Essential stuff for fans of Lee Jackson

[leejacksonaudio]

Shameless plug time:

 

The brass library I've got has just received an update. Aaron Venture's Infinite Brass is now at version 1.6. It's a pretty sweet library. Check out the link for details and a "what's new" summary.

[Murdoch]

Looks like you have been dealt a shitty health hand Lee. My sympathies, for what little that may be worth.

[leejacksonaudio]

I've got a new release up on Bandcamp! "Ant Farm Melee" was one of my contributions to the Ultimate MIDI Pack project here on Doomworld. I've made a 96 KHz / 24-bit recording of the MIDI file through my Roland SC-88Pro and posted it to my Bandcamp page. You can read all about it on my latest blog post!

[leejacksonaudio]

Here we go again. I've been admitted to the hospital for complications from my big toe surgery.

 

I had the stitches taken out on Friday. At that time, my toe and left leg above and below the gauze wrapping looked extremely swollen, like a tourniquet had been wrapped around the middle part (the technical term is "pitting edema"). However, that was all that was wrong - there were no signs of infection. The podiatrist sent me home with instructions to wear a compression stocking starting Saturday (yesterday) and to elevate the foot.

 

My wife put the compression stocking on my left leg yesterday morning. I wore it up until about 2pm, at which point I was in the middle of a nap when a sudden wave of pain woke me up. My toe was being hit by throbbing, stinging pains. I took off the compression stocking and saw that my toe was red and swollen, and when I pressed on it, it stayed red - signs of an infection. To make a long story short (too late), I was told by a doctor on call to go to an emergency room. I went to the one for the hospital where I had the surgery in the first place.

 

Once there, the doctor quickly verified the infection, and furthermore determined that it was running up my left leg. (Since that time, my left hand has started to swell, as have my lymph glands under my jaw.) She admitted me to the hospital and began giving me IV antibiotics, four different ones in all. Right now, I'm on dilaudid for the pain in my toe and leg, which makes typing this up rather difficult.

 

I sure could use a boost, but instead of sending flowers, I'd appreciate it if you'd plonk down the dollar for a copy of "Ant Farm Melee" over at my Bandcamp page (see above post for the link). That'd do me more good than flowers could ever do.

 

My wife has told me we need to stop getting toe surgeries done. I agree with her, but what can I do to stop them...?

[roadworx]

10 minutes ago, leejacksonaudio said:

My wife has told me we need to stop getting toe surgeries done. I agree with her, but what can I do to stop them...?

saw your foot off, badabing badaboom there ya go

 

srsly tho, i wish you the best of luck with this. i'd donate if my debit card wasn't currently frozen ):

[Murdoch]

13 hours ago, leejacksonaudio said:

I sure could use a boost, but instead of sending flowers, I'd appreciate it if you'd plonk down the dollar for a copy of "Ant Farm Melee" over at my Bandcamp page (see above post for the link). That'd do me more good than flowers could ever do.

 

Done. Good track, suits Doom well while bringing in your signature flair.

 

Good luck Lee. Feels like there's an underlying trigger here they are missing. Seems strange you would keep having so many similar things happen with no root cause behind it all. Frustrating to hear about and I am sure approximately 7.2 billion times more frustrating to experience.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Murdoch

[leejacksonaudio]

4 hours ago, Murdoch said:

 

Done. Good track, suits Doom well while bringing in your signature flair.

 

Good luck Lee. Feels like there's an underlying trigger here they are missing. Seems strange you would keep having so many similar things happen with no root cause behind it all. Frustrating to hear about and I am sure approximately 7.2 billion times more frustrating to experience.

Thanks! Glad you liked the track, and I appreciate you buying a copy.

 

My podiatrist's partner doctor is coming in to see me later today (my podiatrist has been out of town on vacation - they just now got hold of him - must be some vacation!). He'll determine whether or not I need surgery on the infected toe. If I do, that means a longer stay in the hospital.

 

One other problem has reared its ugly head. My blood tests are coming back showing I'm anemic with an iron deficiency. Not a good thing to be with a raging infection going on. The on-call doctor just came by, and we discussed this. She's going to look into the matter and do something about it.

