Vacation

Visited cousin Bill's house for the first time. Very nice place. His wife is the Greatest.

The three of us went to King's Canyon Nat'l Forest and saw the General Grant sequoia and many other big redwoods. I got cellphone pics of the Gen. Grant tree.

Wore the batterie out on the phone taking about seven pictures. Got a shot of the Grant tree AKA The National Christmas Tree, the scar on the back of the tree caused by lighying, the Oregon, California trees roo. Think I got a pic of the Monarch tree too; A hollowed out, fallen redwood that the Army once used as shelter from the elements.

There was a tour bus filled with French people visiting Gran's grove when we were there.

The next day we went to Shaver Lake. Bill's wife didn't go with us, but cousin Tom did. This time we spent the night in a beautiful cabin near the lake. We went to man-made lakes even high in altitude than Shaver, all owned by So. Cal. Edison. We drove through a company town too.

Took off on Sept. 11. Got home a about 3:00 today.

Great time up in the High Sierra's. great visit with Bill and his wife. Good to see Tom again too.

I'll post my pics as soon as I learn how to find and email them to myself from my newer phone. And whenever I get around to recharging the goddamn batterie. I'll post them all below.

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Upfuckindate:
"You didn't 'save' the pictures you took, dumb ass", my sister tells me over the phone.

So I figured out how to save pics, then how to email them. I took this one of Biscuit on the kitchen floor:


Shit. I'll never get another chance to visit the big trees. I hate you Verizon bitches and your camera phones.

Showing off my homegrown.

Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule

PANAS

PA scale - attentive, interested, alert, excited, enthusiastic, inspired, proud, determined, strong, active.

NA scale - distressed, upset-distressed, hostile, irritable-angry, scared, afraid-fearful, ashamed, guilty, nervous, jittery.

Jittery?

Therapy

Update yet AGAIN!
Here is a pic my hand taken today. Control yourselves women:

Updated 9/10/2010:
Goddamn what a lot of fuck ups below. ........
My therapist tells me that my progress is far beyyer than normal. Rather than the prescribed 12 sessions, he believes I'll only need 9. So far I've had 3. According to Dan, I am doing better than his other 4 Dupuytren's patients and they are all 2 months out of surgery. I sometimes wonder if I pay for my quick healing and high thresh-hold to pain with physical limitations of other sorts. Going blind, and type one diabetes too mention the least. I think I got the shit end of the stick.

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Started this morning. The therapist wasn't a nurse Ratchett type, like I feared. He's not a hot chick like I hoped. He's a regular guy who knows what he is doing.

Evidently, the paperwork he was given stated my 4th and 5th fingers were broken. When he saw the surgical scar he sais, "No. You have Dupuytner's."

Must remeber to do my exercises everdat and wear my splint to bed every night.

I wore the splint home from the hospttal. It stretches jmy ring and pinky fingers to the max. Dude. Not painful to wear, but painful when it comes off. Dan makes a mean splint and didn't have to read up on the exercises or the splint making.

I told Dan that I used to ride a mountain bike down Alessandro, turn on Moreno Beach and pound it upthe hill. He rold me that he tried it once not long ago and it was a mistake. Dan rides a hand bike and is wheelchair bound. Can't whine about my little pinky when my therapist is numb and paralyzed from the waist down. Funny he seems to think my blindness is worse than being without working legs. Yet when I said something about one of the surgeries where tha doctor stood behind the chair I was in, directed my focus to the left then stuck a needle in my right eye, Dan said, "Forgey about that." Guess it freaked him out or I was getting whiny. Either way, I'll continue to write about the progress my pinky is going through, just to have a record of times, appoinrments and shit.

Think I'll use this page to store links and debate strategies when I go on other forums to debate with friggin' rePalintards.

not PC and I don't give a fuck.

Another Dupuytner's Post

Two Mondats ago the big arm splint came off. I saw the sutures and it looked like something from a Halloween costume. Didn't feel good either. They gave me a new hand splint that sretched my pinky and ring fingers. I took the splint off every to clean every day and tripped out on the nasty scars. The wound was cleaned with a dry gauze and q-tip every night. I was given Vicodin to take, but didn't really need it, so I have 28 pills I don't need. Wish I new a Rush Limbaugh I could sell these fuckers to. I did take the Ibuprofen for swelling though. It helped me extend the pinky alot more.

Last Monday the sutures were taken off and the hand splint was gone for good. I washed the wound with some red stuff and rinsed it with warm water.

It looks much better today. I can clinch a fist and almost extend the pinky completely. The MCP and PIP joints hurt a bit when I do (lower knuckle and middle knuckle respectively), but I massage and stretch the fingers like I read on some Mayo Clinic website.

I start therapy in two days. Stretching the palm open and soaking the hand in some warm water I hope. Most likely though, it'll be some Nurse Ratchett type stretching the fingers till she sees a tear in my eye.
OK. I think it will actually turn out good. As a matter of fact, Imight try typing with two hands in my next post.

Looking forward to counting the typos. I saw one in the last post. Haven't counted this one yet.

Update:
Urgent Urgent URGENT
09/10/2010

Umm... It's not Dupuytner's. It's Dupuytren's (dupe-trenz).

Finally back

The surgery went well. I was zonked out through the whole thing.

The only complaint I have is that my throat hurts from the damn oxygen tube they shoved down it.

My arm is in a splint wrapped up by an ace bandage. Every finger is numb. Especially the pinky. Seems I can already extwnd my pinky all the way. This means no more doing push ups with my fists clenched.

I hope I haven't forgotten how to type. It'll be nice not to hunt and peck every letter. It'll help with the typos too.

Oh, and it's called a Dupuytner's contracture, not Dufuytener's.

Time to cook something up with one hand. No, that's not a euphamism. Perverts.

Dufuytner's Contracture

Surgery today scheduled at 10:30 AM.
Haven't eaten since 8:00 last night.
Didn't sleep fer shit.

Read up on the cause of this condition. Seems it's most common in those of Scandinavian descent.
Grandma on my dad's side was an orphan. Guess a Viking got anold of great-grandmother. Could also be descended from one of the Vikings that "settled" in Ireland. This would explain my surname that means 'sea warrior' in Irish.

Think I'll take a nap before I go.

Send In The Clowns

Seriously, people. Where are thr fucking VWs full of fucking clowns!?!

We've had Palin, Fey, Letterman, Palin, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, Ensign, Sanford, and Palin. Again!

There ought to be clowns!