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Modern medicine is such a blessing!

Posted by Catmman on Friday, February 26, 2010 12:46:31 PM
I'm progressing well with my recovery from surgery almost two weeks ago.

The wound vac which was installed on my abdominal incision was removed today - thank the Lord.  Every time the dressing was changed, it was like someone was ripping open my skin.  The home health nurse who is taking care of these changes, as well as the ostomy/wound specialist at the hospital said it shouldn't hurt me as much as it is.  The ostomy/wound specialist decided to go ahead and take the vac off and replace it with another type of dressing.  It is much more comfortable and I'm not tied down to lugging around a vacuum pump with me anymore.  Two weeks tethered to that thing was enough.

Still adjusting to life with a colostomy.  The Vice-Commander and I have the mechanics of things down pretty well though and it isn't such a chore taking care of business.  Fortunately, I'm newly retired and not working right now, so I don't have the headaches some might with dealing with this type of thing, which is nice.

Modern medicine is a wonder.  The technology, the procedures, everything involved with what I'm going through medically just amazes me.  The colostomy notwithstanding, the wound in my abdomen is what gets me.  

I am cut from just below my sternum to below my belly button.  This wound is still open, it was never sutured shut.  The big reason for this was the need for this wound and my abdomen to drain due to the spillage of all that garbage into my belly from my colon.  The wound vac helped suck out the drainage and begin the closure of the wound naturally.  After talking to the ostomy/wound specialist today i learned the wound won't be sutured shut at all.  It will be allowed to heal all by itself, which just goes against ingrained 'wisdom'.  

The wound is now covered by a specialty dressing instead of the wound vac.  It's this purple colored material. You simply make it pliable with sterile water or saline, pack the wound and cover with a silicon adhesive 'band-aid'.  The purple stuff is treated to help prevent infection and also absorbs any drainage from the wound.  It's much more comfortable and should be a lot less painful during dressing changes.

I have been blessed with wonderful caretakers, nurses, specialists and doctors, as well as the technology to get me better.

Gonna take a nap now.  Later.
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Diverticulitis Revenge: The Exploding Colon, Part III

Posted by Catmman on Sunday, February 21, 2010 3:34:47 PM
Last weekend, I came pretty close to cashing it in.

I have had two previous flare ups of diverticulitis over the last 18 months.  Diverticulitis is an infection of diverticulosis, which are pouches on the outside of the colon wall.  Not everyone has them, and doctors don't know why some people develop them, but I did.  These pouches are susceptible to blockage and subsequent infection.  If you have diverticulosis, you have to watch what you eat since some foods are prone to get caught in those pouches; anything containing seeds, any kinds of nuts, that sort of thing.

My first infection came in October of 2008.  It presented with severe abdominal pain and cramps, which only get worse over time.  There are no over the counter remedies or treatments.  The only treatment is to get to the doctor, get control of the pain and subsequent anti-biotic therapy.

In severe cases of infection, it can be necessary to undergo surgery to have the infected part of the bowel removed.  Surgery usually results from a rupture of the bowel wall due to the infection and subsequent inflammation.  If a rupture occurs, the contents of the bowel empty into the abdomen causing secondary infection, swelling of surrounding organs, and ultimately, sepsis. 

I had two flare ups of diverticulitis as I mentioned.  The first one in October of 2008.  the second one a year later in October, 2009.  The decision was made both times that due to my age (only being 40 at the time of the second episode), surgery was unnecessary.

Flash forward to the week before last, actually, almost two weeks ago.  Most of my family came down with some crud that knocked us on our collective butts.  Eventually though, we started getting better.  In my case though, I just didn't feel right.  I got over the illness (coughing, fever, diarrhea) but I just didn't feel like I was getting back to normal.  I couldn't get my appetite back.  I just felt fatigued all the time.  I just figured it was taking me an unusually long time to get over being sick.  I wasn't feeling any pain.  I didn't have a repeat of any fever.

