The sound of.....Windows music?!

That's right folks, I have found what I think to be one of the greatest videos ever made. Here it is:


It's a song made purely out of sounds from Windows XP and Windows 98 (as in 10 years ago 98....wow). Apparently the guy was just bored and had some spare time on his hands. I wish I could make something as cool as this in my free time, all I do is school work, reading, movies etc, and some games of course.

Speaking of games, anyone who knows anything about me knows I'm a gamer, but I can honestly say I've been doing hardly any of it. Right now, as Adam mentioned in his blog, I've been playing a game called Civilization 4. My most recent adventure was me building up the country of India as Gandhi, and I had the joy of having Mao Zedong as my neighbor. If he was half as cranky in real life as he was in that game, then I'm glad I'll never meet him. He declared war on me TWICE, and only wanted to talk about peace after I sacked 13 of his cities (don't mess with Gandhi, fool).

This week Elder Scott is coming to our Stake on Sunday, and I've decided that with the help of probably a wheelchair and some pain killers, I AM going to that meeting. I managed to go to church last week, but only for sacrament meeting. After that, I was really exhausted for some reason, and started to get light headed. I'm glad I made it though, since I don't get out of the house much (yet...). In about 11 days (or 10, depending on what time zone you live in ;) ), I should be allowed to put some weight on the joint, and you can bet that I'm going to do a LOT more things out of the house when I get the chance.

Yay!

Well I went to the doctor today, and things seem to be improving nicely. It will be another 3 weeks before I can put any real weight on the joint, so until then I'll have to be content with the fact that I can use crutches now instead of a walker. I also have a much better time sitting down in chairs and getting back up onto my feet. I can also manage going up and down stairs now using the crutches.

Other than going home from the hospital in a lot of pain and in a drugged state, this was the first time I had really gone outside since the surgery. It was a weird feeling, but it felt great to be out and about doing stuff again. I only really lasted about 4 hours though. I became rather tired from all the energy used in that time, so I'm just back at home chilling out.

Just to help some people realize how serious this all is, I'm posting a picture of my x-ray so you can see all the mayhem that has happened. And to think....I have to go through this all again.

On a more serious note, some people have been asking me if the pain is bad. Right now, I'd say it is about 1 or 2 out of 10. It wasn't like this during the first week. Never in my life did I ever feel so much pain as I did that week. Imagine pain so bad that you totally lose control of your muscles and your breathing, shaking half to death and crying your eyes out and wanting someone to just kill you so it would end the pain. All this with feeling that nobody was there for you, because at the time this happened, nobody was around. The nurses took their sweet time coming to the room to find out what was wrong, and by then, I was half unconscious since the pain was so excruciating. At one point later in the day, I was injected with a drug that just put me to sleep (my mom was around by then). The drug was meant for anti nausea, but it's side effect put me to sleep for hours while they were trying to figure out why the pain management was going so horribly wrong.

The updates

The following is a list of updates my mom wrote to people about my surgery. I figured that instead of telling the story over again, I can just copy and past and make everyone satisfied. All the parts of the post you see in red is my commentary on her updates :)

Update 1 - 22nd January 2008

Grant tore the cartilage on the ball of the hip in his left hip joint about 8 months ago. In the process of finding out what was wrong, we discovered that he has hip dysplasia (can't figure out why that wasn't picked up when he was a baby!-Um, African doctors anyone?), and an imbalance in the way his pelvis and hip sockets (can't remember the real names -The acetabulum (sp?) for all you medical nuts) have formed. The surgery was to repair the cartilage and restructure the hip. He has to have the right side taken care of in a year, so this is the first of two stages, a year apart (we hope he doesn't remember the pain from this round, otherwise stage 2 may not happen). -Just like I'm sure women don't remember the pain of giving birth

These health issues have affected his life drastically - he has had to drop out of his Culinary Arts program at UVSC as he cannot stand for more than a few minutes. He also moved back home as he lived on the third floor of an apartment block with 5 other guys from his singles ward. He has to be non-weight-bearing on his left leg for the next 6 weeks -I'm having trouble sitting still for so long, let's get this whole walking business on the road already!, so being home is probably the best option for him right now, even though it's very "uncool."(?....If its "uncool", then I must be in the same popularity range as Tom Cruise, ugh) Of course his social life has also hit the rocks as it's difficult to go out with friends when you can barely walk...or sit...or stand....let alone dance, rock climb -or when they get into car accidents and can't drive up to see you, ski, or anything else young adults do when they socialize. Hence we have had a somewhat miserable soul with us the past few weeks. Hopefully this surgery will be the start of good things for him. The doctor has told us it will be about 4 months before he is fully healed from the surgery. -Give me a cane to walk around with, and any social hiccups will instantly disappear. Hey, if it worked for Pres. Hinkley, it'll work for me, right?

Update 2

Grant went into surgery at 11.30 and spent the next 5 1/2 hours there. Dr Smith came out and explained the procedure to us - He is finally in his hospital room on the 4th floor. He has been extremely nauseous and shaking, saying he is cold.-This was hell, imagine shaking uncontrollably but not being cold at the same time. The nurses have been very attentive, bringing him warmed blankets and trying to get him to sip a little warm chicken broth.-I honestly don't remember this part. His right hand went numb and they have tried to fix this with reducing the pressure on his BP cuff, and lifting the arm onto a pillow so that the epidural anesthetic (he is still having from his surgery) does not sink down to his hands.

