Grant's Blog

Can I be Waterboarded now Please?

2009-12-27T19:21:00.001-07:00

I forgot to post this a little earlier, but it's just as relevant.

Dear Newlywed couple sitting behind me on the plane.

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your achievement. It must have taken a lot of time, effort, and determination to get where you both are today. Not many people can pull it off quite as well these days, but you two have certainly proved that it can still be done. Marriage? No, I'm talking about your achievement in becoming the two most obnoxious people on the plane. It's a shame that we're so close to Christmas, because Santa/Father Christmas might have to put me on his hit list (for those who are especially naughty) at the last minute.

How do I know you're newlyweds? well first of all I'm suffering from radiation sickness by the way you two are beaming there next to each other. Second of all, the guy sitting next to me told me, and he is an off-duty flight attendant (we'll call him Stewart) who has "seen this kind of bull---- all the time". Third, you are completely oblivious to the fact that there are other human beings in the vicinity who are all giving you dirty looks. Yes yes we all know you're so happy, but that doesn't mean you have to share it with all of us.

So what exactly have you done to earn the ire of myself and everybody around you? Your volume. Not only are you speaking to each other as if you're on opposite sides of the plane, but you are talking about the biggest load of tripe I've ever heard. Do you really think we care to hear about the process of elimination you go through while taking exams? Or your theory on why that hamster you're getting has a big black splotch on its fur? And the laugh, oh good grief the laugh. When I hear Stewart say "Man, I haven't seen people this bad in years", I wonder if I've stumbled into purgatory by accident.

There are however, those brief moments of silence that we have come to appreciate so much. Sometimes I wonder if you decided that you couldn't wait long enough for the flight to end (all 2 hours of it) and just hopped out (we can only hope). Then to my dismay I discover what all that chatter has been replaced with. Now I'll admit, I myself am guilty of public displays of affection in the past (I'm sure you all want to hear that), but do you REALLY have to be on top of her now? Can't you nitwits wait like another 30 minutes?

Oh look, the seat-belt light has lit up. I guess you two have run out of time to earn your rightful place in the Mile High Club, thank heavens. Next time you'll have to do an international flight. In the baggage compartment. For the whole time preferably.

A tortured soul who is feeling somewhat better now.
-GB

Gods Fencer

2009-09-12T02:09:00.002-06:00

I've been walking on and off with my cane, and most recently just walking around while carrying my cane. It's nice to have around as backup just in case my hip starts to become painful. I decided to go to the temple last week. For those of you who don't know, the temple is a very quiet place with people speaking softly in the halls to each other so as not to make too much noise. During my visit, I decided to use the lift that was being operated by a very nice lady who was rather advanced in age. Standing next to me was a very old and frail man with a cane. While we were going up in the lift, the man glanced over at me, then at my cane, then at me. His withered face then wrinkled into a mischievous grin. He leaned over to me and asked "you wanna have a cane fight?" . I couldn't help but laugh, and the woman operating the lift didn't know how to react at that moment.

With that in mind, we both moved slowly to the endowment room and enjoyed a good session :)

Just a note the food blog is still under reconstruction, and I will pay far more attention to it after the redesign. I think everyone is going to just love it, as Michele has been gracious in helping her artistically challenged brother.

Facebook = Skynet?

2009-08-26T23:49:00.002-06:00

I wrote a message to my sister Michele on facebook last week. I included a link in the message, which activated their security check. Lo and behold, the picture below shows what facebook wanted me to type in.

Just thought I'd share :)

Talk about commitment

2009-08-24T02:31:00.002-06:00

Ok this is just a quick post, but I just wanted to point out how amazing this video is. These guys must have dropped a lot of time and work into doing this.

Getting Back Up.

2009-08-12T02:31:00.002-06:00

I've been walking for a week now, and I've never been so happy to do so. I'm putting my life back together now, and I can finally look forward to clearer skies in my future. I went looking around the UV Job board again and found a job where I can become a recipe writer and tester for a company called Sundesa. I'm putting in my resume tomorrow, so I'm crossing my fingers! :) My school work also is more or less coming under control. The math I've been doing this summer is far less than I thought it would be, so I've been hyping myself up for nothing really. On top of all that, I'm starting to make plans to finally move back out of the house at the end of this year when I've recovered more.

I also had my fingerprints taken last Thursday for my impending U.S. Citizenship. Obviously the office we went to didn't get the memo that they're supposed to be bureaucratic and slow like all government offices. We went into the office at 12 noon, and left at 12:10 with the prints taken and all the paperwork taken care of. Immigration is so on the ball when you're on the last stretch.

As a wise man I knew in Cali would always say, life is good.

Converting to Yankeeism

2009-06-24T11:22:00.002-06:00

I was thinking a few days ago about how moving to the States was such an ordeal/blessing with all the adventures it entailed. But one thing that sticks out the most is that prior to getting on the plane to finally leave, I remember my mom saying " Remember kids, the Americans don't need us". That statement went right to the core. Even though I thought of America as the proverbial "Promised Land", it became crystal clear that we were going to have to make ourselves needed. If we wanted to stay, we would really have to get stuck in with how the Americans do things (not to mention all the hoops to jump for immigration). People complain about how things are in the US, and I'm all too happy to offer an exchange of citizenship with them. I don't really know what's going on in SA these days, but there are just too many things I love here to even consider going back. Some of these things are:

I have access to a great education.
In all of the states I've been to, people have been generally friendly.
The diversity across the country is incredible.
I have access to amazing medical treatment.
The mosquitoes here don't like my blood for some reason :)
An incredible natural landscape.
Costco

Don't get me wrong, I miss some things about SA, but let's be realistic here. If I REALLY wanted a box of Romany Creams, I could just order them off the net. All the U.S. needs now is a full blown national rugby league (with cricket as an added bonus).

There are just some things you can't let go of though:

Why you Should do What the Doctor Says

2009-06-07T23:47:00.003-06:00

Let's talk painkillers for a sec. I've been on them for a while, and they're nothing new to me. When I'm in a decent amount of pain, I take one. When I'm not in pain, I leave them alone, simple as that. So for some reason that is in hindsight just beyond me, I decided to not take any today. Normally this isn't a problem except for now my hip really hurts and that I'm about to take one as soon as I'm done typing this.

So what's a guy to do when he can either go the manly (stupid) path, or the logical path and just take the meds? It's not rocket science here people. I've been asked whether or not I get a high off these drugs, and the answer is no. Or mostly not. (The names and locations of these drugs won't be mentioned here, but suffice it to say that it doesnt take much to knock me out). But every now and then, I go into a vegetative state from just taking one (whereas that much probably wouldn't phase anyone else). While in this state, I found the most remarkable video that had me mesmerized for a good 15-20 min. It was almost hypnotic.

