Saturday, May 28, 2011

Personal Update

Hello Everyone!

It has been awhile since my last post. Alot has been going on in my personal life that has been keeping me busy. Back in January, after I had my surgery for removal of my gallblader, my father had a surgery a week later. His surgery was for removal of plaque in his carotid artery on the left side of his neck. During that surgery my father wound up having a 2nd stroke. That 2nd stroke seriously effected by father and his abilities. Afterwards, I wound up helping to take care of my father, helping him to recover and get back on his feet. In the intervening months my father has made some good progress in his recovery. But still he continues to have some health problems.

In addition to dealing with my father's health issues, it turns out that my own health became an issue when I found myself having a heart attack last week. I wound up spending 4 days at the Rogue Valley Medical Center heart center. A stint was installed in one of the arteries of my heart. I now have new meds for my heart added to my set of meds that I have been taking for my back pain issues.

So those issues have been consuming a great deal of my personal time. However, I have found a small amount of time through the following months to work on some photography related work. Those notes will be written about in succeeding posts over the next few days. Be on the lookout for those.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Health Update

I am still recovering from my surgery on Saturday that removed my gallbladder. But I am definitely not recovering fast enough to allow me to take my trip to Las Vegas this Friday. That trip was to attend the Adult Entertainment Expo so that I could promote my photography services to various companies and models. I had bought my trade show pass and airline ticket on Dec 21st. So everything was totally secure to attend until I had my pancreatic attack Christmas evening. This is a most frustrating period in my life right. I can't get a refund on the trade show pass since I purchased it after the deadline for getting a refund. I cancelled my airline reservation and was only able to get a $69 credit out of a $184 ticket purchase. I personally found that to be some serious bullshit. I can understand not getting refunded on the misc taxes that go into a ticket price. But I cancelled well within the 24 hour window that disallows a refund.

The airline I went through was Allegiant Air. And I have flown with them in the past. But they charged a $50 cancellation fee for each leg of my trip which cost me $100 for the cancellation. I personally find that size of cancellation fee totally outrageous. The ticket was bought online, the cancellation was done online, so where is that excessive expense coming into their operation that demands that they charge a $50 cancellation fee? I will allow some kind of cancellation fee to some degree. But I find this situation is excessive.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Welcome to the 2011

Hello Everyone.

Well it certainly has been much longer than I figured since my last posting. Alot has been going on in my life and not all positive. People that know me personally know that I have been dealing with depression and medical issues resulting from a car accident. Since my last posting back in August I went into another small bout of depression. I take Cymbalta to deal with it. And it helps to some degree. But things in life can still overwhelm u a bit and not make you feel all that energetic or to being all to active. After my last post I just got into another non-active period in my life where my energy was just not directed to wanting to post my activities or news reports when I came across them. And I came across them and saved material, I just could not find the energy to post.

My lawyer finally reached a settlement for me on my accident claim late September. But under Oregon law settlements are normally limited to insurance limits, and after my lawyer got his cut, and I paid outstanding medical bills what was left over was not enough to really write home about. And it certainly was not enough to help correct my medical back problem issues from the accident. I actually had a planned surgery to correct that problem at the end of July. But had to cancel the surgery when my insurance would not cover the hospital stay. And I could not afford the cost of the stay which was going to be an estimated $32K to $45K. You just gotta love our country's medical system.

I did manage to make a small investment in upgrading my camera equipment with the settlement that I got. And in time I intend to write about what I purchased and how well it is all working for me.

In Early November, my father had a stroke and he wound up in the hospital for a period of time. He has been slowly recovering from that, but now he needs the assistance of a cane to help him get around walking. You have not seen a more pathetic site than watching my father (left handed) and me (right handed) walking around together with our respective canes. Watching my father recover is not an easy thing. The stroke has sapped alot of energy out of him and his ability to get around and do things. But at least I can still see some progress being made. And he is scheduled for a surgery soon to clear blockage in main vain on the left side of his neck. He will have to have another such surgery on the right side of his neck in about 3 months.

Things began to feel a bit better as things progressed along for the Christmas holiday. But it wound up that Christmas evening I started to experience extreme abdomen pain after fixing a small dinner. I thought I may be experiencing some food poisoning. But never wound up vomiting anything. The pain continued on to the next day. Finally I made a visit to the emergency room at my nearby hospital and after 7+ hours of testing & waiting it was determined that I had a pancreatic attack and that I had gallstones in my bladder. I was then admitted into the hospital and spent this past week hooked up to IV's and not eating. It wasn't until the Pancreatic attack went down that they then scheduled a surgery for the removal of my gallbladder. That occurred this last Friday morning. I had my first meal of solid food Saturday morning after a week of not eating. And then was let home Saturday afternoon.

At this point I am grateful to be home. My abdomen is still sore from the surgery. But the pain levels are finally going down slowly. Before this all occurred I was set to attend the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas taking place next week. I had already purchased my tickets and trade show passes. My family and friends around me don't think that I should be going. But I feel if I progress enough before than that I should still make the trip. I may not be able to do everything that I had wanted to do during this next Vegas trip. But I feel that it would still be beneficial for me to make some appearance and promote my photography to different companies and models that will be attending.

All I can do now is take each day and assess how I am progressing in my recovery. I will try to find the energy each day to continue to report on my recovery.

Anyways, that has been my life since my last post. You are now officially up to date.