Dr Smith mentioned that he uses a special swiss-made tool (called a Gonz Osteotome sp?) for this particular procedure. It is critical for success, however, just as they were performing the last cut, the tool broke.-What can I say? My bones are made of steel! He told us he has no replacement, and had the tool broken earlier in the surgery, it would have been a disaster as the procedure could not have been completed. In fact they would have had to just close him up and he would have been left unable to walk and sit.-I think I would've strangled someone, so lets get another tool (or 3) ready for the next time round Dr Smith felt very strongly that the prayers of all the family and friends of Grant had been heard, as things went incredibly well, even with the timing of the broken tool.-I'll bet he was just emotional because he knew he would've had a lot of upset people on his hands if he aborted, talk about dodging bullets.

Update 3 - 24th January 2008

One of the worst things imaginable is to watch a child go through excruciating pain and not be able to help fix it. Grant's blood pressure started dropping last night - down to 110/60, then 90/43.-So much for high blood pressure in our family. Then his SATS (O2) went down to the 70's-Nobody can call me an oxygen thief now :). When his blood counts were done this morning, his body was going into shock from the severe loss of blood (remember I mentioned in the Christmas newsletter that Grant would be giving blood 3x prior to surgery as there's a possibility of blood loss?-Best idea ever. It generally occurs after, not during, surgery). When I arrived at the hospital this morning, he was as white as a sheet - lips too. He was shaking uncontrollably, but gradually settled down when he received the first unit of blood. He received 2 units of blood in total, and it helped enormously.

However, his IV pain medications were removed and he was put on pain meds by mouth. Thankfully Physical Therapy managed to get him to stand and take 3 halting steps before the pain hit him. The pain meds simply did not work.-To put it lightly Added to this, Grant became nauseous, so between excruciating pain and dry retching, he has had the most awful day. Zofran, a strong anti-nausea drug-So amazingly strong that it did NOTHING which is used for cancer patients did nothing-They would probably have had better luck injecting water into me; Oxycontin, for pain, had no effect. To add to this, Grant began to feel like he couldn't breath, so now he's on oxygen again. His SATS dropped to 78 just a short while ago so he's being monitored closely too (with a ghastly little machine that beeps constantly-That machine was so loud, it was maddening.). His nurse called Pain Management and they changed the nausea meds to Phenergan via IV. He threw up the Oxycontin and since they don't know how much his body had absorbed, he has to be on breakthrough meds every 2 hours till tomorrow morning. Andre and Judy, and Jean-Paul came to visit him this pm - Andre and Jean-Paul gave him an administration...and he's finally settled down. He asked me to stay at the hospital, so I'm going to try and sleep on a squeaky recliner next to his bed....and we have to do this again in a year!

Update 4 - 27th January 2008

Grant's nausea has become a huge stumbling block to him dealing with pain and being able to progress with physical therapy. The original plan was for him to be discharged on Friday, however, his symptoms have not yet been brought under control. After returning from the hospital late on Saturday night, I was so stressed about what we were going to do, so I got down on my (very old and stiff) knees, and prayed, asking Heavenly Father to help us find a way to help Grant. I woke up early this morning and got to the hospital at about 6.30am. I wanted to catch the doctor and speak to him about the current plan of care. So far he hasn't come by (Sundays are always a little different in the hospital). However, my sister Louise and her husband Ric came by the hospital this morning, and Louise and I started talking about options for nausea control. Louise mentioned "Maxolon," a drug that was used in South Africa for severe nausea - I remember using it myself, so we started checking out the possible American equivalent on my little laptop here at the hospital (we got some very weird looks from doctors and nurses at the desk as Louise used medical terms and references that have always sounded like Greek to me!). Apparently a drug called "Reglan" is the American version. We spoke to Grant's nurse Lisa, and she called the doc. The doctor has taken him off all his previous painkillers and nausea meds. He is now on Reglan for nausea, and Dilaudid (hydromorphone) for pain. After a blessing from Ric, Grant was given his first dose of the new meds and has been sleeping for about 2 hours now....

Grant woke up a new young man! He was so much more like his old self - chatty and laughing, and ready to come home. Who would have thought the answer to my prayer would come through my big sister and her training in medicine that she no longer officially practices in!

Update 5 - 29th January

Miracles! It's Tuesay 29th Jan and Grant came home yesterday-That was an adventure all on it's own, the nurses looked happy about my departure.... He is doing so much better! His pain is being managed on very small doses of medicine; he's hardly been nauseous at all; he walked right through to the kitchen from his bedroom this morning on his platform walker (we have home health, so both a nurse and a physical therapist come to the house to work with him ); he was able to take a shower after a week (smells SO much better-Amen to that :D) and was able to eat a hearty dinner this evening of 4 meatballs (Richard's delicious Lingonberry sauce!) and a red potato (also some of a "special" smoothie Ash made him). Okay we're just going to leave out the last part of this update.

Thank you

A big thank you to all who have written and visited me. I will send more personal notes out and give a detailed break down on what has happened when i can.