I've gone to the Dark Side

People who know me know how much I love Star Wars.  But this post is not about Star Wars, it's about a phone.  I love technology and its possibilites.  I've used mobile phones since about the mid-nineties.  I even went to work for a mobile telecommunications company as customer care then tech support.  It was then I starting using a data device. 

I was on my second phone from the company I worked at and was getting close to my next eligable upgrade.  I was also going to be vacationing at Walt Disney World.  RIM, the company that manufactures the BlackBerry, had just released a new BlackBerry designed to appeal to a wider market, the Pearl.  It was black but since as come in other colors.  This was around the time that Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest was released.  I thought it would be fun to visit Disney with a "Black Pearl."  The Black Pearl was the name of Jack Sparrow's ship that he kept losing and trying to get back.  My upgrade was not available until late October but we were going to Disney in September so I thought I would not be able to get it in time.  My supervisor at the time liked the idea too so she used her upgrade she had to get it for me and I would then use my upgrade to get a phone for her. 

Since then I had gotten the Pearl 2 and it had a better camera, two speakers for better sound and was HotSpot capable.  HotSpot was the ability to use a Wi-Fi router as a cell tower.  I heard it said that once you use a BlackBerry you never want anything else.  That held true for me.  I played with other data phones but never liked them and was happy with my BlackBerry.  When the iPhone was released and everyone was loving it I laughed it off and believed that something so expensive would be such a let down after using a BlackBerry. 

Since then the BlackBerry has started to fall out of favor and the BlackBerry I was using (the Storm) had horrible battery life and was getting worse.  It was coming time for an upgrade and I knew I needed a new phone.  I have an Ipod and love it and I never really liked the other data devices.  I checked them out but I was being pulled to the Dark Side, I mean the iPhone.  So on April 13th I fully commited to the Dark Side and switched to the iPhone.

I like my iPhone but the Pearls I had are still a top favorite of mine.  I'm still getting used to the iPhone but I like what it can do.  Time will tell if it becomes another top favorite phone of mine.

Total Correction Surgery 30th Anniversary

Thirty years ago today I had my total correction surgery on my heart.  It was only supposed to be about a seven hour surgery but due to major bleeding issues it took about seventeen and a half hours.  Reversing some work that was done on a previous surgery led to some major bleeding.  Afterwards I had to be taken back to surgery twice and eventually the bleeding stopped and then I began my recovery.  In the middle of all the trouble my respirator I was on stopped working.  My surgeon hand bagged me while they got it working again.

The surgery was a Thursday morning.  At the time I was a very dedicated fan of the Dukes of Hazzard.  I watched it every Friday night it was on.  After the trouble I was heavily sedated and watched carfully.  That Friday was a new episode and so despite the heavy sedation I woke up in time for the show to start.  My mother noticed and asked the nurse to put on the TV for me. The nurse kept telling my mother that I was sedated and would not be awake to watch TV.  After several tries my mother told the nurse to tell me that.  The nurse saw me with my eyes wide open staring at the TV and turned the TV on.  After the show was over I nodded to my mother turned away and went right back to sleep.  Just recently I was able to relay that story to one of the actors on the show, Rick Hurst.  He said it was the best fan story he had heard.

What was supposed to only be about a two week stay turned into 28 days and about 2 or so months out of school.  My recovery was slow.  While in the hospital I was able to do some building out of LEGO bricks I had at the time.  I also was playing with a Rubik's Cube.  One of my nurses allowed me and a girl I met there to do treatment on her.  We really bandaged her arm up.  I spent Halloween in the hospital and they had a party for the patients down in the cafateria.  They gave us costumes to wear.  I was a huge fan of Star Wars
at the time and I choose to be C-3PO. 

A lot of the activities that I participated in at the hospital, walking, the party, etc. were done reluctantly by me.  I was hurting and due to an emergency return to surgery the fast reconnection to bypass nicked a nerve in my leg and my foot and leg was very tingly and painful and I did not want to put any weight on it.  Eventually I began to heal and they liked my numbers and I went home.  I felt like I was there forever.  Going home almost felt like I was going to another world.  I was getting so used to my hospital room. 

The surgery was a success and years later I had to have two revisions of that surgery to replace parts that we knew would need replacing.  Of all the surgeries I remember this one has the odd distiction of feeling like it was so long ago and yet feels like it was very recent.  A lot of the details are gone but I remember more about that hospital stay then most of my other ones.

Celebrity Meets

Over the years I have had the opportunity to meet some celebrities.  Some just happened and some due to my medical issues.  I can remember most, if not all, the celebrities I've met.  Here are three and what happened when I met them:

James Doohan.
James Doohan played Scotty on Star Trek and he was the first celebrity I met.  I was in my junior year in high school.  It wasa Saturday in March I was talking with my mother and she asked if there was any of the actors from Star Trek I wanted to meet.  I was, and still am, a fan of Star Trek.  I said that I would enjoy meeting Jimmy Doohan.  From things I read he was very nice and really responsive to fans.  Besides he played Scotty, my favorite character.  The next day at church a friend handed me a
newspaper article and said that we were going.  The article was about a guest speaker at Lehigh University, James Doohan.
When we arrived we saw people going in the hall where he was to speak.  As we got closer I saw a man with a large set of keys on his belt and thought it the person responsible for the opening the hall.  Then he turned around and it was Jimmy.  We ware able to walk up to him and got a picture taken with him.  He was just walking around meeting people.  Afterwards he signed autographs.  I brought along my Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise book and was able to have him sign it.  I did get to see him at a few other Star Trek conventions I went to.

Tony Todd. 
To Star Trek fans Tony Todd is know for Kurn, Worf's brother from Star Trek The Next Generation and also Jake Sisko as an adult from Star Trek Deep Space Nine.  The convention he was at was run by a local Star Trek fan club that I was a member of.  The fan club raised money for a local charity called Dream Come True.  Dream Come True is an organization that fulfills the dreams of chronically,
seriously or terminally ill children.  Due to my heart defect I qualified and they sent me to Walt Disney World and Kennedy Space Center.  At the convention there was an auction and the proceeds was for Dream Come True.  Tony was very interested in what this Dream Come True was all about.  The organizers explained it all to him and he was fascinated and indicated that it would love to meet one of the kids.

I was there at the convention but only as a fan not an organizer.  One of the them found me and said that they need me backstage.  I was confused.  They told me that Tony wanted to meet me.  Me?  Why?  So I went back and my friend from church was there too and he went with me.  Tony was very nice.  He asked about me and what it was like for me and he wished me well.  I got a picture with him and my friend videotaped it.  Tony also signed my Klingon Dictonary.  Marc Okrand, the writer of the Klingon Dictonary was back there too and he talked with us a bit and also signed the dictionary.  That was a log of fun.

Brent Spiner.
I didn't actually meet him but I did interact with him a small bit, to my embarrassment.  At the convention he was at, you had to pay to get his autograph and I didn't have the money.  I was close by when he asked anyone who could hear if there was someone who knew anything about BlackBerries.  At the time I worked for T-Mobile as BlackBerry tech support.  I said I did.  Then he asked a non-BlackBerry question and it threw me.  He wanted to know how to save a voicemail without listening to it.  Arrggh.  I did know but I blanked.  I was all ready for a BlackBerry question and....well someone else helped him.  Normally I would be able to answer such a question for a customer and if I blanked I would have the info right there within seconds.  Oh, well.  I did get to talk to him.........

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......