Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Last night’s walk was good. I’m starting to consistently walk the three miles in 45 minutes. I began the walk with The Corrs, “Somebody for Someone” and Genius didn’t let me down. Although, I didn’t really care for the No Doubt song that popped on, which I can’t remember. I think it came between Jewel and Dave Matthews, both were pretty slow songs. On the way back home, however, Chumbawumba came on out of the blue and that was a needed burst of adrenaline.
While the extra energy didn’t make me any faster than the others who were doing their exercise (mostly they were jogging or running), it was still nice. I have begun to notice who the regulars are, or at the very least, the ones that are out there nearly every day. It really isn’t the time to socialize, but the odd nod or verbal greeting is nice. My constant silent companion, the sky, kept things cool but could not hide the personal pan sized box of Little Caesar’s Pizza that tried to block me from the sidewalk. No embarrassment from my companion at all.
The sky wasn’t blushing, instead there was a sheet of blue-gray clouds with a sparse break somewhere in the middle where the last of the sun’s brilliance shown. The edges of the sheet of clouds were tattered in a way that made me think of cotton pillow stuffing. Perhaps it was a sign of my impending early turn in? As a matter of fact, it wasn’t. I ended the night at around one o’clock in the morning.
It was a pleasant evening, but I long for colder climes. My affection for Alaska resurfaced and my slumber was filled with a bright, yet cloudy sky and white-capped mountain peaks just beyond weathered homes and heavily garbed people eating ice cream to warm up. Le sigh.
Today, I had planned to think about my Super Sekret Project while I went for my walk. Unfortunately, I didn’t think about the SSP. I did, however, come up with a challenge, mainly for myself. That challenge is to blog about all that I experience from my walks. This is the first of such posts. Because I felt the need to also write about my ordeal one year ago, I will get many of my original thoughts for this post wrong or misplace them.
First, let’s start with music. I relied upon Apple’s Genius feature and was pleasantly surprised with the on-the-fly generated playlist. The first song I chose was “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman. The Genius machine followed that up with The Verve Pipe, then Alanis Morissette, Jewel, Matchbox 20 and on and on until “Lightning Crashes” by Live. Edgy, but not so like a knife and very rhythmic. I may not change things for my next outing.
As I walked, listening to the rad music and thinking not about my SSP but this post, I encountered a bit more people walking, or jogging, than I did last week. Another personal challenge I created was to say hi to all the ones I passed or passed me. On my side of the street, of course. I’m still too introverted to yell across the street. Plus, it would seem weird.
Creepy even.
Along the walk, I noticed broken glass, shards mostly, but a chunk in a curved shape, littering a portion of the sidewalk near the ramp lip (lacking of the actual term, I made this up). What paper left stuck to the bigger chunk was indecipherable but the glass shards clearly had once been a bottle. One that held an alcoholic liquid. I gave the shards a wide berth while contemplating what could possibly have caused the bottle’s fate. Was it used as a makeshift weapon, thrown at someone? Or perhaps, in a bit of self-realization, it knew its top would be popped off and its insides would be consumed. Rather than suffering that demise, it launched itself to the concrete ground. Better to splatter oneself than be sucked to death. Or, for lack of much evidence of liquid, it had already been consumed and in such depressed anguish, threw itself to end its torment and re-categorization of being obsolete.
Well, after that bit of nonsense, I carried on. As I headed back home, I noticed the clouds, many had the rosy blush of the setting sun’s light glinting off of them. I played with the idea that it was the same color as my own cheeks as I worked up quite a sweat. Eventually, twilight sucked me in and my walk came to a close. 45 minutes for a total of three miles. It may not seem like much, but that’s how big things begin.
One year ago, I was in the ICU. It started subtle enough, a cold that progressed further and, when I couldn’t handle it, went to my doctor who diagnosed me with bronchitis. Little did we know that it was worse than that. A few days later, I couldn’t sleep and felt worse and asked to be taken to the Emergency Room. The last thing I remember, on January 31, 2008, was how brusque the receptionist was.
