Alin's Site

Trachea and lungs

An Inhaler

Today as of 4:00 PM Central TIme respiratory emergency status has been declared. We have noticed declining respiratory condition for a few weeks now, but today it has gotten to the point that we seriously need intervention. As you know I lost the ability to cough a long time ago due to the muscle loss. Today mom and I were quite unhappy with the amount of audible wheezing and also cough reflexes without cough production. Cough reflex for me looks like a spasm right before you puke.

We called my respiratory nurse at my pulmonary specialists office who declared that this is a respiratory emergency that needs to be solved within the next few hours. She called into the doctor who responded with a prescription for an Albuterol inhaler, probably the new HFA type, which unlike the old inhalers does not contain CFC’s due to the new regulation requiring all inhaler medications to contain no CFC’s. A prescription for Prendnisone has been given too. The Albuterol is a fast acting treatment to help us stabilize the condition and reduce the wheezing and cough reflexology. The Prednisone is a specialized steroid that will wipe out any inflammation pretty much anywhere in my body, the main place we are lookign to wipe out is my lungs and tracheal lining.

Frequent updates on this emergency will be given.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Shaun T O'Leary

Medtronic Intrathecal Baclofen Pump Programmer

Wow! No updates since nearly a week ago. This week has obviously been pretty boring and uneventful. Hopefully things will pick up, hehe.

Yesterday we were “on call” all day to see when I would be called into the office to get my Baclofen pump refilled. They never called yesterday but did today. We went into a special procedure suite in the Parkside Center and that is when the interesting stuff started.

Once I was situated on the procedure table they pulled out the programmer and interrogated the pump, in other words they read any information stored in the pump. Today the most important parameter is volume remaining. Once read they prep the site with Betadine.

22 Gauge Huber Point Needle

Next after they prepped the site they used a Huber point needle, like the one shown above. This type of needle reduces coring in a self sealing septum, such as the Baclofen pump’s access port. Coring in a septum is bad. This was actually a surprisingly low pain experience, my theory is both because of the intrinsic design that the needle more slices instead of pierces, and also the fact that the nerves are severed in the skin upon insertion of the pump. The needle used today was a 22 gauge. Which is the average size that is used for pediatrics.

Once they inserted the needle and infusion set they attached a syringe and drew all of the remaining Baclofen and fluids from the pump. Once done they measured it and then prepared the baclofen to be infused. They attached a special filter to the syringe and then began infusing 40ml of Baclofen. Once done they removed the needle, and they removed the Betadine using alcohol. Then they went in and updated the pump with the programmer, my dose was not increased today since the neurosurgeon was not there today.

Overall it was a very fun experience, I even had two really good nurses, both of whom give awesome hugs. *wink*

Apple MacBook Pro Second Generation

Shown above is Apple’s newest MacBook Pro generation. Introduced last week at a special “brick” event it is built like a brick.

I was afraid about this laptop. but today showed me otherwise. I will now explain it in detail.

MacBook Pro 2G Review
By Alin S

Aesthetics

The new MacBook Pro boasts a vague resemblance to the MacBook Air. Alike the Air it really slams you in the face with how beautiful and sleek it is. The black screen bezel makes your eyes concentrate on the screen, and makes colors jump out at you. The black keys and two tone construction at first look shockingly ugly but then you see that the machine is meant to scream, contemporary creativity. The MacBook Air did not fare well in the keyboard department with me since it was a mostly aluminum machine with black keys. Bringing in the black screen bezel definitely made it strikingly gorgeous. The glossy only screen availability may have some users irritated, but I am perfectly happy with it.
Speed

The new MacBook pro boasts a lot of power under the hood. The 2.8 GHZ model was blazing fast, rarely do I see 2.8 GHZ in a laptop. The laptop boots very quickly in about 20 seconds. There is no Solid State Drive option however I am sure you can buy a Solid State Drive if you really wanted it.
Size

The MacBook pro has been made slightly thinner, and a bit lighter. Alike my current MacBook Pro I can only lift it with two hands. But it is a bit easier to lift, so there has to be a weight difference. The screen is extremely thin yet very solid feeling.

