The Blalock-Taussig Shunt

            The Blalock-Taussig shunt or BT Shunt was first performed by renowned heart surgeon Dr. Alfred Blalock on November 29th, 1944.  The procedure is named for him and Dr. Helen Taussig a pediatric cardiologist.  Taussig approached Blalock after being frustrated and powerless to help children with the Blue Baby Syndrome.  The Blue Baby Syndrome gets its name from the blue pallor to the skin of infants and young children who have severe congenital heart defects.  Of the heart defects that cause the blueness, or cyanosis, tetralogy of Fallot is one of the most common.  The blueness comes from the fact that the blood is not as oxygenated as a normal person's blood.  This comes from either complete or partial blockage of blood to the lungs and a mixing of the blood between the two sides of the heart.  The left side of the heart pumps oxygenated blood to the body and the right side pumps blood to the lungs.  The blockage is usually associated with the pulmonary artery, which takes blood from the right side to the lungs, or the pulmonary valve.  The mixing is usually caused by a hole between the ventricles, main pumping chambers.  In cases like tetralogy, the defect causes more blood to pass from the right side of the heart to the left bypassing the lungs, the causes a much lower oxygen presence in the blood than is needed by the body. 

            Taussig noticed that those patients with the Blue Baby Syndrome seemed to survive longer if there was another defect present.  The associated defect is called a patent ductus arteriosis.  Everyone is born with a connection, called the ductus arteriosis, between the aorta, which takes blood to the body, and the pulmonary artery so that the lungs are bypassed when they are not working before birth.  The connected closes usually within a few hours or few days of birth.  Sometimes this connection stays open and causes a mixing of the blood.  In the case of tetralogy of Fallot due to the blockage in the pulmonary artery the blood flow in the ductus to be in the other direction thus sending blood to the lungs.  Taussig believed that there should be a way of reconnection the major arteries to get more blood to the lungs.  At the time Blalock had been working with his lab technician, Vivian Thomas, in procedures associated with shock and the side effect was more blood sent to the lungs.  He believed he could modify that procedure for blue babies.  He brought the problem up with Thomas who began to work on it.

            Thomas had planned to go to medical school when the depression hit and left him penniless.  He sought work and got a job as Blalock's lab assistant.  Blalock noticed the skill Thomas had and Thomas' interest in his surgical notes and books.  Blalock taught Thomas in surgical techniques and Thomas became his lab technician.  In order to test his how a modification of his procedure would work they needed to recreate the condition in lab dogs.  This was Thomas' job.  After some experimentation, Thomas was able to replicate the condition in a lab dog.  He then went on the modify Blalock's shock procedure and was successful.  He had to modify some of the instruments he used so they would work properly for a human patient.  Many of today’s surgical instruments come from what Thomas had originally done.  He then taught the modified procedure to Blalock.  The basic procedure is connecting the left sub-clavien artery, which is an artery that carries blood to the arm, to the left pulmonary artery.  This created an artificial ductus arteriosis.

            When the time Blalock felt confident enough to perform the procedure on a human, the surgery was scheduled.  The first patient was 9 pound baby girl named Eileen with tetralogy of Fallot.  Blalock, a little uncertain, had Thomas brought into the operating theater to observe and guide him during the surgery.  Thomas did direct and observe the surgery from behind Blalock's right shoulder standing on a step stool.  Besides widely opening up the field of cardiac surgery is the fact that the major work on this procedure was done by Thomas, a young black man living during the era of the Jim Crow laws.  If it were not for him I probably would not be here today.  The BT shunt was my second surgery on my heart and allowed me to grow so that the total correction could be done on me.  I was born with tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia.  My defect caused a total blockage of blood to the lungs but this surgery was one of two that helped keep me alive until the total correction surgery was done.  All of this is possible because of Taussig, Blalock, and especially Thomas.

