Category: It Happened to Me

The 2004 Bloggies site

is really hard to access at the moment, and I suspect that’s because

everyone’s hitting it to see who the nominees are. It took a half-dozen

tries, but I finally managed to get through.

I was just angling for “Best Canadian Weblog”, and was a little

disappointed to find that this blog wasn’t one of the nominees. I

shrugged my shoulders and continued down the list of categories,

reaching “Weblog of the Year” at the end. I almost scrolled right past

it when I saw this sliver of a graphic:

I’d been aiming for “Canadian” and you guys ended up nominating me for

the big hell killer Kahuna category. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

For those of you who’ve just come here from the Bloggies site, welcome!

Please note that I switched blogging tools (and URLs) back in July —

entries earlier than July 2003, dating back to November 2001, can be

found at my old blog at http://kode-fu.com/shame.

Now that the nominations have been announced. it’s now time for voting.

Voting is done by you, the weblog-reading public at large. All the

nominees are listed on the Bloggies page. Just so you know, the

nominees for “Weblog of the Year” are:

• BoingBoing: The uber-blog! The blog that got me into blogging, and co-edited by my friend and former boss and co-worker, Cory Doctorow.
• Tenth-Muse.com: A very nice personal blog by Joelle.
• John Howard: Prime Minister: A funny political site that purports to be the blog of Australia’s prime minister.
• Dooce: Heather Armstrong’s blog. She’s got some pretty astounding stories.
• Weblog Wannabe: Firda Beka’s blog

and lastly:

• The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century: Some fool with an accordion who gets into all kinds of trouble. Who does he think he’s trying to fool?

Voting is open right now at the Bloggies page and runs until 10:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5) on Saturday, January 31st (which happens to be the day I was thinking of throwing another GTABloggers party — more about that later).

Some of my esteemed competition have decided to adopt a “business as

usual” stance — no campaigning, no “vote for me” pleas, no

out-of-the-ordinary posting.

Rest assured, I will not take this route. I’m going to go all-singing,

all dancing, threatening-your-productivity blog wild, because I want to

win, and I want to do it by earning your vote. From now until the 31st,

it’s Bloggie Sweeps Fortnight here at The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century!

Keep watching this blog for all sorts of interesting stuff.

I haven’t captioned all the photos from the Ashley and Turner Wedding Extravaganza, but here they are:

• Canmore Scenery
• The Pre-Wedding Party
• The Wedding and Reception
• On Standby at the Airport

I also have photos from a recent rehearsal session of the band I just joined, stilllife.

Maria, who works the front desk, keeps a stash of aspirin, acetaminophen and ibuprofen for anyone who needs it. My head feels better already.

As I mentioned earlier, Dad is the recipient of a kidney from his

sister, my Aunt Beth. The problem with donated organs is that while by

necessity are a close match to your body, they don’t have your unique

genetic code. This would normally cause your immune system to attack it

since it’s a foreign object, and attacking foreign objects is an immune

system’s job. Hence, organ recipients must take drugs that suppress the

immune system, which is done by preventing the reproduction of white

blood cells. As you might conclude, the price paid for  being able

to keep the organ is that you now open the door to all kinds of

infections that you’d normally shrug off.

(Bacteria are everywhere, especially in supposedly benign places like shopping carts and computer keyboards.)

I knew that the infection that Dad contracted in his toe was the result

of having his immune system suppressed. Dr. Sivaciyan, a friend of the

family explained to me what I didn’t know: the blood clot that formed

in Dad’s leg was a byproduct of the infection. Dad was taking

anti-clotting medicine, so it would take something unusual to cause a

clot. The blood clot cut off the blood supply to the kidney, causing it

to go into shock.

Simply put, the measures taken to keep the kidney also put it out of commission. Talk about your vicious cycles.

We’d originally hoped that the removal of a couple of Dad’s toes would

be sufficient to rid him of the infection, but the spread was greater

than we’d realized. A more radical amputation was necessary, so earlier

this week, he’d undergone what they call a BKA — a below-knee amputation.

I can only imagine what Dad’s going through right now. He’s

disappointed that his kidney may no longer work after the major

production of getting the transplant barely two years ago, and losing a

chunk of leg can only compound that heartbreak. Still, as my sister

likes to put it, Dad’s a “tough old war horse”, and if anyone can pull

through a situation like this, it is he.

The good news is that the infection seems to be completely gone. Now we

have to see if that kidney restarts. Once again, the immune-suppressing

drugs are both blessing and curse. They slow the rate of reproduction

of immune cells, but they also slow the rate of reproduction of kidney

cells. The kidney may rebound, but slowly.

In the meantime, I’m doing what I can, which is visiting him as often as possible (the Second Cup

coffee shop in the hospital knows what to make me as soon as I step

into without having to ask). All we can do is wait and see what happens.

I’ve posted the first set of photos from the trip to Canmore I recently took with The Redhead. Here’s a sample:

The rest of the photos are in my Canmore photo album.