[leejacksonaudio]

Hospital Update Monday 7/12/2021:

 

I've finally seen my podiatrist's partner doctor, and he described my toe as "very angry." To make a long story short, he's going to run a white blood cell scan on me. He said that's where they take some of my white blood cells, "tag" them (I'm guessing radioactively), and then inject them back into me and trace where they go. If they concentrate around my toe, then there's a strong possibility that I might have a bone infection, which would mean they'd have to remove the screw they implanted to fix my hammertoe and try to get the thing to heal naturally. On the other hand, if the white blood cells *don't* concentrate around my toe, then it would mean I just have something called "cellulitis," or a soft tissue infection, which they'd treat just as they're treating it now.

 

In either case, they're going to have to scan me with some sort of equipment to see where the tagged white blood cells go. That'll have to be done over the course of a couple of days, so that means I'm not leaving the hospital any time soon.

 

In other news, somewhat related to the above, I'm going to have something called a PICC line inserted into my left arm tomorrow morning. That's a larger version of an IV line that stays in your arm for a longer period of time and allows the doctors/nurses/techs to draw blood as well as give fluids and medicines from the same site. It hurts like hell going in, but in general it's slightly more comfortable than an IV once it's inserted, plus there's the added benefit that you don't have to get poked every time someone wants to draw blood from you. It's more or less worth it, especially over a long period of time.

 

Speaking of blood, I've got an iron deficiency in addition to the anemia that I reported in my last post. We don't know why I'm anemic, but it sure explains why I've been so tired lately (aside from the infection). My wife has been cleared to bring up my multivitamin-plus-iron supplement from home so I can take it while I'm hospitalized, but that alone isn't going to fix the anemia or the deficiency. The podiatrist partner, who is taking point on my treatment now, says he may call in another doctor to take care of this problem. We shall see.

 

Sorry for the long update, but it's been a very busy couple of days. I'll have more info for you as I get it. Also, thanks to everyone who has bought a copy of "Ant Farm Melee" so far - you've really helped keep my spirits up!

[Cruduxy Pegg]

Hope you get much better soon. 

[leejacksonaudio]

1 hour ago, Pegg said:

Hope you get much better soon. 

Thank you. I'm trying. I'll have another update this afternoon, or as soon as I get the results of the white blood cell test.

[continuum.mid]

Has this been posted before? Someone on YouTube who is clearly a massive fan made a playlist of every Lee Jackson track. Even uploaded the Ultimate Doom and TNT MIDIs themselves, seemingly as soon as they were made public.

 

 

Edited July 15, 2021 by northivanastan

[leejacksonaudio]

2 hours ago, northivanastan said:

Has this been posted before? Someone on YouTube who is clearly a massive fan made a playlist of every Lee Jackson track. Even uploaded the Ultimate Doom and TNT MIDIs themselves, seemingly as soon as they were made public.

Ah, yes - Samuel Schultz. He is indeed a follower, and a devoted one at that, or so it would seem. Samuel, if you're reading this, thanks for the help!

[leejacksonaudio]

Hospital Update Wednesday 7/15/2021:

 

Finally, what appears to be some good news. My white blood cell scan looks like it has come back negative. I say "looks like" because I haven't officially been told this by a doctor yet; I've read it from the test results page of the hospital's Patient Portal website. If I'm correct, it means I won't have to have my big toe's hardware removed. I also think that it means I'll be on antibiotics a shorter length of time. The latter I won't be absolutely sure of until the doctors fill me in on the result.

 

My toe isn't as flamingly angry-looking as it has been, however, it still hurts quite badly. Add to that the fact that I've apparently popped my right shoulder while maneuvering in bed, and you get the result that I'm still in enough pain to warrant the use of Dilaudid. The net sum is a paragraph loaded with no fun.

 

On the anemia front, the doctors ran another round of blood tests yesterday. According to them, I'm still anemic. They did *not* test me for iron, though. I still don't know what, if anything, they're going to do to me for this.

 

Through all of it, my wife has been a saint. She's put up with my pains and infection without a gripe, other than to say she's bored (hell, *I'd* get bored sitting next to me all day, too!). She's brought me treats to keep my spirits up, has beaten the utter crap out of me at the card game of Gin, and has become the world land speed record holder at moving my behemoth of a laptop off of my patient table and back again. I love her.

