I would like to say Thank You to everyone who left well wishes and words of encouragement while I was gone.

It would be an understatement to say this has been an ordeal and it ain’t over yet by a longshot.

But I did well enough to get out of the hospital in 3 days like I told the doctor instead of the 3-5 which she kept insisting on.

The hospital staff was top notch, the food was awesome and I was treated very well.

Now I have this gnarly incision I have to heal up from.

The procedure didn’t go as planned which is no surprise.

The right side was simple and easy, the left side turned into a bit of a nightmare.

She did a “Poke” with a big syringe and threaded a wire through on the right side with a balloon and a stent on it. She inflated the balloon about half way up to clear some blockage, again at the top and then installed the stent on the right side. The left side, she made an incision, tried to poke through the blockage and it wouldn’t go.

She tried to go up and around back through the right side but no luck. The blockage on the left was solid calcium basically like concrete.

She wound up cutting it open more at the fold in my leg and digging out half of the blockage. She said that there was a normally small artery that had tripled in size that was trying to go around the blockage but that only a trickle of blood was getting through. She cleaned out to the point that the artery was dumping into the Femoral and bypassing the upper half of the blockage where she had wanted to put the other stent.

It was a 5 hour surgery and to try and dig out the upper half would have meant making the incision go clear up into my abdomen which was not good so she called it when she got it cleaned out as good as she could. She said it was as big around as a felt pen and about 3 1/2 inches long that she dug out.

It is what it is. There is definitely more blood flowing and she had a little machine with a small microphone and a speaker that she could stick the microphone right on some small arteries in both feet and hear the blood flowing through that she couldn’t hear before the procedure.

I won’t know how much my total condition will improve for some time until this big incision heals up and I can do some walking to judge distance and pain.

I did 2 laps around the floor of the hospital today about 2 hours apart and that was good enough to get me discharged. I still have several other arteries that are completely blocked but this was the only option for treatment at this time.

I’ll take what I can get and I am grateful for that.

So once again I would like to say thanks for the concern and well wishes. It’s going to be a couple of weeks for this to heal up but I have some decent pain medication and now the Wifely Unit can tell me to quit doing everything I try instead of the cute little Nurse Ratchet I had. She was awesome and had an attitude so we battled from the first meeting.

We parted happy to have met each other with mutual respect and I sang her praise to my doctor too.

I heard one nurse tell her that I was the best patient on the whole floor shortly after we met so it just goes to show I can be a nice guy when I want to be.

I just got home a few minutes ago so I am going to take some pain medication and kick back for a while.

I’ll spare ya the pictures, at one point I thought it looked like someone was practicing sex changes on me.

It’s pretty gnarly.

Y’all take care.

Oh, one more thing,

Thanks CederQ, for keeping the joint open while I was gone.

Because here we fucking go…

Gov. Newsom declares emergency in California after CDC confirms severe case of bird flu in Louisiana

By Susanne Rust,Staff Writer 

Dec. 18, 2024 12:47 PM

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency as the H5N1 bird flu virus moves from the Central valley to Southern California herds and federal officials confirmed flu in a Louisiana patient hospitalized with severe illness. This is the first case of severe illness caused by bird flu in the U.S., and is considered a concerning development as the virus continues to spread throughout the nation via migrating birds.

The declaration will allow for a more streamlined approach among state and local agencies to tackle the virus, providing “flexibility around staffing, contracting, and other rules to support California’s evolving response,” according to a statement issued Wednesday morning.

Same play, different asshole.

I dunno, something tells me that We The People ain’t playing that game again.

As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure that we are right on the verge of hunting some dirty motherfuckers down and having some serious trials and shit.

I’m looking at you Fauci.

Can you say Nuremburg 2?

It could be real handy because nobody walks around with a digital volt/ohm meter in their pocket everywhere.

After 19 months of fucking around with doctors and having every test you can imagine and some more than once, I am going in to have 2 stents put in on Tuesday.

In case you weren’t aware, I have 8 plugged arteries between my belly button and my ankles.

This is causing a lack of blood flow to my legs which has led to a severe lack of mobility. I can’t walk 100 feet without having to stop because my calves and shins cramp like a dirty bitch. Both of my feet have neuropathy and the toes are kinda numb plus my lower back has been fucked up for 45 years too with a fusion and a blown out disc.

So the lady vascular surgeon I have is going to go in through my groin on both sides and put a stent in on either side where the aorta splits in two.

Called the iliac arteries at that point.

One side is going to have an incision and the other side she is going to poke through with a tiny catheter.

Whether or not this is going to improve the blood flow to my legs is anyone’s guess at this point but she says because the clots in my legs are so bad that no surgeon would touch them. Oh yeah, the artery going to my right kidney is 90% plugged and the two arteries that wrap around and go to my butt cheeks are also clogged.

This may improve that condition.

So anyways, this kinda came out of nowhere after all this fucking around with these damn doctors but I told her that I needed this to happen before the end of the year because I have paid so much in doctor bills that I would have paid my out of pocket deductible limit and the insurance company would pay for this whole thing without costing me anymore money.

I laid out almost $2,000 yesterday and paid off one hospital bill and that should have put me over the top for that to happen.

That is good because this is going to be wicked expensive.

She says I’ll be in the hospital for 3-5 days, I kept saying three and she kept saying 3-5 until she got frustrated. She’s a good lady, a youngish lady with Vietnamese heritage. She gets a kick out of me because I am so ornery and she likes the hats I wear saying I won’t comply and I identify as a pissed off American. So she has a sense of humor which I require.

So there it is. I’ll be gone for a couple days at least probably, I’m going to try and get my laptop in there so I don’t go insane because of course, gotta give up the smoking and can’t smoke in the hospitals anymore like ya could back in the day.

Fuckin’ Commies anyway.

There is of course, a lotta things that could go sideways here but I’m hoping for the best and going in hoping this will help at least a little.

Wish me luck and pray for The Wifely Unit because she is going to be worried.

I’m thinking someone is getting a nasty visit from the Po Po.

Not to mention he is a lousy shot.

I have no idea where this is.

I have heard horror stories about this engine before.

I’m wondering if me and this guy aren’t related.

Bet you never saw this one coming….

Buddy Guy with Chris Duarte and 国本武春, Takeharu Kunimoto – Japan Show ’95

I laughed so hard at that poor fucking dog I almost choked.

That little fucker is WASTED!