Anyway, that Friday night (about 1030) I started getting pain in my abdomen.  It didn't feel like diverticulitis.  It wasn't originally sever.  It felt like gas pains.

Over the course of the next hour, my condition deteriorated.  The pain was almost an exponential increase.  By the time my wife got me to the ER, I was in shock, the pain was excruciating.  This was the first time in my life I had experienced shock - it wasn't fun.

Over the next few hours, the ER docs pumped me full of morphine and fentanyl which didn't get my pain under complete control, which should have told me it was bad.  I wasn't really thinking straight though, so what do I know...

The weird thing is that none of the preliminary tests - blood work or CT scan - showed any rupture, though the CT scan did show the inflamed diverticulitis.  The decision was made to admit me and possibly do an exploratory scope into the abdomen to see what was going on.  By the time I got up to the ward, the docs had already consulted with some other specialists and the decision was made to go in and take a look.

I was sent down to pre-op and told about what was going to happen.  T/hey said it shouldn't take more than thirty minutes or so. I figured, fine, just give me the happy juice and let's get this party started.

My surgery lasted almost six hours.  When the doctors put the scope in my abdomen, it took the doctor ten seconds to pull it out and cut me from my rib cage to just below my belly button.  My colon had ruptured sometime during the previous 12 hours. Why the pain waited as long as it did, the doctors don't know.  Waste material and other garbage had been leaking into my abdomen for half a day.  A good chunk of my colon had to be removed.  The longest part of the operation was cleaning out my insides.  A lot of fluid had surrounded my liver which took some time to get rid of.

I had to have a colostomy installed.  Let me tell you, if you've never had a colostomy, you're really missing out!  Good times...

I spent the next week in the hospital getting medicated with anti-biotics and was kept hooked up to a morphine pump for pain control.  I also had a wound vac installed on my abdominal incision.  The incision site had to be kept open to allow for drainage since the infection in my abdomen was so bad.  A wound vac is a machine wherein a special type of foam is placed into the open wound channel.  It is then covered with a special air and water proof plastic barrier which adheres to the skin.  A vacuum/suction pump is then placed in a spot along the wound channel, is covered, and a vacuum pump is turned on.  Apparently, this type of wound closure excellerates healing time by up to 50%.  Except for the times during the week that the dressing has to be changed and the pump is turned back on, it isn't to painful, though lugging around the pump is a bit of a pain.

So, here I am, nine days post-op.  I'm doing pretty good, all things considered.  The doctors said had it been another twelve hours or so, things could have been a lot worse.  Fortunately, the colostomy is only temporary. They'll be going back in within 3-6 months to rebuild things inside and reconnect my plumbing.

I'll be stopping in from time to time, but blogging will admittedly be light for awhile.
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Texas Governor Candidates Are Frakkin Nuts

Posted by Catmman on Friday, February 12, 2010 10:18:32 PM
What the hell is wrong with the people in my state?  Two candidates: one Democrat, one Republican.

Both nuckin futcases.

By now, a lot of people have probably heard about Debra Medina's meltdown on Glenn Beck yesterday.  She is a 9/11 Truther. She attempted to backtrack on her comments yesterday, but today, she is doubling down on the crazy:


She's just glad people are asking questions.  Yeah.  The only reason one "asks questions" is to get answers.  Answers they don't already have.  When it comes to 9/11, if you're still "asking questions" your a nuckin futcase.  Oh, she's also a 'Birther'. Wonderful.  But it's just about "asking questions".

Tell me Mrs. Medina, if "asking questions" is the issue, why is getting asked a question about 9/11 somehow an attack and a conspiracy upon you and your campaign?  It's simply a question, right?

I heard audio on a local radio station today from a press conference she gave sometime today.  She believes the question from Beck on 9/11 and the subsequent firestorm was "an attack" on her campaign.  A coordinated attack.  Yeah.  From who?  Glenn Beck?  Rick Perry?  Kay Bailey Hutchison?  All of them?  The Bilderbergers?  Perhaps the Illuminati?  It's probably the Jooooos, right Debra?