I present exhibit A:
http://www.yooouuutuuube.com/v/?rows=18&cols=18&id=pAwR6w2TgxY&startZoom=1

So the moral of the story here is that if you're ever bored our of your skull and you have to take a painkiller, don't go randomly browsing the internet.

Round Two on the Operating Table & the Aftermath.

2009-05-31T15:06:00.003-06:00

People say that life is a journey, and that you should enjoy the ride. It's rather difficult however, to enjoy a ride when you run out of gasoline/petrol and are stuck on the side of the road when you're in your 20's. It's worth pointing out then how awfully convenient it is for a mechanic in the form of an orthopedic surgeon to appear and get you going again. That's seriously how I feel right now. That life can finally start to resume, and that I can just get on with it.

I had my periacetabular osteotomy (or PAO) on the 12th, and it went so much better this time. There we some concerns for the doctor during the surgery that he explained to me afterwards, but he's confident that they're taken care of now. I didn't really get what he was talking about in the first place, but that was probably just because of the drugs. There was only really one day with nausea, and the rest went fairly smoothly. Another little hiccup was that physical therapy wanted me to get up mere hours after the surgery. It was too much for my body to handle, and I ended up fainting in classic Brummer seizure-like style.

It pays to know your medications when it comes to episodes like these. I was able to give the nursing staff the info they needed to keep the pain well under control, and the nausea for the most part was taken care of as well. No extended stays, no allergic reactions, no excessive pain, it was a dream compared to last time. It's also wonderful to have a caring family who was by my side for the whole time in case decisions needed to be made that I didn't feel I could make informed decisions about.

I went home on the 15th and have been making steady progress since then. I can now more or less get out of the bed and get back into it without help, but that's just a small step on the way to being able to walk.

A big thanks to everyone who has been there for me, I'll be up on my feet in no time :)

(Picture from www.hipandpelvis.com)

Yes!

2009-03-26T01:16:00.002-06:00

Trust the internet to better describe what I meant to say last night.

Countdown

2009-03-25T00:19:00.002-06:00

Well, we have a 90% sure date for my next (and hopefully last) major surgery. I was hoping to get it done earlier, but you know how things go. Life has a way of throwing curve balls at you. The only thing you can really do it either dodge them, or take the blows like a man, so you may as well enjoy the ride (or so I keep telling myself).

So life is kind of in a crazy limbo at the moment. I've effectively put the love life on hold, as I don't want to drag some poor unsuspecting girl into the drama of my life. The social life also took a hit, because some people who I thought were friends at the time of my first surgery pretty much didn't call or anything during the whole time I was in excruciating pain. I acknowledge that there is a certain degree of whining/feeling sorry for myself in this post, but there's a point. Friends who are true friends are there for you. It's as simple as that. If they can't be there, then they make an effort to do something else (a phone call etc.). When you're in so much pain that you just want someone to end your life, and only a handful of people are there for you, it changes some of your views on human relations.

I think one of the results of something like this is the fact that I'd rather talk to someone face to face, or on the phone as opposed to facebook. (twitter doesn't even enter into this). It's sad that some people only know me as either just another facebook friend, or as a gaming avatar with a microphone. I also try to be quick to apologize if I've said or done anything wrong to anybody. I'm not perfect at it, but I don't want to have any enemies when I eventually die.

And yet you can't please everyone. Quite the conundrum, isn't it?

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
-Bill Cosby

More Hip Hackery

2009-03-11T17:05:00.001-06:00

How to become a Bionic Man
Originally uploaded by Grant A B

On the 17th of February, I had the joy of having these chaps removed from my left hip. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, as I was only on crutches for about two weeks. They gave me some serious pain killers though (Dillaudid?) , so that made this whole ordeal a little easier to deal with.

I present exhibit A as photo evidence.

So...

2009-02-02T01:36:00.003-07:00

I was supposed to edit the last entry so that clicking the Flickr link would make more sense. Oh well, I'll get around to switching those words around one of these days :)

Right now I'm feeling an almost insatiable sense of resolve. I go for surgery on the 17th of February to remove the five screws from my left hip, and then my next big surgery will me in May. I also have a bunch of tests this week. Instead of dreading it all, I'm in a "bring it on!" mindset. Heaven alone knows why, but I feel very calm about all this nonsense barreling towards me this month.

I've started reading Calvin and Hobbes again. I haven't read C&H for years, and I'm suddenly understanding Bill Wattersons comics at a deeper level than before. It's sad that there isn't that much thinking involved in comics of today. I like how the existence of Hobbes is never truly explained (such as whether he magically changes, or if it's all in Calvins head). It's sad that Bill isn't writing any more of the series, but as Harvey Dent says in The Dark Knight, "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain". Some comics should have died years ago, but still beat the dead horse so much that there's nothing left of the poor equine.

With that in mind, I leave you with Bill Wattersons impersonation of Nostradamus:

Click here

Savanna Pics

2009-01-17T12:04:00.001-07:00

Okay so this took longer than I thought it would, so without further ado, here are the pics :)

Too many to just show here

Enjoy

I live!

2009-01-05T16:30:00.002-07:00

Wow, that semester (along with the holidays) was insane.

We went to Savannah, Georgia last month, so I'm going to get some of the pictures I took up here.

Stay tuned!

The Sounds of Silence

2008-10-11T00:06:00.002-06:00

School
School
School

Brain....melting.....
social life......withering...

Some videos I've been watching:
This (watch the whole thing)
This
Another cat
Heh (Not necessarily an indicator of my love life, I just found it funny)
Portal
Another
Dancing

G'night

Add One More Conundrum to the Universe

2008-09-15T18:08:00.004-06:00

As many of you know, the Large Hadron Collider under the French/Swiss border is starting to fire up. While nothing has actually been collided yet, many are already breathing a sigh of relief that the world hasn't ended (yet). The point of this machine is to help scientists unravel the mysteries of the universe and somehow make it apply to out daily lives (public funding here people). Even if they don't find anything very useful out of it, how many people do YOU know who helped build the biggest and most awesome particle gun in the world? Nobody? Didn't think so.

I however, think I could put all these scientists to better use. I am currently take donations to fund the WTHHTMCW Project. It will attract the finest minds from all corners of the earth, under the management of someone so awesome, that people bow to him in his presence (I'd rather not name myself here, my humility is at stake). Funding will be purely by donation, and the work will be done via tasers and whips so that I won't have to actually pay anyone. Welcome to the.....

What
The
Hell
Happened
To
My
Car
Window

Project.

The mystery is this: I was cleaning out my car, and using rubbing alcohol to clean the inside of my windows (works wonders). Due to the fumes, I naturally opened all the windows. I realized that I still had some things on my back seat, so I opened the left-rear door to take the stuff out. The door was more stiff than usual, and as I was thinking "What the..?" The window totally shattered inside the door. That's right, SHATTERED.