Here is a scene from Something the Lord Had Made, dramatizing the first attempt of the surgery:

LEGO

Along with model building, I have another constructive hobby: LEGO.  One of my earliest sets was a basic set my grandparents gave me but what really started my fascination with LEGO was a set my school classmates gave me when I went in to the hospital for my second surgery when I was 8.  The school asked what would be a good thing to give me while I was in the hospital and my mother suggested LEGO because I would be laying down in a bed recovering from surgery and LEGO is also an educational toy that helps to build creativity.  I also would say it helps with improving problem solving and spatial ability.  I was given another larger basic set.  When  I was recovering in the CICU (cardiac intensive care unit) one of the nurses helped me build something out of the  LEGO set.  Together we build a model of the CICU.  Took us a bit of time but was fun.  This began my interest in the toy.

A few years later I had my total correction surgery and brought my LEGO toys with me.  This surgery caused a much longer stay and recovery and I was grateful for the LEGO toys I had.  Around this time my brother began an interest in LEGO also.  Another few years later we began to have issues with sharing them.  Over the years some pieces got lost and there were not too many left to really do anything with them.  With these issues our mother decided to buy each of us our own set and we were not to share the pieces or make one big collection.  This way we each had our own and could not fight over them any more.  LEGO had created some specialized sets in addition to their Basic Sets.  They offered Castle, Town and Space themed sets.  I collected the Town and Space themed sets and my brother collected all three.  We still did get a basic set or two.

As we each grew our collections we amassed a lot of LEGO elements.  We would created things and sometimes share building tips or designs.  I focused mainly on science fiction based designs: spaceships, space stations, etc.  I would do other stuff too.  I've build a Mad Max era truck, an Airwolf inspired helicopter with design elements from my brother, a home/cabin that was based on a design from LEGO and some amusement park rides.  Most of my better designs are from when I was in high school and college.  I still have a few things together that I build back then, over twenty years ago.

It has now become a tradition that almost every time I go in to the hospital I am given a small LEGO set to keep me occupied.  Without the LEGO sets I'd have to find something else to occupy my mind.  There is TV which gets boring after awhile, reading, music, etc.  I do those things too as well as prayer too.  I also like visitors but people cannot always visit all the time.  So LEGO is great for the alone time I have a lot of.

I still build with LEGO at home but not as much as model building.  I also still collect sets but not as frequently as I did as a child.  Recently I've been collection the Star Wars themed sets.  I don't have all but I have quite a few of them.  I even like going to the LEGO store where you can select individual elements and build up the collection with special pieces.  I am very grateful for LEGO and still will collect and play with them.

Some of my sets and creations

A Racing Heart.

My previous post was poem I wrote about an event in my life almost two years ago.  It was part of the beginning of a "year of  hell" for me and my family.  In January of 2003, over 6 months after my last heart surgery to replace the pulmonary valve and conduit, I was undergoing a cardiac stress test to see how my heart was functioning.  During the test I gagged on the mouthpiece that was connected to a machine that was measuring my oxygen consumption.  When I gagged my heart rate jumped from about 130 bpm to about 200 bpm.  They stopped the test started taking my blood pressure.  They were getting no reading at all when they were using my left arm.  They then remembered that I had a BT shunt on the left side and the BP readings are not normal in that arm and possibly gone when the heart goes crazy.  They called for a crash cart.  They then tried to get the pressure from my right arm and they were getting normal readings.  After about almost two minutes of this my heart had one of its skipped beats that I usually get and that broke the rhythm.  I went from 220 to 160 in one jump.  They had me sit and not move or do anything and they kept monitoring my heart rate.  They debating keeping me overnight to monitor but since I was doing well and the EKG looked good I went home.

That incident including a similar event that occurred when restarting my heart and a halter monitor showing a few runs of tachycardia (fast heart rate) prompted my doctor to start me on a beta blocker (an anti-arrhythmia drug) and then have an ICD put in.  I have my first ICD put in in July of 2004.  Until January of  2009 I only had about 3-4 shocks from the ICD, all appropriate and all months apart from each other.  At the end of January I was shocked twice in one day.  I was to go to the ER if I had two or more shocks in a 24 hour period.  I went to the ER of a local hospital and they monitored me overnight.  Everything looked okay and they sent me hope and then I saw my regular doctor who takes care of the rhythm.  That doctor said it was probably a fluke.  They see this happend and I may never need another shock again or it might happen again.  There is no way to tell for sure and that is why the ICD is there.

