Howdy DXers,

As most know, I've been struggling with some health issues lately.

I had my surgery Monday.  It was, in my opinion, the procedure from hell.

It was a venogram procedure, which is an x-ray procedure where the vascular surgeon injects a contrast dye into one of your main deep veins in the foot area to visualize the veins, to check for blood clots, blockages, or other vein problems.  That's the easy part.  Then, if there are problems found, they insert a wire into the vein and attempt to remove any blockages, or widen any narrowness found in the veins.

They only gave me a Motrin for pain and a Valium to help relax me.  It didn't help much.  The problem was that the vein he needed to use, was located in the center of the worst ulcer on my ankle!  They scrapped and scrapped to find the vein, then started pushing the wire in...  NOT fun!  Then after about 15 minutes the doc says "OK, this is going to hurt a bit now!"  "Whatcha mean "now" and "a bit?"  Well, that happened again and finally it was all over.  They were soaking towels with blood.  After about 45 minutes of recovery, they finally halfway stopped the bleeding, and I was allowed to sit up.

After 3 hours of sleep the first night and a few more Tuesday night.  I am finally able to sleep again.  The site still bleeds, but it's slowly getting better.  I can only spend about 30 minutes at a time sitting or standing, then I have to elevate the leg for a few hours. 

It's been tough but, hopefully the blood flow will improve and the ulcers will heal.

Unfortunately SFDXA has taken a back seat during this.

Thanks for all of the good will and prayers received.

Very 73,
Randy N4QV