I did it.  Or should I say I finally did it?

I told you I would get my navel pierced — and I did.  I also got both ears pierced again.  I didn't plan to do that, but I did it nonetheless.  Given where I work, of course, I'm now thinking that may not have been such a wise idea.  We'll see.

But I did finally get my navel pierced.  I think it looks cool.  It still needs to heal, of course, after which I'll take some pictures and post them for you.

And speaking of pictures, I do have new pictures of my current piercings and tattoos.  I just haven't found the time to get them ready for the site and uploaded.  I'm hoping to get that done this evening or tomorrow at the latest.  I assure you, though, I'll get them posted just as soon as I can.

You may remember when I recently said, "The more I get back to doing the things I enjoy doing, the more I feel like I've gained some control over my life (something that's been missing lately due to extenuating circumstances which I won't go into here)."  I said that referring to going back to the gym, getting my navel pierced, and my plans to start working on my tattoos again (BTW, I'm already designing the next one; more on that later).  I felt it would be prudent to explain a little of why I've felt over the past several months like my life had been out of my control.

My roommate Derek, about whom you've heard me speak often on this site, usually in reference to The Kids, has been quite sick since early last year (2003).  He began to get sick in mid-2002, but it came on slowly at first and exponentially worsened as he got sicker (makes sense, right?  the sicker you get, the faster you can get sick because you're body is already overworked and fatigued).

Suffice it to say that his condition worsened rapidly until he ended up in the hospital in mid-August of 2003.  He's been there ever since.

His condition continued to worsen for some time before getting better before getting worse before getting better before…  Well, you get the idea.  It's been a roller coaster ride.

For most of his hospitalization his doctors didn't hold out much hope for his survival.  Yes, it was that bad.  As his body became weaker and weaker, opportunistic infections and other complications popped up more rapidly.

Without giving Derek's entire medical history, you can better understand the seriousness of his condition by understanding some of the problems he's had to deal with.  Here's a short list of some of his diagnoses (and I'm serious about it being the short list).

     Urinary tract infections (UTI)
     Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections
     Anemia
     Skin- and bone-based fungal infections
     Bacterial infections of the digestive tract
     Neuropathy
     Radiculopathy
     Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC)
     Pressure sores
     Necrotic ulcerations
     Sacrococcygeal ulcerations
     Malnutrition and dehydration
     Neutropenia
     Osteomyelitis
     Excoriation ulcerations
     Ileus
     Immunoglobulin deficiency
     Malabsorption problems
     Immunodeficiency

And the list goes on…

To add insult to injury, he's had to have two separate surgeries to correct some of the problems from his health crisis.  There were times when we thought he'd need more surgery(ies), but luckily those crises subsided before it got to that point.

And on top of everything else, he's now wheelchair-bound.  Although the assumption is that his paralysis is due to the neuropathic damage caused by any number of the medical conditions he's been suffering from (from ulcerative damage due to the depth and severity of the ulcerations to a viral and/or bacterial interaction with the nerves), the doctors are actually uncertain as to why he can no longer walk.  The only way to find out now is to do a spinal tissue examination.  Given his overall health condition, there's not a doctor on the planet (at least one you could trust) who is willing to do that procedure.

It is possible he'll be able to walk again (depending on the cause of his paralysis), but it will take a lot of work and a lot of time before that can happen.

You might be thinking that he sounds ready to fall apart.

He was.  The truth of the matter is that he's doing significantly better now.  After several months of thinking he wouldn't make it, it now looks like he'll be coming home again in a few weeks.  His attention at this moment is focused on rehabilitation (learning to function in the wheelchair, gaining control and stability in his newly reformed muscle tissue, etc.).

But the good news is that he's better now and, barring any significant catastrophes in the next two weeks, he'll be able to come home.  He will, of course, need home medical attention as well as continuing outpatient care, but those are small prices to pay considering the alternative he faced just a few months ago.

This is why I've felt that my life was somewhat out of control.  Derek is a dear friend of mine and, given his condition, I've spent the last several months keeping his life in order while he focused on survival and, ultimately, recovery.

To understand the scope of his recovery and why his condition now is so impressive, though, I felt you needed to understand some of the history behind it.  His improvement of late has been impressive and steady and, again, barring any catastrophes, he'll be coming home in less than a month.

So here's wishing you a speedy and consistent recovery, Derek!  I sincerely hope you're back home soon.  The Kids and I miss you, and everyone wants to see you well again.

Keep your chin up and a smile on your face!  And quit bitching!

We love you!

Some of you have asked for the easiest way to view all of my blog entries.  It seems there's some confusion about precisely which parts of xenogere / strange behavior / actually constitute my blog.

The truth is that the entire site is my blog — not just a particular topic.

For instance, Ramblings is where I post entries that have no other valid categorization, but that's not the only place where I blog.  On the contrary, the entire category structure is only intended to break down my blog entries into categories so that specific entries can be located a bit easier.

As an example, if you're looking for all of the funnies I've posted, you could look at the Humor topic.  Likewise if you're looking for everything I've posted about exercising, you should look in the Exercise topic.

But if you're looking for a way to view my blog (the entire site) in the order it was entered (regardless of the topic it's in), the best way to do that is to go through the archives shown in the sidebar on the left side of the site.  This allows you to view all of the posts — regardless of categorization — in chronological order.  This is the way the entries were posted and will give you a better overview of the blog as a whole rather than individual topics within the blog.

The archives are categorized by date.  When you open a particular month, it will then list that month's entries in normal chronological order (reverse order — newest to oldest).

This is the only way to view the entire blog in context.  Searching through the individual categories will allow you to see the entries under specific categories, but that's a convenience function and not the recommended way to read the blog (since the topics are isolated, they don't accurately represent my journal).

Of course the recommended way to stay on top of my blogging is to visit the site regularly (at least once a day would be best).  The front page shows the last 10 entries, and the "What happened?" box on the right shows the last ten entries that have already been pushed off of the front page.  Since I post often, the front page is normally the easiest way to see the posts in the proper order.

I hope that helps clarify how the site works.

You may notice that I've done a wee bit of redecorating around the site.  Nothing major at this time — just some changes to the block structure and names.  The idea was to de-formalize the site.  Instead of calling the navigation block "Main," it's now called "Gettin' around" and has been reorganized to make it easier to find what you're looking for.

I think it makes the site a little more irreverent like me (like calling the "Random Pic" block "Voyeurism").

Basically I've grown tired of the current look and feel of the site.  I said more than a year ago that I was working on a new theme.  I ended up with several new ideas and working themes, but I ultimately decided against all of them.

For that reason, I'll probably be contracting out the work so I can get something done professionally.  I haven't had a lot of time to dedicate to the project, so I think paying someone else to do it will be much easier (and will probably result in something better than I could come up with given my artistically challenged skills in the creativity area).

I just wanted to say hello to my long lost sister Roni.  After many years of not knowing how to get in touch with each other (long story re: conspiracy of events; news at nine), she did a little search via MSN and found me right here.  Yes, that's right — she found me through my site.  How cool is that?

It's very cool, if you weren't sure.

Anyway…  I just wanted to say hello to my sister and her crew.

 

Hello!

 

Welcome, BJ, Courtney, Chad, Dusten, Steve and Roni, to the wanna-be whacked-out wish-you-were-here ride-the-wild-wave world wide web.  You've just had your 15 megabytes of fame.

I love you guys and gals and miss you terribly.