Michael Vogel

Hope so.

At this stage, inverting my left wrist and hand is nigh impossible. The surgeon told me that the damage was done when harvesting the graft. Normally there can be some changes in sensation in the radial nerve which can cause temporary numbness or pain but in my case they actually were aware they damaged the nerve. They were honest enough to tell me before I had even become aware of it. Nothing I can do about it. It may improve in time. To the touch the skin is numb but internally it’s like pulling on a series of barbs embedded in the back of the big muscle of my thumb the more I invert the wrist. As with everything else I’ll have to persevere and meet the challenges ahead of me.

Great bunch of suggestions guys. But above all I really appreciate how serious you’re all being in trying to help. You have no idea the morale booster you’ve given me. I’m trying most of the suggestions but I’m quick to come down on myself if I slip a bit. Just so much has happened in such a short time. It wasn’t until March 5th, my 65th birthday, that I had my first recognisable cardiac chest pain. Quad bypass on 13th and now I’m just 18 days post op. Went to pick up my acoustic guitar yesterday, but in taking a vein graft from my left hand they’ve damaged the radial nerve. At this stage I can’t even close my hand around the guitars neck without some serious pain. Bit of a bummer as I wouldn’t mind getting some of that raw emotion out of my system. Still, as long as the forward steps are more numerous than the backward ones I’m doing OK I guess. Thanks for listening guys.

I suppose if I’d had digital heart problems, apps would be the go. Sadly my issues were/are all analog and there ain’t no app going to replace some serious diet and exercise. Damn but I want to be so lazy instead of having to use will power and hard work. My biggest enemy is late night snacking. How do you guys overcome the munchies. I haven’t smoked anything since May 6th 1992 so not drug induced, just habitual late night snacks?

Silly me. Didn’t make my sarcasm very clear did I? Use apps instead of actual diet and excercise. Anywho. Not sure about treadmills. I get very bored walking if the scenery doesn’t change and watching Tele while on a treadmill is even worse. Have tried in the past. We have about an acre and a third (0.5 Hectares to be exact) at home so it’s easy enough to fit in a walk of many hundreds of yards without leaving home. Can even throw in a hill or two but that’s a month or two away yet But have to admit that today we hit a smashing 9°C with a stiff breeze and the notion of a treadmill didn’t seem half bad. With winter coming on maybe I have to overcome my prejudice and maybe rent one for a month or two.

Sadly I already started the diet in hospital and just carried it over once home. Same for the exercise. To be fair though I have found an iDiet and an iTread app from Apple (you know the fruit company) and am thinking of changing to them. What think Ye men and women of wisdom?

I know it was you Gswitz. I was one of those who joined in. A nice thing to be able to help someone out. I think it was a great characterisic of the old forumites as it wasn’t the first time we did it.

Cheers guys. Thanks.

Sorry to be such an ass but seeing CbB is free now he’s probably over at Avid trying to get the forum there to pony up for a copy of Pro Tools for him.

With so many comings and goings it’s bound to be different. The essence is there but just like someone else’s mix of a song, it’s going to sound different. Thats OK. Embrace the change and make the best of it you can make.