Input

The keyboard alike the MacBook Air review is my qualm here. I can get used to this new style of keyboard, but I would love to see a old style scissor keyboard again. The really beautiful thing in the input department is when you look at the trackpad. Usually you see that trademark button below it. Nope, not on the new MacBook Pro, you have one giant trackpad nearly 33% larger than the old. And the whole bottom third is your click buttonn. It even feels like a button, the reason is because it IS a button. The button was simply moved under the trackpad.
Output

The glass screen brings the MacBook Pro into the revolution in screens. It produces rich deep colors yet very low glare. The speaker holes which you can barely see output nice crisp sound, don’t expect a lot of bass, but alike any laptop you shouldn’t expect bass. either way the output’s department is very well built.

Ports

I have some small qualms here. All of the ports are on one side of the machine. This makes it hard when you have things like a USB cellular modem thats not all that compact. Plugging in my Verizon data card made the second USB port worthless. I can’t imagine what will happen if i plug in firewire next to the power adapter, will I not be able to plug in. I also hate that they switched to a Mini-Video output that is proprietary to Apple and requires you to buy one of their adapters to convert it to DVI which means you have to lug another thing around in the bag along with the “brick”

Batteries

I am seriously loving this battery. The battery life on this machine even though it is more powerful is amazing. I unplugged the machine while running iTunes, E-Mail and a Safari session, the standard things I do while out of the house. And the battery counter said I have five hours and 45 minutes remaining. I could not believe it so I did some surfing for about 20 minutes and it reported exactly correct, five hours and 25 minutes. That battery is amazing.

Cost

The machine’s cost has been cut. The old MacBook Pro’s were more expensive and less powerful. Apple cut cost somehow while still making a very high quality machine, which I am a big fan of. The top end model is 3000 Dollars where the top end model in the older computers ran near 3500 Dollars.

This concludes the MacBook Pro Review
Final Verdict: BUY BUY BUY!!!

Abt electronics sign through the cars

Today me and mom decided to go on a little bit of a jaunt and go play with some gadgets at Abt electronics. This place is huge, its like a city of nothing but electronics and appliances. The place has to be a square mile or more. I had two things I was mainly focusing on. Camcorders, and Apple laptops which I have reviewed the new MacBook Pro on the blog post here Apple’s new MacBook Pro review.

Me and mom had a lot of fun playing with all of the gadgets. I especially had fun talking to the camcorder technician finding out which camcorder would do best for me. We both decided that I am going to save for a Sony HDRSR12 which is a 120GB Hard Drive Disk camcorder that can record 1080p HD. I couldn’t really get my hands on it much as the cable that held it on the counter was not long enough but she was very helpful and held it for me and let me push buttons and get as much a feel for the camera I could in what restricted state it was. She also told me that when I come to buy mine to mention her name and they will give me 30 day unconditional return policy.

I took some photos inside of Abt as the place has a beautiful atrium area with a big lush fountain and plants and many other cool little things. They even power part of the store with two wind turbines and solar panels! Really cool!

Click the picture above for that gallery!

Digicam repair guy who fixed my camera, he's kinda cute

Yesterday I took my camera to the man shown above to get the sensor cleaned. I was only expecting a sensor cleaning when I talked to the woman on the phone. He came over to me picked up my camera, opened it, and said. I clean the walls, floor, mirrors, lens, and whole camera for 60 Dollars. I had a hard time believing it. He said he would have it ready for me tomorrow.

We went back today to pick up my camera. He knew it was us and went and got my camera, it was in a plastic bag like it had just came out of the box. He opened the bag and I smelled, new camera smell. I couldn’t believe it. I looked all over the camera, was this really my camera. I verified it by looking at the serial number on the intake form and the camera. It was indeed my camera. Digicam is an awesome place to get your camera or camcorder fixed. They are located in Arlington Heights Illinois. Click the link below to get directions!

Get Digicam Directions

Grr, good ram, bad computer

Wanna know why my face looks pissed off?

