased some of the stress. It does appear that somehow other stress seems to find a way to get to you though. On the positive side of things my wife is getting better little by little so we can expect that in a few weeks time she'll be able to drive by herself and move around a lot better. As it is she's already starting to abandon her walker for short distances.

I also have undertaken the task of learning how to build a website for my friend Tommy's band Alloy, which you can check out here. When I say learning I mean it in every sense of the word as I have never attempted anything like this before. I haven't had so much as a single class on how to do this so instead of trying to learn html coding we decided to just use one of templates available by the company that was selected to host the site. It's been an education and the site still isn't quite where we would like it but it's getting closer. Things are starting to pick up for them too as we have been looking around town for places that they can play. In the last few days three shows have been booked and there is the promise of more on the horizon. Everything seems to be coming together for them after many years of hard work.

Then there is also the last thing on my list which has been taking up a lot of my creative time but I believe it deserves it's own post (hopefully tomorrow?) to detail just what has been going on. For that you'll have to check back to see what it is although if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook then you may already know. Well, that is if you've been paying attention. If however you've been living as busy an existence as me then you might have missed it. Until the next time then.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Is There Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

I'm sitting in the surgery waiting room at the moment waiting to hear what room my wife will be taken to. She's in recovery after undergoing knee replacement surgery on her right knee. You might ask yourself how old is she since most people undergoing this surgery tend to be older. She's only forty but her right knee was the knee of an eighty year old. Rheumatoid arthritis has attacked her and left her with no cartilage at all in her knee. It kept getting worse and worse until she was left with no choice but to get it replaced. Luckily the doctor said everything went well and she should be pleased once she recovers. Apparently the knee was in rather nasty condition.

After she gets out of the hospital in a few days we'll settle into her rehab routine and wait for the results. At the least she will finally have some mobility back and will be able to walk without her crutches. No more will she feel trapped by her pain. Of course this does not mean she'll be able to go out and run a marathon. She still has to deal with her arthritis as it affects her other joints but at least she won't have the pain she's been dealing with for so long in her right knee. Hopefully soon she'll be able to return to work. It's been an ordeal, a little over a year ago she had a cyst descend into her left calf and it had to be operated on to remove it as well as repair a partial tear of her meniscus. These situations have been a drain not only on our finances but our lives as well.

For the past few months my routine has been to get off of work at midnight, come home and do a few chores, relax and get into bed about 2am. Then I get up at 7am and get our son ready for school. After returning home I would attend to my wife and then try to lay down for about 2 more hours of sleep. Then I would get up, put dry dishes away, wash more dishes, cook or assist her with cooking, wash more dishes, perhaps do some more chores and then take a shower and get dressed for work. Then I would pick our son up from school, bring him home and go to work. Some days I didn't even get to return to the bed for more sleep, it was just go and take care of things that couldn't be put off anymore.

My mother in law flew into town yesterday to assist us with our son and my wife in her recovery and will be with us for the next month. I'm very grateful for her coming, we get along well and it gives her a chance to see her grandson, which she doesn't get to do often. Plus she's a good cook so I know I'll be eating well. However that also means I need to be careful that I don't gain back the weight that I've lost recently. My goal now is to try to pick up some extra shifts at work or to get a part time job so that we can pay off some of our debts and get caught up on a few things that are behind. Honestly I'll be happy with just returning to some kind of normalcy in our lives. And some sleep, definitely some sleep. Wish us luck as we hope to finally be moving forward.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

The Health Saga Continues

Today should have been the day for my wife to have her knee surgery. As I have stated here before the doctor's office cancelled the surgery because of a problem with her thyroid. Then they sent her to have a thyroid scan by a specialist but the specialist decided that since she had an MRI two weeks (before while she was in the ER) that the dye used would interfere with the scan so they told her to come back in one month. Here's where it gets interesting. Yesterday she went back to the doctor and they were surprised about the delay for the scan. Amazingly they told my wife that they would contact the specialist and see about going ahead with the surgery. They also took some blood so that they could see what her thyroid level was at.

Today they called and told her that they were canceling the thyroid scan and gave her three possible dates for her surgery. We have to notify them tomorrow morning for which one we choose. I fail to understand how this has come about. It was such a serious thing that they cancelled her surgery outright yet now because of the delay they want to go ahead with the surgery as soon as possible. It makes no sense to me at all. Perhaps instead of jumping the gun they could have waited a few days and this all would have worked itself out and she could have had her surgery already earlier today.

No, that makes far too much sense. Better to make decisions without all of the facts than wait until you have it all. Unfortunately now an airline ticket for her mother has already risen in price drastically which may make it too difficult for her to come. This after we lost almost one hundred dollars on her last ticket because the doctor cancelled the surgery. You've got to love the American Medical system, ineptitude at it's finest. At least we can be consoled by the thought of her finally receiving some relief from her pain and suffering. After she recovers from the surgery we'll be able to start moving forward again which is an idea long past overdue.

