ProfessorTomoe

I have joined the rest of the world and acquired an electric teakettle for myself. As a result, I am having more fun than an American ought to be allowed. For starters, the kettle is a VAVA brand 1.7 liter stainless steel cordless electric kettle with six preset temperatures: 160°F, 175°F, 185°F, 190°F, 200°F, and 212°F (boiling, a.k.a. 100°C). It's got a keep warm function and an anti-"boil dry" preventer. The water level is visible and lit in blue. It was just $43. The first one arrived DOA, but the manufacturer got a replacement out to me very fast and didn't insist on me returning the original unit (I did have to send them a phone video of how it was malfunctioning, however). Now, no longer do I have to rinse out the Keurig, scrub its nozzles, or set/reset its temperature whenever I want to make a cup of tea, nor do I have to put a pot of water on the stove and boil it when I want to brew up some pu'erh. Fresh water is always at hand, with no worries that I'm going to piss off my wife by forgetting to reset some arcane setting and ruin her morning coffee. All of the things that made me give up making tea for well over a year. The kettle has allowed me to go back to my tea discovery days, before I got tired of farking around with the Keurig, and I have done so with gusto. I've relearned the joys of a simple cup of wild lapsang souchong. I've re-experienced the wonder of a steeper of dragon pearl jasmine tea as the tiny pearls unwind and expand into intricate shapes, filling the steeper. My smoky lapsang souchong has picked me up and reinvigorated me once again, just long enough to order a replacement supply of the organic version online. Not all of my tea survived the hiatus, I'm sad to say. My last ball of pu'erh came out smelling like catfish skin, although the taste was actually pleasant. My white tea pearls from Adagio Teas refused to unwind, making them undrinkable. They were consigned to the trashbin. I have, however, slowly moved back into the land of experimentation. An encounter on the Internet led me to Steven Smith Teamaker, and in particular to his British Brunch blend. It came highly recommended, so I've purchased a flip-top package to see how it stacks up against my Chinese teas. All of this fun from a $43 electric kettle. Who says Americans can't learn from the rest of the world?

Back when I worked at 3D Realms, a bird got into our offices. Yours truly captured said bird with the aid of the ceiling and a cardboard box. We took it outside and let it go.

"What It Shall Be" now has a high-resolution 96KHz/24-bit download available on Bandcamp! Grab it for $1 at this address: https://leejackson1.bandcamp.com/track/what-it-shall-be-96khz-24bit-version EDIT: Got my first listener review... Fantastic "in the box" fusion track. Also very well balanced. You can't really tell it's all from a synth! (seriously, that's not a real guitar?!)

...and it's out! "What It Shall Be," my new Jazz/Funk instrumental single, is now available for MP3-320 download on CD Baby! Grab your copy today for just 99 cents! https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/leejackson12

"What It Shall Be," my new Jazz/Funk instrumental single, is scheduled to drop this Friday, January 11th through CD Baby. Eyes open!

Something I won't be ingesting: Yak meat. I ordered 3 pounds of yak stew meat from a place online called The Yak Boys. I was going to use it to make Japanese curry. It took them a couple of weeks to ship. Finally, yesterday, I got notice that they'd shipped via FedEx. It got here about 90 minutes ago, in a box that was bloodstained. I opened up the inner Styrofoam box and found more blood. The packs had thawed, and a couple of them were dripping. They smelled like they had gone bad. I took pictures of the box and e-mailed The Yak Boys, demanding a reshipment. What I got was a response saying that they normally don't ship less than 10 pounds to my area and that they were sorry that no one had told me (I'd already e-mailed the same guy previously - why didn't he say something then?), so he wouldn't reship unless I bumped up my order to 10 pounds. My only alternative was a refund. I chose the refund. So much for yak curry, and so much for The Yak Boys - avoid them, IMHO.

Yep - I'm sick, although it's with acute sinusitis. That means 10 days of Augmentin for me and a reschedule of my first back procedure to January 24th. Grr. On the upside, I did get a Starbucks peppermint mocha out of the deal. Yum.

Two more things: 1. I think I've picked up my wife's upper respiratory infection. She's been sick for a week, and I'm just now coming down sick. 2. That means I'm going to have to reschedule my back procedure myself. I can't have an active infection and have a back procedure done. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Two things: 1. The stitches are out of my half-toe. I've still got the silver nitrate scab over the incision site, though. The surgical boot was left at the doctor's office, thank the maker. I no longer need it. 2. My back procedure, which was scheduled for this Friday, has been postponed by the doctor until the 11th of this month. Damn doctor keeps having things pop up. Grrrr.

I hope that the next anesthesiologist will be as willing to work with me as the last one was. I go in for radio ablation of the nerve endings (I think) along the left side of my spine from L2 through S5 (again, I think) at a different hospital. I'm going to tell them about my experience at the previous hospital and see what they think. I've had bad luck at the back procedure hospital, mainly with waking up with shivering. Once, I even woke up with a scratched cornea. Had to see an ophthalmologist for it. So, naturally I'm a bit concerned about what'll happen with my operation, which happens this coming Friday (January 4th).

Yeah, the anesthesiologist and I had a nice, long discussion about what strategy she would follow. She mentioned that she usually used Propofol as a lead-in to the real anesthesia drug, but in my case, since I wouldn't be under long (a total of 15 minutes, literally), she could keep me on the Propofol drip and not have to resort to the drugs that give me side effects like nausea and horrible shivering. Her strategy worked wonders - I felt great waking up, like I'd never been under at all.

I've put up a new blog post with a few details about my amputation surgery and continuing recovery: https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/2018/12/i-left-a-big-tip/ There are links to photos of what's left of my toe. You won't have to look at them unless you specifically click on the links in the blog post, so feel safe to click on the above link if you want just the story and not the pics.

