Posts

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I realized this morning that I haven’t really written a blog entry in quite a few days. Truth is, I’ve just been feeling a little under the weather with the surgery and everything. I’m definitely healing, even though my face is a weird shade of yellow now. I don’t really feel that much pain since the left side of my face is still completely numb, but my eye socket hurts from time to time. The last few days I’ve woken up in the morning with extremely itchy eyes, and have spent the better part of 20 minutes just trying to get them to stop watering. I’m not sure what causes that (probably ...

Friends

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So tonight John and Rebecca stopped by for some moral support, and we spent the night hanging out, eating BBQ food, watching Trailer Park Boys, listening to music, and of course, having some drinks. It was a really awesome night, and I laughed enough that my face really, really hurts now. I’m definitely chewing two T3’s before bed. I’ll be spending the rest of the weekend close to home, watching movies and hopefully relaxing. ...

Back at Home After Surgery

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I’m not up to writing a full blog entry, but just wanted to let everyone know I made it home and that I’m recovering. The whole hospital procedure was far harder on me this time than last time, and I still feel really shaky. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll feel alot better. ...

Orbital Floor Surgery, Take Two

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As I said in my last entry, I am now at home recoupering from what is hopefully my last surgery to correct the damage from November. I’ll go through a quick walk through of yesterday. I woke up around 10am and basically just tried to kill some time until I was supposed to be at the hospital. I was originally going to take a cab down there at around 12:30pm, but it was such a nice day out that I decided to just walk the whole distance myself. Surprisingly, it only took me a half hour. Once I got there, everyone was immediately friendly. Even though I had to answer a pile more questions that I ...

A Quick Walk Tonight

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[ ](http://www.flickr.com/photos/duanestorey/499059903/) I know I said I wouldn’t post again until after my surgery, but I took a few shots tonight, and liked this one the most. So enjoy. The countdown is officially on — I had that exciting call with the nurse today, and got the green light from Houston to go ahead with the launch. I find out tomorrow afternoon the exact time of my surgery, and will spend part of the day cleaning up and getting ready for it. Take care of the internet for me for a few days while I’m gone. Talk to you soon guys. ...

Last Entry for a Few Days

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I don’t really have much to say, but I thought I’d write one last entry before my big surgery day. I spent most of the weekend putting in some hours for work, since I had a few meetings last week that took up too much time. Except for the party down at Bryght on Friday night, I didn’t really accomplish too much. Well, that’s not entirely true — today I went into my room and finally sat down to do my taxes.. I think I’m technically a few weeks late, but since I don’t owe any money, I don’t think anybody will kick up a big fuss (in fact, those sneaky bastards owe me $1100). About ...

Orbital Floor Surgery Appointment

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Today I headed out to The University of British Columbia for an appointment with Dr. Kevin Bush, one of the best plastic surgeons (who specializes in cranial-facial reconstruction) in the province. I had some time to kill, so I spent 30 minutes just walking around enjoying the sunshine, reminiscing about the nearly eight years I spent wandering around the campus. It’s really weird being on campus in the summer. Most students don’t really have a chance to see the rose garden in full bloom, or enjoy campus life when the weather is nice out (since the school year coincides with the bad weather ...

Round and round she goes…

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When I left for Chilliwack on the weekend, I accidentally left my phone sitting on my bed back in Vancouver. Considering I was only going for a day, I didn’t real think that much of it, and checked my messages from Chilliwack on Saturday night. When I got back to Vancouver yesterday evening, my phone was dead, so I simply plugged it into the wall and went to sleep. Unfortunately, upon checking my messages today, I realized that I had missed a call yesterday from my plastic surgeon saying that they couldn’t perform surgery on Thursday, and that they wanted to bring me in and do it today. By ...

Set in Motion

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Friday afternoon I had yet another enlightening visit down at St. Paul’s hospital. I actually went in rather grumpy and upset with the whole process, but about five minutes into it was greated by a really cute, friendly medical student. So, my spirits rose pretty quickly to the point where I was making light of the whole situation. It was actually rather funny, because the first little bit of dialog went like this: Cute student: “so why are you here today?” Me: “I have no idea” Cute student: “what do you mean you have no idea? You came in.” Me: “My doctor’s office called me and ...