This is all based on the premise that the doctor doesn't do something else silly like cancel it again. With everything that's gone on so far I wouldn't put it past them. I'll keep you posted.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

A Medical Decision Looms

Two weeks ago I took my wife for an appointment with an orthopedic doctor and the news we received was basically what we expected. She is only forty years old yet her right knee is the knee of an eighty year old. There is no cartilage in her knee at all and you cannot regrow cartilage. At some point in her life she will require a knee replacement. While it is very unusual for someone her age to have this procedure it also is very unusual for someone her age to have a knee this bad.

She has Rheumatoid Arthritis which has been getting progressively worse over the last few years and seemingly as each month has gone by during the last year. Her right knee has been severely swollen for the past few months now and she has been using crutches to help her get around. Pain is a constant foe for her and she cannot do a lot with our son that requires her to move around. As a matter of fact doing simple everyday things like washing dishes or cooking has constantly proven to be a painful problem for her to deal with.

She hasn't been able to work for some time now and before that only sporadically in a job that allowed her to sit most of the time. It stands to reason that it has taken quite a toll on our household economy which in turn affects our marriage and our health as well. Luckily we were able to refinance our house for a lower monthly payment last year that allowed us some breathing room. Basically put, she doesn't have much quality of life and depression is becoming a very real thing to her.

Her options are to get a steroid injection which the doctor would prefer not to do since she just had one in November and it should have lasted longer than it did. If she were to receive another shot it would be the last he would be willing to give her ever because while it can help in the short term it can also cause more problems in the long term. Then she would just have to live with the pain for as long as she could stand it.

The second option is to not have the steroid injection and to live with the pain as long as she is able to. Given the severity of the pain and lack of quality of life that I spoke of earlier that's not much of a choice at all. The third option would be to have the knee replacement surgery now with the knowledge that it will only last ten to fifteen years and will then need to be redone. She would recover within six to eight weeks and be able to regain much if not all of her mobility and be pain free. Perhaps she also could get back some sanity that has been dampened by the thought of having to live with pain (the way she is now) for the rest of her life.

Given these circumstances the decision ultimately was very easy for her to make. Better to have the surgery now and gain some peace of mind, to be able to enjoy her time with our son while he is young, and see what the future will hold when that time comes. With the way medicine and science is progressing it's very likely that when the new knee wears out they will be able to do something amazing that will negate the need for anything further to be done in her lifetime. At least we can hope for that. We go back to see the doctor on Monday to schedule the surgery. Wish her (and our family) luck.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Dude, Where Have You Been?

I'm just now starting to get back into the swing of posting on my blog and while I have a plethora of ideas to write about there still is the little matter of finding enough time to write about them. It hasn't been easy for me the last few months but things are starting to look up. Basically what happened is that my wife has been out of work for the past few months due to a Baker's Cyst in her calf. Normally when I would get home from work she and our son would be asleep and that was my time to get on the computer and write. Since she hasn't been working I would come home and most nights she would be on the computer and I'd get up the next day and either her or our son would be on the computer. My online time has been very limited.

At first her problem was mis-diagnosed by a Nurse Practitioner (last time we allow one of them to see either of us) which set her back two weeks from getting real treatment. Once the doctor figured out what was wrong he sent her to a specialist to get an evaluation. The specialist wanted to get an MRI of her knee and to try and aspirate the cyst which didn't work. It seems it wasn't liquidy enough and was instead more like a thick syrup which was unusual as was it's location. Normally these cysts are behind the knee but sometimes push down between the calf muscles and descend. As I said aspirating the cyst did not work so the next step was surgery which was compounded by the MRI showing that there were several small meniscus tears that required an arthroscopy to be done as well as cutting into the back of the calf to remove the cyst.

Fast forward a few weeks and my wife has been going to her physical therapy and has been strengthening her leg. Only now my she is convinced she's feeling the same thing and that her leg is developing another cyst which I pray isn't true. We've been struggling to make it financially and the only thing that has saved us is that we've been getting food and household items from our church and that my mother has been paying for our son Johnny's pre-school tuition combined with my wife's mother sending clothes for her him and helping out in other ways. If it weren't for that help and the overtime that I've been able to get at work I think we would have lost our house by now.

A few weeks back my wife's cousin came for to visit us with her soon to be one year old daughter. Now it has been a bit of a strain on our already delicate situation but we have the space and it's been nice to have them in the house. Plus there was a very good reason for them to visit us for this perhaps indefinite stay but since it's highly personal I won't go into now, Perhaps in a future post about what kind of a man doesn't mind not being around for his only child's birthday, Christmas, etc. At any rate, I was overjoyed to receive a bonus from my employer and with that and some overtime I bought a brand spanking new Dell laptop with which I am posting on this very blog at this very moment. Okay it's also thanks to the WiFi at work (I'm off the clock) but this has made me very happy and I can't wait to really get some writing done once my wife starts working again and I can cut back on the overtime.

I know that as long as we keep plugging away and do what we know is right in our hearts that it will all work out eventually. You just got to persevere and have a little faith.