Tone Parsons

Things have changed since my last post (which was a total downer).

My doctor has pulled a magic trick out of his hat and changed my pain management regiment slightly by adding something new… and it appears to be working.  I’m cautiously optimistic.

I was able to go to the 2009 Spokane Motorcycle show yesterday, walk around for a couple of hours, and come home with very little pain.  This is just short of amazing!

Now, if I could just get off all the opiates… there’s a chance that I could get off of my ass and back to work!

Time will tell if the new regiment is going to be sufficient to make that happen, but I’ve got a glimmer of hope on the horizon… and that’s more than I’ve had for a damn long time!

Wish me luck!

Sorry about the delay between posts.

I’ve been in a funk for quite a while now, and posts will probably be few and far between until I can find my happy place again.

I did see my neurologist a few weeks ago.  There’s no change with the neuropathy.  After sticking me with needles and holding a tuning fork against both of my feet, he declared that it’s gone static… which is what they expect to see.  He also said that my symptoms were classic for what I have going on down there (feet hurt like they’ve been beaten with a stick, feeling like they’re asleep, and no tactile sensation).  He doesn’t expect it to get any worse or better.

Hurray for me!

I also saw my physician last week.  Oh… what a good time that was!  For a man who can sit and listen, he doesn’t seem to hear much…. nor does he seem to remember anything.

Every time I see him, I have to recite my entire case history.  He always asks if I’m still working (“um… no… you put me on disability and haven’t released me yet”).   This last visit made me want to grab him by the neck and slap the crap out of him.   It’s time to find a new doctor… I’ve had it.

I’m sick of just being prescribed medicine to dull the pain (which the current dosage does not do) and want something… ANYTHING… that will make it so I can leave the house without making it so that I’m flat on my back for the next 2 days.  I want desperately to go back to work, earn my share, and get off of this crap disability.

Unlike a lot of people out there, I hate being on disability.  It’s a lot like being on welfare (at least to me).  It’s that damn mid-west work ethic that was instilled in me I guess.  Sitting around on your ass with your hand out is unacceptable to me.  I need to pull my own weight.

It would also be nice to have a social life again.  Since I’ve gone out on disability (a year and 4 months ago), only one friend has come to see me… and I’ve only seen them twice.  I only get phone calls from “friends” when they need something (ie. they broke their computer).  I guess I need new friends too.

Sorry about the downer post, but I’m in a rather dark place at the moment.  Hopefully I’ll have something a little more bright to post next time.

There have been a few requests that I continue the whole video blog thing.

I haven’t forgotten about it, I’ve just run into a few technical snafu’s as of late (ie. most of my old hardware doesn’t have drivers for Vista 64).  This has made creating the video blog a little challenging for me.

But fear not, gentle reader, for I have a thought in my head on how to get it going again.  I’m hoping to have something together soon for your viewing pleasure!

Until then, may I suggest you play a game?  How about…. Virus 2!

I haven’t posted for a bit… sorry about that.

My wife and I finally agreed that it was time for me to get a new computer.  She had actually started pushing the idea a while ago… I was the one who was balking.  My old computer was just that…. old.  I wasn’t able to play the new games that I was getting, and that’s why I finally decided to make the plunge.

Of course, not all is good on that front.  This has got to be, by far, the most challenging build I’ve ever had.  I’ve put together dozens of computers in the past, but the configuration of this beast has been a real challenge… so has fitting all the parts into a case.

In case you’re curious on what exactly I got…. here’s the list:

• ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe/HDMI AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 780a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
• AMD Phenom 9950 2.6GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor
• (2 of these) OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) (8GB total Ram)
• (3 of these) XFX PVT98WYDFH GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card (yes… I ordered 3 of them… my motherboard supports it!)
• CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W Power Supply
• (3 of these) Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (1.5TB total in RAID5)
• LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit
• Xclico A380Plus case

For those of you who that meant nothing to… I’ll put it simply: It has a very fast quad core processor with 8GB of memory, tons of hard drive space, and 3 video cards hooked together to act as one (they call that configuration SLI).  It’s a tiny God!!  The case looks like this: