May 2006 Archives

Greg's mom called to say there's really been no change today. More as I get it.

For those of you wishing to send cards, please send them to his parent's house at 194 Kenyon Street, Hartford, CT, 06105. I'm guessing he's not allowed any non-family visitors at this point, but will ask the next time I speak to them.

Sorry I don't have more news.

i touched base with eleanor today and they are remaining positive, while trying to stay realistic. greg has been having a rough time but has been holding his own and the family and doctors are happy about that.

the big challenge has been getting his heart into a good sustainable rhythm. they're using cardioversion techniques, including shocking his heart, to get his heart into a normal pattern. the ventricular specialist says that the right side of his heart has enlarged and is causing this to be not as succesful as they had hoped.

he's still on the ECMO to facilitate blood oxygenation, but they're working to reduce his use of it since prolonged use is not ideal. today they did an echocardiogram and reduced some of his meds successfully, but didin't keep the ECMO machine notched down for long since they want to make sure his heart can handle it. even with the ECMO, he's only able to use his lungs to about 30% of their capacity, so they need to get that up.

they are becoming concerned about neurlogical issues, but need to really assess greg when he's not as medicated. he can sometimes follow simple requests, but sometimes is not aware of reality.

he's been stable enough today that they've planned a trip back to CT to take care of some odds and ends and will continue to take shifts at the hospital.

greg's big goal is to get off the ECMO and get his lungs working at a higher capacity so that that they can concentrate on normalizing his heart rhythm without the cardioversion. focus your postive energy and prayers to this goal. the more positive energy people can send the better. do it how ever it works for you... light a candle, say a prayer, take some photos you have of greg and put them somewhere where you can smile at him every day/hour to send your love for him his way.

stay strong greg. you can do it.

Hi all,

Sorry for the silent weekend. I know that can be frustrating. We heard from Eleanor last night via phone message letting us know he is still stable and they're having a family meeting today to discuss next steps. I will keep you posted as soon as we are updated.

Greggles, many many healers and I sent you SO much energy this weekend while I was away. Stay open to the healing we're all sending you!

just got another update from greg's family. he continues to remain stable. the doctors have reduced the sedatives enough that he opens his eyes when his name is called. hopefully they will be able to bring him back steadily and without incident. his family is staying at the hospital in shifts - returning home to get clean clothes and rest, then going back to the hospital to relieve the others. it is taking a lot of energy, but that comes from the love and support from all of us.

another note, i will be joining emily in the woods, so we won't be receiving the updates and posting them until monday night or tuesday. so it's extra important that those who love greg continue to send him healing energy during this time of transition back to the world of sunshine and life!

a quick update: Rebecca called last night and left a message. yesterday was another relatively stable day. that's good - he needs at least one more of those before they will consider weening him from the ECMO. hour by hour he's getting closer to recovery. please keep the good love coming!

today, greg's stability improved. he slept through most of the night and had a quiet day. well, his iPod has joined him via his family, so not *too* quiet. doctors and nurses from 2 hospitals met with the family to lay out the "plan". if greg remains stable for the next couple nights, they will begin to back him off the ECMO machine. this is the next step to getting his body to care entirely for itself. greg's family says that he is receiving excellent and thorough care. they also ask for continued support, love and healing energy to be sent to greg - it makes a difference. emily is away for the week, so bucky (her husband) is managing the blog for now.

Rebecca called tonight to let us know that Greg had a rought time last night and today, but is now stable. They switched Greg from the first ECMO machine to one that can be used for a longer period of time, but the changeover was difficult and they had to work on him through the night. There's not much they know right now, but they're hoping he can stay stable for 24 hours so that they can see if they can take him off the ECMO. They'll know more tomorrow. They're very tired so send out some energy for all of them. 24 hours isn't long, Greg. You can do this.

Greg is literally on the cutting edge of technology as usual. He's been moved to Boston Children's Hospital ICU (where he is the oldest patient) to be hooked up to a state-of-the-art machine called an ECMO (Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxegenation) that oxegenates blood and cycles it through his system. He may be on this system for several days, but the longer he stays on it, more risks build up, so they're watching him very carefully.

In addition to the ECMO specialists at Children's he's got the constant care of excellent doctors and nurses including his pulmonary surgical team from the Brigham. It took 12 doctors and nurses to move him from one ICU to the other... good thing the buildings are connected. To be safe, they currently have him intebated, sedated and physically paralyzed with medication.

They're still not sure why his system is having such trouble, but at this point, they're treating everything they can in hopes to get him fixed up again. This could be a reaction to the blood transfusion, or rejection, or something else... they're just not certain.

Music can be an amazing healer, so Greg's dad went back home this morning to get Greg's iPod, so he can listen while his body is so deeply under. He's in tough shape, so please continue to send your prayers to him and also to his family who are doing as well as they can be in the circumstances.

