Cage McQuade

Welp, the doc sliced in, moved and repaired the nurve and slapped a big ol “DONE” stamp on it!
Sorry, that line isn’t as funny if you never saw the series “Monster House”.

Anyways, it’s done and I’m doing well. Arm is wrapped up and in a sling. Feeling sore in the elbow (duh) and barely notice any pain in the wrist. I’ll see if I change my tune once the O.R. drugs wear off.

The doc fixed the nerve pinching at the wrist and elbow. As for the elbow, he basically moved the nerve from, what I call the funny bone alley, to above it underneath the muscle. Didn’t cut any muscle, just lifted and shoved. So now whenever I bang my left elbow, I’ll never get that “funny bone shock” again. He mentioned to Colleen that there was more pinching than he thought there would be. So that just makes me even more thankful I had this done.

I went in at 10 and left around 2:30.

The surgical crew at this place was good. I’ll give them an “A”, just like the other surgical center that I had my nose done.

The nurse did her speech and asked a 100 questions. She placed in the I.V.
Interesting thing they do now is numb your hand before they place in the I.V.
I just HAD to ask, “So, let me get this straight. You’re gonna give me a needle so I won’t feel a needle?” She laughed and shrugged her shoulders and said, “Yea, I guess if you put it that way, I suppose so”.

The Anesthesiologist was great. Sorta a guy that you could see riding a motorcycle. A great sense of humor, all I had to do was start the joking and he followed right through. This is where I could grade better than the other surgical place because the other guy was just a straight to the point, this-is-my-job, this-is-what-I’ll-do, and never saw him again. I can’t fault the guy. Wasn’t a jerk about it, just one of those serious people. I can respect that. Now as for the latest dude, he did the 100 questions too, made sure I knew what he was going to do and had a ball with it. I even got to see him in the O.R. later.

The doc then came in and did the 100 questions (yes, these were the same questions as the others ask). Explained the procedure and answered all my questions. Painted a prettier picture than what I had in my mind about the whole thing. Was happy about that.

Later had another guy come in and, yes, asked the 100 questions. Led me to the O.R. and there I saw a bunch of guys, most were the ones that I had already seen at the earlier visits just tagging along. The Anesthesiologist was there as well and MAN what a blast we all had. Same thing, I started the joking and he followed right through and had the others going as well. They had me in tears.

From the nurse to the crew in the O.R., they appreciated my sense of humor but I’m quite sure nowhere near as much as I appreciated theirs to help my Logic side of me drag my Shy side of me to that O.R. bed.

The anesthesia went the same as I had before. Noticed the room getting “wobbly” and like a switch, bam, gone to la-la land. There’s no memory of a slow sleep, just going from “wobbly” room to me waking up in recovery. WOW I love that!

I came out of this better than I came out when I had my nose done. Didn’t once have any nausea! Ate as soon as I got home, I was freakin STARVING. Had a ham, cheese, and turkey hoagie. Oh man that was bliss.

So that’s it. I took next week off from work to just take it easy. I’ll work out my hand and elbow a little at a time. I have some pain pills but I’ll use them as little as possible.

So I had my first visit to an Orthopaedic doc about my pissed off Ulnar nerve. Good visit with some education since I had the doc and an intern, so I was able to get good answers to my questions (well at least the ones I remembered to ask).

It comes down to what they were able to get from my stories, the exam, and what the Neurologist’s report said. My nerve is pinched at both the elbow and wrist. How this happened is a mystery since I didn’t injure these. It’s not common for this without injury but it’s not unheard of either so there are some people out there that had their nerve go “Hey, check this out!” without any injury (yea, it seems my Ulnar nerve has most of my Redneck cells I guess). So with that, I have two options:

1) Surgery: They will repair the wrist and move the nerve from the “funny bone alley” to above it.
2) Live with it: I could just say to heck with it and do nothing.