I went on you tube to see if I could find any postings of today's presser.  I couldn't find it, but there were plenty of clips from Mrs. Medina on Alex Jones radio show.  Alex Jones, King of the 'Truthers'.  Yeah, she's a wackjob.

Now as to the Democrat, Mr. Farouk Shami.

He's decided to one-up Mrs. Medina's nuttiness.  He's a 'Truther' too, it seems.  He's also a racist.

Earlier today, Shami taped an interview that will air Sunday on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics. The first-time candidate talked about why he hires mostly Hispanics and blacks to work in his factories.

"I find 80 percent of my employees at the factory are Hispanics," Shami said. "I don't find, you know, many white people really willing to work, you know, unfortunately."

He added that white workers want to be supervisors and expect to be paid more. Then, when a second interviewer asked Shami about Medina's comments regarding 9/11 conspiracy theories, he, too, declined to disavow suggestions that the U.S. government might have been involved in the attacks.

"Would we ever find the truth about 9/11? That's a very dangerous subject to get into," Shami said. "You know so it's hard to make judgment. I'm not saying yes or no, because I don't know the truth."

Shami's campaign has subsequently sent a statement of clarification, emphasizing that he does not know whether 9/11 was an inside job.


Texas is a better place than these people.  It really is sad this is the type of person who feels they have the ability, let alone the character to lead my great state.
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Debra Medina responds to 9/11 'Truth' Question

Posted by Catmman on Thursday, February 11, 2010 2:42:20 PM
Debra Medina issued the following statement in response to her botching of an interview on the Glenn Beck Show today:

I was asked a question on the Glenn Beck show today regarding my thoughts on the so-called 9/11 truth movement. I have never been involved with the 9/11 truth movement, and there is no doubt in my mind that Muslim terrorists flew planes into those buildings on 9/11. I have not seen any evidence nor have I ever believed that our government was involved or directed those individuals in any way. No one can deny that the events on 9/11 were a tragedy for all Americans and especially those families who lost loved ones.

The question surprised me because it's not relevant to this race or the issues facing Texans. This campaign has always been about private property rights and state sovereignty. It is focused on the issues facing Texans. It is not a vehicle for the 9-11 truth movement or any other group.

The real underlying question here, though, is whether or not people have the right to question our government. I think the fact that people are even asking questions on this level gets to the incredible distrust career politicians have fostered by so clearly taking their direction from special interests instead of the people, whether it's Rick Perry and his HPV mandate or Kay Hutchison and voting for the bank bailout. It is absolutely the right and duty of a free people to question their government. Texas does not need another politician who tells you what you want to hear, then violates your liberties and steals your property anyway. I fully expect to be questioned and to be held accountable as Governor, and that's the underlying issue here: should people be questioning their government. And the answer is yes, they should be.

In my opinion, the part of the first paragraph of her statement where she states "there is no doubt in my mind" is a lie.  A straight up lie.  If this is in fact what Mrs Medina believed, it would have been the first thing out her mouth when asked the question by Glenn Beck.  This is the statement of a person, a politician, who is caught and realizes they have stepped in a big pile of crap.

She states she has seen no evidence that our government was involved in the attacks.  Yet she stated, personally, that:

“I don’t have all the evidence there, Glenn,” Medina replied. “So I’m not in a place – I have not been out publicly questioning that. I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard. There’s some very good arguments and I think the American people have not seen all the evidence there so I’ve not taken a position there.”

So what evidence has she not seen?  The evidence which cause her to say what she said?  Or the evidence that the terrorists perpetrated the attack?  What evidence have the American people not seen?

Here is the relevant audio from the Glenn Beck interview again:



Does that sound like someone with "no doubt in their mind"?

As to her assertion she was simply making sure the American people have the right to be heard and criticize their government, that's a strawman.  No one, including Beck during or after the interview ever said otherwise.  In fact, Beck was sure to say that those who believe in Trutherism have a responsibility to act on those beliefs - not that they shouldn't have them.

