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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!

ProfessorTomoe

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Posts posted by ProfessorTomoe

  1. Posted

    On the two-week anniversary of my first knee surgery, it looks like I'm going to get to go home. I think I've been weaned off of the IV Dilaudid successfully, so now all that's got to happen is the drain that got installed has to get removed. I'm a bit concerned about my legs - they've swollen up again, so I'm going to raise that with the doctor tomorrow. Other than that, we shall see.

  2. Posted

    I had my surgery today. Waiting was hell. I was NPO from midnight until 3:30 PM, when I came out. They finally put me under and worked on me, scraping out the hematoma and other gunk as promised, and installed a drain on the leg to keep it from swelling up again. I'm on the same pain management dose I was on before the surgery, so someone forgot something in the promises department. Urgh. It's being worked on.

  3. Posted

    Things are moving to resolve my hematoma. I've had an X-ray and an ultrasound to make sure it's not anything else. So, I'm having arthroscopic surgery on it to drain it and clean it plus any other associated gunk Tuesday morning - exactly one week after this whole odyssey began. I just hope it's not the start of another odyssey, unless it's a good one to offset what I (and everyone else) have just been through.

    Anyway, I'm NPO after midnight. However, I kind of crashed out around 3:30 PM and didn't wake up until the nurses did their rounds at 7:30 PM, which was 30 minutes after hospital food service closed, so I'm SOL with nothing to eat except for a tiny bit of leftovers unless they'll let me shuffle with the walker down to vending, which is unlikely given my state.

    Correction: they had a pre-packaged Turkey & Cheese w/Mayo sandwich and Ruffles and some Vanilla Pudding box at the front desk. All was not lost. :)

  4. Posted

    6 hours ago, mlooney said:

    That sucks.  Particularly the bladder issue.

    I know. I'm kind of getting it under control today by making doubly damned sure the nurses know what's going on. They're ready for it as a result, and they pass it down from one shift to the next, and a reminder from me at shift change is all that's needed in addition.

  5. Posted

    Well...ahem. My surgery didn't go exactly as planned. It's Saturday, May 4th, and I'm still in the damned hospital, thanks to what they think is a hematoma in my left knee. They got the idea a couple of days ago when my knee popped open and started bleeding during a Physical Therapy walk. Not just a blood drop down my leg, mind you - this formed a puddle beneath my calf. Needless to say, the Physical Therapy walk came to a screeching halt and we motored back to my room, where they re-wrapped my leg (for a second time - it came unwrapped on an earlier walk as well, but didn't bleed).

    I've also been having problems with bladder super-urgency. All of a sudden, I get a humongus urge to urinate, then I must go or else. No options.This has happened anywhere between 5 and 9 times since the surgery, day or night, and the nurses are never fast enough. They're bringing in a kidney specialist to help titrate my Bumex.

    I don't know when I'll be home - Monday, perhaps, at the earliest. It could be later. I need all the luck in the world right night now.

  6. Posted

    Here we go, folks. My knee surgery is tomorrow, April 30th. I check in at the ungodly hour of 5:30am CDT. I thought for a brief moment that some right foot pain was going to force the cancellation yet again of my surgery, but no, it turned out to be a simple blister that popped on the bottom of my foot. We've got some silvadene and an island bandage on it now, which should keep it from getting worse.

    I'm going to be kept overnight after the surgery is done, so I'll be incommunicado for a little while. Talk to you once I get set up back home.

  8. Posted

    9 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

    This did not start with her '"emotional affair'. That also had a reason to be, so she was already unhappy.

    Yes, there were circumstances she raised which led to her decisions. I merely pointed to the "emotional affair" as the final inciting incident which led to the demise of their relationship.

    9 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

    He might ask himself, "Did I contribute to our breakup?" "Should I have seen this coming?" "What should I look for in future relationships?"