Clusterfuck in the O.R.

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As most of you know, I have been waiting anxiously to have my surgery performed down at St. Paul’s. About two weeks ago, I had a meeting at the hospital with my surgeon (where I sat and waited for three hours just to sign a few forms) where we discussed the surgery date (which was supposed to be this week), and a few of the details. I called last Thursday to try and nail down an exact date, but they said they wouldn’t be able to give me one. So today, I called down to the doctor’s office to find out what was going on. I was told that for some reason, nobody even submitted my name into the ...

The Waiting Game

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As of this moment, I am officially “on call” for my next surgery at St. Paul’s hospital. I was hoping that I would have gotten the call on Sunday night for a Monday morning surgery (I just want it over with), but unfortunately I still haven’t had the call yet. I won’t be able to eat for twelve hours prior, so I’m pretty much guaranteed to get at least that much notice. It would be nice if they could give more notice than that, but apparently the hospitals are rather busy, and it’s difficult to book them in advance. Photo by jekemp on Flickr (click photo to view) My dad has a ...

Medical Students Suck

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Ever since my injury in November, I have spent quite a bit of time in hospitals, doctor’s offices, and medical clinics. Part of those visits usually involves some interaction with medical students. And while I’m certain that there really are good medical students out there who are passionate about helping people and eager to learn more in their field, almost every single medical student I’ve encountered has been both arrogant and misinformed, a deadly combination when you’re trying to help people who are sick or have undergone significant trauma. My first encounter came sometime around ...

Orbital Floor Surgery

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I met with my plastic surgeon this morning, and as I thought, we’re going to go ahead and do another surgery. The apparent source of my problem seems to be that the ledge that was supporting the implant ended up not being very stable, and the implant has collapsed slightly along with my eye. Also, there is slight herniation of some of orbital contents into my sinus near the back, which is most likely the source of my double vision. The good news is that it should be nearly 100% fixable. They are going to put in another larger implant, and probably secure it using microscrews (sounds so exciting ...

CT Scan Number 2

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I just got back from St Paul’s hospital where I picked up the data from my second CT scan. For those people living in a cave, last November some guys tooled me pretty good outside a bar and ended up fracturing several bones in my face, including the orbital floor of my left eye. What this basically meant is that there was little to no support for my left eyeball in my left socket. That was November 4th. On November 22, I went in for plastic surgery to correct the defect under my eye and put my eye back to its proper position. They do this by sticking in a plastic sheet that is meant to hold ...

Surgery Part Two

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I had an appointment this morning with an eye specialist to go over the last CT scan I had a few weeks ago. Prior to the CT scan, I was told that my double vision would probably be permanent, and the displacement of my eye may not be completely fixable. However, apparently the CT scan shows that the bottom muscle of my eye is depressed into the silastic implant that was put in back in November. So basically, that muscle isn’t moving freely and is contributing to my double vision and cosmetic differences between my two eyes. The good news is that they think they can do something about it. That ...

CT Scan, Take Two

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This afternoon at 4:30pm I have yet another CT scan down at St. Paul’s Hospital. I’ve been waiting for this one nearly a month now, so it will be nice to finally have it done. I’ve been told I can’t eat for at least four hours before the scan, so apparently this banana bread is my only meal until supper time. I’m not sure if they are putting some funky dye into my blood, but I’ll know in a few hours I guess. Update — Ok, so it’s all over now. I got down to St Paul’s at around 4:15pm and just chilled in the waiting area for a while. At around 4:35, some lady calls me up and walks ...

Surgery

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Well, yesterday was an interesting day. I guess I should really start with that night, since I did whatever I could to keep myself busy, knowing that I was going in for surgery early in the morning. Obviously, I didn’t really have that good a sleep, since I had a lot on my mind. 7am came pretty quicky, and I made my way down to the hospital for my 8am time. Despite them sending me multiple emails and leaving a few voice messages that I should be there at 8am, apparently at 7:45am, I was “late”, and people seemed to be in a huff about that.. Not sure what that was about. So, first thing they ...