There are people who decided to just live with it and have done OK but there is a good chance that my hand will get weaker. I have noticed my weakness in my hand with my pinching ability, having the thumb and index finger pressing into each other. A bugger for when I need to pull a folder from a filing cabinet. The doc also demonstrated another weakness. He had me spread my finders apart as far as I could. He then says, “Now I’m going to squeeze your index and ring fingers back together and I want you to resist that”. With just his thumb and middle finger, he was able to squeeze my fingers together with VERY little resistance! Holy CRAP!! I told him that was cool yet very disturbing. He then tells me that there are people who can’t even spread their fingers apart! I didn’t like that story. Now how much weaker will my hand get is unknown but it will get weaker. Didn’t like that one either….

So, even without me having to say it, he noticed that I would want the surgery. So he gave me the story on the surgery.
The success rate is about 80%. What will happen is that I’ll have the feeling and strength back. That minus any damage that has been done and is having now. As for the 20%, that is people who said there was no difference and is still numb BUT even if I fall to that category, at least the damage will stop and I will not get any worse because the pinching will have been eliminated and therefore no more pressure to the nerve.
The recovery made me step back a bit. It’s typically a month. Whoa! Ouch…. “This all depends on what you do for a living and your own recovery time”. Well, if you ask my boss, I do nothing so there’s that. Anyways, I told him I’m just a mere technician with low amount of heavy work. He said he’s heard of people going back to work in two weeks so I might be able to do that. Heck, I don’t see myself going THAT long but hey, I don’t know how I’ll actually be so I can’t say that for sure BUT it’s just my left arm. Thankfully I’m right handed.
The other part that made me step back was the surgery scheduling lady. She wanted to set me up on the 17th…… OF THIS MONTH! Whoa! Time out there miss. I’m gonna have to call ya back on that.

Welp, to me the decision is a no-brainer. I’ll have the surgery. I was just worried about how much vacation time I have to do this along with my planned vacation time in July to NC to see my oh-so-dear sister. I think I’ll be fine so I’m gonna call today and have them set me up ASAP. Get this crap over with. The longer it lingers in my head the worse I’ll get. That “necessary evil” and the “This too shall pass” bits that I use only goes so far……

My other worry was how would I drive my stick shift car? So, on my way to work this morning I tried to drive with just using my right arm. The result was good and I do believe I could do it. Now I wouldn’t recommend it but it is doable as long as I take my time.

So there you have it folks. Looks like I’ll be “down and out” in the last half of this month. Surgery, here I go again! This 2009 is for the birds……

WOO HOOOOO!! ROAD TRIP!!
Rob and I are in very early planning for a road trip across America.
Right now we’re looking into the routes and stops along the way, using cameras and shooting some video.

Rage n’ Cage Road Trip as it’s being labeled.
Rob is Rage and I’m Cage. We each have our own story as to the nickname and no he’s not always pissed and I don’t live in a cage (even though some would say I should).
Heck, maybe we can label this our mid-life crisis.

This is basically his idea that he’s had in his head all the way back to his early teenage years. He’s planned a few times but something would come up to make him place it in the “back burner”.

Well a couple of years ago a movie came out called Wild Hogs. Good funny movie about four guys taking a road trip on motorcycles. Four actors that I thought would never see together in one movie and worked beautifully!
Anyways, it sparked up his interest in doing a cross-country trip and asked me if I would be interested.
I’ve always had an interest about doing such a trip but have always drowned into the who, what, where and how.
When he asked me, I lit up with excitement with images of small towns, sites, and meeting people. With the “who” set, now we just have to set the what, where and how.

I do believe this will be a great trip to do.
Our Plan A is to drive from coast to coast and back.
Plan B is to just drive from coast to coast and just fly back.
Both have their pros and cons but right now I would like to stick with Plan A.
Who knows, with all the planning yet to come, Plan B might turn to be the best choice.

Rob is the brains for this trip and I am ….. heck….. just WHAT am I?
Lunatic, embarrassment, a nuisance to society…. Hey I can go on and on….
Oh Shut up…. My alter ego gives me logic but I swear there are days….. ug
ANYWAYS, all of this will hopefully work out in the end.
We’ll take the trip sometime next year.
Take about 1.5 to 2 weeks to do.
Our wives have given us the OK to go (nice of them right?). I’m sure they’re looking at us funny but hey, we believe this will be our grand story for the future. We’ll be free men wondering throughout America…. If that will be OK with the wives….. HA!!
We’re thinking on having a website set up for this (Well HE is doing it, you’re just…thinking…now go sit before you faint). oh boy…. Well WE would like to log our planning, the trip, pictures, video, ect.