I would also like to point out that one cannot use the federal Constitution as a bludgeon to score political points, yet complain about a question not directly relevant to the Texas Governor race.

Mrs. Medina has realized what it means to be an honest, forthright person seeking political office, not just someone taking advantage of public dissent about the government.  It takes someone of character, honesty and integrity to be a good leader, not just talking points.  

Mrs. Medina torpedoed her chances today and should be upfront and honest enough to admit it.
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Audio: Debra Medina on Glenn Beck

Posted by Catmman on Thursday, February 11, 2010 1:17:23 PM
This 'TEA Party' candidate effectively torpedoed her campaign for Texas Governor with this appearance on the Glenn Beck radio show.  Up until this interview, I didn't know anything about her.  Indeed, I listened to the interview for the express purpose of getting more information on this candidate.  As a Texas voter, I haven't made up my mind (well, not until today) and wanted more info.

Listen to the audio and make up your own mind:


If that isn't the 'picture' of a person who just (metaphorically) shot their own foot off, I don't know what is.

Debra Medina is a 9/11 Truther.  Sad, really.
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Debra Medina just ruined her campaign in Texas

Posted by Catmman on Thursday, February 11, 2010 11:29:05 AM
Debra Medina is a 9/11 Truther.  She was just on Glenn Beck's show and she just torpedoed herself in her campaign for Texas Governor.  Glenn asked her if she were a 9/11 Truther, directly.  While she, of course, didn't say she was, she was very precise in her belief that there are "manny questions left unanswered" about what happened on 9/11, which is political correct code for "yeah, the government brought down the towers."

She rambled in her interview.  She wouldn't shut up and sounded like she was simply repeating talking points.  

This supposed entry from the TEA Party movement just killed her own chances politically.  The TEA Party also is now hurt from this exposure.  This is one area which has always bothered me about some in the TEA Party movement.  9/11 Trutherism is one area which shows you are a kook, plainly put.  If you don't believe radical islamic terrorists committed the attacks of 9/11, there is something wrong with you.  

She also would not disavow 9/11 Truthers, another bad move.

She cannot be trusted.

Up until this interview, I didn't know anything about her.  Now I do and Texas deserves better. 
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Most Offensive Townhall Blog Post...EVAH!

Posted by Catmman on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 1:18:11 PM
Two words.  Just two.  Words which have elicited the most outrageous outrage from everyone.  Including Jesus.  Perhaps even Mohammed.  Most assuredly, Buddha.

Two words.  

Consider this your warning.  Read the following two words at your own risk.  If you read the following two words, even after reading said warning, your agree to hold harmless the writer of this, the most offensive blog post ever, from all future claims against your sissified, wussified psyche.  Be further warned that if you read the following two words, you are exposing yourself to the end all, be all of offensive words, even if those words have no context, implied or otherwise, since these two words are the most offensive words ever uttered by humanity, perhaps even hamsters.

You are further cautioned that reading the following two words may incite inexorable fear of ANY word you may hear uttered or see in print for the rest of your natural life.  Just reading these words may indeed cause you to be harangued, denigrated and attacked, without mercy by those around you.  Just reading these words proves you may indeed, hate kittehs.  

This is your final warning.

Ready?

1...

2...

3...


IWARNEDYOUOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Now, if you read those two words and feel guilty, I suggest the following penance:  hitting yourself in the head repeatedly with a tack hammer.  It has the bonus of hurting and looking silly while not causing any real damage to your insensitive ash.

As a public service I offer the following video:  Highly Sensitive People - Coping Strategies

You may be wondering just how in the world I had the power to WRITE those words, let alone read them.  Don't worry.  It was nothing really, since I'm just a soulless Conservative.
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Man, did THAT suck...

Posted by Catmman on Monday, February 08, 2010 10:17:57 AM
Thank you CBS for giving us the most boring, plain, unsurprising Super Bowl since the beginning of time!