    Oh, he realizes he had problems. I just didn't want to bring them up in such a short essay. To put things simply, he suffers from a form of "Non-24" sleep disorder which prevents him from having a regular sleep schedule. The way he sees it, she'd had enough of putting up with his disability. Combined with her own mental illnesses, which were beginning to become non-trivial, things got to be too much for her.

    9 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

    Counseling can help (but be selective, he should be sure it's helping).

    She has flat out refused counseling. It's a non-starter.

  9. Posted

    This is not for public dissemination. I'm bringing it up because I need to discuss it, and I can't discuss it anywhere else.

    My son shared the unfortunate news with my wife and myself last night that he is getting a divorce. More accurately, his soon-to-be-ex-spouse informed him she wants a divorce and moved back in with her parents, with no desire to attempt marriage counseling. Said event took place several weeks ago, at around the time she had what he called an "emotional affair" with a co-worker. He's been alone in their apartment ever since, and has it until the lease runs out at the end of May.

    We first learned that there might be trouble in their relationship around three weeks ago. He stopped talking after that point, leaving us to fear the worst. So, last night's announcement didn't really come as much of a shock. The details were a bit of a surprise, but that's about it.

    We offered to let him move back in once his lease runs out (he's 37, BTW). He accepted without argument or hesitation. After we finished discussing the details of the divorce, the rest of the evening was spent preparing his room for his return, and preparing a meal of Japanese curry (mentioned elsewhere on these forums). We watched some Ice Hockey as we ate, as he is a huge fan of the sport. (I'm just a fan of the Dallas Stars.)

    I was dreading his announcement prior to his arrival Thursday evening. After he made it, I felt a mix of sorrow and relief - sorrow for his situation, and relief that the tension was finally over. However, I'm a bit concerned by the way I feel now, on the day after his announcement. To be blunt, I don't really feel much of anything. I'm usually an overthinker, borderline OCD. I suffer from the occasional intrusive thought, and I imagined that I'd be overthinking my son's situation like crazy. However, I'm not, and that concerns me. The only thing that really triggered me to think about the situation was my wife saying she needed ice cream after last night's events. That booted my brain into action.

    I really don't know what I should be doing here, now that I've put things down into the digital medium. Should I leave things as they were before my wife spoke up? Do I need to give things more thought? I'm at a loss. Things haven't been helped by my physical situation today, which has been total crap.

    I'm open for input. 'Twould be most appreciated.

  10. Posted

    Did some cooking last night. Made Japanese curry. My son was over, so he helped. My wife helped cut some of the carrots as well. My main jobs were to dissect the three very nice New York Strips I'd bought from Walmart (surprising place for them!), to get everything together (except for the koshihikari rice - that was my son's job), and do the main cooking duties.

    We used Vermont Curry Hot roux, in the large size. We normally use S&B, but I wanted to try Vermont for once. It's nice, but it's got no heat to it. I like S&B better for that reason alone.

    All in all, it came out great. The koshihikari rice is definitely worth the money and the hype. It's fantastic stuff. Can't wait to try it with just some goma shio furikake on it. I *almost* messed up the meat by overcooking it, but I rescued it at the last second and instead just got a wonderful fond that left a great flavor behind in the pot.

    One downer is that I got a bit ill toward the end of cooking and had to let my son take over for a few minutes. He pronounced it finished, and my wife brought me a bowl. I ate several bites, then had to surrender to whatever was making me feel sick. All that work, and then I couldn't even finish a bowl. Bummer. At least my wife and my son went back for seconds.

    I take solace in the knowledge that the flavors in my bowl (which is in the fridge, under plastic wrap) will have commingled and will be even better when I'm finally able to get to them.

  14. Posted

    3 minutes ago, mlooney said:

    I'm some what surprised that you are using dead tree version for back up.  

    I need a "safe keeping" score so I can have one to send out to a band director at a moment's notice. It's not for my safe keeping, therefore, it's for theirs.

