| Cor, I'm on my own again |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|06:38 pm] |
Well Mom drove back home this morning, I've got a lot of meals frozen in tupperware in the freezer, plans for handling things like laundry and cleaning, and AFAICT I'm all set for the next few weeks.
On 12/1, assuming all goes well, I should be walking again.
Thanks again for all the help.
--d |
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| yay! tv is fixed |
[Nov. 10th, 2009|04:33 pm] |
Well, after waiting a week for parts, the new tv is working. It had both a bad IR-controller board, and as it turns out a bad remote.
Now if only there was something decent to watch. . .
--d |
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| A beautiful day |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|04:51 pm] |
The weather was very nice, so I spent some time outside. The leaves have mostly fallen, though the cherry tree is still in full leaf, a dark purplish-red this time of year. The yellowjackets were out in force, and I could hear deer and squirrels in the woods, stirring up leaves.
It was good to feel the sun and the warm breeze. |
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| Birthday Thoughts |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|10:54 am] |
Well, last year was pretty bad. Depression, illness, and to top it off a major injury.
But, I have a new, less stressful job, affirmation that I have a large number of wonderful friends, and at least I'm starting it off with a clean house.
Here's to hoping the upcoming year is a better one.
--doug |
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| last night in the hospital |
[Oct. 28th, 2009|06:37 pm] |
It's been quite a stay. Tomorrow 8am the Dr. will do his final checks, and then I can start to process out.
Between the pain pump, multiple meds, and overall stress, my body's taken quite a beating. Right now it feels like I'm sweating ice, which most likely means one of the drugs is wearing off. I still have a couple of antibiotic infusions to go, and will be on some prescriptions for a while, I'm sure, but my mind is getting clearer and I'm starting to feel more normal.
The wound hurts, but not as much as I'd feared it would. It'll probably hurt for quite a while, it's a deep, deep cut and of course bone's involved. Nothing to do but wait it out and heal as best I can.
I've still got exercises and things I have to do to keep the risk of complications down -- hourly streatches and flexes to keep the blood flowing, a device I breathe into to keep the risk of lung problems. Then there will be the practicing with crutches and the walker, to build up skill and strength so I can get around.
Mom will be leaving in about 3 weeks, she has her own life to get back to. I'll probably need someone to help out until I'm done healing, at least three more weeks after she leaves, just someone in the evening to help with dinner and getting ready for the next day. I enjoy being as self-sufficient as possible, but I'm aware that just won't be possible for a while.
Thank you again to everyone who visited, and all the well wishes. And thank you to those who've volunteered to come over on the weekend to get the house ready.
I'm really looking forward to a real bed, a quiet room, not getting woken up every couple of hours for tests and injections, and a real shower. Ok, so my leg will be outside the shower and I'll be using a shower chair and a hand-held showerhead, but it will beat the pants off of a sponge bath. |
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| Call for help this Saturday (10/31/09) |
[Oct. 27th, 2009|11:16 am] |
As my house is really a mess, and I can't do it on my own with this injury, if anyone is available to help trash out the place on Saturday, I would greatly appreciate it.
Everthing from some heavy lifting to light cleaning to moral support would be welcome. The main request is for Saturday, anytime after 9am, but if you'd rather come by Friday or Sunday, we'll be at home working on the place, and you'd be more than welcome.
This is the big push to get the house habitable for parties/workshops/gaming, as well as safe for me to get around on crutches and a walker for the next several weeks.
Even if you can't help out, please know that I greatly appreciated the support, well wishes, and help in this time of need. Thank you all.
Directions below the cut.
( Read more... ) |
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| surgery is done |
[Oct. 26th, 2009|08:24 pm] |
Well, got a couple of pins in the foot now, and everthing's closed up and hopefully healing.
I've got 72 hours of observation/antibiotic drip, and 6 weeks until I can put pressure on the leg.
Got my pump going, a dextrose/lactated ringers IV with an antibiotic feed, and water and ice chips handy.
What the hell is a "Lactated Ringer's Injection" IV anyway?
Many thanks to Fritz, a friend and coworker, for dropping by and chatting while the worst of the post-op pain was hitting. It was a great distraction, just what I needed.
I'll be online off and on for most of the evening/night, if anyone has questions or comments. |
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| Update |
[Oct. 26th, 2009|09:37 am] |
Surgery has been moved up to early afternoon due to a cancellation, and then the Dr. wants at least 72 hrs of observation and antibiotics.
Mom arrived safely from South Carolina last night. |
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| Update |
[Oct. 25th, 2009|02:30 pm] |
So, tomorrow afternoon is the 2nd surgery. The plan is for a general anethetic, do some more cleaning an checking, then attempt to screw the bones so they'll hold together and heal. Then another day at least in the hospital for recovery and antibiotics.
The first surgery confirmed bones sliced through, and the Dr is concerned primarily about infection.
Many thanks to Spam and Andrea for a wonderful visit yesterday and a bunch of books.
Mom is coming up from South Carolina to "take care of me" today, arriving late or possibly tomorrow am if she gets tired driving.