I have no idea how it happened, and neither did the repair guys. All I know is that is set me back about 200$ :(

Why I Should be King of the World

2008-09-06T13:05:00.002-06:00

I would like to talk for a moment about something that is very lacking in society, and that is sedatives.

My first experience with a sedative that I can remember was just this last January when I had my surgery. I was sitting on the bed anxiously waiting to get a needle in my arm or something to knock me out before going under the knife. The doctor looked at me and said "you're going to feel a little prick". I noticed that he didn't have a needle in his hand, so I was a little confused. I then felt a needle go right into the top of my spine suddenly. "Woah! what are you doin.........wait.....that feels AWESOME!". Suddenly my body felt lighter, I had no pain, and everything was blissful. They couldn't have injected very much into me yet, probably only a few milliliters (for those of you who don't know metric, a milliliter is half a pound). Life was great, and then they gassed me until I was unconscious.

I've been wondering lately about how nice it would be if we had tranquilizers like that on hand to nail people who were getting a little too agitated or upset. They're then in a state where they could possibly be reasoned with (I say possibly because getting too much can kill you, and it's rather hard to compromise with a corpse). Think about it, cops wouldn't have to zap you with tazers anymore. All you'd feel is a prick, and then you'd be surrounded by 10 policemen with guns drawn and find yourself wondering "I wonder if those guns will shoot flower petals at me".

So why all this talk about sedatives you ask?

There were a bunch of idiots on the road yesterday.

Why I Just Have to be "That Guy"

2008-08-23T17:58:00.002-06:00

I think we can all agree that the Apple iPod is a great little MP3 player. Apple made the MP3 player cool, just like Michael Phelps has suddenly made swimming the cool thing to do*. I however don't share the enthusiasm that my generation has for these little guys. I have two main issues with them:

1. Requires the install of proprietary software (iTunes) to be able to transfer music (I could be wrong here, but I haven't heard otherwise).

2. You can't just plug it in and access ALL the files you want to, thanks to a little friend called DRM (Digital Rights Management). DRM makes it so you can't copy MP3s that you payed for from one machine to another. "But its illegal top copy!" you may say. Well I don't care, I paid for it, I should be able to do what I want with it (like CDs).

So I got myself a nice shiny little Sansa Fuze. Can you guess how much software I had to install after getting it? None. Did I have any issues copying my MP3s over? Nope. That fact that MP3s from Amazon.com don't come with any DRM helps too :) This is how I think gadgets should work, just plug it in and go. Sure, I can't plug it into an iPod dock, but considering I have a Line-in cable, I'm not bothered by it.

Some other examples (with good reasoning that will not be stated here) of programs/devices I use are:

Firefox
OpenOffice
VLC Media player
Daemon Tools.

If it weren't for the requirements of a lot of the programs I use, I would have ditched Windows by now for Linux.

*I like to go swimming at the gym, and there is always a spot or two open for me to just hop in. Ever since Michael Phelps won his medals, the pool at 24 is suddenly swarming with swimmers, argh :-\

Bleh

2008-08-06T00:35:00.003-06:00

Over the last 2 weeks, I just haven't felt like writing anything up here. It's not that I haven't been doing anything. The Dark Knight was great, I'm mentoring a 10 year old boy, and I'm going to Vegas this weekend. I just don't feel like writing about it much :)

As soon as that changes, you will all know about it.

The Music of Game ads

2008-07-22T01:27:00.003-06:00

I've noticed a trend that may be starting when it comes to advertising video games. If the game is violent in nature, the game companies will put relaxing music with the game. I think the reasoning behind this is to draw more emotion regarding the character/people involved in the games environment. I think this is very well thought out, as it lays a groundwork for actually caring about the situation you're supposedly in control of. Here are some examples:

And another

I can't really find any other examples at the moment, but I think I much prefer that type of advertising as opposed to something like this:

That ad reminds me of the cliche "Man loses family/child/someone special and goes on a holy crusade with tons of weaponry while taking out half a city" 80s movie. They could have done so much more with that storyline....

Diablo

2008-07-08T11:01:00.007-06:00

Ok, it's nerd time.

Anyone who knew me back in 2000 knows that Diablo 2 was a crack addiction for me back then. Luckily, half the gaming world loved it too, so I wasn't alone in this. I would tell everybody I knew about the game, even if they didn't care at all about gaming in the first place. Some members of my family ward at the time (who will remain nameless, but we'll say they were part of an Inquisition of Ignorance) would disapprove of the game almost to a heretical level because there were demons in the game (lets all just forget that you're the one killing the demons).

So in their quest for global domination, Blizzard decided to give me an FYI on how my social life is going to officially end in a few years by announcing Diablo 3 . The timing of this wasn't very good, because I had to prepare a sunday school lesson that same day and couldn't concentrate.

So why all this Diablo talk? As far as how much a person can like this game is concerned (we're back at Diablo 2 now), I've just met my match and then some. A good friend of mine who has never claimed to be much of a gamer has surprised me by playing it with me and another friend. Normally when we get past a significant point in the game, all of us except him want to take a break. Our brains have turned into jelly, our eyes are red from staring at the screens, and he STILL wants to play! I think our only hope of giving this friend back to his (very patient) girlfriend is to hurry and beat the game ASAP.

Just to prove that I'm not nerdy all the time, here are some pictures of a very sad (yet cute) looking pug done by Christopher Michael .

Not so water proof.

2008-07-02T01:01:00.003-06:00

Ever have the feeling that your life goes into certain stages that have a theme to them? Kind of how I managed to make milk tart for the first time by myself, and how I had to make millions of them just so the world could have a taste. The current life theme is that I'm having waterproof items die on me from water exposure. I couldn't tell you when some waterproof device has failed at ANY time in my life if you had asked me a few weeks ago. And yet, during the last week, I've had my very nice Nike (waterproof) watch and a (waterproof) electric tooth-brush die on me.

How do I know the water did it?, in both cases the screens seriously fogged up, and there were water droplets inside. The tooth brush has stopped charging, and now the watch won't shut up. What do I mean by the watch not shutting up you ask? Somehow the water is causing the thing to shriek like a banshee and I just can't get the alarm to shut off. So now the watch is sitting under a bean-bag in a long forgotten room of our house (Ashleighs room). It's probably still going now, let me check...hmm, it seems to only be making clicking noises now, and the display is totally dead too, maybe the battery has had it.

So now I'm a skeptic as far as water proofing is concerned. Epic fail on QAs part.

