As I sit on the medical bench. I look down to my hands and realize how coarse they are. I look to my right hand and remember the damage that I once did to my pinky. The funny part about me damaging my pinky was that I not only do it once, but twice on two separate occasions. The first time I damage the pinky was when I dislocated the knuckle. I was about 12 years old (and an idiot) and I had gotten into a fistfight with another person. As I threw a punch, the person ducked and I happened to hit a non-moveable object behind him, called a door (Technically I lost the fight).
The second time I dislocated my pinky was when I was playing softball and was playing center field. As I was running towards the infield to grab the ground ball, I thought it would be quicker to pick up the ball and throw it to the second baseman in one motion. Basically, I did not use the glove to pick up the ball. I ended up dragging my pinky on the ground and snapped it at the second joint by 90 degrees. I decided to not seek medical help; however I did snap my pinky back in place. To this day, I cannot close my hand properly. My pinky flares out when I close my right hand.
I shift my sight to my left hand and focus on the circular tungsten metal that is wrapped around my wedding finger. I am reminded of my wedding day and how my wife walked down the aisle in her beautiful wedding gown. Funny look back, I also remember getting frustrated at the fact that I was unable to see my wife initially. The church that we got married in was too small to have a center aisle. So she had to walk around the church pews and I was blinded by our guest. So I had to wait until she came around the corner of people to finally get a full view of my wife.
I look to my left wrist and notice my watch. I’ve had this Citizen watch for over 5 years. It is a really a good watch. I haven't needed to replace the battery yet because it’s has a Citizen Eco-Drive® that is fueled by light, any light, so it never needs a battery (http://amzn.com/B000EQR6H0). The glass has some scratches that were generated over the years. The bezel is a stainless steel metal with a watch dial background of black with white letters. The wristband is an olive green color, similar to my military watch when I was in the service. I've changed the band twice since I have had this watch.
As I sit in the examination room, watching the seconds tick away, I notice a small spec of dirt wedged between the band and watch bezel. The dirt is orange in color. I realized that it is paint residue that has dried to a crisp from when I had played paintball a couple of weeks ago. It feels like months since when my watch got hit by a paintball. It's the reason why I'm in this office, getting my back reevaluated and remembering my past. Well, I shouldn't say that it's totally paintballs fault that I'm in this office for my pre-operation physical. But paintball certainly didn't help.
Today is EDAY+40, the days since my last entry has been a complete blur. The world continues to move in a rapid speed while I had to slow things down. It's only been about 2.5 weeks since my last entry and yet it feels like it's has been months. On EDAY+24 - I had visited the surgeon office to discuss my MRI results. I remember limping into the office and as I sat in the office chair to fill out the required paperwork, I realized that the seat was the worst. Funny for a place that promotes having healthy backs, they had horrible seats. I felt like I was sitting in the emergency wheelchair again. After about 10 minutes, I was close to being in the same posture as on EDAY+0.
I was finally called in to see the doctor when he informs me that I have a ruptured disk and needed it to be fixed. The rupture disk is the cause of me having lost all feeling down my left leg. He provided two options to that would help relieve the pain. Have a shot that may or may not work for a couple of months and then possibly return to get another one (Sounded like a band-aid fix). Basically, it would numb the area for a short period of time.
The second option was to actually cut into my back from my neck down to the back of my knee and conduct a complete extraction of my spine. It would then be replaced with a plastic spine with a bunch of screws holding everything in place. Below is a picture of one of the segments for my new spine.
OK, that wasn't what he actually said, but, to be honest, that was the image I got into my head as my doctor was providing details and statistics about my type of surgery. Plus the doctor’s office had all of these scary models with metal bands that were screwed into the model spine in his office that didn't help ease my mind. So now I truly know what the problem is and what the plan going forward will be. But does that provide any comfort? No, not really. Besides stressing over the fact that someone is going into your back to remove a chunk of pain. Still not feeling easy about it, although the upside = no more pain... The downside = someone is putting their paws in my back.
The good news is that I’ve spoken with several people that have had this type of surgery and had nothing but positive reviews. Thus, there is hope. The surgery is scheduled for August 3, 2015, or EDAY+50. So now what do we do until our surgery date?
Well, we keep busy by focusing our depleted energy to upping our Vignetting Photography game. Vignetting Photography is so dynamic with so many little projects that we need to define each project with a separate category. We have a total of five categories: Website, Promotional items, Square Register, Shootproof, and Wedding Wire.
Website-Vignetting Photography updated our packages to include Event packages that focus on birthday and family gatherings. Additionally, we added A'la Carte products page that provide separate descriptions for each service and/or product that Vignetting Photography provides. Within our shop, new products were added that include new Graduation cards, Christmas Cards, Wedding announcements, Save the Date cards, and Thank you cards. Vignetting Photography also added some stickers and magnets as part of our new list of products.
Promotional Items- created new business cards and also updated out Wedding Kit Magazine to fix some errors and also update wedding contract. New Thank you cards were also created so that Vignetting Photography can send out to vendors and clients. Additionally, a new email address was created.
Square Register- Vignetting Photography started using the Square Register to facilitate payments via credit cards a couple of weeks ago. Vignetting Photography can now send out invoices so that our clients can easily pay their bills online securely. This improvement allows for quicker processing of our clients products.
Vignetting Photography has partnered with ShootProof to allow our clients to gain direct access to their photos which allows our clients to order their prints directly and have their prints drop-shipped directly to them. This has allowed an ease of transfer of prints and/or digital files. ShootProof has recently streamlined their interface and also created some new and exciting modules that would help create better communications with our clients. So we've been getting up to speed on all the new and thrilling tools that ShootProof is now offering.
Vignetting Photography's partnership with Wedding Wire was established over the last month or so. We've been slowly updating our Storefront to help present out vision. Additionally, Wedding Wire has offered new tools that allow clients to manage their special day. So client’s contracts, questionnaires, and vendor management are located all in one place. This is a wonderful tool for newlyweds. But this allows Vignetting Photography to provide quicker responses and keep track of what information has been providing to potential clients. Wedding Wire has also allowed Vignetting Photography to capture our client reviews in one central location. The tools that Wedding Wire offers are endless and Vignetting Photography has been busy trying to learn all of the new interfaces and modules that Wedding Wire offers.
Also, let us not forget Vignetting Photography was responsible for capturing the Hyde's wedding and also Moreno's Graduation photos. Thanks to a wonderful Vignetting Photography team (Britta and Evan), our clients have been extremely pleased with our recent services.
Thank you so much to all that have been helping me during this daunting time. My family and I truly appreciate the support and prayers. Until next time…
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