The pain has diminished, and since I'm using the pump less often I'm more lucid (I can only imagine the ravings I subjected my guests to yesterday -- oops). I expect this to change after surgery tomorrow, so if you have any questions, please ask away.
--doug
Edit: BTW, no ssh access here at the hospital, so if you want to email me, please use my gmail account. |
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| first round of surgery done |
[Oct. 24th, 2009|11:05 am] |
First round done; the wound is cleaned out and partially sutured. The dr. said that for it to heal right, it needs to heal from the bone outward, so I'll be in the OR again on monday morning for another cleaning and round of sutures.
the pain relief pump is being very, very useful right now.
If you've never used one, they pre-set it to dispense a set amount of painkiller (sorry, my brain is too fried to try to recall which painkillers it's pumping) every 10 minutes if the button is pushed. That way, you can push the button as often as you like without rist of OD, while only giving you the dose if you need it.
Right now, I'm watching the clock and hitting it too often anyway.
Even with the pump and some ambien, I only slept a couple of hours last night at best, so I'm drifting off to sleep, then the pain comes back, hit the button a couple of times, and then drift back off.
Speaking of which, the latest dose is taking effect. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 23rd, 2009|11:21 pm] |
ok, posting from a semi-real keyboard this time.
I'm at the Winchester Medical Center, in Winchester, VA. I'm in a room, got the pain medicine pump hooked up, and it's starting to kick in.
I got ahold of my mom, she'll be coming down on Sunday; since a release date hasn't been set, I don't know when I'll be released, but it sounds like I'll be here at least until then.
The cats have food and water, since I use a free-feeder for both; that said I really wish I had a chance to clean before mom shows up; the house is a disaster.
Visitors are welcome, though I'll probably be out of it tomorrow after surgery.
Thank you all for all the support; I needed the reminder that I'm not alone.
--doug |
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| in hospital |
[Oct. 23rd, 2009|08:20 pm] |
Managed to slip with an axe and hit my foot. 2.5" cut, 2 bones on the upper foot are sliced through. This kinda sucks. Surgery is scheduled for 7 am, the dr says I may be in here a few days.
Not sure how, living alone, I'm going to handle this.
Sigh. |
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| in hospital |
[Oct. 23rd, 2009|08:16 pm] |
2nd try at posting this, sorry if it shows up twice.
I managed earlier this evening to hit my foot with an axe. I've got a 2.5" gash on th top of my left foot, and managed to cut through a couple of bones.
Surery is scheduled for 7am. The dr says I may be here a few days for antibiotics ans monitoring. this really sucks.
I live alone, and all my friends live a good distance away. I don't really know how I'm going to handle keeping off my foot for what sounds like at least a couple of weeks. Hell, even my car is stick.
--d |
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| In Praise of Anti-Sieze |
[Sep. 11th, 2009|09:49 pm] |
The rotary platen arrived today! I've got it assembled and in place, and have confirmed it runs. However, the tension on the belt is too slack, and needs tightening, and I need to find my hex key set, I think metric, to turn the knob.
I also wanted to change the drive from the 3" slow-speed wheel to the faster 6" wheel. These drive wheels are machined from aluminum, and mount directly on the motor shaft, interlinked with a standard key.
Now, the first few times I changed a wheel, it was fairly easy. Once, though, I left the 6" wheel on for a couple of years. The inevitable steel dust got into the gap, then some of that rusted. When iron rusts, it expands. When I wanted to change the wheel, I couldn't get it off until I resorted to a modified gear puller, and even then I was concerned about the pressures and stresses involved. After that, I just used the puller and cursed at the difficulty. In hindsight, this may have contributed to the untimely death of the first motor for the grinder.
Well, it's been about 2 years since I last changed the drive wheel on this grinder. With some trepidation I unmounted the contact wheel tooling arm, got a good grip on the drive wheel, and felt it slide smoothly off with just a little pressure.
You see, the last time I changed the drive wheel, I slathered the shaft, key, and hub with nickle based anti-seize before assembly. I had bought it after some folk speculated online that you could use the stuff as a source of nickle when pattern welding. My experiments showed it worked, but was hard to see and probably not worth the effort. On the other hand, at keeping metal components from sticking to each other, I have to give it two thumbs up.
--d |
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| working on the workbench |
[Sep. 2nd, 2009|11:20 am] |
Since I last posted about getting the rolling mill and press working on the metallurgy workbench, I finished removing the nest material and related gunk, and on the advice of a friend more electronics-clued than I flooded the area with water until all trace of the ammonia odor was gone and the crud all gone.
I then placed a blower on it to speed drying, and the weather has been dry, if cool, so I hope by the weekend it will be safe to plug in.
The loose wires were fairly obvious where they went, so everything is connected back up, I think. I'll see if I can find a fuse box somewhere in the control panel -- considering how much gunk was directly on the terminal block, I have to imagine there were some shorts.
--d |
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| The grind begins |
[Aug. 28th, 2009|10:21 pm] |
I started grinding. Blade profiling is done. Dimensions are 2.25" wide max x 25" of blade, an overall length of 29". Rambling is below.
( Read more... ) |
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