Category: Uncategorized

Had strep throat mid-January.

Got on Amoxicillin for ten days.

Day five of Amoxicillin, I got a full-body rash.  Cool.  Maybe an allergic reaction to the antibiotic, or maybe I had Mono?  Got a blood test for Mono – didn’t hear anything back (which usually means the results are negative).

Day ten of Amoxicillin, a different Doctor (I was kind of between Doctors at the time) said this was an allergic reaction, and I should stop taking Amoxicillin and get on Prednisone (seven days) and Hydrocortisone cream (five days) to deal with the rash.

Day seven of Prednisone, I got a sore throat.  Usually, antibiotics and my Asthma medication react together and give me Thrush.  I went off my Asthma meds (and did, this time, as well) when I went on Amoxicillin. Doctor checks, and prescribes Nystatin (seven days) to deal with Thrush.

Day two of Nystatin, 5:35am, I wake my sweetie so she can get the kids to school, and I drive myself to Emergency because my throat is swelling shut, I can’t swallow, and am having difficulty breathing.  The Doctor there gives me a Steroid shot in my bum and sends me home, saying I’ll feel better in two days.  Thankfully, they took a swab for a lab test.

Day four of Nystatin, 5:45am, I wake my sweetie again, and drive myself to Emergency again.  Now an intravenous Steroid, and an antibiotic that if I’m allergic to Amoxicillin, I would have a 5% chance of being allergic to – and if I was allergic, it could be lethal, so they would watch me for a couple hours.  Lab results said it was Strep again.  By 11:30 they sent me home with a prescription for Cephalex (ten days).  My guess is that Prednisone killed my immune system, Strep got pissed off and brought friends.

Somewhere in there, my right leg started to swell up.  Doctor says it might be a blood clot, which if it goes to my lungs may cause shortness of breath, if it goes to my brain…. stroke.  Nice.

I’m on a “Priority 1 (24-48 hours)” thing to get that looked at.  144 hours later, I was in the hospital getting an ultrasound on my leg.  Person doing the ultrasound was a bit shocked at the rash from hell on my legs.  I may find out in a couple more days what the results are.

Added a new picture to Drafting Level 2

Added a wack of pictures to Electronics Level 1

Added a wack of Project pictures to Drafting Level 1

Added a new tool: Ball Turner

From us, to you, with all that that implies.  Don’t get arrested.

My wife went into surgery Tuesday Aug 9th at 8am to replace a bicuspid aortic heart valve.

They found the existing heart valve was smaller than expected, so they fitted a 19mm mechanical heart valve and put the heart back together. This resulted in an unacceptable gradient, so they removed the valve, enlarged the valve area, and installed a 21mm valve. She was heavily dependent on the heart machine to keep her blood flow up.

She came out of surgery around 3:30pm, and woke up around 10pm. It was hoped that her heart would beat on its own, but this was not the case. She ended up getting a permanent pacemaker installed Friday at 6:30am.

She stayed in ICU until Friday near noon, also keeping tabs on her right lung which suffered a tear during surgery. This caused an air pocket next to her ribs, and a collapsed lung. While a torn lung and a heart not beating are apparently common, having them both on the same patient are uncommon. My wife was on some pretty hefty medications that made it very difficult for her to process questions and choose an answer. “How are you doing?” “…….. I don’t know.” “Can I get you anything?” “…….. I don’t know.”  This is typical of the pain killers issued.

Moved up to the Cardiac Ward, she continued to improve. She was becoming more mobile, more awake, and continued to be healing. Half her staples came out Saturday, the rest on Sunday. The last IV came out Monday, she was able to do stairs, and we were discharged in the early afternoon.

We stayed one night at my wife’s brother’s place, and headed home Tuesday morning, taking it easy. My wife continues to feel better each day, and has starting tapering off her pain killers.

We had a lot of people praying for use, and while this didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped, God still answered our prayers – my lovely wife is with us today.

It started as merely a linen closet in the basement.

Which became a walk-in linen closet.

Which led to boxing in a furnace duct, truing one drywall panel, removing a wall section, removing two stub walls, relocating two light switches, removing one wall socket, removing the wainscoting, re-paneling the main house beam in the ceiling, re-paneling two more the furnace ducts, re-boxing the water main pipes, replacing the carpet, replacing the tiled floor section, replacing the suspended ceiling, replacing the light fixtures, and full painting.

Yes, I’m still new at this reno thing.

And what the heck were people thinking when they intially “finished” this basement?  If they had dealt with the staircase properly, the rest of the framing would have lined up nicely.  And the “drop down” under the front entrance – so odd.  Poorly planned.  The “new” closet (blue wall) should come out all the way to the drop down, but can’t because the existing storage entrance (short door) cannot be moved due to yet another furnace duct.

And there’s so much more wrong.  Or at least not up to my standards.  Mind you, it’s just a basement.  How far do I go to “fix” it?  Rip ~everything down and start again?  Crikey.

Bless you, Matchbox, bless you.

Image Source

Canucks lose the cup (no surprise, re: 1994).

Canuck fans riot, and trash their own town (no surprise, re: 1994).

BCTV News Story

Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid people.

Awesome car in every respect.

This one was fitted with monster 275/35R15 Hoosier tires. The fenders were cut to clear.  Crazy wide tires.

Yes, that’s a Lexan spoiler.  Yes, there are Kirkey seats in it.  Yes, there’s even a splitter on the front.  This car is fine-tuned to the maximum allowable in SCCA CSP Solo II rules.  And yes, we all want one.