  15. Posted

    I think...I think...I think I've completely finished proofreading all four movements of my band arrangement of Bruckner's 6th Symphony. Furthermore, I think I've finished putting all of the bells and whistles on it (e.g., adding a title sheet and a contents/arranger's notes page, making sure that everything is symmetric from one movement to the next, etc.). In other words, I think I'm finally, finally finished with this four-movement, 133-page behemoth of a work. Now, I need to print out and have bound three copies of the score (two to send out, one for safe keeping), but I will probably only be able to afford to do two at the moment. Both of the printed & bound copies will have to be sent out.

    Until I can get to that part, I'm working on getting all four movements up on YouTube. I will advise when they're up.

  16. Posted

    My left knee surgery has been rescheduled...yet again...to April 30th. I forget how many times this makes it now that it's been rescheduled. In the latest snafu, I was supposed to have had a pre-op appointment today (Friday, Apr.12), after which the surgery would be scheduled, so I guess that would have been the equivalent of a rescheduling on its own. However, the pre-op doctor said I couldn't have a pre-op appointment without surgery scheduled first. Go figure. So, I went and got surgery scheduled for the 30th, then got the pre-op scheduled for the 18th of April. Now I'm finally set in the right order, I guess.

    Sheesh.

  17. Posted

    I entered a competition earlier this year called the loadbang 2024 International Composition Competition. My entry was titled "Interweave," for 4 woodwinds and 3 brass. Well, it turns out that over 600 other people entered the competition, making my odds of winning very slim. The upshot of this is that I didn't win anything. However, now that the contest is over, I can let you listen to it. Here's the YouTube link:

    Please note that the first 4 seconds of the video are silent.

    Feel free to leave comments. Thanks!

  18. Posted

    I've just returned, more or less, from the King Con Cruise 2024 edition, a convention held by Jon St. John and hosted on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas cruise ship. My part of the convention was a presentation about the history of Video Game Music, from 8 Bits to 120-Piece Orchestral Scores. I had to do a 60-minute PowerPoint presentation, followed by a 30-minute Q&A and Raffle. Not to brag, but I think it went down pretty well. I got nothing but praise after it was done, with the exception of a couple of people who wanted me to include a game I'd missed. C'est la guerre. Still, I'm happy with the outcome.

    I don't have any pics or recordings yet, but I will post any that get posted by others in the FB thread.

  19. Posted

    At long last, I've finally finished the fourth movement of Bruckner's 6th Symphony, arranged for concert band / wind ensemble. It's not officially posted anywhere since I have yet to do a full proofreading pass (good lord, it's 415 measures long), but I have got a WeTransfer link to a FLAC file of it up for you to download:

    https://we.tl/t-7ygAMR3EIF

    Please feel free to download it. If you do, I would appreciate knowing what you thought of it. Thank you.

  21. Posted

    Two things:

    After removing the gauze from the area where the central line was, I noticed that there was a stitch left behind. I don't know if the doctor put one in or if he didn't take one out. In any case, it's one more thing to worry about.

    I noticed a significant amount of cat fur collecting around the ball of my left foot. Didn't think anything of it until Mrs. Prof noticed blood on my sock. Turns out I have a bleeding ulcer. I've got a podiatrist appointment tomorrow to get it treated.

  22. Posted

    The announcer at the University of Texas football stadium used to give the score of Slippery Rock football games during Longhorn home games. I miss that since he left this mortal coil.

  23. Posted

    My line was removed, at last. It was neither a quick nor entirely painless procedure, but it didn't take too long and it didn't hurt too bad. The line was stuck in there pretty good, so the doctor had to get the lidocaine out and pull rather hard. There's a 1mm x 2-3mm ring around the line inside the vein (a "collar") to help keep it in place, and in my case some scar tissue had grown around it - maybe 6-7mm square of scar tissue. Once he got it loose, it just slid right out. Quite gnarly.

    I'm not supposed to do anything with my arm for the rest of the day, including raising it over my head. After that, I'm a free man, able to lift more than 10lbs once again. Yay.