Well I’ll be. The flipper of bits has left some bits for me. Cheers mate. It seems like a life time since our paths last crossed. Thanks for the sage advice. Now I know you appreciate a yarn so I’ll share my hospital discharge experience with you all. I just couldn't sleep last night so when I got an email from a mate in the UK, Steve, I told him about my discharge from the hospital earlier that day. “Hi Steve, Well this is night 2 at home with a degree of insomnia which is a relief from the sheer panic I felt last night my first night at home I arrived home at about 5pm at the end of a long day’s hospital discharge process which began with one of the surgical team waking me up at 7am telling me I was being discharged. I had made no prior arrangements, expecting some sort of plan being made with me about when and how I would go home. I hurriedly called my son-in-law who came straight down to get me. He’d only finished work that morning at 7am and left home at about 8am to cover the 180 kilometres from home to the hospital. He made great time and was in the city by 10:30 to get me. Great, I’m going home, but it took another 4 hours for the hospital machinery to grind inexorably to letting go it’s grip on me. By this time of the day following multiple sessions of walking around the ward called “exercise” I was thoroughly exhausted. This was after all only day 6 following a quadruple bypass on an obese 65 year old. Finally the moment came and the Dr. pronounced that my chest X-ray from 2 hours earlier showed I was fit for discharge. Now, because of the surgery I have quite a bit of fluid on board with legs that look like fattened bbq sausages ready to explode on the hot plate dousing anyone nearby with super hot fat. Of course to combat this fluid accumulation, diuretics are prescribed. Pills that make you go wee. First of many intended and noted puns. Not such a big deal in a hospital where a WC is always close by, but on a traffic laden peak hour ride through a forest of roadworks I assure you Steve, the dearth of bathroom facilities becomes apparent after about 20 minutes into the drive home. It’s at this point I make my first calm plea to Brad, my son-in-law, “any time you see a chance for me to go pee, I’d really appreciate if you could stop. Twenty more minutes passed (pun intended) and I was starting to lament not having asked Brad to bring The Bottle (I have one at home) so I could relive myself in the car. Maybe a plastic bag in the car. No such luck. Of course our conversation became more focused on my immediate needs as those needs became more immediate with every passing second. Again pun intended. By this time I was resigned to the inevitable. I would wet myself in the most ignominious of fashions not only now, this time, but in all likelihood, several times more before we got home. Once I had wet myself, the opportunity to later use a public rest room was forbidden me. How could I leave my wee soaked seat and walk through a crowded McDonald’s. But, the human bladder is like this tale, able to stretch to extraordinary capacity and by the grace of God, we (again pun intended) did arrive at a McDonald’s before any embarrassing leakage had taken place. So I open the car door gingerly, being very careful to not shear the stainless steel wires holding my sternum together and make my way on the longest single walk I had taken in the last 2 weeks and then I saw the sign. Shining like a beacon, heralding the room where I could empty what must by now be the largest bladder in the universe. What, what horror has conspired to hurt me further. My shining beacon heralded no toilet but a shower room. I had yet to completely retrace my steps before finding my target. I was thoroughly spent, legs, weak at the knees, my abdomen cramped and the searing burning pain in my lungs as I gasped for every breath reminded me that I would get fit if it killed me. An hour later, just 30 minutes from home would see me have to repeat this whole adventure for the second but thankfully last time. My state of physical exhaustion was much more complete this time and I consider myself lucky because I did manage to get back to the car without collapsing completely. My only regret being that when my son-in-law offered to help me into Maccas I should have just thrown myself on him and let him carry me in. The remaining 30 minute drive home gave some more time to question the Dr’s wisdom in using a chest X-ray as the final metric on which to base my discharge (and yes pun intended again). Would an examination of my bladder been a more appropriate diagnostic tool.

Ah well; there’s another way. A music box.

Who knew I vas cherman und liked oompah music.

Now listen; I will zay diss only vunce, its up in the coffee house not down. Now who downgraded me to a triple bypass. It was a quad and I’ll not be downgraded again. Thanks very much I’m in Straya and it is was just a fluke of hospital upgrades etc that got me a private room still I can’t complain Comfortable bed and good food in hospital is some sort of a miracle in any case

Not a music thread but I’m happy to say I’m back. On the 5th March I had my first verifiable attack of angina. Saw my Dr the next day the 6th. Exactly one week later, just 3 days ago I had a quadruple bypass. I’m up and about in hospital, was up within hours of clearing recovery. Am now in a private room even though I’m a public patient and I’m cautiously optimistic of going home on Monday. Hopefully to start a new healthier life. Thanks for all the kind wishes thus far and maybe just maybe there’ll be a song in there somewhere. Wow modern medicine is sure great. I feel tired but well hoping I’ve got many more years ahead of me.

How can there be so many specials but no real discounts. Sorry I’ll stick with the IKM stuff that I have now but won’t be getting any others. Add to that when you’re in Australia you’re effectively penalised around 35% because of exchange rates. Just priced themselves out of the market for me.

Groa.

That’s beyond the pale

So many memories. Such great skits. Or is that schiz? Monty Python - the language of a generation ”How do you elect a king then?”

I was trying to remember an “In search of the Holy Grail” reference. The exchange of insults at the tower. “I fart in your general direction “ etc. etc sorry to hijack the thread with my petty cardiac problems. Please continue discussing the inanities of music production.

Well I had the pain in the ass last year but that didn’t work out so well. I’ve been so funny the last few days maybe I have a career in comedy ahead of me. Or not. Thanks for all the well wishes guys and guyzettes . I will return to taunt you one more time you smelly (insert noun/s of choice here).

Try setting up on a different song. Once you’re set up then tackle the real song. It helps me to get all the engineers assistant tasks out of the way and leave me to become the recording engineer. I have the arrangement settled before I go into that. I have to compartmentalise otherwise I get stuck and obsess over details I’m not really ready to tackle. Just time for a quick note. I’m in hospital and they’re coming to take me for an angiogram pre bypass surgery. See you all soon.

I got rid of my UAD stuff a few years back now. Just too expensive. As I had a big investment in Waves plugins, I got into the Waves Digigrid system and haven’t looked back since.

Dare I say i feel a group hug comin’ on. C’mon pets hug it out.

This thread goes to show that the hard core rocker stereotype is not well placed at all. We’re really a great big gooey bunch of marshmallows.