Waking up after surgery was made all the more frightening realizing my right leg was missing. How did this happen? How would it affect the rest of my life? Do I have a life left? Can I go back to work? Will I walk again? These were some of my thoughts as I laid in the recovery room.


In the early spring of 2004, The Sun was shining brightly and everything was right with the world. My wife was in her home office working on email. Seeing a wound on my right ankle she asked, “What’s that on your foot”? It was a black scab that refused to go away. As time went on it got more painful prompting me to do the unthinkable. I went to the wound control section of the local hospital and found the only doctor in the area who didn’t know what he was doing. He began cutting away the dead skin which caused horrible pain. The next few months were filled with cutting and more and stronger painkillers. Hallucinations followed where I thought I was seeing zebras on the highway, cats in the kitchen and bugs everywhere.

Clearly, it was time to seek other medical attention. Arriving at the Cleveland Clinic was intimidating. It’s like a city in itself. But this was the place that would make all things right. No more pain and, finally, healing. Not! After an examination the doctor said, “Your leg or your life”. Having grown fond of living I opted for the surgery. On October 29th of 2004 my right leg was amputated below the knee.

The slow and painful recovery was complicated by my transfer to a local nursing home ostensibly for physical therapy. During my two week stay my bandages where changed only once which caused an infection in my stump. This made it impossible for my stump to heal. That meant I was further away from the prosthesis that would free me from the wheelchair. I began to experience difficulty breathing. When I told the “medical staff” they told me everything was ok. The worse it got the more I seemed to be bothering them. Then one day my legs began to secrete what seemed like buckets of fluid. That got their attention and I was rushed to the hospital with what turned out to be congestive heart failure. Go figure!

Thus began chapter two in what would become a six month hospital stay. The tests run on my heart revealed a mitral valve in need of repair and a clogged coronary artery. Remember the infection I had on my stump? Well, you guessed it, no surgery until the infection was gone.

On December 7, 2004 the operation was performed on my heart. The next day I was still losing blood, and worse, no one knew where it was going. Finally the surgeon, after reviewing a chest x-ray, concluded that the “leak” was caused by a broken suture and we were going back to surgery. That operation was performed on December the 9th. When it was over I was too weak to raise my head from the pillow.

December 24 I was taken to therapy. Merry Christmas. For the next few weeks my body was subjected to agonizing exercises which actually got me to where walking became easier. It was a happy day when I was able to walk with the benefit of my prosthesis. February 8, 2005 was a happier day. I was going home.

For the next few years I was in and out of the hospital. Due to my heart condition, I would retain water. During this period I had eye surgery, neck surgery and oral surgery. Being on blood thinners for my heart, each of these procedures were risky. There were bleeding issues with two out of three of those operations.

On January 2, 2007 my stump began to swell as my body began to retain fluid. This, of course, was attributed to congestive heart failure. After a month of in home treatment I was sent to the hospital where they found I was in end stage kidney failure. As of this writing I am still in a wheelchair. Also, I am on kidney dialysis three days a week three hours a day.

Believing I was ten feet tall and bulletproof, my life had been dedicated to getting what I wanted. Drive and ambition clouded my judgment and the important things in life such as family and relationships were relegated to the back seat.

Facing the possibility of spending the rest of my life as an invalid rather destroyed that bulletproof thing. I became very aware of the people around me who were experiencing suffering far worse than mine.
During this period relations with other people became very important and fences were mended. I found that I don’t have to be right all the time and how peace comes over me when I say “I’m sorry, please forgive me”.
I thank God for what He has taken away and am resolved to make the most of what I have left.

Well, I hope you’ll come back and visit our blog and web site. Until then, that’s the view from the chair.


David H, Baker is married and has five grown children. The former Canton City Treasurer and President of Aradine Inc. is disabled and spends most of his time on the computer.
Web Site: http://www.netrep1.com/
Contact Us

Changing the Way We Shop

“A dollar’s worth of regular, please”. It was 1965 and I was commuting to college in my very used Volkswagon. Of course a full tank would cost only $2.50 and the car would run for three hundred miles.

Those were the days!

Today the experience at “the pump” is very different. No longer do we see the attendant ready to clean the windows, check the oil, check the tires and pump the gas. Rain or shine I pump the gas. At over $3.00 a gallon bankers are missing a great opportunity by not having loan officers at every gas station. It’s hard to justify driving around town shopping for that perfect sale item while paying $3.00 a gallon for gas. There has to be a better way.

Before I get into the advantages of shopping online, allow me to share a few of the pitfalls.

Disadvantages:

What are all those handling charges? Some companies use the handling charges to cover the labor costs of packaging and mailing the item. Compare the handling costs and determine if they are worth the item being bought.

Spam is unsolicited email. To avoid spam, do not check any of the boxes for wishing to receive additional offers from the company or their affiliated companies.

Advantages:

What are the advantages? Online shopping is fast becoming the main shopping choice for many people. People prefer online stores for their shopping needs over the brick-and-mortar stores for a variety of reasons - discounted price, unavailability of desired items in the retail stores, 24 hours shopping convenience.

Whatever the reason is, before you jump onto the online shopping bandwagon, you must consider a few things to avoid frustration and monetary loss.

Ask your friends about their experiences with online shopping sites to select sites that are worthy of your hard earned money. Another approach is to use a search engine like Google to search for items you plan to purchase. When you use Google to search for an item, you will get advertised and non-advertised sites offering your items at different prices.

Avoid public computers at cafes, airports, etc. for your purchases. The danger is that hackers can install key-loggers to log your key presses before they are encrypted.

