Taste

If you haven't read my last post, go get that out of the way first.  It's okay, I'll wait.

My last post.

Now that we're done with that, here's something I'd rather talk about.

My friend, Tobi, is married to my friend, Jimmy.  Jimmy and I were roommates when they were dating, so we used to see a lot of each other, and it was Tobi's interest in and exploration of wine that taught me everything I ever knew about the subject.

So when Tobi recently decided to start learning about whiskey, she thought of me.  She has been bugging me for a month to go to this food/whiskey pairing class with her.  I assume she can't take Jimmy because someone has to stay home with the kids.

I wasn't sure if I'd be in good enough shape to go with her, but I recently decided I'd give it a try.  The class is this coming Saturday, but Tobi wanted to come over and taste some of my collection as she had almost zero experience with whiskey.

So last night Jimmy took the kids, and Tobi brought dinner and some desserts, and we set about eating and drinking.  I enjoy owning whiskey, and I enjoy drinking whiskey on occasion, but I really enjoy sharing it with friends, so this was a lot of fun.  We got to sample some Maker's Mark, some Glenlivet, both 12 and 15 year, some Jamison, and some Henry McKenna Single Barrel.

I paired those drinks with a green Thai curry, some club crackers, some bourbon pecan bars, and some bourbon ice cream.  It was a delightful experience, and it was fun to sample so many of my whiskeys side-by-side to compare flavors.  I hadn't done that before.

The good stuff

We had a lot of fun, and by the time Tobi's ride picked her up around 9:30, I was feeling pretty good.  Tobi wants to institute a "Whiskey Wednesday" policy that involves a weekly trip to a bar that has a good whiskey selection.  I'm not totally opposed.

As it turned out, after Tobi left, Mister Gus became free, and came over sans Evelyn to help me enjoy an EXTREMELY sharp cheddar that our friend, Caitlin, got us and a bottle of Riesling I had been saving for the occasion.

I can't even tell you how good this cheese was.  It was so sharp it had crystals in it.  Little crunchy bits.  I know I'm not making it sound good, but it was spectacular.  The wine was a little older than it should have been, but it was sweet and had a bit of a tart apple flavor that complemented the cheese perfectly.

Sharp!

So we sat around for a couple hours and watched some of the KU basketball game and talked about racing motorcycles.

The whole evening was the most fun I've had in what seems like forever.  So many flavors, and such good company.

I didn't sleep very well, but it was totally worth it.  I was still in bed at noon today when Gus and Evelyn showed up with Starbucks and these incredible donuts from Rise over in Durham.  We split a Creme Brulee and a Basil Creme with Pistachio.  The donuts are extremely high quality, and that second one is truly remarkable.  A sweet and slightly salty mix of flavors you don't expect in a donut, but that works so well.

Anyway, it was a great 24 hours.  I spent the rest of today (Thursday) recovering, and I'm currently crossing my fingers that tomorrow will be almost as good.  Stay tuned.

Complaints

I am a complainer.  I know this about myself, and anyone who has had the misfortune to live with me for any length of time knows it quite well.  It's the thing I dislike about myself the most, and it's the biggest reason I'm surprised I have as many friends as I do.

I try hard to avoid complaining because I know it's off-putting, and I can't afford to drive people away these days.  Unfortunately, I can't always help myself.  It's who I am.  In the context of this blog however, it's easier to censor myself.

In this blog, I've been reluctant to share all the things that have gone wrong for me.  They're not fun to talk about, and some of them are fairly embarrassing.  The fact is, since I left the hospital, every time something has gotten even slightly better, within a day or two, something else has gotten much worse.  I like to talk about the things that get better, but I avoid talking about the other stuff because I don't want to complain.  In most cases, it wouldn't do any good anyway.

The last week provides a good example.  A week ago, my hip was still in a fair amount of pain, but it seemed to be steadily improving.  So I was busy starting to feel encouraged by that when the nurse came for a visit and discovered the beginnings of pressure sores on my heels.

The term "pressure sore" seems fairly innocuous, but it describes something that is actually really horrible.  There are points on your body, and your heel is one, where the bone puts a lot of pressure on the inside of your skin.  If you don't shift position often enough, like when you're sleeping, the pressure of the bone will squeeze out all the blood from the muscle and skin, and then the tissue will start to deteriorate from the inside.  If left alone, the bone will eventually auger it's way all the way through the skin, forming a horrible open wound with exposed bone.  The bone also ensures that it is very difficult to heal these wounds because any time it touches anything, the bone will tear it larger.

On one of my visits to UNC rehab after I left, I met a guy who had got a pressure sore on his butt, and had to spend 2 years in bed on his stomach to let it heal.  Pressure sores are no joke, and they can form surprisingly quickly.

Anyway, I had a stage 1 pressure sore on my left heel and a stage 2 pressure sore on my right heel.  Those are not to the point of skin breakage (they go to stage 4), but the stage 2 in particular is definitely serious.

Stage 1 pressure sore

Stage 2 pressure sore

Horrible?  You betcha.  The stage 2 one was actually a huge blood blister caused by the wound leaking blood into the outer layer of my skin.  And I can't feel or see any of this, so it's a fairly dangerous situation.  So the nurse called the doctor, and he insisted that I had to stop wearing the compression socks I had been wearing because they put pressure on the wounds, and I also had to start wearing prefo boots when I sleep.

Prefo boots are designed so that your heel doesn't contact anything when you wear them, so they're ideal for helping to heal this sort of wound, but they're big and ugly and heavy and impractical.  I'm not required to wear them when I'm out of bed, but I can't reach my feet so I can't take them off or put them on myself.  Therefore, I have to wear them all the time.