A month later I came home from work and my heart rate was up a bit so I sat down when I got home.  As I sat there the heart rate was not dropping then suddenly it felt like the heart stopped.  That is the only way I could describe it.  A moment or two later I was shocked and then I felt the heart going but the rate was still up.  My wife called for an ambulance and a few minutes later I got another feeling of the heart stopped and then a shock.  I was put in the ambulance and they were switching drivers and I got two more shocks in the ambulance. Turns out the feeling of the heart stopped was the heart actually beating about about 250 to 260 bpm.  I stabilized but the rate was still up over 100 bpm.

Once in the ER it started again.  In about a 10 minute time span I was shocked about 6 more times.  In the middle of this happening the hospital's lullaby went off as it does when a baby is born.  I heart it and thought how TV cliché it was that when one life ends another begins.  After constant requests by my wife that they give me something to calm me down they gave me two drugs to relaxe me.  Shortly after the heart rate went down and stayed down to almost my normal rate.  I spent a week in the hospital that time.  This was what the poem was about.

The rest of the year was a nightmare of shocks and pacing outs.  When the ICD paces you out of a tachycardia it throws an extra beat or two in at a rate faster then the tachycardia.  This disrupts the rhythm which slows it down.  It is similar to what a shock does but with out the kick a shock gives or the full reset of the heart.

Finally after a year, two electro-physiology studies and two ablations (burning out the cells causing the fast rhythms) the tachycardia attacks or tachy storms stopped.  I been tachycardia free for about 11 months.  Now will see what the future will bring.  I still jump every time I feel a skipped or weird beat.  This is something that will be hard to forget or get over but I'm working on it with God's help.  .

Sounds on the Second Floor

Here is a poem I did for my writing group

The prompt was to take a sound and use it as the basis for writing something and make it a poem if we wanted to.  Kirsten gave me the idea for what sound and I took that for a specific incident in my life;


Sounds on the Second Floor



Bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....
Bip...bip...bip...bip...bip...
Bipbipbipbipbip
Oh
Bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....
Bip...bip...bip...bip...bip...
Bipbipbipbipbip
Oof
Bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....
Bip...bip...bip...bip...bip...
Bipbipbipbipbip
oof
Bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....





                     la
                        la
                           la la
       laa       laa             la
                                         la         la
la  la     la  la                     la    la  la
                                    la


Bip...bip...bip...bip...bip...
Bipbipbipbipbip
Oof
Bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....
Bip...bip...bip...bip...bip...
Bipbipbipbipbip
Ow!
Bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....
Bip...bip...bip...bip...bip...
Bipbipbipbipbip
Ugh!
Bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....
Bip...bip...bip...bip...bip...
Bip...bip...bip...bip...bip...

Bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....bip.....
Bip......bip......bip......bip......bip......
Bip.......bip.......bip......bip......bip......
Bip.......bip.......bip......bip......bip......
Bip.......bip.......bip......bip......bip......
Bip.......bip.......bip......bip......bip......

My First Story

This is the first chapter to the first story I wrote:

  1989 -- Activation. 

            It is lunch time at Valley Christian High.  At a table in a far corner of the cafeteria, five students sat eating lunch together.  They were good friends and the hot topic of their discussion was the upcoming Junior-Senior Formal Dinner.

            "So Ryan, who are you taking?"  Tim O'Reily, one of "The Gang," drilled Ryan.

            "I said I'm not going to go."

            "What will it take to get you to go?"

            "Nothin'."  Ryan mumbled between bites.

            Steven Evans, another one of the group, jumped into the conversation, "Good!  So that means you are going!"

            "I'm not going!"

            Tim leaned over to Steven and whispered, "I'll bet if we got him a date he'd go."

            "Yeah! . . . Who?"

            Tim turned to Ryan. "If you had a date for the dinner would you go?"

            "What is it with you guys?  I don't want to go," the thought about a date made him want to maybe reconsider his decision.  One reason he did not want to go was that he did not want to go alone.  He silently added, "sorta."

            "Would you go?"

            "If I had a date, yes, I would have to go."  Ryan tried to hide the smile from that thought.

            "So who should you take?"  Tim wondered.

            "I don't know anyone.  Oh well, guess I don't have to go."  Ryan smiled.