I certainly hope you are right! Surgery went very smoothly. I was literally in and out in 15 minutes. I woke up feeling great. The only downside is that the doctor had to take two bones instead of just one - the second bone was just too far gone. I'll hear about the pathology reports at my follow-up appointment on Thursday. Meanwhile, I'm allowed to put weight on it and walk around without the surgical boot inside the house. I only have to wear the boot outside the house.

Had my pre-op visit on Friday. Everything was the usual stuff - blood/urine test, chest X-ray, and so on. At the end, they gave me a bottle of antiseptic soap with some odd instructions attached. I'm supposed to get a wet washcloth, squeeze some of it on there, then turn off the water and lather up from the neckline down, avoiding the genital area and any open wounds (e.g., my toe). If I do get it in either of those areas, I'm supposed to flush said area with a steady stream of water for 15 minutes. Otherwise, after I soap up, I'm supposed to stand there for a minute, then turn the water back on and rinse. I'm supposed to do this twice: once before I go to bed the night before the surgery, and once the morning of the surgery. Considering that I've got to be at the hospital at 5am for a 7am operation, that means I've got to get up around 3am to get ready to go. This is going to be a rough preparation for a nasty little surgery. As much as my toe hurts, I'm not looking forward to the process of having it removed.

I just got back from the podiatrist. The verdict is in: it'll be partial amputation of the second toe of the left foot. He plans on taking just the first joint, but if he gets in there and finds that the toe up to the second joint is too far gone, he'll take it too. I won't be wearing just a short boot afterward, either - oh, no. I'll be wearing the knee-high boot that I wore after I broke my ankles. Surgery is scheduled for 7:00 a.m. CST this coming Monday.

DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT The tip of the second toe on my left foot has become infected again. While I'm on Keflex to knock out the infection of my pinky toe. That does not bode well. I've got a back procedure (i.e., radio ablation of my lower back nerve endings) scheduled for the 14th, and now I'm going to have to reschedule it. AGAIN. I had to reschedule it when I had the bone infection back in August/September, since you can't have this procedure done while you have an active infection anywhere in your body. Hence all of the swearing at the top of this post. Another reason for swearing is that I may have to have another PICC line put in so I can have stronger IV antibiotics administered. The Keflex should be keeping any infections from sprouting, but it's not. There's not a lot stronger that comes in pill form. I'm going to have to get in to my podiatrist's office early and see what he recommends in the way of antibiotics. I'm not looking forward to that appointment. The alternative treatment, of course, is to amputate the toe. I'll consider it. It's already a hammer toe, and it hurts any time I step wrong on it. Maybe I don't need it.

SECONDED

Saw the doctor today about my toe. He says it's warmer than the neighboring toe, signifying infection. He prescribed Keflex (oral) and Silvadene (topical) to knock out the infection, saying it shouldn't interfere with planned back surgery on the 13th (can't do back surgery with an active infection anywhere in the body). He also said that there is still a chance that the nail might grow back if even the tiniest bit of the nail bed remains after the injury.

Welcome back indeed, old friend. I'm extremely glad to see that you've pulled through. E.coli is a very nasty infection. You are lucky to have survived it. Avoid the Romaine lettuce at all costs.

I made my first foray outside without a walker in months just after I ripped my toe open - used a cane to get around. Ironic that I'd learn that same day about the injury.

... and now, my toe is swelling and oozing. It appears to be infected. I'm going to Care Now for urgent after-hours care later today.

Once again, I can't win for losing. As I was getting ready to go to an appointment to get an ultrasound done on my left leg (to diagnose swelling in my left foot/ankle), I caught my sock-enclosed pinky toe on the base of a cat scratching post at the end of the main hall of our house. It hurt, but not terribly. I noticed a bruise on the toe while I was showering and thought that I might have sprained it or possibly (at the extreme) broken it. However, when I got to the ultrasound appointment and removed my sock, I saw blood in it. I looked at my toe and saw that a good chunk of the nail was hanging by a thread of skin. I pulled the chunk off and examined it. Turns out that I'd caught my toenail and ripped both it and the entire nail bed out of my toe. I showed the chunk to the nurse doing the ultrasound and she concurred. I now have a gaping hole at the tip of my pinky toe, which has fortunately stopped bleeding now. I will never have a toenail on that toe again. I need steel-toed socks.

My album is up on Bandcamp! Calibrations is available at https://leejackson1.bandcamp.com/album/calibrations . It contains the entire soundtrack to “Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour.” It also contains a track included with the game but not used, plus three new songs exclusive to the album. There’s also an interview with yours truly conducted by Jake “The Voice” Parr of The Cyber Den radio show, and a reading of liner notes and special thanks by Jake and myself. There are big advantages to buying Calibrations at Bandcamp versus Amazon or CD Baby. You can download the album tracks in lossless WAV, AIFF, or FLAC formats if you want. Also, you’ll get bonus content, including high-resolution pictures of the cover, back, liner notes, and CD art, plus a bonus track of The Cyber Den Theme. All of this, including the bonus content, costs just $10. If you don't already have a copy, please consider buying one. Thank you!

I will soon be ingesting some cloudberry (a.k.a. bakeapple) products from the Dark Tickle company out of Canada. I just finished ordering a bottle of cloudberry sauce and a bottle of cloudberry vinegar (with real cloudberries inside it). I left them a note, asking if they'd ever get seedless cloudberry jam in stock. I would pay seriously good money for a supply of that, since cloudberry seeds are a major nuisance relative to the heavenly flavor of the berry in which they come.

I am now walking sans surgical boot! Huzzah!