A week to forget

This past week has been awful and unfortunately it will be awhile until I can put this week completely behind me. Oh well I guess life occasionally deals us a rough hand and we have to do the best we can with whats been handed to us.

I went out to Community Medical Center on Monday for a CT scan and ended up in their emergency room. Things started out just fine as they got me registered and transferred onto a gurney for the scan. They took me to the CT room and they got me setup on the CT table. We were set to begin the scan and the plan was for the techs to keep my arms up and out of the way.

The CT table started moving into the machine and very suddenly my arm got caught on the edge of the tube. The machine kept going and before the technicians could get it stopped my arm made a loud snap. I knew my arm was broken and sure enough the x-ray confirmed that I had a compression fracture of my upper humerus. They wheeled me down to the ER where a trauma doctor checked me over. After consultation with an ortho it was decided that a wrap around sling would be the best way to treat my fracture. I'm hoping that things will heal up in 6 weeks but we'll have to wait and see. Needless to say I'm pretty steamed with the whole situation.

I laid low the whole week and my routine pretty much consisted of popping painkillers, sleeping, snuggling with the pugs, keeping up on email, and watching a little T.V. Not a very exciting way to spend my first official week of break :-)

Friday was the big day for my kidney procedure and things went very well. We were at the hospital bright and early to get the pre-op stuff done. The medical staff took really good care of me and I had some great doctors working on me. I was only supposed to be in the OR for an hour but it turned into 3 hours. It was nothing serious but the doctor had a hard time grasping the stone that was in my left kidney. My left kidney is all clear and I'll probably need one minor treatment to clear up my right kidney. My pain from the procedure has been very tolerable and I'm so happy about that.

Thats a wrap on the lovely week gone by. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and safe travels if your going to be on the road.

Peace...Mark

Winter arrives/NIN

It's a frigid Sunday morning here in Missoula with the mercury currently at -4. We fortunately ducked the worst of the weekend blizzard and only got a few inches of the white stuff. As I look out the window, Mt. Jumbo has a nice thin blanket of snow on it. I must say it looks much better than the drab brown color we've been looking at. The pugs aren't impressed by this weather and they are in snuggle mode until further notice :-)

Well the semester has officially drawn to a close but it's not over for me yet. I had to postpone two of my exams until early January because of the pain my kidneys have recently been dishing out. Speaking of my kidneys, they are scheduled to be blasted with shock waves on December 19th. Not my idea of a fun at Christmas but it needs to be handled. Hopefully the procedure will break up my stones on the first attempt and we won't be looking at doing this a second time.

Winter break will be nice but I won't be idle for too long. Starting on January 5th, I'll be taking an online Photoshop course and I figured this would be a great way to pick up some fast credits. The course only lasts for two weeks and it should be helpful in my journalistic pursuits. I really don't have any other plans for break besides catching up on my Netflix.

I caught the Nine Inch Nails show as they made a stop in Missoula last Tuesday. They are much harder and intense than the music I usually listen but I thought they put on a great show. Reznor's vocals were awesome and his musical prowess on a variety of instruments was amazing. I really liked when Trent played an enormous xylophone. Very cool! I've attached a clip of one of my favorites from that night.

That's all for this update but I'll be back after my surgery on Friday. I'll have a little announcement to share when I come back with my next update. Take care until then...Mark

Oh by the way, the UM Grizzlies will be playing for the NCAA Div. I-AA football championship on Friday (12/19) night. You can catch the game from Chattanooga TN on ESPN2. Game time is at 8 p.m. Eastern.

The Great Chicken Debate

It's a crazy pre-finals week here in Missoula but in 8 glorious days I'll be on break! Came across this neat video on the recent chicken debate in town and had to pass it along. For the record I'm pro-chicken ;-)

Peace...Mark