            "Yes you do.  I've seen the pictures in your wallet," Tim thought for a minute.  "Let's see the pictures," he said suddenly.

            "No.  Why would I want to do that?"

            "So we can decide who you can take."

            "Nah, that's okay.  Don't want to trouble you," Ryan said while Tim gave Steven a look, who in turn reached and grabbed Ryan's wallet and handed it to Tim.  "Hey. . . "

            "Oh, it's no trouble at all," Tim said and began to look through the pictures.

            "So?  What's he got Tim?" John Crush, another of the group, said finally speaking up.

            "Hold on," Tim started to think and then said to Ryan, "How about if you take . . . wait, you have a few pictures of Dani Thompson.  How about her?" Ryan became white, but also smiled a little and started to hope that maybe his friends would somehow arrange it.  "You know," Tim continued, "I could go ask her now."

            Could you?  Ryan thought but instead said, "You wouldn't!"

            "I'll be right back."  Tim got up with a smile on his face and headed toward where Dani was sitting.

            "He's not going where I think he's going, is he?"

            "Yep," Steven snickered.

            "I gotta get outta here."  Ryan got up and headed toward the lockers on the other side of the room.

            "Wait!  Where are you going?"  Jared Martin, another one of the group, said, but it was too late.  Ryan had moved out of there fast.

            As Ryan moved toward the lockers, he had to pass where Tim and Dani were talking.  Dani saw him and smiled.  Ryan moved faster.  What was Tim saying?  What is Dani going to think or say?  He hoped she would say yes, but then what was he going to do?  He had never been on a date.  Maybe she'll say no and he won't have to worry about it.

            Ryan arrived at his locker and opened it.  He examined his locker for something that would get his mind off his present situation.  Nothing.  He just stared into it.  As he looked someone came up behind him.  He turned thinking it was Tim.  As he turned and faced the person, his heart jumped.  It wasn't Tim; it was Dani.

            Dani stood in front of Ryan.  She seemed to beam like an angel.  Her beautiful, long blond hair hung down on her shoulders.  Her crystal, sapphire blue eyes gazed softly at Ryan.  She was smiling her small quiet smile.

            "Hi Ryan," she said.

            Ryan's heart was beating fast and all he could manage to get out was, "Hi."

            "I hear that someone wants to take me to the Junior-Senior Formal Dinner."

            Ryan wondered why she was telling him this.  "Are you going to go with him?"  he asked, thinking that she meant someone else had already asked her, and not even thinking about what Tim did.

            "I don't know.  He hasn't asked me yet."

            "What?" he said still confused.  " How do you even know that he wants to take you?"

            "One of his friends just asked me for him, but I'll answer him if only he asks me."  Then she gave him a look that made the light go on in Ryan's head that said it was him she meant.  Her expression also encouraged Ryan to ask her now.  He should have known.

            Ryan looked over her shoulder at his friends.  They were laughing at his predicament, but he also saw that they were sincere in helping him find a date.  He looked at her again.  She seemed eager to go with him if he'd only ask.  So he decided to try.  Ryan had never asked any girl on a date before so he did not know what to say.  "Ah . . . would you like to go with me to the dinner?"  He hoped he hadn't sounded foolish, but that was all he could think of.

            As Dani was about to answer Ryan, the school's bell sounded and Dani's friends urged her to their next class.  She smiled at Ryan as she left the cafeteria.

            At the end of the day, Ryan grabbed his books and jacket and hurried to the bus anxious to go home.  As he sat in the left front seat, Loren Moser got on the bus.  She was her cheerful self and she sat behind Ryan as she usually did.  Because there were only a few students on the bus, Ryan would be the first one to get off.  However before the bus reached his stop, Loren spoke with him, "I hear you asked Dani to the dinner.  What did she say?"

            "Yeah, I asked her," Ryan smiled.  "But she didn't get a chance to answer me."

            "From what I heard, she'll go with you."

            "You think so?"

            "Hey, for the last two weeks she had been hoping that you would ask her.  Yeah, I think so."

            The bus came to Ryan's stop.  "Maybe she'll tell me something tomorrow.  I don't know."  Ryan stood up.  "Well, see ya tomorrow, Loren."  He got off the bus.