My Adventure with the B Man

2008-06-26T16:59:00.004-06:00

At the beginning of this blog, one of the things that I mentioned would NOT feature would be my love life. There's a few reasons for this, one of them being that I'm not the kind of person who likes to announce my relationship status to the world. Today I will make an exception. This story isn't about the date itself, but it was something like a pre-date entertainment show (or more like a torturous brain drain in this case)

Last night, I went to go pick up a girl for a date, but her boss kept her later than usual. I wasn't in any kind of hurry, so I didn't mind waiting (And things can go wrong, it's a fact of life). So I decided to get comfortable on the stairs outside her apartment. Meanwhile, a guy in a bright orange shirt, jeans, and flip flops came out of one of the other apartments and saw me. He was carrying some plastic shopping bags filled with who-knows-what and he had a bit of a blank stare to his face. He looked familiar, but I couldn't remember from where. He started to slowly shuffle towards me and I could tell that an encounter was inevitable. My thought process went something like this:

Is....is that B-Money!?
No, it can't be him.
What on Earth is he doing here? It might be him
Nope, can't be him.

By this time he was standing in front of me with that classic blank stare. We stared at eachother for a few seconds in awkward silence. Finally he blurted out "hey man, do you like my shirt?"

Me: Uh, sure, it's very bright.
Mystery Man: Sweet dude, do you want to buy one?
Me: No
Mystery Man: Why not?
Me: Well I'm just here until my date comes, and I own a few shirts already.
Mystery Man: Oh (cue blank stare again for a few eternities)................My name is B-Money

Crap.....

Who is B-Money?
I thought you'd never ask.....

For about ten arduous minutes, this guy had me pinned to get me to buy one of his shirts. I had resigned myself to repeating my response over and over while I waited. Luckily, my dates roommate came to the rescue. Apparently, B-Money much prefers to talk to girls rather than guys (I can relate). The roommate had stopped by just to pick something up from the apartment, and B-Money followed her around just about everywhere until she got in her car and left. Poor girl, she probably thought I was in cahoots with him somehow (wrong place at the wrong time). Oh well.

Generation Messed up

2008-06-22T20:18:00.004-06:00

Yeah so Weezer released quite possibly the coolest video ever. I'm not normally a big fan of them, probably because we always had the dumbest looking Weezer poster in my old apartment that nobody wanted to claim. So without further ado, here it is :)

I'm going to the Lehi rodeo championship with a few friends this coming Saturday. Rodeos were one of my first introductions to being in the United States. I was sitting on the bench fiddling around with a little mustard packet, and it suddenly exploded all over a womans hair right in front of me. Her boyfriend saw it and I was like "I'm dead, I am SO dead!!!!" Instead, he just started laughing. The lady wasn't too impressed with me though :-/ Hopefully this experience will be a little less embarrasing.

Wow..

2008-06-13T12:26:00.003-06:00

See this sunset? Isn't it awesome? Can you guess where it is?

Still guessing?

Mars.

Operation Occupation

2008-05-26T20:04:00.003-06:00

So now that I've got this whole walking business down, I suddenly have free time on my hands, a LOT of it. The only thing going this week is my 5th year High School Reunion on Saturday, which I'm not terribly excited about. I spent a good chunk of high school down at UVSC anyway, and I'm probably not going to be too enthusiastic to see some people I knew at Timpview.

I've started to job hunt again, and for some reason it's not working out (so far). I've stopped by most of the hotels in the area to see if they were hiring, and they all only had positions that would involve heavy lifting (which is a no go because of the hip) My cousin showed me an online service called Cha Cha where you answer peoples question for them and get paid 20c a question. Can you believe they rejected me?! How is that even possible? I didn't specify any interests on their site because I'm comfortable answering ANY questions. Oh well.

In another effort to use up my time, I've been redoing one of the rooms in our basement. Instead of being a dark room with exercise equipment (that DOES get used mind you), I've now turned it into an entertainment center. All in all, there's going to be the big screen TV (which we had already), a Wii, DVD player, surround sound, a love sac, and my computers in the back. Not a bad setup if you ask me :)

I'll write about my vacation to Cali & Chicago as soon as I get the pics for them from my dad. So in the mean time, you get to read babble posts :)

EDIT: Cha Cha changed their minds, I'm working for them now until I can get a real job. :)

Barbequeing in the sun

2008-05-18T22:43:00.001-06:00

No, we didn't have a BBQ. I'm in Chicago at the moment, which is why nothing is happening on the blog here. The BBQ part was referencing to the fact that I got a nice sunburn during Micheles graduation.

Much more later when I get back home.

:)

2008-05-03T21:06:00.003-06:00

I'm in a very good mood tonight. Perhaps it's because I'm prepping a lesson to teach in Sunday School.

I think I have a very unique Bishop. Normally you'd expect them to be pious, full of thees and thous almost. I think the man upstairs certainly picked the right man for the job, because he has a way of connecting with young people. Last year he asked me if I wanted to teach class on Sundays, and I was rather stunned. Not so much about the calling itself (I had been teaching 3rd hour for over a year by then), but it was the fact that I was still struggling to stand for long periods of time with an as-of-yet undiagnosed hip problem. Our conversation went like this:

Bishop: Grant, I'd like you to teach Sunday School from now on, do you think you could do that?
Me: Um, you know I have trouble standing, right?
Bishop (without batting an eye): Just do it Jewish style, sit down.

Nowhere to go after that, it was all settled :)

Teaching is something I rather enjoy. Considering how I struggled as a child with speech, I think I've come a long way. I would consider teaching as a profession in a heartbeat, if only they were paid more.

Adversity - And Turning it Around

2008-05-01T23:33:00.005-06:00

Ever had the feeling that life is just not fair? A good friend of mine always shakes his fist at the heavens demanding that life be unfair in HIS favor. Contrary to where you all may think this is going, this week has nothing to do with the hip.

I'll spare the techno-babble and simply say that my computer is broken, and will take at least a week to repair. It's not something I'm looking forward to, but I'm going to have to get around to it sooner or later. Luckily, it wasn't my fault (entirely). I decided to make good use out of my cell phone, and politely ask for refunds and replacement parts seeing as how there were hardware failures in areas that I hadn't even touched. In the last week, I've managed to get 150$ out of a processor, 50$ from broken crutches (another story obviously), a new motherboard (250$), and new ram (80$). Not too shabby if you ask me.

All this just from being nice (and occasionally patronizing) to the other guy on the phone. All this has suddenly turned what was quickly becoming a catastrophic week into a mildly annoying week. Top this off with getting lots of errands done, writing to a good friend of mine in France, and reading a good book, and this week isn't so bad at all now.

I should also mention that my social life is slowly on the rebound after the surgery. A lot of people moved out, so now I'm going to have to make new friends again. If I don't, I may end up being so bored as to do something like this.....

<

It's that time again kids

2008-04-19T21:46:00.007-06:00

Yes, it's one of those days where I just have to rant.

Have you ever seen one of these?

