Saturday September 30th. I am so damn bored it is pathetic. As you can see, I have been a bit busy. Well, slow busy. I felt good Thursday and made the decision that the top needed to go on before this weekend due to forecast rain. (Yes it did rain today) It hadn't rained forever and I didn't even think to check the top and see if it was dry. I assumed wrong. I undid the last clip and the top emptied a few gallons of water into the Jeep covering the drivers seat and making nice lakes in the floorboard. Damn it! So, I pulled the drain plugs and put it back under the carport to wait for it to dry out. Early Friday morning I pushed it out into the sun to let it sit and completely dry out. I went out to the shed and got the top and noticed that the side windows were crumpled. Due to that, they had to sit in the sun for a few hours before I could use them. The actual process to put the top on is fairly easy. Well, it is easy when you have two healthy legs. Never the less I got it on to the point above and decided to try something new.
I have in the past finished putting the main top on and then put the rear window in. This time I left the top in the halfway position and put it in that way. It was a wee bit easier in my opinion so I think I will keep doing it this way. I got that done and took a lunch break and called Troy for help with the doors. My great luck prevailed because he was home and came over and they got put in. Thanks Troy. Again, that's a job for 2 legs. By this time, the side windows had heated up in the sun and I got them to lay flat. they go on quite easily so I was done in a matter of minutes. I got out my little 1 gallon shop vac and got as much of the summers fun vacuumed out as I could and called it good. It bums me out to put it on each year because it means I've given up on summer and winter is coming. We have had snow down to 7000' already so I guess its the right thing to do. I know of a few guys that pretty much stay topless year round. I'm sorry but I'll be damned if I am gonna get snowed on. Besides, the electronics in these new Jeeps do not like moisture.
After finishing the job I came in and laid down to relax. I am good for about 15 minutes of standing time before it lets me know I am done. I ignored it quite a bit yesterday so I was sore. Then, I am half asleep laying there and I decide to stretch. You know, the full body kind. Yah, I did that and my knee exploded in pain. Shouldn't of done that. I was hurting still this morning. I am running out of patience. Sitting here is driving me nuts. I have stuff to do and its not getting done. Oh well, nothing I can do about it I guess. Summers gone and I'm not happy!
So, me and the wife's nephew were watching YouTube last night and we came across an old, old video on Kennicott Copper in the Oquirrh Mountains of Utah. Back when it was filmed, huge ass dump trucks and giant sized tractors did not exist. Back then, everything was either steam powered or electric. There were miles upon miles of electric train rails as well as steam engine track. At the bottom of the pit there were numerous electric shovels,(think steam shovel only electric) to load the electric trains with the ore.
Watching it all work in the movie was amazing. A guy sat in an observation booth and controlled all this work using nothing but his eyes. Back then, this was the best way to do it. One of the bad parts of using an electric train was that after every blasting session, new track and overhead electric wire systems had to be put into place. The video stated that at that time there were approximately 4000 workers at the facility each day. That's a lot of people compared to how many work there today. They followed the ore train as it delivered the carloads full of rock to the crusher and then through the process of making solid sheets of copper. I recommend that if you get a few minutes you go to YouTube and watch it. Then watch the new version and see how much it has changed. It's really quite fascinating.
I can only guess at how expensive it would be to run the mine today using the equipment of the past. Electricity is not a cheap power source. So, what does this have to do with the fotos I posted today??
Today's fotos were taken in approximately 1930. They are of the U.S. Mine and were taken by my grandfather who was an engineer for the mine. I was lucky enough to save the 40 or so I have. Apparently he had already tossed quite a few before I got to them. Now what's really interesting is everything in the fotos is gone. The U.S. Mine no longer exists. The mountain that housed the mine does not exist. It is now part of the hole in the ground of Kennicott Copper. It is so mind blowing to try and figure this out. Think about it. In 1930 there was a 9000 " high mountain with a silver mine in it. Now, in its place is a huge hole that gets deeper everyday. The old video says that at that time, the mine had removed more dirt and rock than the digging of the Panama Canal. Who knows how much they have removed now?