            When Ryan reached home, he did his homework and then went outside to take a walk.  He walked for a while and then came home and sat on the porch until dark.  As it got dark, Ryan stared at the stars as they slowly appeared and admired their beauty.  He really appreciated the beauty of the stars that God created.

            Later he went inside and decided to watch some television.  Turning on the set, he watched a news brief about a young actor, Thomas Moyer, who was missing from his home in Beverly Hills, and a couple of other shows before he went to bed.

  *                    *                    *

            Later that night in an abandoned building, four men, dressed in expensive suits were talking.  They stood around a table with a map of the United States on it.  On the map strategic locations were indicated by red dots and "X's," and on one corner of the map sat three clear bags of white powder.

            "How is everything going?" Said the man with a cane.

            Another man wearing the same exact suit as the one with the cane responded, "All is going according to plan.  When the election is completed, we will have control of most of the East Coast.  Our men are winning the debates all the time.  We will begin removing all opposition."

            "Good.  Soon we will be the only ones to whom people will come for this."  He picked up one of the bags and threw it to his side man.

  *                    *                    *

            Early the next morning around 2:30 am Ryan awoke with a strange feeling in his head.  He did not know what it was, but he felt as if he were being drawn into the cellar.  He tried to fight it off and go back to sleep, but the harder he tried, the stronger the feeling became.

            He tossed and turned for about ten minutes.  As he sat up, the feeling became stronger, and he went downstairs.  He walked over to the cellar door, opened it, and stopped.  He looked down and saw a dim light pulsing steadily.  His curiosity overcame any fears he might have had; he went down.

            The source of the light was in a small room situated in one of the corners of the cellar.  He went inside.  In front of Ryan stood a table and on the table was the source of the light, a cube measuring about one foot on each side.  Ryan reached out and touched it.  For a second it glowed steadily then began pulsing dimly again.  He reached out with both hands on either side to pick it up.  The cube began to glow steadily and brightly.  Ryan took a step back.  The cube gave a bright flash that almost blinded Ryan.

            When Ryan's vision cleared, he was no longer in his cellar.  He was in a very large room.  The cube, which was still in front of him, was projecting a three dimensional image of someone. He looked closer.  He thought he recognized the person.  He looked and tried to think of whom.  It was a girl, fifteen or sixteen, with wavy blonde hair and blue eyes.  "Dani!"  He jumped back.

  *                     *                    *

            About five miles north of Ryan's house, in an upstairs bedroom, Dani was sleeping.  She awoke suddenly thinking that someone called her name.  She sat up and looked around her room, but nothing was out of the ordinary.  She tried to go back to sleep.  She tossed and turned for a half hour and finally she went to sleep.

Some of my writing.....

I thought, for the next few posts I would put up parts of stuff I've written.  The first here is how I was going to open the sequel to my very first story I ever wrote.  Enjoy:

              She knew she was in trouble as soon as she let him out of her sight.  She carefully searched the lightly wooded area with her gun drawn and ready.  She heard a sound and stopped.  She carefully looked around.  All of a sudden a lot of water poured down on her.  Dani's mouth twitched, formed a smile, and then she broke out laughing as she was drenched.

                "Why, you. . .!" Dani said aiming her gun above her.  She was about to fire when she saw that her attacker had a very large bucket, and apparently it wasn't empty.  "Ryan, that's not fair!" she yelled up to him.

                Ryan smiled down at her from his position on a catwalk above her.  "Oh, and leading me into an active sprinkler system is?" he said still smiling.

                "Well a girl's got to protect herself, doesn't she?  That's fair," she said.

                "You outmaneuver me, I outgun you.  That's fair," he said with a sly smile.

                "Humph," she grunted and then looked at her watch.  "Oh no, Ryan.  We promised to be at your sister's practice and it starts in five minutes."

                Ryan looked at his own watch and grimaced, "You're right.  We better get going."  He put the bucket down and ran down the nearest stairway.

                As they walked side by side to two large doors, Dani shot Ryan with a stream of water from her gun.  He looked at her and said, "Just wait.  You'll get your own soon enough."  They walked through the doors and stepped into a corridor of the  H. M. S.  Trinitarian .