I was in sepsis. I needed dialysis, had a central venous catheter, I was intubated and, for fear I would use up valuable energy, was under a medically induced coma. All of February 2008 was spent in the ICU. There were moments I was cognizant, but I can’t remember those moments. When the medication to keep me under was fully gone from my system, I remember insanely early morning x-ray visits to ensure my lungs were free of liquid, I remember the daily dialysis to clean my blood, I remember the breathing tube, which made vocal communication impossible. I was told that I went into Code Blue twice. I was extubated, but needed to be intubated again when I relapsed. I needed regular infusions of platelets.
Back then, it was a big deal and I feared I wouldn’t get out of the hospital but now, it’s a wonder. As if it was some tv show and I really didn’t go through it all. The doctors still do not know for certain what caused my condition. A few think it was my gallbladder and others think it was a viral infection. In any case, I recovered and around mid-March I went to a rehabilitation hospital for a week to rebuild a bit of muscle, strength and stamina. Afterwards, I visited a rehab center a few days a week to further train, but I was able to go home. I needed to use a walker to move about and then graduated to a cane, then eventually, walked on my own.
The ordeal had me thinking of the things we take for granted when we are well. The simple act of drinking water or going to the bathroom without assistance. While I was still at the first hospital, but recovering, I needed to undergo a test to verify I could consume solid food and drink liquid without any of it going down the wrong pipe. I passed spectacularly because I wanted to drink water. I remember having a difficult time one night because I felt thirsty; my body craving liquid. Prior to the test, I was spoiled with ice chips and those were a godsend.
I really have to thank my family, friends and the hospital staff that, not only saved my life, but also got me through the craziness when I began to sink into depression. My parents took shifts, one stayed during the day while the other stayed during the night. Aunties and uncles and my grandparents visited often. Co-workers came to visit also. I expected to rethink my life and change things. Until recently, however, I fell into step of my old life. Now, I am constantly reminding myself that nothing I’m experiencing now equals what I went through. I have begun to exercise not only my body, but also my mind. For the body, I’m starting off slow with walking. Then I hope to add more and start jogging. To exercise my mind, I’ve begun reading more, starting on my Super Sekret Project and to commit to writing more diligently. I am, of course, also gaming. I love video games and won’t give that up.
I am, finally, beginning to look to the future and decide exactly what I want to do with my life. This has brought doubts into my mind that my current employment will get me to my goals, but before I do anything, I’ll be evaluating my options. Make something that’s current work, then try something new.
I want to see Japan, and if things work out, I will in August-ish. I want to do more traveling in general, but need to address other things first.
Life really is too short to get caught up. Live every moment.
This holds especially true for me because I was given a second chance (many of the doctors I saw said it was a miracle that I recovered). All those green mushrooms paid off.
I don’t have anything really big to write about today, but just figured since it is October 10, I’d be silly and mention something off the wall.
Ten-ten is a modifier in Japanese, altering the pronuciation of basic hiragana and looks something like one pair of shortened quotation marks. It affects the characters in such a way that, for example, the “ka” character with the ten-ten will then become “ga.” The link at the beginning of this paragraph gives more examples, as well as introduces other modifiers.
That’s it! Nothing else to see here. 
I wanted to post something on this day; leave a mark so to speak. It’s not exactly a special day for me, but it does have its place in my heart. My favorite number is 8 and trip 8′s is almost as good as having four 8′s. Why is 8 my favorite number? It’s even, both as a number and in shape (more true for typed rather than written). and if you rotate it 90 degrees, it’s reminiscent of the infinity symbol.
I don’t recall exactly when I decided that 8 would be my favorite number but it’s been with me for as long as I can remember. A lot of my gadgets have 8 in the serial number (my new iPhone has a lot!). When I was with Sprint, I even had a cell number 8088. Yes, I chose it for the abundance of 8 as well as a reference to the Intel 8088 microprocessor. I never had it, but I’m pretty sure I would’ve gotten an TRS-80. Yes, I like the number 8.