First, the commercials.  Were there any special Super Bowl commercials on yesterday?  I saw a few, I think.  Otherwise, it was the same tired, rote, CBS self-flaggelation about NCIS, CSI and other shows.  To be fair, there were a few decent commercials.  I liked the Snickers commercial with Betty White and Abe Vigoda.  The Doritos commercial with the guys in the gym was a little funny. The Denny's commercials with the screaming chickens were funny - at first - then they just got annoying.  Otherwise, the commercials were a big disappointment.

Could the half-time show have been any more, how to say this...sad?  CBS went easy, getting the band who's song is the opening for CSI.  Pinball Wizard?  Really?  Roger Daltrey at least dressed appropriately.  Pete Townsend looked pathetic dressed as an aging hipster.  The Who sounded horrible, at least their vocals did.  The only thing decent about the half-time show was the light show.  The music, not to mention the band, was dated and sounded and looked that way as well.

The analyses.  I've noticed a definite degradation in the analysis of football games this season, mostly on CBS and NBC. Yesterday was no exception.  Phil Simms takes the dipstick award in particular.  After a simple post route by a Colt receiver, a route which Peyton Manning completed a short ten yard pass, Simms has the stones to say that that is the kind of play only manning could complete.  Really?  Only Peyton Manning could complete  a short pass on a simple post route?  Let's add that the team which scores the most points will win the game to that laser-like analysis.  After listening to Simms yesterday, now I know why there is some of the tension on the show Inside the NFL between Simms and his co-hosts, especially Chris Collinsworth.  I can't stand Collinsworth, but Simms goes to the head of the bus for moronic, simplistic, biased game analysis.

The game.  What a snore fest.  Admittedly, the on-side kick starting the second half was surprising.  But that's it.  There just didn't seem to be any intensity from either team for most of the game.  Neither team seemed to be playing as if it were the Super Bowl.  There was more of a 'shootout' in the second half of the game, but it was a little to little too late.  No big plays.  Aside from two gutsy calls from the Saints, the on-side kick and going for it on fourth and goal late in the second quarter, this was one of the most conservatively played games I've ever watched.  Just a whole lotta 'meh' in my opinion.

The NFL needs to take the game away from CBS for the foreseeable future.  This is the kind of performance which caused the NFL to take away it's franchise from CBS altogether some years ago for a period of time.  The halftime show was crap.  The commercials were crap, by and large.  The game analysis was poor and biased.  

Boring game, boring commercials, bad game analysis, awful, dated, halftime show.

Man, did THAT suck...
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Music: "Choctaw Hayride"

Posted by Catmman on Tuesday, February 02, 2010 1:48:54 PM
As I sit and contemplate on a dreary and cold day here in San Antonio, waiting for the rains to come, Allison Krauss and Union Station are good company.  Enjoy them in this rendition of "Choctaw Hayride":

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Captain America Vs. TEA Partiers

Posted by Catmman on Monday, February 01, 2010 9:24:02 PM
Captain America, the intentionally patriotic comic book creation of the 1940's, has found a new enemy, a new nemesis, a new villain to fight in the name of...?

In the newest edition of Captain America, #602 Captain America must infiltrate and take on America's newest scourge - TEA Partiers.  No, I'm not joking.  See the first few pages of the comic here, here and here.  The iconography is there as seen in the comic's own pages, "America[n] Not Americant!", "No Government in my Medicare!", "Stop the Socialists", "America 4 Sale", not to mention the hideously anti-american phrase, "No New Taxes!"

Just a few years ago, Marvel comics put together a crossover series of comics titled 'Civil War'.  In this set of comics, the government enacts legislation requiring all persons with superpowers or who are superheroes to register with the government as "superhuman weapons of mass destruction", reveal their true identities and submit to government 'training' (what that training consisted of, I have no idea).

The superhero community breaks into two factions:  Those favoring registration, led by Iron Man and those opposing registration, led by Captain America.  The forces opposing registration incidentally, do so on the grounds that registering violates numerous civil rights.  Smelling the irony yet?

