a weblog by Spracky

I managed to get an I-Phone on the 2^nd day of its release. Dax and I went up to the Apple store, and asked if they had any, and they did! They had about 40 phones still. We were extremely stoked that we did not have to waste any of our time standing in a line the night before. I

I’m posting from my first Mac!

I recently had the opportunity to participate in the Halo 3 Beta. The game has so many more online elements than in Halo 2. Some of the newest things that Bungie has added to the game are; trip mines, grave lifts, and a bubble shield. My favorite had to be the trip mine. You could place the trip mines on your flag or near the bomb while playing a skirmish game; although they are easy to shoot from a distance and get rid of them, people still ran over them. I loved dropping them in the field when the enemy was approaching on a mongoose or warthog for an easy triple or double kill. There’s also a new badge system based on rank points. If you quit a match you lose 2 points. If you lose a match, I think you stay the same. If you win one you get a point towards your rank, and after so many points you can upgrade your badge. I was able to make it up to 100 points. On the last night of the beta I received the Lieutenant badge. Unfortunately but understandably all ranks were erased after the beta. I have a great group of XBL friends from Achievement Junkies and The Adult Gamer, and I can’t wait until Sept 25th, when the game is released so that I can play with them again.

My grandmother has been released from the CCU.

Not too much has been going on in the past couple of weeks. My grandmother is still in the hospital. Dax and I have been up to visit her almost every night. One day she seems a little better and the next day she isn

I just got a call from my mother. The kidney doctor called, and said that he was pretty certain that my grandmother has vasculitis. They wanted my mother

The doctors do not know what is causing my grandmother to be so ill. They can’t run any test because she is not stable enough. Her kidneys are failing, and her lungs are filling with fluids. When we went to visit the other night, they had her on forced air. Her heart rate was up to 120 to 123. She was struggling so hard to breath. The doctors explained to everyone that it’s like trying to run a marathon for her. She looked terrified. She kept throwing her hands into the air, and then back down as if she had no energy at all. The horrifying scene affected the entire family. I think we all broke down that night. We just didn’t understand how or why this could be happing, and we felt completely helpless. The doctors gave my grandmother some sort of medication to sedate her, and another to paralyze her. They inserted a breathing tube. The next night I went to the hospital she looked more peaceful. She wasn’t struggling to breathe, however they did have to insert a swan ganz heart catheter. The doctors said that she may be able to hear us talking but of course, she would be able to respond or move. I found out later on Friday after my last post, that my grandmother had an episode where she coded for 2 minutes. They were able to bring her back with simple chest compressions.

I called the hospital this morning to check on my grandmother. Her nurse told me that they are trying to take her off of some of the oxygen to see if she can maintain her stats. She also said that they are lowering her blood pressure medication. So far she has been able to keep her blood pressure stable. The chest x-rays are still showing fluid on the lungs. They are going to continue her on the dialysis prism machine until they get her blood pressure back up. They were able to pull some of the fluids out of her body; so that reduced some of her swelling. At this time they had no other plans to run any more test to try to find out where or what is causing this illness