What's to chat about?

[Bruce Weldy]

Welcome home!

[Bryan Cox]

Welcome home!

Thanks, Bruce!

[Grant Bunter]

Welcome home!

Thanks, Bruce!

Indeed, welcome home!
Get building lol...

[Bryan Cox]

Welcome home!

Thanks, Bruce!

Indeed, welcome home!
Get building lol...

Haha. As soon as I am able.

[nivlek]

Welcome home, and thanks for serving Bryan!

[Bryan Cox]

Welcome home, and thanks for serving Bryan!

Thank you! And the last 19 years have been my pleasure.

[Seth]

Good news...the AF sent my crew home early...

Bryan, that's awesome! Congratulations. Welcome home Happy to have you back stateside.

[Tom Smit]

Good to see that you are back home(.....in your country,LOL)

[Bryan Cox]

Good news...the AF sent my crew home early...

Bryan, that's awesome! Congratulations. Welcome home Happy to have you back stateside.

Thanks, Seth. It's good to be back.

[Bryan Cox]

Good to see that you are back home(.....in your country,LOL)

It is. Although, with a wind chill of -40 F this morning I wouldn't mind being in Australia!

[Grant Bunter]

It is. Although, with a wind chill of -40 F this morning I wouldn't mind being in Australia!

Yes, luxury here, not lol.
It was 104F at 6pm where I am...

[Bryan Cox]

It is. Although, with a wind chill of -40 F this morning I wouldn't mind being in Australia!

Yes, luxury here, not lol.
It was 104F at 6pm where I am...

I hear ya. Had plenty of that in Turkey.

[Seth]

I've always been of the opinion, if given the choice between the extremes... I'd much rather sweat than freeze. Sure, they're both uncomfortable, especially given unfavorable humidity conditions and/or wind. But, something about cold fingers, toes, and a stingy frozen nose drives me bonkers.

I grew up in the beach cities of Southern California and snow is something we drove up to the mountains to experience and recreate in. I lived in Wisconsin from about 2002 to 2007 and the whole 4 seasons climate was a neat experience at first. But, that charming sensation of a new environmental experience faded quickly after my second winter there. It's for sure, not my cup of tea.

It certainly wouldn't be a location choice I'd make without considerable contributing circumstances (money), but I'd happily choose 120ºF/49ºC Palm Springs or Arizona summers over ANY of the frozen tundra winter areas some of you guys live in.

[Bryan Cox]

I've always been of the opinion, if given the choice between the extremes... I'd much rather sweat than freeze. Sure, they're both uncomfortable, especially given unfavorable humidity conditions and/or wind. But, something about cold fingers, toes, and a stingy frozen nose drives me bonkers.

I grew up in the beach cities of Southern California and snow is something we drove up to the mountains to experience and recreate in. I lived in Wisconsin from about 2002 to 2007 and the whole 4 seasons climate was a neat experience at first. But, that charming sensation of a new environmental experience faded quickly after my second winter there. It's for sure, not my cup of tea.

It certainly wouldn't be a location choice I'd make without considerable contributing circumstances (money), but I'd happily choose 120ºF/49ºC Palm Springs or Arizona summers over ANY of the frozen tundra winter areas some of you guys live in.

So would I. I thought I'd hate it here but I acclimated quickly. I prefer 4 seasons, I like to be outside, I like to have a gigantic garden, etc...And I will have those things when I move back to my property in Missouri. But for now, the dry, super cold is not intolerable.

I've always been interested in the California weather. Maybe I should take my family on a trip one day.

[Seth]

Long winded post. Surgery update. If you're the squeamish type... it's not that bad, but maybe consider not reading further.

So, yesterday was knee surgery day. I chose to not be sedated at all. They did a spinal block and nerve blocks in the leg. It was a great experience. In the past they've had a sheet between my lower body and upper body and I couldn't see anything they were doing. I expressed that I'd like to see and watch the procedure. So, when they weren't doing things that had liquids flying about, they lowered the drape so I could watch. I thought it would be interesting to see the inside of my body, and it totally was. However, being completely numb below the waist, it wasn't the experience I thought it would be. The experience was more like being a bystander and watching someone else's surgery, or watching the procedure on YouTube (of which I've watched a few). Just didn't seem like it was my leg.

