Monday, February 15, 2016

I am still alive!

It's an abnormally warm day here, and I have been awake long enough and am on enough meds to venture out to the garage where my computer is and let everyone who might be concerned know what is happening. For most of my life I have had back problems, stemming from hurting my self while helping build levees around KC during the great midwestern flooding of the early 90's. What started out as minor pain became much worse when I was in a minor car accident a few years ago, which shifted my L5 vertebrae out of alignment about 3 years ago.. The condition has deteriorated into crippling pain that not only cost me my job, but has left me with no means to find a new one, and for the time being no source of income. I have trouble even walking from the bedroom to the living room, and only leave the house when absolutely necessary. I also cannot sit up straight, such as in a computer chair, for more than a few minutes. I am on heavy painkillers, but that is a temporary measure at best, as soon enough my body will acclimate to them. To complicate matters, as some of you know, about a year and a half ago I had problems with my heart, which led to the placement of 2 stents. Unfortunately the stents did not work, and in September I underwent double bypass surgery. It's a strange thing to be cracked open like a buffet crab leg and have your heart molested by a room of strangers... Luckily, thanks to the ACA I have insurance, but the situation has not helped matters at all. I just graduated from cardio-rehab, though the pain did prevent me from making any real progress with it. Still, my heart it seems, is at least ok again. The day I got out of the hospital, my laptop, long suffering and held together with positive thinking and angry stares, finally gave up the ghost completely, leaving me without an accessible computer. I have my old PC here in the garage, but it is ridiculously slow, still operating on windows xp. I am looking into disability, but have been denied twice already. I see my lawyer about it Wednesday, a disability lawyer who works pro bono. And just after I will be seeing an orthopedist, where we will again talk about surgery I am sure, an option that as of yet has been unavailable to me due to the medications I take for my heart. Though if I understand him correctly, surgery would help with the radiating down my legs, but would likely due little for the back pain. Still, I am trying to stay in good spirits. I am alive, doing as well as can be expected. My family is supportive. Anyway, I am just dropping this while the garage is accessible to me to let you know that I have not forgotten or abandoned Datafortress, it is merely that I am unable to update or really work on it for the time being. And all the progress I had made on an the projects I was working on were lost with the lap top. I also can't post on any of the forums I used to frequent, notable View From The Edge and the Cyberpunk 20777 Forum. If you are a poster there, pass on the message that I miss those guys. Anyway, wish me luck. Stay safe, and thank you everyone for being fans of the site.