Surgery Pictures

As long as I've got some free time today, I decided to finally upload my pictures from surgery.  The first 4 are from my first surgery on 8/11 and the last 2 are from the second surgery on 11/3.  Luckily the doctor labeled them, otherwise I would have no idea what I am looking at.  My physical therapist described it as looking like a bunch of crab meat.  I don't know how doctors can know what they are doing looking at screens like these but I find it pretty interesting to see what they see through the arthroscope.

What's interesting about the below picture is the bottom left picture.  It seems there was a chunk of bone floating around inside my knee that the doctor couldn't figure out where it came from.  Not very reassuring, however it may come as no surprise to hear that my knee is operating a lot better without that in there anymore.

Snow Day

I got up this morning and headed out the door to catch the bus to work.  As luck would have it, the bus was running late which gave me time to call the office closure line and that's when I found out the office was closed.  I looked out the window before I left and the roads didn't look bad so it didn't occur to me that the office might be closed until I got down there and saw that there was almost zero traffic.  I decided to take this opportunity to snap a few photos.  It's a class 5 kill storm!

I was trying to frame the nearly full moon that was in the background but it didn't show up in any of the pictures so you'll just have to imagine it's there.  It was as clear as could be to the naked eye, I'm just not a good enough photographer to know how to capture it. 

I also decided to take the opportunity to search youtube for videos of people driving in the snow and found this gem:


And also this unrelated video which I had to watch:


Stay home and be safe and warm.  It's time for me to make some coffee to warm myself up, it hasn't broken the 20º barrier at my place yet.

Dreams

I rarely remember my dreams but I had a very vivid one the other night.  I dreamed that I went downtown and when I arrived I saw that there had been some terrible accident and the Space Needle was badly damaged.  Part of the base had been damaged and the entire building was slanted like the leaning tower of Pisa.  In addition a large section of the disc section at the top had broken off and said disc was also tilted at an alarming angle.  I never did quite figure out what caused it but somehow reached the conclusion that it was the result of an earthquake even though no other buildings were damaged.  What really bothered me though was that while I stood there staring at it in shock with my mouth agape, the rest of the people in the city seemed to have accepted that accidents happen and were going about their day more or less unaffected.  And after staring for a while, I accepted it myself and moved on and found myself in a part of town I was unfamiliar with that seemed to be filled with nothing but Mediterranean restaurants and I ate a gyro.  It was good.  I don't remember the rest of the dream or perhaps there was no more.  I don't know what it all means.

Good Day For Seattle Sports

Following a weekend which had the Seahawks spanking the Cardinals and the Cougs pulling off the surprise upset over Oregon State, today Felix Hernandez won the Cy Young award and the Huskies stomped UCLA in Jake Locker's final home game.  As if that weren't enough, despite predictions of traffic jams of biblical proportions because of the Husky game starting during rush hour, this was the smoothest, easiest commute I've had in a long time, and my bus crosses 520, right where the worst of the traffic would have been.  This has to have been the best week in Seattle sports in years.  I'm just surprised that former Mariner Cliff Lee wasn't in the running for the Cy Young.  He was on of the most dominant pitchers I've seen in years for most of the season.

RIP Dave Niehaus

The Mariners were finally bad enough that they killed Dave Niehaus.  It's a sad day for the Northwest and a sad day for all of the sports world as class an act as Major League Baseball is no longer with us.  It breaks my heart that he didn't get to end after a good season.  Baseball will just not be the same without him. 

Juice

I got some delicious Cranberry Pomegranate Juice recently and was looking at the label today.  The #1 ingredient:  apple juice.  I was checking to make sure that it didn't have high fructose corn syrup (it doesn't) but didn't expect the apple juice.

When It Rains, It Pours

...and this isn't even a post about the weather.  With all that's been going on in my life recently, I just can't help wondering what's next.  About a week and a half ago I received a jury summons, which with all the time off of work I've had lately I really don't see how I can possibly squeeze into my schedule.  Luckily I've got a good excuse.  Last week my doctor told me that my recovery isn't going as well as hoped and I have to have surgery again next week.  My range of motion in my knee seems to be stuck at 85 degrees, so I get to go under the knife again and have scar tissue removed.  Thankfully this can all be done arthroscopically so it is not nearly as intense or invasive and should only put me out of commission for 2 weeks.  I guess I have to have a set back before I can make any more progress.

Friday night I kept hearing sirens going up and down my street.  It seemed like about every 10 minutes for 2 hours another emergency vehicle would go by.  It wasn't until the next day that I found out that there was a 2 alarm fire in one of the buildings in my condo complex.  It was way on the other side of the property so there was no danger of it spreading to my building.  But the interesting part of the story was that police were already on the scene responding to a bomb threat.  I've had my arguments with the office staff before but I'm going on record now stating that I made no threats.

Finally, or perhaps not finally, my bike was stolen out of my parking spot either Saturday night or Sunday morning.  I'm obviously not going to be riding a bike any time soon and to be honest never did ride much so it's not a big deal.  It's just disappointing because I thought I lived in a better neighborhood than that.  So sooner or later I expect something good to start happening in order to make up for all this crap.  I'm just hoping that it's sooner rather than later.

Black Rain

Ah Soundgarden, how I missed you.  I heard the new single Black Rain on 104.9 for the first time today and it is simply awesome.  I haven't heard Chris Cornell wail like this in years.  It was a crime to deny the world this musical talent for so long.  Sure, Audioslave had some ok songs, but this just blows them all out of the water.  And what's more:  the incredibly bizarre video which accompanies the new song is available in glorious HD.  Watch it now, don't wait another minute.

Poetic Justice

This video clip almost had me believing in karma for a minute and then I remembered that it's simply poetic justice, karma doesn't exist.  Still, keep in mind that this is what happens when you send inappropriate text messages.  And what's worse, all of your team mates will go about their business as usual and not be the slightest bit concerned that you are writhing in pain on the ground.


If only Brett Favre could have made the same sound effect as below it would be comedy gold.

Back On My Feet

Today I did something that I haven't done in two and a half months, and to be honest I wasn't completely sure I'd ever be able to do again.  I walked without crutches.  And even though I'm a little out of practice, I remember it being a whole lot easier.  I've been crutch-walking for a couple weeks now as I've slowly worked my weight bearing up and that was pretty easy.  But with no crutches at all it takes a lot of focus and a lot of effort to keep from falling over.  It is pretty alarming how much muscle mass I've lost - my right leg looks like I have polio - so it takes all the strength that I can will in order to walk.  And in addition to having cadaver parts in me, I now shuffle along and groan when I walk like Frankenstein too so I guess there's no question what my Halloween costume will be.  It's pretty nice to be able to carry my own coffee cup now though and I'm sure that my strength will start to return pretty quickly. 

Also I decided to get behind the wheel today for the first time since my injury.  I only drove down to the condo gym and never got above 15 mph but it was a lot more enjoyable than hobbling down there on crutches.  And again, progress is good.  I'm not confident that I could react quickly enough in an emergency so I'll stick to the condo property for now.  But driving on the street doesn't seem to far off anymore.