                Fifteen minutes later, after changing into dry clothes, Ryan and Dani arrived at the meeting room where Nicole's dance practice was being held.  When Nicole noticed them come in and sit down, she ran over to them.  With a hurt look she said, "And just

where were you?  You're ten minutes late."

                "Well, your brother here. . ." Dani started saying but Ryan cut her off.

                "We're very sorry, Nikki, but we've been running a bit behind schedule today, " Ryan said while glaring at Dani.

                "Uh, sure," Nikki said, unconvinced.  By watching the two of them, she knew something was going on and she decided to find out later what was going on.  "Well, I have to get back," she said and went back to the rest of her group.

                "Think she believed us?" Ryan whispered to Dani.

                "Us?!  What's this us?  It's your fault that we're late." Dani said.

                "Me?  You started the whole thing!"

                "Not me, I'm just a sweet little angel.  See my halo," she said and made a ring with her fingers above her head.

                "It's more like this. . ." Ryan said moving her fingers to the top of her head, making them look like horns.  "Anyway, you're the one who threw the first water balloon."

                "Well, maybe.  But you're the one who brought in the first water gun."

                "True.  However. . ."  Ryan began and the playful banter continued throughout the practice with them not paying any  attention to the dancing.

I might post the opening to the first one next post.

What divisions can do to us

Just wanted to do a quick post about a youtube video I saw linked somewhere else.  This is the video.  On the surface it would seem to be a comment about how formulaic some church services can become.  One thing the makers of this video do not tell you is that this can happen with any kind of church service, liturgical or whatever.  The underlining goal of this video is to show how wrong so called "contemporary" services are by making fun of it.

In my studies of psychology I did learn that people are creatures of habit.  We like routine and get through things that follow a pattern.  It is comforting to us.  You have heard it said that people do not like change and this is why.  This is also why major life changes or illnesses or whatever can have a devastating effect on someone since it breaks the routine and the familiar.  Now change is good but it should not be done without understanding and compensating for the consequences of that change. 

Back to the video.  What angers me about this video is: one the mocking and two the critiquing of the "formulaic contemporary" services why celebration in their own formula for a service.  And I can say that by asking to be shown a church that does not have some sort routine in their service.

As Christians we need to get past this demonizing other people's way of worshiping.  It is okay to question and point out errors but to out right mock and disregard someone worship and devastating to what we say we believe in.  Christ did not want this.  He wanted unity.

Science Fiction: What Is It and What Do I Like About It Part Two

In this post I'll list a few of my favorite science fiction movies and why I like them. In future posts I'll list more.


Star Wars was once my favorite movie as a kid. I loved that it took place in space and on spaceships and space stations. It even had those cool lightsabers. I didn't care about the Force but I loved the droids, ships and lightsabers. There was always something about the first scene in the Lars homestead when we see Aunt Beru in the kitchen that I loved. The Star Wars universe was one place I would love to visit. I even liked idea of the Millennium Falcon. A spaceship that was also a home. The final battle at the end was exciting but over the years I tend to skip that part of the movie. I don't really like small fighter battles and this one goes for a loooong time.

I saw Star Trek The Motion Picture about a year or two after Star Wars and loved it. For a few years after I kept watching the Star Wars movies and was a big fan of it but I always remember back to a movie that took place in space on a huge ship that was doing some exploring. It lingered on shots of both the interior and exterior of the ship and this "thing" that was being investigated. But I couldn't remember the name. This movie also had an interesting feel about it. Eerie is not quite the feeling but it was different and I loved it. Years later after seeing it many times and being told that it was one of the worst Star Trek movies I still kept enjoying watching it. As I began to understand more and more about the movie I saw some interesting things that it was saying. There was a major character change in Spock to where he learned to appreciate and utilize his emotional human half when approaching problems and intereacting with people. I also picked up that the whole V'Ger journey and search for its creator is similar to a person searching for God and being shocked to find that God is not what that person expected or made Him out to be but accepting the truth.