Of course you have!! Anyone who wants to be a true patriot HAS to have one. Because we love supporting troops that have been ordered to blow up random countries. What is with all these "feel good" showings of support? What in blazes did you actually DO to support them?! Did you send them cookies? Freeze dried American burgers? Guns that work? Some armor they should've had already? How about a ticket home to their families? It truly irks me to see ignoramuses driving around with those stickers on their huge gas-guzzling SUVs that probably put the troops there in the first place due to oil demand. Blah blah blah. Here is something you can spend money on instead of those ribbons.

So what sparked this tirade? Facebook did. Some people (who WILL remain nameless) joined a Facebook group in support for oppressed women in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire). What dingbat honestly thinks making a Facebook group will change anything? When were you knuckleheads last in Africa? How about taking a lesson from the life and teachings of my sister Ashleigh, who actually got onto a plane and helped build a school in Africa for children? Certainly makes your little Facebook groups seem like a complete waste of time, doesn't it? Oh wait...it IS a waste of time! I can just see the African leaders now "Hey check it out Mugabe! We should totally stop running our governments like demented bees because A FACEBOOK GROUP SAID SO!"

Stuff like buying yellow ribbons and joining Facebook groups are like almost donating to an orphanage, making it so the orphanage was almost able to feed the children.

P.S. I'm starting a Facebook group to help prevent the merciless slaughter of demented bees from their tyrannical queens.

I can walk

2008-04-15T00:51:00.002-06:00

Thats right

You want to know what song has been going through my head all day?

We are the Champions - Queen. I was going to post a youtube link, but the guy who posted the only decent version disabled HTML embedding. Jerk.

Nothing much to report other than that. I'm going to California next month. The doc says I'm probably going to set off airport security with all the screws in my hip, so that won't be fun. I guess I'll have to show them the scar.

Guilty Pleasures

2008-04-08T18:42:00.003-06:00

It's no secret that I love traveling, particularly to Europe and Australia. One would think that it's mainly for the sight seeing and the experiences. While this is partly true, I also like traveling for another reason.

I love the intro music to BBC World News.

We don't get that channel here in Happy Valley, so I'm usually starved of it until I go to the UK, or visit my dad. They tend to change the song slightly every year or so, but it's basically the same thing. Here are some videos proving my point.

Someone even made a club mix of the song, not too shabby.

Now is that a great song or what?!?!

Hello?

A Social Effort

2008-04-06T23:54:00.006-06:00

I have a habit of bringing up the whole hip issue in just about every conversation I'm involved in. While most of the time this is okay seeing as how others tend to bring it up in the first place, I've become conscious of just how often I'm talking about it. I think it's high time I have other things to talk about when I'm around people, IF I'm around people that is. An explanation on the IF part: I've been cooped up here like a goldfish with ADHD in a 3x3 inch fish bowl (just picture that in your mind). My window to the world has been my computer, which makes me feel like my eyes are becoming rectangular.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't spend a lot of time on the computer before the surgery anyway. Imagine you've suddenly been given an endless supply of Krispy Kreams/Biltong/Holdens (one for US, SA, AU). It would be great to overdose on it all at first, but then it gets old, and you want something different. This would probably explain why I get bored very easily on the computer, but don't do anything else because there's nothing else to do. Recipe for insanity anyone?

Image from The Escapist Magazine. It perfectly illustrates my state of mind in this madness.

At least the surgery (bah, mentioned it again!) was in the winter, the summer will be great and hopefully some social reconstruction will be happening.

EDIT 2: Got a little carried away with the last edit.

Moral of the story? Spammers are bad, mmmkay?

Blast From the Past

2008-03-31T22:01:00.003-06:00

While browsing the net, I found this:

It totally reminded me of around the time we moved to the United States. It either came out right around the time we moved, or a few months before. Talk about a junior high back to the future moment.

Anyhow, you've probably noticed that the culinary blog hasn't been updated for a while. Don't worry, I'm working on it. I could use a little help with something though. As you can see in the blog, there's a little block that shows the ratings for the restaurant I reviewed. I'm looking for an easy way to make one of those tables and convert it into jpeg. If anyone has some tips, it would be much appreciated. My software options are limited to free open source programs like OpenOffice and GIMP (har har). Basically I just want to input the information, and have it spit out the jpeg for me (at a blogger-friendly resolution).

I started reading the Elenium series again. I read it before the mission, but I've forgotten most of it. There's a sequel series now, so I need to get myself up to speed in order to have the sequel make sense to me. I'm starting to run dry on my taste for sci-fi books though, thanks to my friend Ryan's corruption whenever we hang out at borders. Out of my friends, he reads the most (with Tom at a close second), and he always has these great literature recommendations for me, but I'm always reading some sci-fi book at the time (sound familiar dad?). Anyhow, after I'm done with these series, I'll get started on the Art of War by Sun Tzu which I didn't finish last time.

Just When I was laughing at Vista Users...

2008-03-26T10:02:00.002-06:00

So my computer had a meltdown last night. Instead of giving you all the technical details and putting you all to sleep, I'm making this handy dandy imaginary conversation between me and my computer.

XP: Isn't this fun? It's been a while since we've played this game.
Me: Yup
Xp: You know what? I think I'll just go and die on you for no reason.
Me: What?? Why?
XP: *dies*
Me: NO! Come on! I didn't even make a backup of anything!! Maybe I can restart him
Comp: Nope, he's dead Jim
Me: fixboot?
Comp: nope
Me: Rewrite boot sector?
Comp: Not happening
Me: Repair install?
Comp: Think again
Me: Replace bad files?
Comp: I'm serious, XP is dead, you need to re-install him
Me: Not an option, nothing is backed up
*crickets chirping*
Comp: Well.....this is awkward
Me: Wait, what if I install Windows 2000 on another disk and access the files with that?
Comp: I dunno, try it
Me: *blows dust off ancient CD, installs 2000*
2000: Hi, I'm 2000, welcome to 1999!
Me: Oh geez, well lets get you up to speed here, XP here just died on me and I need help
2000: I can see that, may I recommend updating me first?
Me: Fine, but THEN we get to fixing this problem.

-Multiple updates/driver installs later-
2000: Hey I'm going to scan this drive for errors, ok?
Me: No! Don't touch anything! You're working just fine!
2000: I'm sorry, but you didn't press escape in time, scanning now!
Me: NO! Leave everything alone!!!!!
2000: See? I found some errors, now I'm going to start fixi..............*dies*
Me: What the!?
Comp: He's dead Jim
Me: What!? both XP and 2000 are dead now????
Comp: Well pretend you were in 2000's shoes, how would you feel if you were abandoned for over half a decade only to be brought out of retirement to fix your mess?
Me: You mean XP's mess
Comp: No, everything is your fault, bwahahaha!
Me: Listen here, I'm just about to go to Toms house, grab a big axe, then open you up and give you a reprogramming you'll never forget, are we clear?!*
Comp:.....
Me: Right, NOW GET 2000 BACK HERE!!!