The procedure took about 4 hours start to finish, an hour longer than they planned. Toward the end, the spinal block started to wear off. It wasn't really painful, but I could feel them poking and tugging as they finished up. Little pin pricks while he sutured me up. By the time he was done I had regained enough muscle control of my lower extremity to transfer myself from the operating table onto the transport gurney. I'm guessing it was the nerve blocks in my leg that were responsible for the pain control at that time. It's amazing how effective that is.

In recovery everyone else was knocked out or groggy and incoherent. I was wide awake, 100% coherent, and able to move my legs. I was able to start some of the basic exercises that I had learned from previous procedures. However, a few hours later, I did have to take some low dosage pain meds (Norco5, 1mg Morphine) to keep the pain at an acceptable level. I hate being drugged/sedated from the standpoint of not having sufficient amount of wits and wherewithal to feel fairly normal, mentally stable, and remain able to think straight and logical. Last time I was a bit more drugged up and I could hardly think straight. From one perspective it "feels" good to be somewhat sedated. But, it ultimately sucks when it comes time to be able to make decisions or effectively communicate concerns. Been there, done that... really liking my current pain management and choice to not be sedated at all for the surgery and not having to recover from the resultant groggy hangover feeling afterward. All vitals were rock solid. No increase in heart rate, 69-70 the whole procedure. So, I was obviously calm and cool as a cucumber the whole time. Zero anxiety.

I do have a concern that they may need to go in again and make an adjustment. My patella (knee cap) isn't tracking straight and gets pulled out of it's groove, off to the side when extending my leg. It could just be caused by muscle imbalance which would be the ideal cause. I had an issue last time where the sutures that reconnect the quad to the tendon (they sever it to allow access to the interior of the joint. The patella is able to be folded over out of the way) had come undone and they had to go in again and redo them. Hopefully that's not the case again. But if it is, he'll just take care of it. Last time, he said he's never personally seen it happen before. So, I'm a little embarrassed for myself and for him if it's happened again. We'll see. He's supposed to drop in a little later today. I'll let you guys know how that ends up.



Anyhow, I'm doing well and am in good spirits. And thanks again for all the well wishes. Looking forward to getting the speaker builds in motion again soon.



OH! Somewhat interesting side story: Prior to having this knee replaced originally (current procedure is a revision), they did a procedure called a High Tibial Osteotomy. Essentially, they cut the top of the tibia off, place a wedge of bone between the two pieces, then secure it back together with plates and screws. They do this to offload the side of the joint that is damaged and have the body weight transferred to the better side. I was on crutches for 6 weeks after that original procedure, then doctor instructed me to go weight bearing as tolerated... Well, turns out the bone wasn't healed and the bone wedge they put in got crushed. We had to re-do that surgery a second time, and I ended up on crutches for year. Anyway, point of that is the bone graft never really ever healed. It's what they call a non-union.

Gosh, I wanna make this short. Short version... they put the original knee replacement on top of that condition, with an extra long stem on the prosthetic to help maintain it's integrity. But, I always felt pain there, at the site of the osteotomy. One CT scan report mentioned it was a non-union. Then a few years later (took some time to find a new doctor) a new CT scan report says it's "Grossly Healed" and the doctor says he didn't see anything too wrong with the images. But, I could clearly see the area I felt pain in was very different from the surrounding bone and I looked up on the internet how to use the CT viewing software tools that indicate bone density and from what I could tell, the area was definitely not the same density as the surrounding bone. Anyway, we just left it at "we'll look into it when we do the revision".

So, yesterday, he cut's me open, get's the patella out of the way, and probes the area with a knife. He sort of chuckled a bit and EVERYONE in the room took out their phones and started taking pictures. The knife easily pushed into the "bone" (non-union) and I had a knife sticking out of my shin bone. He admitted a little embarrassment having not taken it a little more seriously before and genuinely seemed regretful about it. It's really not an issue because we needed to do the revision anyway and there would have been no point to do a separate procedure just for the non-union. Ultimately, he cut out all the bad part and replaced it with the bone scraps that the revision produced. The previous two procedures involving that area, they used cadaveric bone the first time and a bone growth stimulant paste the second time. Hopefully having my own bone in there will heal up nicely this time around.

Anyway... some like a long read, some don't. You're welcome and I'm sorry. LOL

Hope you guys are well

(I do have a short video of the knife in my bone if any of you are interested)