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.