Livid Rantings

2009-08-31T09:46:00.002-06:00

Today I start my new job at Young Living Essential Oils. I am excited to start working again, but also a little nervous about my first job in over a year and a half. I only hope my back is up for it. I am sure the training week will be the hardest because of the limited amount of freedom (fewer breaks) you get while learning the inner workings of a new company. So everyone wish me luck. :)

2009-08-30T20:25:00.004-06:00

We have a new addition to our family. We have named her "Shasta", She has been with us for a week now and has already grown dear to us. We are working on teaching her basic commands as well as housebreaking her. Luckily she has been very responsive to the training.

She loves her stuffed duck (seen here in her bed) and her toy puppy. She has the cutest personality and is at this moment playing tug of war with Tanner. We look forward to many years to come with this new member of our family.

2009-06-10T22:04:00.000-06:00

Goofy People

2009-04-15T13:44:00.005-06:00

The kids and I discovered a new feature on my webcam and decided to have some fun. What a bunch of goofy people we are...

Harry Potter

2009-04-15T13:40:00.005-06:00

2009-04-07T17:34:00.001-06:00

webcam pic of silly faces :P

same old, same old

2009-04-07T17:22:00.003-06:00

Not much has changed lately for us as a family. We are still doing the same old routine. I am currently still not working, but have been looking casually. Lindsay is also looking to change jobs away from Wal-Mart. Not to go to far off topic here but I can't stand Wal-mart yet I am too poor to shop else where, is that irony? Anyway, the only major event that happened recently was that Aeddon was recently Baptized a member of the church and I was able to perform the baptism and the confirmation. I'll have to post some pictures at a later date. For me, I am still trudging along in school. I am currently taking Finite Mathmatics and yes its as bad as it sounds :P Luckily my sister, Heidi, has been tutoring me and has been a HUGE help. After this class I get to start in the fun stuff like web programming and Java...

My Family

2009-01-23T13:29:00.001-07:00

My Family
Aeddon, David, Lindsay
Ashton and Tanner

Long time, no post

2009-01-23T11:35:00.002-07:00

Well, its been awhile since I have posted anything. The holidays went well, especially Christmas. Our family was blessed and we received a secret santa for the boys and they were also selected to participate in a fund raiser that allowed them to go shopping with the local high school kids and firefighters. So the kids got plenty of gifts and were very happy.

The new year has brought high hopes. I am functional enough to do light work and will be starting a "work at home" job that my sister, Heidi, helped me to obtain. This should be a very good opportunity for me because I am not completely healed and the majority of my day is still spent in the reclined position.

I am also still attending the University of Phoenix Online working toward my BSIT degree. Its difficult to stay motivated but I am still hanging in there and doing fairly well.

I'll try to keep up to date here, but no promises :)

Progress is Progress

2008-10-07T15:24:00.002-06:00

Well, I just had my first post-surgical follow up with my Neurosurgeon and he had good things to say. Before the surgery, he had given me a 50/50 chance of success and now he believes that I am on the better side of those odds. The only concern we have is that there may be a hardware issue. The X-rays show that one of the screws may be passing through the nerve bundle, effecting my right leg. He has referred me to another doctor to deal with resolving this issue and I see him at the end of the month. So 5 months out of work now and no sign of when I will be able to return :(

All down hill from here...

2008-09-04T06:11:00.002-06:00

Well, I just had my fusion done yesterday and things are going great. Its been about 16 hours now since having the 6.5 hour surgery and I have already been up and walking around (much to the nurses surprise.) I am, however, heavily medicated and its very difficult to muster up the brain power to write even this much so I will add more later when my head isn't so cloudy.

Just Around the Corner

2008-08-28T23:52:00.003-06:00

Ok, I never claim to be a "Macho" man but the thought of someone slicing open my back and digging into my spine never truly bothered me. Although I must admit that I am becoming slightly apprehensive about this second operation. I am very lucky to have such a loving wife that has been so supportive of me and after the last surgery, she waited on me hand and foot. Now she has put in for another leave of absence so that she can once again take care of me, as a child would try to nurse a baby bird back to health after it has fallen from its nest.

More to come

2008-08-12T11:15:00.002-06:00

Well, I saw my Neurosurgeon yesterday and it seems that I am going to have another surgery.
They will be fusing two of my vertebrae together. The recovery is expected to take about 3 months and I have about a 50% chance of recovery. I'll keep posting as long as the pain allows me to.

Photoshop

2008-07-28T19:26:00.003-06:00

I've been practicing my PhotoShop skills lately and found this old family photo that my cousin had posted to her blog so I decided to test my skills and see if I was able to make the old picture look like new.

Before

After

Back to School

2008-07-28T12:49:00.000-06:00

I have just finished my first week back in school and I am stoked about it. I am attending the University of Phoenix Online where I am working to get my Bachelor's degree. The courses are for BSIT/MVC. Which in layman's terms means: Bachelor of Science in Information Technology specializing in Multimedia and Visual Communications. All-in-all it means I will be a graphic Designer.

Etsy

2008-07-28T12:45:00.000-06:00

I also wanted to let everyone know that I have found a way to try to occupy my time as well as make a few bucks. I have opened a shop on Etsy.com and will be trying to sell some of my photography. Feel free to take a look at my shop by clicking here.

Pain is such a pain

2008-07-28T11:25:00.000-06:00

As many of you may or may not know, I have recently under-gone back surgery.
When I was 16 and living in Mesa, AZ I had an unfortunate accident that would change the rest of my life. One fine summer day I decided it was time to go into the back yard and trim the palm tree that was growing there. As I was finishing the job there was a particularly stubborn palm frond that was very opposed to be trimmed. As i exerted the necessary force to remove it, I fell from the ladder. It was a 10 foot drop and I landed flat onto my lower back.

I lived through 15 years of chronic back pain and numerous doctors and chiropractors telling me there was, ultimately, nothing wrong with me. Then one morning, in April 2008, as I was getting ready for work, I sneezed. Now most people would not be overly concerned by such a thing, but for me I thought I had just thrown my back out. As this was a regular occurrence for me, I was not overly worried. I took some Tylenol and went to work.

As my day progressed at work, so did the level of my pain. My hopes of making it through the day were quickly dashed and I had to get to my Doctor as soon as possible. Shortly after arriving at the doctor, my pain was incapacitating. My doctor decided it was time to get me to the emergency room. After a very painful drive I made it to the emergency room where I had an MRI taken of my back. The MRI showed that I had an acute rupture of the the L5-S1 disk out the left side. So I was admitted and had surgery performed to remove a portion of my disk called a "Discectomy".

This lead to me having to go on short-term disability leave from work while I recovered. My recovery was going very well for the first 4-6 weeks but then the healing stopped, the pain started to increase again, and physical therapy was starting to hurt more and more. So I went back for another MRI and found out that there was still disc material in my back that was causing difficulties.

After an extensive search to find a new Neurosurgeon, I received Steroid injections into my spine. That caused a completely unexpected complication. Apparently I suffer from an uncommon side effect called Steroid Psychosis. After a very painful and trippy 24 hours, things started to improve.

So here I am now, 3 months later, still on disability leave and patiently waiting to find out if I am going to have a second surgery or not. If I am able to have a follow-up surgery, then after I recover from that I should be able to return to work and lead a relatively normal life. If surgery is not a viable option, then I will be this way for the rest of my life. Suffering from extreme back pain, constantly taking Narcotics for managing the pain, and unable to work.

You can guess what I am hoping for and I will keep posting here to update my condition for anyone that happens to read this and is interested in following up.