Always use a credit card to pay for your online purchases. Most credit cards have online purchase protection. If something goes wrong, you can always call your credit card company and dispute the charge. You do not have to pay for your disputed charges until the dispute is resolved. Federal laws limit your liability to $50 in charges if someone uses your card fraudulently. Never use a debit card. Debit cards pull money from your bank account as soon as the transaction is made. If you are ripped off, it may take months before you get your money back, IF you ever see it again, that is.

Despite all the cautionary warnings, online shopping is safer than shopping offline. You do not have to take a shower, dress up, drive and mingle with other shoppers and touch anything in the store for online shopping. How safe can it be? If you are careful, you can guard yourself against identity and credit card thefts by following safety tips discussed above. When you are using a credit card in a brick and mortar store, there is a person, such as the sales person, who processes the transaction and this person can also see your private information. In online transactions, the middle man is eliminated. If you do your research, watch for signs of fraud and only use credit cards for your purchases, online shopping provides more benefits over offline shopping.

Additional Security Suggestions

Also, use a hand written list to keep track of purchases you made online. You can use the list to refer back to when you get credit card and bank statements. You will want to put the confirmation number, customer service email and customer service telephone numbers on the list. Make sure to keep track of dates so that you do not forget about an item that was ordered. If there is a problem, you can use the list to quickly remember the details of the transaction.

Many companies offer a free trial for items and services. It is important to read all of the fine print regarding how to cancel the subscription or trial offer if you are not happy with the service or products. You should make a note on the calendar when the subscription or trial ends. On the list you made earlier write down all the cancellation information. Many subscriptions and trials are auto- matically renewed if you do not cancel by the company’s guidelines.

If you are in doubt, DON’T BUY!

With online shopping you save money on gas without the need for a long trip into town and the stress of trying to find a parking spot. Save time by not having to fight throngs of shoppers and standing in long lines.

Recent surveys have shown that the Internet now counts for just over forty per cent of all retail purchases. And it's not just the technology savvy or the younger generation that are making use of this tool – a new "silver surfer" generation of older shoppers has arisen and are using online shopping to their advantage.

This new kind of shopping has proven extremely popular with mothers trying to run a household as well as hold down a full-time job, the elderly for whom it may be just a little too difficult to make a long trip anywhere, and the housebound, whether through disability or other mobility issues.

With the simple notion of fulfilling all their shopping needs with the simple click of a mouse, it has opened up a whole new world of shopping to people who previously had to rely on others to shop for them. Now, even the most basic of household items can be purchased online, and the world of shopping has changed forever, and for the better.

Respectfully submitted by:

David H. Baker

http://www.netrep1.com

One of the most favored past times of Americans is fishing. It has the power to deliver the great outdoors with a family occasion and the added benefit of providing excitement, relaxation and finally if you are lucky, nutrition for the table.

If you are a beginner, before you start there are a couple of matters to keep in mind. For instance, it is a good idea to check with your local authority fishing requirements. Some prerequisites are permits and licenses, and naturally knowledge of the lower limit catch sizes and species allowed to be caught. An outstanding place to start asking questions is your local sport fishing supply store. You should find the staff there knowledgeable in what you should look out for, plus they can usually supply handouts from the government agencies as to what they expect from anglers in their jurisdiction.

Novices need not outfit themselves with all the myriad of equipment that is available for fishing. But there is naturally a bare minimum of bits and pieces you would want. How about a fishing line or fishing rod and reel worthy of the sort of fish that you will be hunting. What kind of bait will draw in these fish is a question you should ask the locals or fishing store staff. Sinkers, hooks, lures, nets, floats, tools such as pliers, knives, buckets.

The equipment in your fishing life can and will grow in numbers and quality the further your interest increases in the sport. But for the beginner the fundamentals are all that is necessary to get a taste for this wonderful recreational activity. Where do you begin? How about some much needed practice with that shiny new rod and reel. You may be a little reticent to flaunt your lack of skills at this point, so some practice casting in your back yard would help establish assurance in your ability to perform the action. You will gain the skill of casting faster than you think within just a couple of short sessions of throwing that sinker at a target.

Now you know how to cast, and your confidence is high you will be keen to get out there where the fish are. And that is the next challenge. Keep in mind. You spend time and money discovering how to fish and where the fish are inclined to bite, why then would you give that valuable information away to some wet behind the ears fledgling who will more than likely frighten the fish away or simply contend for the available stock in your preferred spots. So if you truly want to know where the fish are you will have to discover them for yourself, and I’ll bet you will retain that information for yourself.

A clever thing to do would be to concentrate on a certain type of fishing or target a species of fish you would want to catch and then absorb and implement this as much as possible. Your success rate would be greatly enhanced this way.

In conclusion, when water has passed under the bridge (excuse the pun) the sport of angling can be a stimulating past time with the thrill of the hunt partnered with the excitement of snaring the quarry there is another element attached that some find much more
profitable, the spirit of being at one with nature and choosing to take the time to smell the fresh air, see the wind drawing patterns on the water’s surface, listening to the auditory sensation of water, that feeling of being alive. Happy angling.

This article was reprinted from Elib.org Shopping Directory

by David H. Baker

Subscribe to our Newsletter

http://www.netrep1.com

You may have noticed that I have not been contributing recently. The truth is that in January I began to feel sick. After four months in and out of the hospital, I find out that my kidneys have failed and I will need dialysis three days a week.

I'm still not 100% but I'm fighting back. Apologizing in advance ,I probably will have to slow down my activities for awhile. I ask for your prayers and patience.

Dave