So, does anybody have any thoughts as to the “where” part of the planning?
I’ve been making a list myself. Just throwing in places of interest. I know most will get thrown out due to location and timing but I’d rather have choices to look at than to wonder where the heck we’ll go and see.

OK, I’ve had this post in my head for quite some time now. Years actually. It wasn’t until I had a small conversation with someone about this that made me want to write it out.

Oddly enough, this started in my nose doc’s waiting room. I was sitting there watching an episode of Oprah on the waiting room’s TV. Usually I don’t watch these “talk” shows, gets me too emotional with rage being dominant, because most of these “shows” just focus on ratings and “dig up” what I call re-tar-da-tion. Oh sure, occasionally they actually get someone or a group that really needs to be seen and/or heard but for the most part… trash (but that’s for another post).

ANYWAYS, this episode had the father of the octo-mom (her nickname it seems). I was paying half attention to it, since I was playing UNO on my phone so to make the time go faster, until I heard him agree that something is not right with her. I was surprised with that since most of the time genetics dominates and the parents are usually not too far away in how their children think (when you see a “screwed up” person, you can sometimes understand why when you see the parents. Heck you should see MINE! HA! Just kiddin Ma! Don’t hit me with the hanger again!) ANYWAYS, what really peaked my interest was that he DID agree with her. He believed the children were GOD’s will….

OK, I’ll pause it there.

So, it’s GOD’s will that brought these poor kids to her life?? I asked that very question to someone and that person agreed. Well, here is where I disagree. I have a hard time believing in GOD’s will over free will. Now don’t get the wrong idea of me, I do believe in GOD. I believe he/she/it came up with a plan, created, and let it “grow”. I even believe in the occasional “miracle” or times that GOD does give his input and the power of prayer but I truly believe part of the plan was to leave it up to us as humans to run our lives. I mean, I have a hard time thinking my life is run by a plan from GOD or that I’m a puppet and he has the strings. I believe good things are good and bad things are bad and that GOD has nothing to do with either.  To me that makes logical sense because when bad things do happen, the bad things just happen and that GOD didn’t just sit up one day and said “You know what? I think I’ll give this person a bad issue…” I can see how people come up with this idea, especially for those that believe that all great things are made from GOD so therefore the bad things are also done by GOD. No, the GOD I believe in wouldn’t just make bad things. He/she/it just lets things run it’s course. I decide if I want to do good things, just like I decide if I want to do bad things. Why can’t good things just be what they are? Why can’t we just call them Good Things and not Good Things by the Grace of GOD? Let’s say I did a good thing. Why does it have to be said that GOD made me do the good thing? Why can’t I have the credit of doing the good thing? If GOD made me do the good thing, then why bother living? Well the same goes to bad things as well. The GOD I believe in just lets things happen, not causes them, good OR bad. Another example is, what if for some reason I decide kill someone? Did GOD make me kill that person? Let me ask you this: Are you gonna go off on GOD and ask why he/she/it DID this or are you gonna ask why he/she/it LET this happen? Aren’t you gonna ask ME why I did what I did?  You see… FREE WILL baby! 

I also believe that when a couple decides to bring a child to the world, they decide when and how to raise this child. So where is it that says GOD gave the OK to allow the child to be born? What if the mother decides to do nasty drugs during pregnancy? If the pregnancy goes bad, was that GOD’s will? If so, why? If the pregnancy goes through and a child is born with all kinds of problems, was that GOD’s will too? You see, Free will allowed the mother to have a pregnancy, do the nasty drugs and cause the problems. Why would GOD allow the mother to do the awful things and then make the decision to allow a child to be born or not?? Does not make any sense to me whatsoever. Take this latest example: Was it GOD’s will to make her have those 8 kids? Why can’t science get the credit for this? Wasn’t it her decision to do the drugs? It’s sorta like if you create a great invention at work and your boss gets the full credit!! Science is therefore on a lose-lose situation. If the births made it then science won BUT overshadowed that it was GOD that made it happen but if something went wrong with the births then science lost and is still overshadowed that it was GOD’s will to not allow it.

