Happy Thanksgiving! Hope yours was as much fun as mine. Kristin and I spent the day together, and cooked ourselves a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.I took pictures, and now you can see and read all about it!

So I have written in a bit… oddly enough, I’ve not really done a whole lot, so I’ve had very little to say. But here I sit, watching Swac play Madden 2005 [having just finished playing Zelda : Link to the Past for the past hour or two], and I figured I may as well write a little bit.

[Yeah.. it's tomorrow. I ended up playing more Zelda... then watched some Alias... then went to bed.]

So now I am watching Red Vs. Blue with the director’s commentary on. It’s awesome. If you don’t know about Red vs. Blue, you’re not kewl, and you really ought to get that fixed. The Commentary is really good, and explains a lot about how they do things. I recommend checking it out if you’re into Red vs. Blue… or you like the funny.

[Yeah.. it's now about 4 days later... I seriously suck at this]

Now the U of M vs. Ohio State game is on. I’m imaginingJplant currently going insane at his place. Awesome.]

So let’s start talking about things…. I ended up getting that new knee brace the day after I posted last.. and that made things a ton better. [I officially rescind the finger.] The new brace is quite nice, and lets me bend my knee, which is a huge plus. Within a few days I could walk around without the crutches, but it required a lot of concentration. It’s one of those things where you had to actively think about and have confidence in that leg, and you’d be fine. Doubt it, and you’re in trouble. So by now, I’m doing alright as far as walking goes… a bit of a limp, but otherwise okay… but it tires me out, and makes me feel completely out of shape. Example; if I do a lot of walking around or sitting in a chair one day, the next day I’m pretty much useless. That just feels kinda pathetic to me. Oh, also, trying to sleep sucks.

Okay, so on Tuesday I had another doctor’s appointment, with a new Doc. that’s hopefully all taken care of by my insurance, and he said pretty much the same thing as the other guy: Torn ACL and Torn MCL… only while he was testing out the knee, it didn’t bend out sideways (in a very disgusting looking and feeling way) nearly as far as it had in previous tests, which I think means the MCL was tightening up a bit.. or it could mean that I’m dying or something. I don’t know. Then he started talking about how they fix this kinda thing. The MCL ought to be able to fix itself, so long as it wasn’t torn apart at a bad location (like right at the bone or something), but the ACL is worthless once it’s gone.. and they need to reconstruct it using something new. The first Doc said they’d steal something off of the patella, an use that to make a new ACL.. but this new Doc said there was some other ways they could do it. They could do the patella thing, but there was the chance of something annoying with that, so he tends not to do that (so that’s good to know), otherwise they can steal a tendon from behind the knee, or part of the Achilles, or from a donor. The idea of the Achilles frightens me, cause those things are really important. At this point, I want something from a dead person, cause that means less parts of me getting thrown around. I’ve got enough scars on my legs already.

So I was at that new Doc, and we talked about surgery dates and all that, and then he suggested that I get an MRI, to verify that the ACL was indeed torn (like I said, the leg was a lot tighter than before.. we’re pretty positive the ACL is done for, but there’s a tiny chance I’m just really crazy flexible in weird ways), but the other thing was checking where the MCL was torn, to make sure we wouldn’t have to do anything special with that. We talked insurance real quick, and got everything set.. so last Tuesday at 3:45 am, I drove up to St. Mary’s, and had an MRI done on my knee. Now, I’ve never had an MRI done before, so I was curious what it’d be like.

So I showed up, filled out all this paperwork, and then had to change out of my jeans and put on the most comfortable pair of scrubs pants I’ve ever worn… I was very tempted to steal them, but didn’t… but man, I should have. So they brought me to the machine, and you got to pick from a list of cds you wanted to listen to, and it included R.E.M.’s Eponymous, so I chose that. They had this plastic holder dealie for my knee, and so I laid down on the table, and we got my leg all secured, and got a pair of earphones, and then the table moved in to the MRI tube.. up to my chest. So I didn’t have to go all the way in, which is nice, cause I think would have felt claustrophobic. Anyway, the music started, and the person there said it’d take about 20-25 minutes.. and I knew how long each song was, so I had a good idea when I was close to 20 minutes… but that machine is loud!.. I could hear it over the music, so I spent most of the time trying to figure out what video games the machine sounded like. It started out rapid firing, sounding just like the machine gun stations in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (The ones the engineers have to build).. but after a while, it changed to a weird “Whoop”ing sound, that sounded almost exactly like the spell projectiles that the Wizzrobes from Zelda 1 fire [Or Link with the magic wand]. Just imagine rapid firing that thing, like 2 shots every second. So “WhoopWhoopWhoopWhoop“. Then towards the end, it changed again to a very weird electronic force-field type sound. I had a hard time figuring out a video game sound for it, but I knew it sounded very familiar…

[Ooh... punt return for a touchdown.. Jplant isn't going to like that.]

So that was the MRI.. Now so long as nothing unusual shows up on that, I’ll be having surgery on December 2. Mark your calendar, and be sure to buy me a present. Then I’m told it’s a few weeks on crutches, a few months with the knee brace, and a few more months of rehab after that, and then I’m back to being 100%… just in time for Softball.