Hi all... Emily here again. I heard from Eleanor. The surgery went ok, but the recovery has been tough. His system is having trouble equalizing following the proceedure. Before he was intibated this afternoon, he asked that I update his blog to let you all know. Please send him love, light and prayers as his system adjusts. Hang in there Greg! You can do it! :) emily

Gizmodo posts about how you can get custom printed toilet paper. Just $12/per for four rolls (cheaper in volume). What would YOU have printed on yours?

I've kept fairly quite about this for no real good reason, but I'm having surgery on Thursday. I've had issues with acid reflux for years and years now and my lung doctors are concerned that it could cause complications with my new lung as time goes on (there's even some speculation that it could have been a factor in my IPF, but that's for another time). So Thursday I get to go into the hospital and get my esophagus tied off. This will prevent any acid from working its way up from my stomach. Though it isn't tied off tight enough that food can't get down.

They say I'll be in the hospital for four to five days. So my stay won't even be that long. I hope to have my laptop with me to make it all the more bearable. If you want to come visit I'll be posting updates on that too so check here for more information.

I get to eat tonight and then I'm on clear liquids till my surgery. Including having to drink a gallon of stuff to clean me out. I'm oh so thrilled for that. Wish me luck!

I want to see what the Monkey Webcam looks like personally. Perfect for spying on people.

Lovers of cute things (and the Japanese) will snatch up this USB MyPet Webcam that comes in both monkey and puppy models. Supporting up to 640x480 at 15 frames per second, this webcam is perfect for the girlfriend that hates tech.

Readers could also use it to spy on a victim who doesn't know this is a webcam. A very dumb victim.

USB MyPet Webcam cranks the cuteness factor [uber gizmo]

[via Gizmodo]

The WSJ has a short article about how Hollywood still falls short when portraying computer use in movies.

In the 1996 blockbuster "Mission: Impossible," the secret agent played by Tom Cruise uses email to set a trap for one of his adversaries -- a shadowy, Bible-quoting figure he knows only as "Max."

Mr. Cruise's character uses a laptop to compose an email message addressed to "Max@Job 3:14." Once he clicks the "send" button, the email is carried away in an oversized on-screen envelope, complete with postage stamp. In the real world, such a message would set the stage for a bounce-back error message, not an action/adventure thriller. [WSJ.com]

Perfect for stopping little kids in their tracks.

Step away from the limousine, or I'll shoot you with this ... teddy bear? The Teddy Bear Gun capitalizes on a cutesy trend in Japan where wedding guests throw teddy bears at wedding receptions instead of rice or bouquets.

If teddy bear throwing sounds like a lot of work to you, here it's made easy with a simple touch of a button. Pull the trigger and the tiny plush bear is catapulted into the air, and once airborne, it'll float safely back to earth thanks to its tiny parachute. Made by paintball gun manufacturer Sunamiya, the party crackers will go on sale this month.

Gun-shaped teddy bear crackers ready to liven up wedding receptions [Gizmodo]

This morning I woke up to part of Electric Skychurch's Deus Suite playing on Groove Salad. And the sun was shining through the windows just right. Such a nice peaceful way to wake.

Recently around 50 members of Improv Everywhere dressed up in royal blue polo shirts and khakis and infiltrated a Best Buy. Hi-jinx ensue.

The idea for this mission was submitted by a stranger via email. Agent Slavinsky wrote in to suggest I get either a large group of people in blue polo shirts and khakis to enter a Best Buy or a group in red polo shirts and khakis to enter a Target. Wearing clothing almost identical to the store's uniform, the agents would not claim to work at the store but would be friendly and helpful if anyone had a question.

This has been a crazy season for new anime. There are so many new shows out there (as I mentioned in an earlier post). Now, after a few weeks, the real winners are starting to make themselves clear. Two in particular that stand out to me are Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsu and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. I'll post more about Haruhi later, since I just got done watching and episode of Higurashi and it is more fresh in my head.

I'm only three episodes in (and about to watch a fourth) and this show has completely sucked me in. Keiichi has recently moved to a small town and started school. At this point the show was seeming a little silly, lots of typical school hi-jinx. After school Keiichi goes off with one of his school friends, Rena, and she shows him a junkyard where she goes to collect things. She runs off to explore and he waits for her. While waiting he runs into a photographer who tells him about a murder that took place right around there a few years ago.

The most striking thing about the show is how it shifts gears. One moment things seem all happy and cute, only to turn around and become quite dark and ominous. Keiichi begins to think someone is out to get him, and I've started to wonder who to trust in all this. Currently Keiichi looks like he's about to snap. I hope he gets some answers soon.

This show also ended up surprising me a lot. For the first fifteen minutes or so I wasn't that impressed. It felt kind of mindless and cutesy. Something which changed just enough by the end of the episode to pull me back to watch the second. And it is going to be a 26 episode series, which means we're still only barely scratching the surface of the story. Here's hoping the rest of the ride is as interesting as the first bit.

(Cross-posted to the anime blog)