The main draw I have towards the Fifth Element is the character Leeloo. There are similar characters to Leeloo in other movies and TV shows that I like. She is very similar to Lady Amalthea from The Last Unicorn, Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager. The Ilia probe From Star Trek the Motion Picture had some of the similar qualities They all have the quality of being childlike and discovering what it means to be human. Also with this discovery they both astonished and dismayed at what it seen. All of them were intelligent and did have specific goals or missions to accomplish while living for that discover about humanity both good and bad and it was usually something very good that they discover that encourages them to complete what they originally set out to do despite the evil they found.

More movies to come later.......

Science Fiction: What Is It and What Do I Like About It.

For a while now I've been wanting to write out what it is about science fiction that I like and some examples of why. Part of this is help explain to my friends who get confused when they think they have me figured out and expect me to like something or dislike another. I have many thoughts on that but they are not yet organized properly. I thought I would try to lay out the ideas here and see how it flows or comes together. Since there is a lot to say I'll just start with the first couple thoughts in this post and will work more and post more of it later.

What is science fiction? There are many answers to that question. I've seen many different definitions for it depending on who you ask. Because of people not always agreeing that a specific story or series is science fiction the term speculative fiction is being considered. I tend to lean toward a similar thought as listed here: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Science_fiction

The science fiction I tend to like more is when it is about how technology and advanced or unknown science impacts man on a personal level and on the societal level. Part of the reason I like this approach is probably because my life has been impacted by science and technology, specifically medical science and technology. The reason I say this is based on a conversation I had with my mother. When I was very young, the first movie I remember seeing in the theater was Star Wars and became a big fan. I was about 7 when I saw it. I was born with a very serious heart defect and have watched cardiology and pediatric cardiology advance over the years. My favorite character in Star Wars was Darth Vader. Vader is probably one of the top cinematic villains ever. He permanently wore a suit that kept him alive and his limbs were cybernetic. I used to always play as Vader as a kid with a towel safety pinned to what ever shirt I had on. I asked my mother why I liked the bad guy and tried to emulated him. She told me that she asked me that back then I responded that "there was something wrong with him and they fixed him." In the past years I had an ICD implanted and my mother said that they are turning me into the 6 million dollar man. My wife said no, they are turning him into his childhood hero, Vader.

One of the other popular uses of science fiction is to disguise a sensitive subject to make a statement about it. Star Trek did that a lot and was one of the main reasons the show was created. Sometimes science fiction is used to tell an existing story in a new or interesting way. Examples of this type are the Star Wars movies that are about the hero's journey and Battle Beyond the Stars which is a retelling of a western called the Magnificent Seven that was the retelling of a samurai story called the Seven Samurai. In each version of the same story technology and location affected the way the story was told and helped make it fresh and interesting.

Model building

This is something that I had written for a creative writing group I'm a part of.  Thought it would be interesting to share here.

The Model Kit




There are many types of models in the world, some physical and some abstract. Most times an abstract model is also known as a mental picture of something that is written out on paper. A physical model is usually a physical object that represents something larger or in a simpler form to testing purposes. When most people talk about a model they usually mean a hobby model kit. These kinds of models are good for people to have a representation of something they like and usually unable to have themselves. There is also the satisfaction of being able to put it together.



I have many such hobby models. Growing up I didn’t get into many sports or other vigorous activities. I would usually build things out of LEGO bricks or build a hobby model. The two models that I used to build were the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard and KITT from Knight Rider. They are both cars that I wanted and still want to have. Being a kid I would damage and or destroy the models. This was not on purpose and I would get another and put it together. I did give one of my General Lee models to my surgeon when I was 10 in gratitude for the work he did on my heart. I did get other models as well and enjoyed putting them together. As the years went by I got better and better. Now instead of a day to put one together I now take up to two to three weeks putting one together.



One of my favorite models I have is one that I just got. It is a model of the Enterprise from the first six Star Trek movies. It was put out by Polar Lights and reissued by Round 2. I have both. I messed up the Polar Lights one and was able to get the reissue and I have put that one together. The kit comes with the ability to build the Refit version or the –A version. I prefer the refit from Star Trek the Motion Picture. There are pictures of the actual filming miniature on the internet. I have used them as reference to painting it properly. This model is one that I have been waiting for a long time. I do have several other AMT models of the Enterprise but they were full of inaccuracies so they never looked quite right. I did light one up though and it looks good.