Another example, and this one really cracks me up, is athletes.  A lot of them, it seems, that when they win, it was because of GOD but when they loose, it was somebody else. Wait a minute. So you’re telling me that GOD watches your game and then decides to go “Oh why not, I’ll make them win”?? Yea, right. A football great Reggie White was great for this. If his team won, it was for the grace of GOD and his GOD given talents but if the team lost, then it was because of someone else. I won’t pick on Reggie since he wasn’t the only one that believed this but he was the most vocal. Besides, he was truly religious and GOD bless him. Still my point is why can’t an individual get credit for something that he/she worked so hard for? You’re gonna tell me it was GOD’s will that made each and every one of the teams participant win and not their talent? Oh and are you then gonna tell me it was GOD’s will that MADE then work so hard for that talent? Again, that shows that we are puppets and that life is meaningless since we are not in the driver seat. The only thing I hope for when I see an athlete praying is that he/she is praying for no injuries to ANYBODY in ANY team. If you pray for a win then you’re just plain selfish.

Everybody has his/her own opinion and I respect beliefs. All I care about is if you are a good person or a bad person. I could care less as to your beliefs in GOD or not. It’s your life. Another Free Will!

Again, all of this is just MY opinion and who cares anyways…….

Hey folks, I just have to do a plug for my mother-in-law Betty. She’s doing the Breast Cancer 3 day walk again, for my sister-in-law Karen, and she needs donations to do the walk.  She has to raise $2300 and as I’m writing this, she’s a little over a third the way there. It’s in October so there’s time but to just get this out of the way would be wonderful. She would really love to reach as many people as she can so I’m doing my part in asking any of you (the very small amount of people but nonetheless) if you know anybody that would be willing to donate WHATEVER amount, there is no minimum. Heck, just $5 would be fine if that’s all that’s available with this damn economy, and then just think, you would be happier knowing you made a donation to something good and therefore have a happier day! So, just help spread the word and direct them to the link:

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/PhiladelphiaEvent?px=1462888&pg=personal&fr_id=1297&et=1vEeXaZ8foMeNzW7NX-4Dg..&s_tafId=84940

Thank you for your help and God Bless!

     OK, so I made it out alive through the nose surgery. I think the doc did a great job. I can now feel the difference in how much easier it is to breathe through my nose. It’s still a little sore and the center feels stiff but I can tolerate that. I was expecting that along with a little nausea which has been quite low.

     What I didn’t expect was how my body system would be sent out of whack! My goodness… what it did to my head, heart, and lungs….

     I felt “cob webs” in my head along with some headaches. I had an “episode” with wanting to feint, which had the EMTs telling me I had low blood pressure. Then there’s my lungs. You know, I can’t say I was too surprised there. You see, I view my Asthma as a 4 year old. There are times it’ll throw a fit if aggravated. There are times it’ll throw a fit all on it’s own. Then are times it’ll throw a fit when there’s a “party” of other diseases going through me like a cold or flu and then joins it. So with all this crap happening to me, I can see why the Asthma got jealous and decided to join this “party” I’ve been having. The problem with my Asthma is that it may not be the last one to join the “party” but it’s always the last one to leave.

     Anyways, I give the docs and the staff at the surgery center high grades. They never seemed in a hurry to rush things too fast. Took their time to talk to me. Seems they all asked the same questions about what I can take and can’t take so I wasn’t sure if I was suppose to be worried that nobody there talked to each other or if I should be relived that they double and triple checked all how I am.

     It was weird to actually be in a surgery room! I’ve seen these rooms in TV shows and movies but to actually be in one? Scared and excited. They wrapped me up good in a nice warm blanket and kept talking to me (helped with keeping my mind off what was to come). Did a decent job with the IV even though they had a hard time with getting the ….ug… needle in the top of my hand. Didn’t surprise me there. My hands have always been a tough to put IV’s in. After talking a bit afterwards, I noticed the room getting “out of focus”. My response was “Whoa… good stuff. Started it didn’t you?” “Yup! Shouldn’t be too long now” “OK, well this is a weird feeling” And that was it… out like a light. I loved that! No slow motion sleep, just say goodnight and BAM… off to la la land. I wish I could go to sleep that fast normally!!