Anyways, I returned to the Dr. yesterday and he seemed pleased at the progress I have made healing. My goal for the next two weeks is to slowly try and get full movement back in my leg. The range of motion it has now is next to nothing. So each day I need to work with it and try and regain full motion. I am still swollen like no other but the pain isn't nearly as bad as it was. Hopefully I can get enough movement this week to put the top back on the Jeep. It has already snowed in the mountains so its time to button it up. Maybe in 2 weeks I'll be able to drive it again........
Hello and welcome to the continuing saga of How the Knee Heals. I bet a lot of you were expecting me to bitch everyday, but alas, it probably wont happen. Monday, a friend put out an SOS on FaceBook about a friend of hers needing a presentation video for her daughters 30th birthday. I looked at that and said, I think I could do something. So, I volunteered to do the deed. After a slow start, I received about 45 fotos in like 28 emails and began the task. Now, most of you know I bought a new movie program and I figured this would let me play with it and learn it for future use. So instead of being totally bored the past 6 days I have been working on said video. I let the lady see it and she asked for a few edits, which this program made super easy and now it is done awaiting Sunday and her daughters birthday. This program has soooo much to offer. I really need to make a foto video of my own and see what all it can do. I didn't experiment too much with the lady's cuz its a gift. So, instead of a shitty week, I had one that was full of challenges and kept me busy. Keeping me busy is important.
As for the leg, the 2 biopsies that the dermatologist did showed, as usual, nada damn thing. It did eliminate 2 extremely nasty infections that were possibilities so I guess that is good. The overall swelling has gone down, sort of. My knee is still 4 times its normal size. Just below that there is a baseball sized lump that will be with me for a while I am thinking. The area that was infected is healing so I guess we now get to play the waiting game. Just how long till life is back to normal, no one has a clue. It can't come soon enough for me!
For those of you who speak Doctor, here is the MRI review of just my knee.
FINDINGS:
* Bones: Small subchondral cysts to the proximal tib-fib
joint.. No acute abnormality.
* Articular Cartilage: Mild irregularity of the anterior aspect
of the medial femoral condyle.. No acute abnormality.
* Menisci: Mucoid change especially to the posterior horn of
the medial meniscus. No evidence of tear.
* Cruciate Ligaments: Increased signal in the ACL.. No evidence
of tear. The medial meniscus is partially extruded demonstrate
degenerative intrasubstance tearing.
* Collateral Ligaments: Mild MCL thickening and edema.. No
evidence of tear.
* Tendons: Mild patellar tendinopathy. Medial gastrocnemius
tendinopathy and probable partial tear. Biceps femoris muscle
tear. Mild popliteus tendon strain. Lateral gastrocnemius tendon
strain and partial tear.
* Other: Large soft tissue hematomas lateral to the knee in the
subcutaneous soft tissues, extending beyond the margin of the
study. Probable vastus lateralis muscle tear. Soft tissue edema
superficial to the lateral gastrocnemius muscle consistent with
strain and partial tear. Thickening of the medial patella plica.
Prepatellar soft tissue edema.
IMPRESSION:
1. Large soft tissue hematomas lateral to the knee in the
subcutaneous soft tissues, extending beyond the margin of the
study. Probable vastus lateralis muscle tear. Lateral
gastrocnemius muscle tear and tendon strain/partial tear. Biceps
femoris muscle tear
2. Intrasubstance/degenerative tearing to the medial meniscus
with mild discal extrusion.
So, there you have it. To put it in plain English, it says my leg is totally screwed up as far as the MRI can see. I tell you, this is not how I planned this autumn to go. I wanted to finish up exploring Indian Springs and visit Death Canyon again. Guess its not gonna happen. Besides patience I need to figure out how to get the top back on the Jeep before the weather gets really nasty. Not that I get to drive it but the better half can't see herself driving it to work in a rainstorm. No sense of adventure, I tell ya. Oh and yes, I am still bored beyond belief.