The Round 2 reissue of Polar Lights’ Refit Enterprise took me about two weeks to put it together. I did take some pictures of it as I was building it. Even after it was completed I sill did a little bit more painting to be more accurate. I still have a bit of painting to do on it. It is a big model about 3 feet. It takes up a good amount of room on the top of my one bookshelf. I was given a tip on how to fix what I messed up on the other first Polar Lights model and will make that one the –A



I am currently working on two cars right now. One of the cars is a ’78 Firebird Trans Am and the other is a ’83 Firebird Trans Am. I have a 2008 Shelby Cobra Mustang, a 1966 GTO and Anakin’s Pod Racer from Star Wars all waiting to be done next. I do have others but I will not be able to get to them for some time. I don’t have a real place to build them yet but when I’m in the same room as my wife and she’s watching something I’d rather not I build them there. Sometimes I even get her to help with the painting. She even did some of the painting on my Enterprise even though she likes to joke about getting ride of all my Star Trek stuff.



Putting together these models keeps me busy. I don’t work on them as much as I would like because of a lack of space to work on them. I can get set up and work but them have to clean it all back up because the middle of the living room floor is not a place to keep models, paints and glue.



Model building can be a fun hobby but you need patience and so it is not for everybody. My wife laughs when I get her to help because I have her paint parts that need a steady hand but she has no patience for it. But she still helps and I appreciate it. I and my brother both like to work on models and it seems it is something we got from our father. He had models all over our house when I was very young. I like it because now I get to have KITT, the General Lee, and the U.S.S. Enterprise all in the same room.

Here are some photos of some of my models:

Living with a congenital heart defect

This is one thing my wife said I should talk about.  First a little bit about my specific defect, tetralogy of Fallot.  Wiki has some basic info about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetralogy_of_Fallot.  My heart was a little different then described there.  In my heart the pulmonary artery was not even attached to the heart. 

Growing up I knew I had something wrong with my heart but I didn't really experience it.  My experiences consisted of frequent trips to the hospital for pokes in the finger or arm, some fun tests and some not so fun tests.  I also could not really keep up with the kids I would play with.  I really preferred playing by myself with my LEGO sets and Star Wars toys.  There were no "emergencies" due to my heart.  The only part I really remember "suffering through" was the hospitalizations.  I would have hospital stays for one of two things: surgery or a heart catheterization.  All of these things I will touch on in future posts. 

As an adult things have been a bit different and yet the same.  Most of the hospital visits and stays are pretty much the same as when I was growing up.  However I have had something new added: emergencies.  The first emergency was when I had a minor stroke.  That was a weird experience.  But probably the worst was last year when I had major heart arrhythmia's.  That caused a lot of ambulance rides and stays at the hospital.  It even included one night when I had about 10 shocks from my ICD within 2 hours, six of which were within 10 minutes.  The only other thing I can think of that I now notice and that I do get tired a lot more and a lot easier then I used to.  I'm also having to go through a treatment for a viral infect I got from some bad blood as a child.

What has kept me going?  Christ has been there the whole time.  Without Him I probably would have given up.  Despite of and because of all I gone through God has really blessed me, which, I will also talk about in later posts.

For now just wanted to get things started and general feel for what this will all be about.

God Bless!!!!
RyanKCR

The Heart of the Matter

After 16 years I should have known better.  I let the House Majority Leader (as a friend likes to refer to wives) know I started this and gave her what I originally was going to call this blog.  I should have consulted her.  She preferred that one over the name I went with.  What would I do without her.

This title works better because I'll be talking about what it is like for an adult with a congenital heart defect.  I also don't like to "BS" when writing or talking, I just want to get to it.  Also I believe that Christ wants our hearts and so this makes the "heart" important to me.

Introduction

I thought I would try out a blog.  I don't think it will be all that great.  Just for an introduction about a part of me is here: http://tchin.org/portraits/michael-8.htm.

I'm thinking of talking about what I'm currently going through, about the books/stories I'm working on and maybe some other general thoughts.

This is very new for me and hopefully will help me to write more and more.