In an effort to keep these posts a bit more readable, and less novel-length, I’m stopping here.

So… How’s it going? Yeah? Awesome! That’s good to hear. Well, it was good talking to you. You take care now.

So yeah… in the last couple of days, some stuff has happened.. some of it good, and some of it bad… As a result, there a number of people and organizations out there that I’d either like to give the finger, or have punch my fist. So here’s a list:

• Health Insurance: So, dealing with health insurance in a complete pain in the ass. So the deal is, you need to make sure everything you do is with people and places in the approved list, or they sell you into slavery, apparently. So when the doctor says “You’ll need to go see this guy, he’ll fix you” you need to say “Is that person on my list? If not, I need to stay broken”… or something like that, apparently. Nevermind the fact that at this point you’re probably not in tip-top mental shape and all. It’s just a huge hassle to find out if you’re allowed to get fixed or not. Health Insurance: You get the finger.
• Dr. Henne: This is the specialist I met with on Tuesday. I was referred to him by my ER physician. He was a very kewl guy, very friendly, and had a lot of good information for me, showing me just how screwed up my knee was by comparing the movement of the two. Turns out, yeah, it’s pretty messed up. Dr. Henne: Punch my fist. Oh, but he’s not covered by my insurance.. once again: Insurance: You get the finger.
• ACL: For giving up on the entire team, and letting the body down completely, and requiring surgery, and sucking so completely and totally, you get the finger. [For those of you that are a bit slow, read: Torn ACL and torn MCL. "teh suck"]
• Friends and Family: On my birthday, and afterwords, my friends and family have been really, really kewl. It meant a lot that a ton of guys from the Softball team came to the hospital to see me after the game. Like I said, they’re a great group. A big thanks toJplant and Mark, who stayed with me the entire time, and helped keep me entertained/positive while we waited, and while the doctor messed with my knee and created the sort of pain I thought only possible when bringing a new life into the world. Punch my fist, guys. Thanks also to Tuuk and Rachel, for hanging out with me, then getting yelled at and kicked out by that schizo nurse dude. Also, Brian Melles for taking care of pretty much everything for me when I went in, and keeping me company as I got wheeled around… and for answering my bajillion insurance questions, cause I don’t know what I’m doing. Thanks to my Dad, my brother [w/ Steven], and sisters who have all come to visit.. both for my birthday and cause I screwed my body up. And thanks to all my friends who have called, or come over to visit. It’s very much appreciated. And of course my roommates, who have been going out of their way to make sure I’m completely taken care of, and don’t do anything stupid. All of you: Punch my fist!
• Spectrum Health: Okay, so I was given a prescription for a new knee brace. Good, because the current one ain’t so great. I was excited… so I was all set to get one, and the lady was there to hook me up… and then I asked her if her place accepted my insurance.. and of course they did not.. so I told her that I’d have to go somewhere else. So I got the prescription, and started working on finding a place that I could go that would accept my insurance, and would have the thing I needed. This proved to be very difficult. After much web searching, and many, many phone calls, I finally had my place: Spectrum Health Home Equipment. I gave them a call, and Shaquille O’Neal answered. So I asked him if they took my insurance. “yup”. Excellent. Okay, then I told him what was written on my prescription, and he said “Um.. yeah. I’ve never heard of that before… hold on.” I waited, and listened to some pretty awful on hold music. He came back, and said “Yeah, we got that.” Excellent. So I made sure all I had to do was show up, and show my prescription and my insurance, and I’d be all set, and he once again said “yup”. Good deal. I waited a little bit, and Swac came home, and we headed off to Spectrum… We walked in, and I showed the lady working there, and she said “Yeah, no, we don’t have those. We don’t have anything like that.” WTF? Needless to say, I was not pleased. I explained the part where I called, and was told they had it… She seemed unimpressed. So the other girl there gave me directions and a phone number for another place… Way the hell across town… Spectrum Health Home Equipment: You get the finger… and I can hold this note all night.
• Alias: To everyone involved in creating this little piece of wonderful, you’ve got a fist to punch as well. I am burning through episodes 4 at a time. Every episode ends with “if you don’t watch the next episode instantly, you will most likely explode”. Quality.
• Creative Orthotics: Remember that other place I was sent to by Spectrum? It’s this place: Creative Orthotics. Remember? Way, way across town. So I called them to make sure they took my insurance.. they did. Huzzah! So I asked if they had what I needed. They Did! Huzzah! I was getting less angry.. having gotten rather angry after the “We have it/Just Kidding” Spectrum event. So we drove… and got stuck in rush hour traffic.. and drove, and drove, and finally made it to this new place. We found the place, headed on up…. and it appeared to be closed.. But wait, that couldn’t possibly be: They were open until 5pm, and it was almost 4:45.. and I had just #$()*$ called them indicating that I was coming. Where the — *sigh*. He was not there… and I was pissed. Swac left an entertaining message on their answering machine, indicating our displeasure with their closing early. Creative Orthotics: You get the finger. If you give me my brace tomorrow, I might take it back.. but if you don’t, I’m torching your building. And Insurance… I’m warning you. Do not piss me off on this one.
• Vanilla Coke: To the creator and producers of Vanilla Coke: Punch my fist. Also, I think I love you.