-A reinstall goes by-
2000: Hi, I'm 2000, welcom to 19-
Me: Shut up! You're updated now, and you're going to help me, if you so much as dare to do anything that I explicitly haven't told you to do, I'm buying A MACINTOSH!!!
2000: You wouldn't....
Me: Try me..
2000: Oh hey! here are all the files you need, just burn a copy of this and you're ready to go!
Me: That's more like it.
Me: *repair installs XP again, this time with the RIGHT disc*
XP: Hi!
Me: How are you feeling?
XP: Not too good, you sure took your time
Me: You can blame gramps over there
2000: Hey!
XP: I can work now, but if I were you, I'd back everything up and re-install everything, otherwise, I just might die on you again!

That is the tale of my saga. It's also the reason I didn't get to bed until 3am

*Totally ripped off from Douglas Adams, may he rest in pieces

Gravity

2008-03-23T22:48:00.003-06:00

So today I had an unexpected appointment with the wall. Somehow my crutch was caught in the carpet, making me fall forward and to the side a bit. I would've hit the ground if the wall hadn't been there to smear my face across. I started putting weight on the bad leg during all this, which made me totally relax that leg and try to send all the weight to the good leg. Needless to say, pain became the word of the day, but it subsided after an hour with the help of some pain killers. I purposefully throttled down my meds intake specifically for a situation like this when I really needed them. Forward thinking FTW :)

Today for my internet class I had to give a 3 minute eulogy about myself to some of my cousins. Man did it feel awkward, but I'm glad it's over, only 6 speeches to go :-\

At least I didn't fall like this guy

Reporter Owned By Sled - Watch more free videos

Bleh

2008-03-19T11:38:00.002-06:00

Here's a tip everybody:

Don't take Lodine before going to bed on an empty stomach when you're not feeling well.

I think I went to sleep at 3am, but I don't remember. Actually, I don't remember much of last night at all. I haven't been feeling well (I'll spare the details). I woke up this morning after having some seriously trippy dreams. My head feels weird, my stomach doesn't feel good, and my motor skills aren't being very helpful today.

Next time I'll remember to eat something before taking those pills, or I just wont take them at all.

Music

2008-03-18T18:13:00.004-06:00

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in my life. Up until my mission, my taste in music leaned over more to stuff like Metallica, Breaking Benjamin, Linkin Park etc. It never went as far as stuff like Pantera, but a rocking guitar always put me a good mood. I still listen to that sort of thing, but only in one place, the gym. I always get kinda bored in the gym, so music like that tends to get the adrenaline going and it makes the workout seem much shorter.

Fast forward to after the mission. My friend Ryan introduced me to Sigur Ros, and ever since then, my music taste have done a 180, and now I listen to some of the most chill music I can find (my mom says it sounds depressing at times). For me, it does wonders to the stress levels as well as just leaving me in a good mood when it's over. Here are some examples:

I also listen to a lot more stuff like Radiohead now. This is one of my favorite/favourite songs from them: (I like the guitar later in the song)

Also, if you live in the US, I highly recommend you go to www.pandora.com . It's a great place to discover new music. If you don't live in the US, then this site will be blocked off for you. You can blame the record industry for that.

Advertising - The Bane of my Existence.

2008-03-16T16:48:00.004-06:00

In an effort to get things going in the culinary blog, I've been selecting recipes from my culinary magazines etc. so I don't have to go fishing around at the last minute for a recipe. About 10 minutes into this, I realized just how maddening all the ads in the magazines are. I can't stand advertising in most forms. The only ads I like are ones that are clever, ones that make me think, or laugh. Here is an example:

See? That ad makes a person think. For those not in the know in International politics, the UN is really good at releasing statements, causing local scandals, and not much else. They've pledged support for Darfur, but haven't really done much. This post isn't intended to demean those who are providing humanitarian aid, but it's meant to point out that someone with half a brain should grow a pair and take action while that lunatic in Khartoum (sp?) lets genocide happen.

Anyhow, back on topic. Ads. I've spent a good few hours with a fine blade cutting out most of the ads from the Culinary magazines. Mind you, I'm leaving the ones alone that have useful info on the other side of the page. Now when I go through the magazines again (with marked areas I've selected to look at later), it's so much better and it even feels easier on the eyes. For a while now, I've installed an addon to Firefox called Ad Block Plus. Because of that addon, I haven't seen an ad on the internet for months, and I love it. I don't watch TV shows on the TV, I just wait for the DVD since I know I'm not going to see ads on the DVD. And when I'm driving, I just close my eyes on the highways so I won't see any billboards......okay not really, but if anyone knows how to get rid of those, I'm all ears :)

New Blog -->

2008-03-14T16:28:00.002-06:00

This is just an fyi for the less observant, I decided to just start my culinary blog now. Its in the link list to the right, so enjoy.

Too bad I'm not a paid spokesman

2008-03-11T15:14:00.003-06:00

Ok this isn't meant to be an ad or anything, but I have to give a shout out to 24-Hour Fitness here.

I've been a regular customer there for 2 years now, and I know a lot of the people there. Today was my first day back at the gym after the surgery, and I got a very warm welcome back from the people there. They all asked how everything went with the surgery, and one of the guys moved one of the exercise machines out in the open so that I could use it. They also kept the door open for me so I could go in and out (they don't have a handicapped button). So today has been a wonderful day and it was off to a great start thanks to 24.

I'm making steady progress in recovering. I should be signing up for an institute class soon so that I can spend more time out of the house and make good use of my time. 5 weeks and then I can ditch the crutches, I'm SO looking forward to it :)

I found this video on digg.com, I thought I would share to end off this post :)

Yays and Nays

2008-03-03T19:44:00.004-07:00

Okay, there's good news and bad news in this post. The bad news isn't even all THAT bad, more like slightly frustrating.

Today I went to the doctor, who gave me the ok for driving! So naturally the first thing I did was get into my car the second I got home. The battery was dead, but after a jump start, I was back in action. I'm also able to put half my body weight on my left hip now. Let me tell you, it feels so WEIRD to use the bad leg now. The muscles have no idea what I want them to do, so they just kinda spaz out in different directions. It's a wonderful feeling to see some real progress now :)

The (almost) bad news is that the doctor has delayed my full weight bearing status by another 3 weeks, which means I can only try walking without the crutches in 6 weeks. Frustrating, but I'll survive.

In other news, I've decided that I'm going to start a second blog after I learn to walk again. It'll only involve culinary stuff, mainly experiments and how they turn out (with recipes), so until then, you'll all have to survive on whatever it is you all eat anyway. (that last part made more sense in my head..)