I bought this RAM on eBay last Thursday, I was excited that my laptop would have new life breathed into its circuitry. My RAM arrived today and instinctively I immediately opened the box and neatly opened the RAM baggies. I shut down my computer, unplugged it, took out the battery, and proceeded to remove the old RAM. Upon inserting the new RAM I excitedly closed up the cover, put the battery in and hit the power button. I heard the CD drive do it’s eject cycle thingi and waited. Nothing, after several minutes the screen didn’t even light up. I checked that the RAM sticks were properly seated in the slots and tried again, nothing. I removed the new RAM and switched back to the old. It booted right up. I knew the RAM sticks were good, they are brand new. So I tried it with one 2GB stick. It booted right up. I did some googling and found an article stating that first generation MacBook Pro’s only support 2GB of RAM. I was furious, I called up Apple and asked them if that was correct and they said yes it is correct and my machine is a first generation MacBook Pro. The thing that really ticks me off is the fact that the person who sold me the machine in an Apple store told me it supports up to 4GB of RAM. So I am quite irritated that I essentially wasted 60 Dollars. Thankfully its not a total waste as I can hold onto the sticks until I get a new laptop that will accept them. But I am definitely not getting a new style MacBook Pro. If anything my next laptop will be a third generation first generation MacBook Pro that supports 4GB of ram.

Boy, this week sure has been cursed to problems!1

Stihl chainsaw, I hate them

I hate chainsaws. Being the fact I can’t get up on my own I am kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. Today at 7:00 AM some landscaping company came next door and fired their chainsaws up and are still going at it and it is getting on my nerves to the point I am about to open up the window and start yelling curses into the morning air in hopes they will hear me. Has anyone ever thought of taking this old archaic technology and making it quieter. Hmm, yet another invention for me to take up and patent. The silent chainsaw.

Today we had two big gigs. First at 11:00 AM we went to the Long Grove Fire Department and performed in the middle of the garage. This was an extremely enjoyable event for me. Today was FireFest 2008 which was quite successful in drawing in a lot of visitors. I did sound as I usually do for big gigs and our standard Saturday gig. During the time we were there we had a lot of breaks since there were so many cool things going on, first they had an automobile extrication exercise in which they practiced extracting someone from a wrecked automobile, photos of that are in the gallery. After that they had a real live living room burn up in the middle of a specially designed containment area. As with the extrication the photos are all available.

I also made a new friend who is a fire fighter there, he took my E-Mail and website and also showed me all of the new high tech gadgets he wears on his body. Unlike fire fighting a mere decade ago things have changed a lot. We now have multi gadget’s as I like to call it. It is in one of the photos in the gallery, its a special device that holds an oxygen regulator, a digital LCD for reading out important information, and a specialized alarm system. If a fire fighter stops moving for more than 30 seconds different alarm tones start going off, first with a low and kind of quiet tone, progressing to a low high medium volume, to a high and extremely loud continuous tone. These are meant to help fire fighters find their colleagues in trouble and help evacuate them to safety or get them out of whatever peril they got into.

I seriously hope we go back to the FireFest next year, It was definitely the hallmark of the day for me.

After our FireFest performance ended we had some time to monk around in the fire house and explore things more for myself. I got to see and touch and smell a two week old Ambulance which is not something everyone gets to see. And yes, it still had that new Ambulance smell.

A bad sound board runner

We then headed over to Long Grove’s central park and Mom and Tom got up on the stage. I was originally slated to do sound for both events but due to the second event having a sound board that is not exactly accessible or otherwise easy to use from a wheelchair we decided to have me go back to the control center, Beans & Leaves and chat with the visitors. Little did I know I would end up bringing a gaggle of people to the stage area with me as I decided to return. Ironically I returned right when a serious sound problem was occurring and helped them try to create a plan to fix the problem, which in the end could not be fixed.

There are a whopping 12x photos in the gallery. A few weeks ago I discovered my camera’s sensor is dirty, so please excuse if there are some small spots on the photos. I will be going to get my camera’s sensor cleaned this week!

Long Grove Illinois Village Logo

Tomorrow from 11:00 AM till 1:00 PM my mom will be singing at the Long Grove Firehouse if anyone is interested. I will be working behind the scenes running the sound board. Then we at 2:00 PM will be working in the Oktoberfest tent. For more info go to http://www.longgroveonline.com

As usual I will make sure pictures are taken!

ComEd Logo An Exelon Company

ComEd came out and replaced our power lines today at 9:00 AM. The power was turned off. The damn dog was barking out of control the whole time, thankfully I had my trusty Apple earbuds and laptop so I could crank some tunes while the crap went down in the rest of the house. Around 10:00 AM we finally got our power back and the line’s have been replaced! Anyone want to come smell the fresh new power line smell?