     OK, enough of the story telling time. Now on to what I’ve noticed lately. Most of you folks know I’m weird. Wired funny. Proof that God experiments sometimes. Anyways, I woke up some time last night with an earache and I just laid there thinking “You have GOT to be KIDDING me!!!” So I then listed all the problems I’ve had lately:

Left nostril had a big ol polyp removed

I kept having pain on the left side of my skull

Left eye hurts occasionally

Had an earache in my left ear

Pain in the left side of my neck (slept wrong I guess)

I have an Ulnar nerve problem on my left arm.

I had an issue with my big left toe.

What is it with my left side??

Is there a battle with right vs left and left is losing?

Is my left side pissed at me for being right handed all these years?

Well the pains in the head can be explained with the surgery, but the neck, nerve and toe??

Funny yet …. “things that make you go hmmmmmmm…”

There’s an argument for this all being coincidental but yet it still makes me wonder.

So everybody, just shake your head and say “Oh that Kevin… he’s a weird one….. OK, back to doing something better”

Oh good lord! 2009 is NOT gonna be a nice year I see…..

I have a couple of issues with my own body system. Losing signal and having extra growth where it’s NOT needed… (sounds like a typical Microsoft program)

Colleen’s father had to put his poor sick dog to sleep.

One of my dogs bit my neighbor’s dog’s eye out. This was done SOMEHOW with a chainlink fence between them…..

My parents’ birds just died.

Makes me VERY scared to ask what’s next!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Welp, I did my visit to the Neurologist. What a … shocking… experience.

The doc said the test would involve short bursts of electric shocks which is mostly just annoying.

Man, he was right…. Felt like short bursts of 110 VAC. He did it throughout my hand and up my arm.

Than after all THAT he says, “OK, now to the 2^nd part…”

WHAT!!!?!?

This part involved a needle…. Oh boy… how I LOVE needles……

He kept poking me in various spots in my hand and arm, testing my resistance to him pushing up, down, and sideways to my hand and arm.

Yea…. Testing my resistance to smacking that damn needle through the room…..

Anyways, after all of that he says he believes he has an answer.

Well give my dear sis the prize! She nailed the answer.

It’s my Ulnar nerve. It gives feeling to the pinky finger and a part of the ring finger.

http://www.eorthopod.com/public/patient_education/6606/hand_anatomy.html

He said the best cause for my problem is that I banged my elbow.

Hey doc, if you say so….

So, I take it that my Ulnar nerve is just pissed off at me and doesn’t want to talk to me yet.

FINE! I’ll show it… I’ll…. Yea right….

So, I have to wait it out. Got a wrist stabilizer and an elbow pad, which is mostly to remind me to stay off of it. He said leaning on my elbow does not help it.

So…. Stay tuned to see what it takes. Hey it’s only (I had to do it)….

“Feelings! Nothing more than…. Feelings”……..

     Fallin apart I am….

Seems I’m having a couple of issues with my body.

The first problem involves me having my first surgery. I’m getting a polyp removed from in my left nostril.

Big sucker that occasionally acts like a check valve, blocking air from going out but not in. Sucks when I have to blow my nose and can’t on my left side….

I like the doc I’ve been going to about it. He explains the scans that look like mush and even does a diagram that I can understand! Nice guy. Thankful that I didn’t get a “Well.. you have this….thing…. and well… well it needs to come out….yea….we’ll get you all scheduled up to…. get’er out…. The one that’ll yank it out…. you’ll like him…. just graduated from PenncoTech….. and he’s my nephew… yea..”

OK, enough of that.

Anyways, he has my trust.

Nervous about it but yet quite looking forward to it so talk about your mixed feelings.

I’ll have this done on Feb 11th. Keep your fingers crossed for me then.

OH! There is a request I have… Keep Rob away from me afterwards! I noticed that he bought some feathers…. He’ll have his revenge on me yet… That’s another story…

My second problem. I’m losing feeling with my left pinky finger. Weird… Woke up one morning and felt like it went to sleep and is on the verge of waking up. Well, I’m still waiting. This was two Mondays ago. I would say it’s about 80% numb. I was OK with it but now it’s getting annoying.

