My back surgery...

[OMyMyOHellYes]

It's a caver thing. Most can't relate. It's also a dark room thing. I was an avid B&W photographer throughout high school, and even had my own darkroom, as well as access to two professional darkrooms. We had ample red light when we were futzing with paper, but all handling of film was done in pitch darkness. Any stray light there, and your film was fogged. How I remember those smells. Now we have digital, so few will ever learn the process any more. That's probably a good thing.

I was running the photo efforts for my high school yearbook. As a senior, teaching the ins and outs of darkroom technique was really good experience with a particular sophomore girl.

Would hate to have missed out.

 

[The Chairman]

teaching the ins and outs

I'm sure you were.

 

[The Chairman]

We were told, as Boy Scouts, that we should be able to put our hands on anything in our backpacks with our eyes closed. The darkroom experience certainly gave me an edge with that. We even had a race to find out who could find the smallest flashlight. This was way before LED lights were mainstream, so a small 1 cell penlight was the best we could do. I became pretty comfortable moving around a dark campsite and was able to recall the layout from seeing it earlier. Again, that really helped when I began cave training. I remember in cavern class, my instructor had me close my eyes and I supposed to find the cave line. A slight turn to the right, a half frog kick, drop to the floor, and wouldn't you know it, my hand landed right on the line. My instructor wasn't having it, so he picked me up, spun me around, and wedged me into a corner. Yah, I still found it and it was great to exercise my problem-solving skills.

 

[Wookie]

I was running the photo efforts for my high school yearbook. As a senior, teaching the ins and outs of darkroom technique was really good experience with a particular sophomore girl.

Would hate to have missed out.

The darkroom was next to the teachers lounge. The darkroom had a deep sink, from which Mrs Wedgewood filled the coffee urn. Mrs Wedgewood barged in while Jennifer and I were “developing”. Mrs wedgewood backed out the door, but the moment was shattered. For all time, sadly, although Jen found me on Facebook not so long ago.

She stayed in Maine and had babies, exactly what I fled to avoid.

 

[The Chairman]

Time marches on. In the meantime, I've been swimming every chance I get. The hurricanes kept me away for about a month, but they've almost all opened again. I would say that I'm about 95% healed. I can even go up and down stairs without having to use the railing for balance, which is simply awesome. I'm getting closer to being spry! I've also been diving a few times with no issues. I just need to renew my lights and my SF2 rebreather to get back into the caves. More importantly, my stamina has increased greatly. I can swim hard for 45 minutes now. It's not my lungs, but my legs that keep me from going longer. I took my 85cm freediving Mako fins to the springs today. Wow, I really need more strength in those legs. I'm bringing scuba fins tomorrow. It was in the fifties today, and after over an hour in the water, I got a bit chilled during my outside shower. I even wore pants today instead of my ubiquitous shorts. It's supposed to be in the forties tomorrow. I need a good boat jacket!

My lung efficiency test is about three weeks away. It's supposed to determine if my pleural embolism remains at all. Given the hard breathing workouts I've been doing, I don't expect any bad news. I think I mentioned that my iron and hematocrit were low enough that they gave me an infusion of iron. I cite that for my increased stamina. In fact, my urologist is a bit worried just how high my current rate is and wants me to give blood. Well, I give platelets every week again, just passing 100 donations since my sister passed almost three years ago. That doesn't affect my hematocrit one whit. Not wanting to undo the great effects of the iron infusion, I've asked for input from my hematologist. She's waiting to get the blood test from my urologist, so hopefully I'll know something soon. For the record, it's just below 53%. The urologist wants it below 50%, while Google suggests that 54% is the real upper limit. I've stopped taking iron supplements for the moment.

So, I've taken it up a notch in my exercising. I can walk, walk, walk. So, I do, do , do, Today I started wearing ankle weights around the house. Only 2lbs/ankle and I'm going to double that tomorrow. I've also taken to chopping wood ten minutes every day. I feel it in my back, not as pain, but as a lack of strength. I'm not ready to increase that yet. Maybe next week. I'm in no rush and definitely don't want to re-injure anything. I do develop a backache once a week or so. It's bad enough that I take a 10mg oxy for it. The pain doctor thinks that I don't have any worries about becoming addicted with such infrequent use. Yah, I still worry.