EDIT: And on a side note, I stood up today without the help of the crutches for the first time :)

Cane Idol

2008-03-01T20:20:00.003-07:00

Ok I know a lot more of you read this blog than those who leave comments. In about 6 weeks, I'll hopefully be able to start learning to walk again. I'll probably still need some help getting around, but I'm getting sick of the crutches.

So here's the deal. I'm planning on getting a cane to use for a few weeks and I plan on keeping it for next year as well. The problem is that I don't know which cane to get. I saw a few on amazon.com that were not bad, but I couldn't pick one out of the choices there. So I'm open to suggestions, here are the rules.

50$ max, and if it's 50$, it had better be a nice one.
I can override whichever choice is most popular.
If you want to send me a suggestion, but don't have a blogger account, just e-mail or get me on facebook, or text me or something.
It needs to be long enough for someone (like me) who is 6'4"

Funny entries get bonus points :)

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

2008-02-21T22:20:00.003-07:00

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!

2008-02-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

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.

Off I go

2008-01-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

Well the time has come. I've tied up as many loose ends as I can. To all those who I managed to talk to personally about how I'm feeling (you know who you are), thanks for lending an ear to all my rambling.

I'll keep everyone up to date on how my recovery is going, thanks to all those who contacted me before to wish me luck.

I found something pretty cool online where you can send an e-mail to me through the hospital website. They'll then print it out and give it to me. So to all those who would like to say hi but can't make it, this is a great substitute.

https://intermountainhealthcare.org/xp/secure/forms/uvrmc_emailpat/

I'll see everybody on the dark side of the moon!

Grant

Pills Galore

2008-01-16T00:23:00.000-07:00

See all these pills? I've been on all these during this whole hip debacle. Some of them are not required (multivitamin, Glucosamine/Chondriotin), but the rest more or less have been required. The big bluish/grey ones (they're bloody huge) are Lodine. My doctor just yanked me off those since they will thin out my blood before I go under the knife, and they can't have that. The small round white pill is iron, which the doc says I need to get as many red blood cells produced as possible before the op. The yellowish long pill is Ultram (sp?), which from what I understand is a mild narcotic (used in place of the Lodine). I took my first dose tonight and I can say I was in another world. I've always wondered what it was like to be high, I think I caught a glimpse of it, so I'll only be taking those when I'm in a lot of pain. The small pink pills are Ranidine (Zantac 75) which I use in conjunction with the Prevacid (pink/black capsule). They're for my acid reflux, and are only taken as needed (about once every two or three weeks on average).

What kinda irks me is that before my mission, I was as healthy as an ox and didn't need pills. I'm just glad that I don't have to take all these pills every day. If I understand right, I might only need the yellow pills before my next operation in 09 (or not at all thank heavens, I like having my wits about me). As far as the Lodine is concerned, it will be as needed (and only after the op) to deal with the cartilage tear in the right hip that developed a few weeks ago, so I can't see myself taking that very often. The heartburn stuff is only occasional, and the rest are all unnecessary. When I'm an old man, I can see the nurses in the retirement home having a hard time getting me to take my pills. :)

I also found out an estimate on how much this is all going to cost, thank heavens for insurance. I won't say how much it is on here, but it's more than 3 or 4 times what I paid for to get my car.

I will post again soon, and try not to have it revolve around the hip thing. I have more to say, but I'm kinda tired of typing right now. (drugs + late night = ZZZZzzzzz)

Countdown

2008-01-02T00:27:00.000-07:00

20 Days and counting.

You know that feeling when you're about to leave somewhere for a very long time? Like if you're about to go on mission, or you're about to finish your time at a school.

That's kind of how I feel right now when it comes to this whole surgery thing. I feel like I'm starting to disconnect with people, things, and some places (?). I don't know why this is the case, because it's not like I'm going anywhere. I guess this time in my life is the calm before a very, VERY turbulent storm. This is my current view going into 2008, which is why I didn't exactly greet the year with enthusiasm. To be fair though, nothing, and I mean NOTHING was going on in Provo (that I was aware of) for New Years, so I doubt I missed out on much anyways.

I've been reading the Dune series for who-knows-long now. My family always wonders why I read these "Cinderella books" (As my friend Tom puts it). I figure that I read so much everyday about news, politics, factual type stuff that I just get into some reading that is entirely fictional. It gives my brain a rest from all the rubbish going on in the real world. So when the family asks me why I read them, they always get the same answer. I like it :-)

Heres a nice little pic to go along with it all.

San Diego

2007-12-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

Well I got back from San Diego on Sunday, and it was a blast. We went on a little bay tour a few hours after I got there (I got there 2 days later than my sisters because I had to give blood), and it was really interesting. We had a dozen military helicopters flying over us during the tour, as well as an F-15 fighter jet (man, those things are LOUD!). I didn't realize what a huge presence the US Navy has there, there were rows and rows of ships. On the one hand, I thought it looked really cool because you could see all the guns, jets, and rocket launchers ready to go at a moments notice. But then I wondered how many of them were really necessary. How much of that money could've gone towards schools? Hospitals? Oh well, I don't know enough about the situation to be criticizing it.

We also went to Seaworld, where I got to use an electric wheelchair, which was great! Although it could've used a turbo (not really, it was fast enough already).

We also went to go see other sites, as well as Coranado and La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya). It was a lot of fun, but the best part was getting to see my dad again.

The Crutches.

2007-12-17T23:59:00.001-07:00

Ok, I've been getting bombarded with questions on Facebook asking what the deal is with the crutches.

For the cliff notes version, scroll to the bottom.

On my mission (around October 2005 I think), I started experiencing some random pain in my left hip. This pain was only caused when I moved it a certain way multiple times a day (the hip would pop with this movement). Common sense dictated two things: That A: I stop moving it that way, and B: Call the mission president's wife. I don't remember the exact words she said, but it was to the effect of "walk it off". Now I had no problem with this advice, because I was pretty much thinking the same thing. After controlling my hip better, the pain eventually went away, and everything was fine. The pain downgraded itself to an occasional annoyance and discomfort.

Fast forward to post mission. The discomfort remained, but didn't really bother me all that much. I was still able to do active things like mountain biking, biking from my house to UVSC (now UVU) and back for summer school, and water balloon wars (those involved know that I'm talking about EPIC balloon wars here). Anyhow, the hip popping returned, and the discomfort turned into dull pain, but this time it was harder to control. I was still fully functional in my activities, so I just kept ignoring it, occasionally mentioning it to my mom.

In December 2006, I submitted my resume to work as a Food Worker in Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. After being hired in January, I had to do work that while not hard labor or anything like that, could be physically demanding (I lost 30 lbs!). I moved huge food carts much of the time, which doesn't sound like a big deal, except that it put a lot of pressure on the already aggravated hip joint. By this stage it was popping with every step I made, making life turn into a living hell. After about 5 months, I couldn't stand the pain any longer and had to quit.

After ignoring the problem for almost 2 years total, I finally decided to see a doctor. It took multiple X-Rays, an MRI, and an arthrogram (which is just a fancy MRI with dye injected into the joint area), to finally see what was wrong. One of my doctor's nurses called me up saying that I had a labral tear in my hip. "Okay thanks" I said cheerfully (thinking that we could fix the problem in a jiffy), and then promptly hung up the phone. I'm no doctor, so I just figured it was the fancy name for a ligament, or a tendon or something and just left it at that. After about 20 minutes of thinking about this, I decided to call them back. I asked "um, whats a labral tear?", "it's the cartilage in your hip socket, that's the labrum. You've torn your cartilage Grant".

I wanted to pass out. I was seriously freaking out about this. I had just been accepted into the culinary program at UVU, and now this comes along. Being the moron that I am, I figured that I could just see an orthopedic surgeon, get some physical therapy, and hold out during the cooking program for a year, and then get it all fixed in summer '08. The surgeons assistant who saw me was stumped for a while as to how this was caused. He got copies of the x-rays and made an interesting discovery, our conversation went like this:

Doc: Did you have hip problems as a child?
Me: Yes, why? (I had terrible hip problems while on a soccer team as a child. It was supposedly a pinched nerve. Whoops, try again!)
Doc: I figured as much, you have hip dysplasia.
Me: Hip dysp-what?
Doc: Its a shallow hip socket, those who are affected can have the problem go undetected until problems show up when a patient is in their 20's

Well crap...

The plan was to put me on physical therapy for the time being. My cooking classes started in late October of this year...and ended early November. My left hip by that point could do no more, making it so bad, that I can no longer walk the length of a city block unassisted. At another visit to the orthopedic surgeon (I actually saw his assistant the first time), the true reality of this situation finally set in. While this was all going on, the Culinary program at UVU was gracious enough to let me drop out but not get an F, just so long as I resume next fall. The doctor took more x-rays, pointing out exactly how big this problem was. "If you DON'T get this fixed soon, you WILL need hip replacement within 5 years", "Both hips are affected by this problem, and we'll only be able to work on the right hip once you've fully recovered from the left hip's surgery". It was at this point that he yanked me off the physical therapy, saying that it was useless at this point.

On January 22nd, I will be getting major reconstructive hip surgery, and I'm terrified, but I know it's necessary.

For those of you who are interested in exactly what this surgery entails, go here:
http://hipandpelvis.com/patient_education/periace/page1.html

They are going to cut open my side, dislocate my hip, deepen my hip socket (who knows what power tools they're going to use), cut OUT the hip socket completely, re-align it, and then screw it back into place how they want it. The recovery time will go something like this:

1-3 Days after: Stay at the hospital drugged up on morphine.
3 days - 2 Weeks After: Bed ridden at home, probably still on morphine
2 weeks - 6 weeks: Wheel chair/crutches, I can put no more than 30lbs on the joint. (I probably can't take anymore morphine as well)
6 weeks - 4 months: I can put more weight on the joint. This period will have me working towards walking normally. Lortab, here I come!
4 months - 12 months: Walk normally but cannot run or jump.
After 12 months: Things should be back to normal...BUT...

I have to get the surgery again on the right hip in January 2009. Last week, probably due to compensating for the left hips issues, the right hip has started to crack a lot as well, causing extreme pain there too.

I would just like to mention at this point that I blame nobody else for this (as far as detecting it was concerned). I don't blame my mission presidents wife for not sending me to a doctor to have it looked at. I don't blame my employers at the hospital for giving me work that made the problem worse (the funny thing, is that I'm going to be at the exact same hospital I was working in! Free pudding, woohoo!). Apparently as a child, my pediatrician tried to look for this, but due to sanctions on South Africa at the time, the latest and greatest medical equipment wasn't accessible. I'm not bitter or anything, there's no point to that. At least I know that I'm not getting married for about another 2 years because of this.

My culinary career has ended before it could start.

Please pray for me, and if you're not religious, then please keep me in your thoughts.

Cliff notes:
My hips are buggered and are basically collapsing at a rapid rate.

Edit: I've made a few edits removing names from this post. I want to make it abundantly clear that nobody is to blame as far as trying to detect the problem earlier is concerned. The facts state that this problem is mostly detected when the patient is in their 20's, I'm just glad I got to serve a full mission before it got too bad.

Blog Reborn, new, and improved!

2007-12-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

So in an effort to let more people know what I'm up to without writing to them all individually (I'm personable like that), I decided to make a few changes here.

The blog is now public to all family, friends, and stalkers alike.
I've deleted (actually archived into my digital journal) some blog posts that were up here. Some of them were fairly personal, and I don't think they're anyones business at this point.
I figured I could keep people up to date on my upcoming surgery, which I will elaborate on at another time.

Things that probably WONT be mentioned in this blog:
My love life (taking a break from it at the moment)
While I am very politically minded, I think I would put myself to sleep WRITING about it.
And anything else I deem unreasonable at the time.

We request that you fasten your seat-belts, put your seats in the upright position, and lift your tray-tables.

(I was trying to think of something witty to say after that, but I've got nothing.)

Insert Topic here, foo!

2006-12-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

You want to know what I did yesterday?

Nothing, absolutely nothing, and I hated every second of it.

So I applied for a job at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center (long name...) a few weeks ago for a position in food services. This is mainly so I could get some experience in the field that I'm going into. They're taking FOREVER (if any employer from the hospital is reading this, then PAY ATTENTION!), I went down to their Human Resources department to find out what was going on, and they basically told me that while it's taking a long time (ya think?!), the higher-ups are considering my application for an interview. I guess this is a good thing, but come on, does it really take THAT long???

Well on that note, here is a music video that I found a little while ago that I really like, it's from the Donny Darko Soundtrack. I could fall asleep to this song any day.

Peace

Oh my goodness, I actually made a blog....

2006-12-17T00:55:00.000-07:00

That'll teach you to vote for Ralph Nader!

If anyone knows what show that quote comes from, they get a cookie :)

It snowed about a foot at our house, and I have a before and after picture of my car. The before picture is when the car is covered in snow, and the after picture is after i spent 10 minutes with a broom trying to get all the snow off. The pictures are on my other computer, so I'll get them up soon enough.

In other news, I got some very good books from Deseret Book tonight using a gift card as well as a coupon, so instead of paying $115 for books, I paid $20 with tax, not a bad deal at all. One of them is "Answers to Gospel Questions" by Joseph Fielding Smith, and I already love it, his answers are so detailed its great.

Well I'm tired, and I should probably go to bed now, adios