Gonna see a Neurologist today and he’ll electrocute my nerves to test what the heck is going on.

     OK, I actually don’t mind grocery shopping. I really don’t BUT… yea….. here it comes….

     I have 2 major problems with grocery shopping.

1) The design of just about any grocery store.

The bigger the store the more junk they put in it! The smaller the store, the less of variety! Tough balance. They still haven’t found a way to make the isles wider. They measure it out to be JUST as wide as two widths of a shopping cart and maybe a little bit more. That makes a problem when you get into a crowd and need to continue on (a little bit more on that with my problem #2).

Most stores get “cute” when laying out isles like someone wanted the store to get it’s “inner zen” (or something like that)….  Some isles horizontal with some verticals thrown in. I feel like a freakin mouse in a damn maze.

When they build a big store, I think “Nice, maybe they’ll be wider isles!”. Nope, bigger stores just mean more JUNK to put into it just so they can put the widths of the isles “the same as usual”…  UG! I mean, when I think of needing an alarm clock or a quart of 10W-40 motor oil, the first think that comes to mind is to go to a GROCERY STORE!! Good lord….

Why don’t they get rid of stupid crap like that and make the store easier to maneuver around? Yea, right…. and get rid of the small chance that someone will need to buy a Chinese built microwave? NOPE! Must have that!! WOOO HOOOO! Oh boy….

Then there are the registers. Oh man… during “rush hour” there’s just not enough room for the people who stand in line along with ones that just want to go to the next isle! We scream for more registers… and we get them….. but it’s one of those “dumb as an Engineer” type of deal. “Hey this store needs more registers!” “OK, here they are, BYE” “YAY, they finally have more registers!” “Hey, they have more registers but they’re closed” “So? You asked for more registers. What more do you want?” “uuuu, well maybe come cahiers to RUN them?” “Well, you didn’t ASK for that!!”   Yes, that type of deal.

2) The people.

The second problem I have with grocery shopping is that for some reason when people walk in a store… most go BRAINDEAD! Yes, it’s like most people in one think they OWN the damn store and “How dare you be in here too!” Like I said before, the brain science that design the widths of the isles is centuries old, and I love it when I need to go down one of these “great thoughts”  isles, there’s usually a freakin IDIOT that parks their cart IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ISLE and either walks away or just stands there in deep thought “Did I leave the iron on?” “I wonder if that dress I brought makes my butt look big?” “How should I break up with my girlfriend?” “I wonder if I can buy that TV in Isle 7 cheaper at Acme?”

Of course there’s the problem of Who yields to who? I’m always looking when I cart through and it seems there’s no rule as to who yields when two carts meet. Is it who comes out of the isles that yields or the one that going across? I know what I believe the answer should be but I swear the poll would be 50-50.

The other day we went shopping and it was crowded. I was going across and I found myself stuck waiting for a couple of people coming out of an isle. At that time I see others going around me to continue through and there you go…. a logjam! So I sit there waiting for the idiots all around me to DECIDE what to do… some were doing the ol “I’ll just park my cart RIGHT HERE and walk over to the orange juice”, others just sitting there too wondering how they can get out or just through. Like I said, a logjam. I finally just couldn’t hold it back anymore. I really tried but I have a very small gray area between tolerance and explosion. I finally yelled “I HATE SHOPPING HERE” and just barreled through and cutting off anybody that finally had two brain cells to have the thought of “Hey, I think I’ll get out of my coma and move now”. The poor wife was quite confused and wondering what happened to me. We finished as quick as we could just to get me out and have my face a lesser red.

We decided to either shop during the weekdays or just go very late.

Here is where I get stuck on. Why do people have to do that? It’s sad to think that common courtesy is dying. I say it’s not dead since there are still good people out there but it just seems the amount of assholes out there are outweighing the good people 10 to 1!! I understand that shopping is a hassle but so do other people, so why do we need to make it worse?

One of my great memories in my past is my mother and I going shopping at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. We were up late one night and asked “Why not?” Man, that was THE best grocery shopping experience I have EVER had. Barely anybody there. Loved it!