I am officially "laid up" for lack of a better word for who knows how long. In order to entertain myself I just decided to write a paragraph or 2 describing my day and what emotions are high on the play list. Today's emotion was frustration. OK, it has been a total of just over since I ended up with my leg immobilized. It is already driving me nuts. I am not a person who likes to sit around and honestly I really need to be doing something to occupy my brain. Today had nothing to offer. Well, that is kind of a lie. I ordered another book on railroad history a few weeks back and it did show up today. I got some good reading in and then the boredom returned. My highlight of the day was my shower. It let me rid my body of the restrictive leg wear and I was free. I took advantage of it and left it off and took a nap. It is so much nicer sleeping normal than doing it with 15 pounds of crap on one leg. I enjoyed that bit of freedom. I learned today that my Lazy-boy isn't going to work with this set up. It is almost impossible to get out of with all this shit on. Heaven forbid I get stuck in my chair and can't escape. I honestly do not see any good coming from this accident. It cost me my new job, its costing me a shitload of money for medical bills and what its going to do to my brain over this time period is yet to be seen. I do have hopes of figuring out something I can do to pass time but as of tonight, I don't have a clue as to what it would be. Suggestions will be accepted. Hey, click on the ads on the page and help me earn money. I don't get a lot of money from the clicks but it will add up. So stay tuned and follow along as I rot away while my leg heals.
Man where do I begin? These have got to be some of the ugliest fotos I have ever posted on here. On September 4th, after returning home from my job I took a spill. My poor left leg took 96% of the fall and it's been Hell around here ever since. I really had no idea how big a leg could get until now. I hope to never find out information like this ever again.
The worst part of this whole affair, no, I guess 2 bad things happened, so one of the worst things was the infection. Anybody that has been following me on my adventures knows that I have had issues this year with 2 unknown infections. They spring up and within an hour you begin to have serious damage to the skin in that area. As you can see, the evil nasty bug is now on my leg too. And like the first 2 on my chest, it will not grow anything in the culture dish.
So what are we dealing with??? No one knows yet. I was sent over to Logan to see a dermatologist and he was dumbfounded. His exact words were "If I didn't know your background, I would say this is a sever case of poison ivy". My response to that was sorry but no. He decided to take 2 biopsies of the infected area and send them to the University of Utah and see if they could figure anything out. The stupid part of this whole thing is I was on high doses of antibiotics when this happened. So in reality, it shouldn't have happened. Anyway, thus goes the story of my life.
I have the 4 stitches now in my leg and cant lose them for almost another week. Back to the fall related issues, my leg has me back in the ER due to pain that will not stop. The area between the top of my thigh and my toes is still swollen like no other. One of the most painful things about this whole affair is that every time I go from laying on my back to on my feet, as the blood rushes into my ankle area, it triggers a pain that is damn near equal to my first kidney stone. I did find out that this was "normal" yesterday afternoon but I tell you what, there is nothing normal about it.
My insurance company finally gave in to the Dr and authorized an MRI to see what damage I have done in there. The tech running the machine was amazed at how it had been 10 days and was still swollen so much. They had to change the fixture on the machine for knees because I couldn't fit my fat leg in to the one they had set out. The test took about 30 minutes and as for what they saw, they wont say.
Earlier this week they did an ultrasound test on my leg to make sure there was not a blood clot hiding in my main veins or artery's. I did pass that test and she told me that all was well from that point of view. So all I can do now is wait. I'll know the MRI results today and hopefully continue on the path of being able to drive my Jeep. But knowing my luck, I will have destroyed something in there and it will have to be fixed. That's just the luck I have. Now usually at this point I tell you all to Jeep on..... not gonna happen today. There will be no Jeeping till I get to participate too. So HA!