Prefo boots with custom duct tape toe cups

So I have to wear the boots all the time with no socks.  The boots actually expose my ankles to the air, and my toes as well.  Gus helped me fabricate some duct tape toe cups to cover my toes, but they are still not very practical to use outdoors, especially in the cold.

I'll probably have to wear the boots for at least 3 weeks.  They make it much more difficult to get into or out of bed, and they make it impossible to put on or remove pants by myself.  That complicates the bowel program.  And without the compression socks, my feet have swollen up to about double their normal size.  I'd show you, but I can't take the boots off.

This isn't even the worst thing that has happened to me in the last few months, but I try not to talk about this sort of thing on the blog because I don't want to complain.  I think it's a legitimate thing to complain about, but I just don't like being a complainer.  I've just been feeling like the blog doesn't paint an accurate picture of how I'm really doing, and that was never my intent.

The fact of the matter is though, in spite of the complications caused by the pressure sores, the boots haven't been as bad as they might have been.  Gus made me a pair of basketball tearaway pants by cutting up some of my larger pants and riveting snaps up the sides.  It's hard, but I can get them on and off myself if I really need to.  And I've been able to get by without taking my pants all the way off except occasionally.  And Gus has provided the extra help I've needed to make it through the last week.  I've survived this way for a week now, and I've only had to call him over for one boot-related emergency in that time.

That's another thing that makes me not want to complain.  As long as I've got Gus helping me out, it feels like I can get through any of this.

I've wanted to write this post for a week now, but I've been lazy.  And now that I've finally gotten around to writing about how bad things are, some of the other things that have been bothering me are actually starting to show signs of improvement.  For instance, my hip pain continues to improve.  It's a little early to declare any sort of victory, and I'm still waiting to see what else gets worse, but right now I'm feeling more optimistic than I have in months.  Hopefully I can write about that soon.

Less Pain

You may have been able to tell by the last few posts, but I've been feeling better this week.  My hip still hurts, but it hurts a lot less.  It's amazing how bad pain is for my state of mind, and conversely, how good less pain is.  It has helped me better understand the people in rehab who were perpetually bitter.  I know some of those folks were in constant pain.

Last week, I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Dahners.  He says I'm doing well, and says I can start stretching the hip.  So far, I'm still avoiding that because of the pain, but I'll start doing it soon.

We agreed I will return in a month and we'll take some x-rays to see if the HO is growing back.  Then we'll discuss the other hip.  I told him I don't plan to do the other hip until the first one feels a lot better, but it's progressing, so we'll see how it feels in a month.

The other thing we did was remove the staples from the surgery.  Here's what that looked like.

Neat!

I thought the device that removed the staples was pretty interesting.  It bends the staple in half backwards which retracts the ends.  I still don't understand how they get the staples in in the first place, but that's a different issue.

Final Superbowl Thoughts

This is my final Superbowl post.  I swear.

Today, my brother sent me some pictures from the Ravens' Superbowl parade in downtown Baltimore.  I'm sad I couldn't go, and I enjoyed the pictures, but a few of them illustrate what I think is one of the weirdest things about our current smartphone culture.

None of these people look terribly happy

You've got players and fans who have come together, ostensibly to see each other, and then they experience the entire encounter through the video screens on their phones.  I guess that way, when they get home, they can re-watch the video and remember how much fun they didn't have.

I still think it's better to enjoy the moment without the screen, even if all you take home are memories.

This is how you do it

I'm sorry I couldn't be there.

Here are the rest of the pics in case you care.

Also, this morning, my friend Jimmy sent me this article about the Ravens win.  If you're still looking for ways to savor the Superbowl outcome as I am, or if you're a big football dork who enjoys intelligent analysis, you may enjoy this article.  As a bonus, it includes a great explanation of why football momentum is entirely imaginary.

God Made A Farmer

My cousin Scot, the farmer, pointed out that there was at least one pretty good commercial during the Superbowl last night.  It describes the farmers I know pretty well.

I grew up listening to Paul Harvey on the radio.  Whenever his segment came on, you stopped what you were doing to listen.  His writing was pithy and poignant, and his voice and his manner of speech were like listening to a sunset.  I don't know of any other radio personality who ever commanded that sort of undivided attention.  Not from me at least.
It's too bad the ad was for a Dodge.

Woohoo!

The Baltimore Ravens just pulled out a miracle Superbowl win in the most stressful football game I have ever watched.  I couldn't be happier.

Go Ravens!

My friend Ben came over to help me root for the Ravens and eat junk food.

Not that you care about my opinion, but I thought the ads generally sucked.  I just saw my favorite commercial of the day after the game on a different channel.  Here it is.

Tired

As expected, I'm pretty excited about the Ravens going to the Superbowl.  I hope they win.

Otherwise, things have been kinda tough here the last week.  My mom left almost a week ago, and I've been surviving since then.  The pain has been getting better, but it's still there.  It's better some days than others.  I'm getting tired of being tired and sore all the time.  It's getting harder to stay positive.  I just don't have the energy.

I guess it's too early to worry too much.  It hasn't even been 2 weeks since my surgery, and they haven't even taken my staples out yet.  It was probably unrealistic, but I was hoping to feel better than this by now.  The staples come out Thursday.  Speaking of which, here's a picture.

Five inches long, 17 staples

My cold is better, so I guess that's good news, but all I've been doing since my mom left is sleeping until noon, eating some food, watching some TV, and going back to bed.  It's not much of an existence.  I have been lucky enough to have some visitors this week, and that has been quite nice.