BB?

For many years now I have been tied to a Blackberry Smart phone. The latest one is the Blackberry Torch 9800 (the numbers are necessary now because new models are available.) My cell plan let me upgrade my phone every year and a half or so. This has kept me roughly in current technology. I love the Blackberry! I love getting email everywhere and being able to carry my address book with me. I love being able to sync it with Outlook. I have over time seen the coming of the iphone and then Android and I have stayed loyal and happy with my BB.

Now it seems that Blackberry may be having difficulties. Their new models are not as competitive and the company seems to be under pressure. They are competing with giant companies like Apple and Google. They recently released a Tablet PC. It is a fine piece of equipment, but I am afraid it won't appeal to anyone other than an existing Blackberry user. They gave it an unfortunate name "the Playbook." Blackberry's strength has been for business users. Playbook, please! More than the name is the fact that the operating system is proprietary to Blackberry. It is well done, but there will be few applications. Applications are being written for the iphone/ipad and for Android phones and tablets. Fewer are written for Blackberry. The writing is on the wall.

What will my next phone be, iphone or an Android? Well I just bought an Android Tablet. I really don't want to be sucked into the Apple world! I will stay with PC's and if I move from Blackberry it may be to Android. We'll see how I like this Tablet.

By the way, Hello from Rhode Island! I hope your day is bright and sunny!

Love,
Shel

Who's in Control?

Buy the Mini Model Camera with 3 lenses at the Photojojo Store!

I thought the model camera above was just too cute!  I had to include it.

Well my life isn't exactly chaos any more, but it does seem to be changing substantially.  Right now I spend 5 days a week with my father to help him and three days at home.  At home is kind of an euphemism because when I am home I am running around doing the things that didn't get done during the week.  It also seems that everyone is having a picnic I need to attend.  I have made about half of these picnics.  I spend free time working on my sermon.  Yes, it's summer and I am filling in at churches.


One of the more difficult things this year has been that I have been unable to visit my son and his family in Arizona.  Earlier this year it was money, then it was health, now it needing to help my father that prevents me from going.  My granddaughter is growing up and I am missing it!

No matter how much it may seem that I am complaining, I really am very thankful.  I am thankful to be alive and I am thankful my father is too and it is a pleasure to be able to help him.  Anything else is that may be inconvenient is just that, a minor inconvenience.

Love,
Shel

Chaos

Life is chaos!  Since my last post my life has turned topsy turvy.  I have healed well from the surgery so my health is good.  However as I was healing my father, who is just weeks short of the age of 100, my father had congestive heart problems.  He is recovering well, but the timing was lousy (is there ever a good time?)  I had not healed enough to drive any distance and had to have a friend drive me to visit him in the Hospital.  When I had healed enough to drive my car wouldn't start!  It seems that an animal of some sort took up residence in the wiring and decided to chew a bit.  Well, $700 later and a very bad day broken down on the side of the highway I was able to drive.  Guess what?  That car just became unreliable, deciding to stop and then restart at the strangest times. I was actually trapped at a drive-in ATM for a half hour.

I had to buy a new car.  I hated to part with the old one.  It had 226,000 miles on it and was an old friend.  Sentimentality aside I needed reliable, so a new car. Pictures of new car will follow.

I am now living in two places.  I spend most of the week with my father to help  him and I return home on the weekends to do church services.  Life is chaos!

Love,
Shel

AAA

This is an update on my physical condition and does not relate to the Emergency Road Service.  I had surgery last Friday, June 24th, for an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA).  The surgery was successful and I am mending. Today is the first day I have felt like trying to use a computer.  I came home late Sunday after a day of waiting.  Healing is kind of like watching grass grow.  It is slow but steady.  I am beyond having pain when I sit or lay still, but oof!  when I get up!! 

As I understand it much of my pain is from bruising during the surgery.  They had to insert implants into my Aorta through the Femoral arteries in both legs.  These are major arteries and they need to heal well.  That is my job now healing.  So, I will stay at home and heal. 

Peace to you all.

Love, Shel

Update on the Medical Situation

This is less of an update than a status report.  I am all set to go in for surgery.  I am sincerely hoping that everything will go as planned and I will be out and home in a day or so.  Of course there is just a possibility that things will be more difficult than planned, but I am not expecting that.  It does haunt my mind occasionally though, I must admit. 

I am going to see my father (99 years old) this Wednesday to bring him his father's day present and to reassure him. Aside from that I am just attending to details of life and preparing for the recuperation period.  That period should be a week or two.

I will update you when I am home and feeling like Blogging again.

Peace and love,
Shel

Here's the Story

It  appears that the situation with the aortic aneurysm is serious.  I am scheduled for surgery on Friday the 24th of June.  Yes, that's only about a week and a half away!  The aneurysm is greater than 5 cm now and really is a potential threat.  The Doctor is very positive about the outcome.  I should only be in the hospital about 24 hrs, including the surgery.  I am otherwise in good health and he says I have the blood pressure of a 20 year old.  I have much to do before the surgery.  I will try to give updates.
I borrowed this from a medical web site:

Endovascular Stent Surgery: Most thoracic aortic aneurysms are now treated with a minimally invasive approach called endovascular stent-graft repair, instead of conventional surgery. In this approach, a catheter is used to insert and guide a stent-graft (a polyester tube covered by a tubular metal web) into the aorta to the site of the aneurysm. The procedure begins by making a small incision in the groin and inserting the stent-graft into the femoral artery (which descends directly from the aorta). Using fluoroscopy (a continuous x-ray technique) and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), the stent-graft is guided through the aorta to the aneurysm. With the stent-graft in place, blood flows through the stent-graft instead of through the aneurysm, eliminating the risk of rupture. This procedure may not require general anesthesia, and patients may have only a two-day hospital stay.

I will be under general anesthesia.  I have rather bad arthritis in my lower spine so spinal anesthesia  isn't the best option.  I kind of think just waking up after the whole thing may be best any way.  Well more later.

Love,
Shel

Up-Date - Sort of

Well, I went to the vascular surgeon and he said, Hmmmmm. He looked at CAT scans back to 7 years ago and said ......... " I need a new CAT SCAN.  These things need precise measurement."  As he talked and the way he talked I became more and more certain that he was talking surgery, sooner than later.  I have had the CAT scan and I see the Vascular Surgeon again tomorrow.  I suspect I will leave that appointment with some more concrete information.   He did say to me that the surgery I would be looking at was the less invasive "Stent Insertion" procedure. This is a kind of a relief.  There is less in the way of recovery.  The downside is that there is much more follow-up.

In the mean time, for fun I had a colonoscopy!  This is a part of my normal follow-up from the past colon cancer.  The good news is that everything looks pretty good there.

I seems that I move from one Doctor's appointment to another.  This will probably continue for a while.  Aside from the actual appointments and occasional procedure this all seems to intrude on my life in a minor way.  I know that if I have the Aneurysm fixed, even with the stent, there will be a period of convalsecence, but that is better than it being a fatal condition.

My attitude is good and I am physically strong and that can only help.

How are other things going?  Well, I continue to fill in on Sunday Services, take event photos, write blogs, and fix computers.  I just finished working on two major Community Projects.  I am busier than anything.  I had to stop Saturday and do laundry and work on my Sermon, there was no other time.  By the way I took the above picture while on a recent job.  I had to really cut it down to get it to upload.

I keep you informed about the health.  Peace!
And as usual Love,
Shel