Faceless Blog

It’s true, I’m looking forward to PAX East, the East coast version of a video game and webcomic convention that normally takes place in Seattle.  I can honestly say; however, that I’m not excited for the “normal” reasons.  You see, I have a number of friends that I only see at PAX, usually due to how far away they live from me.  These friends have only ever known me in my wheelchair.  Outside of Youtube videos, they just don’t even know what I look like on my feet.  Next year’s PAX East will be the very first time that I will be able to greet those friends on my feet, face to face and shake their hands.  (I would say give them a hug, but I don’t know how stable I’ll be on my feet by then.)  It’s hard to explain how much this means to me, I guess.  You’d think it wouldn’t be that big a deal, since they’ve seen me walking on Youtube many times, but it is a big deal…a really big deal.  So, PAX Friends, be patient.  March is coming, surprisingly fast, and on that first day of PAX, you’ve got a big handshake/hug coming.  

Whew, almost forgot where this blog was, it’s been so long since I’ve updated.  Honestly, I can say there are three main reasons for that.  1)  We got a PS3.  2)  We got PS3 games.  3)  For a long time, I was stuck in a holding pattern.  Only now, roughly four months after getting out of in-patient therapy at Passavant hospital, is the blister that I developed at the end of my time there healed up well enough to permit me to start my out-patient physical therapy.  

That’s right, folks, on Wednesday, July 6th, I will begin my out-patient physical therapy…one of the last phases of my rehab until I am completely back on my feet!!  I could not be more excited about this, especially since my physical therapist will be Casey, who was my PT guy back when I was just dealing with the wheelchair.  (Do I have a surprise for him!)  

I’m also going to have something very cool to report within a week or two.  There is a gift waiting for me at home from someone very special, and I can’t wait to share its story with you all.  For now, though, just hang in there.

I will be posting regularly with details of how PT is going, now that things are starting back up again, so thank you to all the folks that hung in there, or are coming back after a while (like me).  Later!

Ok, the official title of this should be “The Year of Doing Stuff I’ve Always Wanted to Do.”  This year is a big year.  Really, I can’t even stress how big.  This year will mark the first year where I will have nothing new wrong with me.  Every day since January 16th, 2008, I have been fighting.  Some days, I fought for my life.  Some days, I fought for my legs.  Even on lesser days, I constantly fought infections, muscle fatigue,  pressure wounds, etc.  This year; however, once I heal up these final two wounds, will mark the beginning…well…the beginning of a new beginning.  I will finally be able to get back to living, rather than fighting.

As a part of this, I am celebrating by picking out some things I’ve always wanted to do, and do them.  If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve already seen my kick-butt new shoes.  These were the first example of my celebration.  For years, I was always the guy who, when his shoes wore out, would go to the mall and buy the exact same make and model, every time; same color, same everything.  So, when it came time to buy the new shoes to go with my new legs, I went completely outside of the box!  I designed, from scratch, my sneaks on the Converse web site.

Tomorrow, I head off to Cranberry for the second “Thing I’ve Always Wanted to Do.”  Becca and I will be heading down to her Aunt Sue’s hair salon and, in addition to a much needed haircut, I will be having my hair dyed…blue.  I am seriously excited about it.  Why blue?  Honestly, I have no idea, other than it’s a color I like.  I’ve always wanted to try a wild hair color, and tomorrow I will.  There’s a tremendous excitement to identifying something you’ve always wanted to do and simply doing it!

What’s next?  Well, ever since this whole nightmare started, I’ve wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate the battle.  In fact, the very first dream that I had, after my surgery back on 1/16/08, was of me getting several tattoos.   Most likely, it will end up being some form of “Progredi Semper” done around my biceps, possibly with some sort of decoration to go with it.  

At some point, I’ll probably end up making of a list of these things that I’ve always wanted to do…but for now, I’m just enjoying the ones that I’m already doing!  Really, I encourage anyone reading this to pick some time to do something similar.  Maybe not a whole year and maybe not everything you’ve ever wanted to do (I certainly won’t be doing everything I ever wanted to do!), but pick a few!  Later folks, I’ll post some pictures after the procedure tomorrow.  :)

Wow, sorry about that, everyone.  I got home and managed to fall off the face of the Earth, completely!  Let me catch you up on what’s going on with everything.

Just before I got sent home from PT, I developed a blister on the bottom of my left leg.  It opened a few days before I left, and by the time I got home, it had developed into a layer of escar, which is kind of like a hard scab over an existing wound.  I also still have the wound vac on the wound on my butt.  Well, when I went to wound care (at AGH) to have them check out the wound vac, they also looked at the wound on the bottom of my left leg, and concluded that they didn’t want me walking for now.  They’ve since removed the escar layer, allowing it to begin healing up normally.  It should probably be a couple of weeks before I’m allowed to be on my feet.  This means that the beginning of my out-patient PT has been delayed and, sadly, I won’t be able to get up on my feet at PAX.  Really though, it’s ok.  Things are healing up well, and that’s the most important part.

So, I’ve been doing a lot of reading on my new Nook (the Color version), a lot of movie watching on the Netflix Instant Queue and, starting today, I’m conditioning myself for PAX.  Yeah, I know I can’t walk at PAX, but I really need to be able to wear my legs for a decent amount of time at a stretch.  For one, and this is the most selfish reason, there are people there to whom I really want to show off my legs.  Second, and this is the more practical while slightly embarassing reason, is that I need my legs to be able to transfer on to a commode…which is something I plan on doing at least once while I’m there.  

So, while my wife is busy making some epic looking cookies for the Cookie Brigade, I’m getting ready in my own way, and we’ll be on our way to PAX soon!  Personally, I can’t wait.