Ultimately, the pro-registration faction wins out.  How?  During a climactic battle (is there any other kind in comics?) between Iron Man and Cap, Cap is on the verge of victory when a group of civilians attempts to restrain him.  Instead of fighting those he is ostensibly fighting for, he surrender and orders the anti-registration forces to stand down.  Certain members of the anti-registration faction (like the Punisher) refuse to surrender becoming outlaws and going underground.  Captain America is arrested and led away in handcuffs.

Just analyze that for a minute.  Captain America is fighting against the idea of an entire segment of the American population having to register with the government.  Hello?  CAPTAIN AMERICA IS FIGHTING AGAINST THE IDEA OF AN ENTIRE SEGMENT OF THE AMERICAN POPULATION REGISTERING WITH THE GOVERNMENT - AND HE'S THE BAD GUY!

All of this leads, ultimately, to the assassination of Captain America by his arch nemesis (until now) Red Skull.  This villain in one form or another is either a Nazi or a Communist, depending on time frame of the comic.  The Nazi/Commie/Villain Red Skull takes advantage of events to ultimately kill Captain America - by shooting him in the back.

So, Captain America ultimately does give up his life (in this story line) for Freedom and Liberty and is laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

Fast forward to 2010.

Admittedly, I don't follow Captain America (though I did buy the 'death' issue for collecting purposes) so I don't know who or what the new writers are thinking in this new thread.  Forget the borrowing from the now disgraced John Edwards with the whole "Two America's" title for the series.  Take a look at some of the lines:

"a grassroots, anti-government army."
"...looks like some kind of anti-tax thing."
"I don't exactly see a black man from Harlem fitting in with a bunch of angry, white folks."

Let me state now, for the record, I haven't read this comic and info about it is scarce.  And, admittedly, the sited pages are only three pages from an entire comic, so the reference material is a bit 'thin'.  Perhaps Cap is simply trying to keep some super-villain from using the TEA Party movement for nefarious purposes.  Perhaps.

That being said, forgive me if I'm not a bit suspicious.  Even if there is another intent, just in the sited pages, the implication is clear - TEA Partiers are what the MSNBC set has always said they were: racist, angry, anti-government rubes.  This wouldn't be the first time the comic book world has dipped it's bits into the Lefts (particularly Barack Obama's) - well, you know where I'm going with that:  Spiderman and Barack Obama.  Savage Dragon endorses Barack Obama.  Now Captain America bad mouthing the TEA Party movement as full of anti-government, angry, white folks.

Admittedly, if this is some type of attempt to influence children, it's pretty stupid.  There are very few kids who read, let alone follow, comics (or books for that matter) nowadays, there's just too many other avenues for their entertainment.  Comics have evolved over the last two decades to appeal more to people my age (collectors) or perhaps younger gamers in their mid twenties or thirties.  So why do this?

I don't know.  But even if Captain America can go after Americans for exercising their rights and freedoms (as exemplified by most in the TEA Party movement), or just those who go to rallies to voice their displeasure with an overreaching government, it's proof of one thing - there is nothing, NOTHING, safe from the encroachment of the stupid Leftist.

Addendum - In an ironic twist, there is an interesting side story involving Spiderman as a result of the superhero 'Civil War'. Spiderman was on the pro-registration side of the battle.  Iron Man, the leader of the pro-registration faction, in fact became his mentor.  Spidey complied with the new government law, removed his mask, and revealed his true identity to the public.  What did Spidey get in return for his loyalty to the government?  The Kingpin, one of Spidey's arch nemisi, shot his Aunt May.   In return for getting Aunt May healthy again, Spidey made a deal with Mephisto (another enemy) which ultimately cost Spidey his marriage.  Oh, and Spidey's identity was also secret again.  

So, in complying with the government, Spidey's Aunt was shot by an enemy, he had to make a deal with an enemy (appeasement?), he lost his marriage to his true love, and had to have his identity hidden again knowing what consequences could result from complying with the new law.

Liberals never think anything through...
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