Bugs Palace!

After 20 years with my original implant, I finally took the plunge and had it changed out for a different one.  What most people don’t realize is an artificial eye is made up of two portions. The implant, and the prosthesis. The implant is a small ball which is wrapped in left over muscle and tissue after your real eye is removed. The prosthesis is essentially a cover which is formed to the implant. It is the part you see which is removable and painted to match your remaining real eye.

Over time my implant shifted to the left, leaving my prosthetic a pretty poor area to ‘form’ to.  This causes poor movement, and poor fit in general. My new implant removed the small smooth ball and replaces it with a nearly double the size porous ball that the muscles will essentially fuse to. This will make it impossible for it to move around like the old one and should make a much better foundation for the prosthetic to form to. Better forming together means better fit and hopefully much better movement.  Surgery was quick, but recovery beat the hell out of me.

Dad and I went up to Ottawa on Sunday night (May 29) and stayed till Thursday (June 2). Monday was pre-0p. Tuesday was surgery. Wednesday rest at the hotel and Thursday follow up and trip home. Pain from the time I woke up until Thursday morning was pretty intense. Even opening my eyes was extremely painful. It was a long ride home. Dad drove home. Good thing, because opening my eyes still hurt badly. Looking around was impossible. Couple days home an tons of tylenol 3 I started feeling somewhat better. Each day was an improvment in both pain amount as well as energy levels. But the Sunday/Monday after the surgery things were looking up finally. By Thursday/Friday I was feeling much more like my self.  Today marks 2 weeks since the surgery and I’m nearly 100% again. All thats left now is a follow up in Ottawa June 30 to make sure the socket has healed, and providing all is well, July 12th I will have a new prosthetic formed and I will be ‘complete’ again. No more patch or walking around with a clear eye in.

Thanks to my Dad for coming with me and making sure I was taken care of. Had to be a boring trip for him seeing as we were stuck at the hotel and I couldnt even stand the TV on. Sorry Pops. I will make it up with a better trip sooner or later. Thanks again! Love ya!

I think the worst part of the whole thing was leaving Shannon and the kids for several days without being able to even talk to them realy. Missed you guys.

Speaking of missing them… While I was away, my little boy decided to take a good tumble which resulted in a couple stitches on his lip. Poor little dude. He just had to be like his sister and get his first stitches at under a year. He only made it by a few weeks seeing as he turns 1 on Friday!

As of Sunday May 15, I am officially licensed with my m2. The course was a blast. I learned way more then I expected to. The riding was pretty straight forward and natural. Felt like riding my old dirt bike again. The learning was all the ‘what to do’ ‘when to do it’ stuff. VERY glad I did the course. If anyone is interested in learning how to drive a motorcycle and is looking for a great course go to CMA 

Joey got his first haircut. Sooo cute. Poor little bugger was developing an odd mullet. Hair was growing way faster in the back and side then the top was. So Donna got out the clippers and shaved him all nice and even. Cute little onion head. Couple more weeks and daddy will match him 😉

Less then a week till my surgery. Not too worried about the surgery itself. However, I am really not looking forward leaving my wife and children for 4-5 days. I’ve never left them that long. Gonna suck. Guess I’m gonna have to get skype up and going again.

Shannon’s maternity leave is nearly at its end. Really feel bad that she has to go back to work, but I am looking forward to the pay checks coming back and bills getting paid in full and on time 🙂  The only good thing is, the kids will both be going back to my parents for ‘daycare’ every day. Mom and Dad are very much looking forward to it… And so are the kids 😉

Hopefully I will be able to get some internet going while I am in Ottawa and give some post-surgical updates. Time will tell.

As the weather attempts to get warmer, I get closer to riding my bike. Looks like beginning of June will be all systems go.  I could do it a bit earlier, but weather, maternity leave pay, and surgery at the end of May is hindering speeding things up.

Speaking of surgery, I guess I should update that. May 31st I will be having another surgery done on my eye. First one since the month the accident happened. New implant should improve fit of the cover, and hopefully improve movement.  Scary to think it’s been 20 years since the accident. Yikes!

Fun News: Ian and Jen tied the knot! Abby and I were lucky enough to be in the wedding party, and Shannon was there to take lots of pics. We had a great day. Abby was an absolute ANGEL. Couldn’t have asked for a better behaved kid. And I have been waiting a lot of years to be able to dance with my little girl. I think she had almost as much fun as her very proud daddy did. Scary thing is, before I know it, I will be dancing with her at HER Wedding. Hopefully the time doesn’t go by tooo fast.  Joe-Joe skipped out on the festivities. He opted to hang with Grandpa Jeff for the day/night. He heard there wasn’t gonna be any chicks his age there, so he bailed 🙂

Speaking of the little man : he has started walking. Still a bit of a challenge for him, but he’s taking more and more steps without furniture each day. Now if we could get Abby to stop tackling him every time he walks, he may actually get somewhere. Once he masters walking, Abby is in deep, deep trouble.

Last update : GTI is looking good. Nice and low and rolling on the 18’s finally. Would have been happy if the rear came down .5 inches more, but all in all it will do. When it’s time do replace the struts, I may just do coilovers so I can adjust the height exactly where I want it. Thats hopefully not till next year though. Only other things I want to do this year are the exhaust and re-tint the windows, and hopefully nothing more but oil changes and fuel. The rest of my spare $$ will be directed to getting caught up from Shannons maternity leave, and also getting some upgrades done around the house.