 

Update 3:00 p.m.:

 

I've now officially been told that I don't have a bone infection in my big toe. This is good news, since it means I only have to be on antibiotics for two weeks instead of six. It also puts me one day closer to discharge: the earliest I'll go home is tomorrow (Friday), but it's more likely that I'll be going home on Saturday.

 

My shoulder still hurts. I've been told that I damaged some tendons in there somehow. I'm supposed to go to a shoulder orthopedist when I get home and have a steroid injection done.

 

The doctors have switched one of my antibiotics to a narrower spectrum type. They've also ordered an iron infusion for me this afternoon to combat my iron deficiency and anemia. One downside to all the prescription progress: they've cut back on my Dilaudid dose in an effort to get me ready to go home. Feh. I'm just going to have to live with a little more pain for a few days, that's all.
 

[deus-ex]

4 hours ago, leejacksonaudio said:

My toe isn't as flamingly angry-looking as it has been, however, it still hurts quite badly.

 

Maybe put your feet straight together? There's a saying that "Toegether we can make it." :)

 

Get well soon, and give your lovely, caring wife a kiss.

Edited July 16, 2021 by deus-ex

[Lunick]

12 hours ago, northivanastan said:

Has this been posted before? Someone on YouTube who is clearly a massive fan made a playlist of every Lee Jackson track. Even uploaded the Ultimate Doom and TNT MIDIs themselves, seemingly as soon as they were made public.

 

Yeah I love Lee's work! I don't post here but I generally keep an eye on cool works and ever since Lee has been participating in the Doom community I've had my eyes glued to threads.

 

10 hours ago, leejacksonaudio said:

Ah, yes - Samuel Schultz. He is indeed a follower, and a devoted one at that, or so it would seem. Samuel, if you're reading this, thanks for the help!

 

:)

 

Edited July 16, 2021 by Lunick

[Gez]

15 hours ago, northivanastan said:

Has this been posted before? Someone on YouTube who is clearly a massive fan made a playlist of every Lee Jackson track. Even uploaded the Ultimate Doom and TNT MIDIs themselves, seemingly as soon as they were made public. 

The end of the playlist even features unfinished/unreleased/rejected songs. Would be pretty cool to have those MIDIs availables; while the differences in Stalker are pretty subtle, those early versions of Plasma, Gotham, and 233.778 Celsius are nearly completely different. Also the MIDI of Stalker XG version was apparently shared on Discord but now only an MP3 is available.

[Biodegradable]

13 hours ago, leejacksonaudio said:

I'm just going to have to live with a little more pain for a few days, that's all.

 

Hang in there, Lee old chap. Really hoping you come out of this in better condition with much less pain and much more answers and manageable treatment for your ailments. Keep that spirit up!

Edited July 16, 2021 by Biodegradable

[Murdoch]

9 minutes ago, Biodegradable said:

 

Hang in there, Lee old chap. Really hoping you come out of this in better condition with much less pain and much more answers and manageable treatment for your ailments. Keep that spirit up!

 

Well said brother. My thoughts and hopes exactly. 

[leejacksonaudio]

I AM HOME!

 

I've still got to go through another 10 days' worth of antibiotics for my toe, but that's going to be handled AT HOME, not in a hospital.

 

As I said on Facebook, I want to thank EVERYONE who bought copies of "Ant Farm Melee," who sent messages of support, who thanked my wife, and even those who just clicked on a like for one of my posts. You kept me going throughout the hospital stay when things got rough. Thank you!!!

 

Further toe and shoulder updates will take place on the blog on my website.

[Kyka]

@leejacksonaudio Wishing you a speedy recovery and good health. Rest well and get back in the game soon. Thanks for all the music. :)

[deus-ex]

@leejacksonaudio 

 

5 minutes ago, bLOCKbOYgAMES said:

Thanks for all the music. :)

 

So I say thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing.
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing.
Who can live without it? I ask in all honesty,
what would life be?
Without a song or a dance, what are we?
So I say thank you for the music, for giving it to me. :)

[leejacksonaudio]

Damn it, I'm back in the hospital again.

My toe started swelling up again over the weekend, so I went back to elevating it. This seemed to keep the swelling in check until Monday night, when I got hit by some severe pain - 8 on a 1-to-10 scale. My wife took my sock off to examine my toe and found that it was red, swollen even worse, and angry looking as all hell. That was enough. It was time to go back to the Emergency Room.

The sad thing about all of this is that my tests are all coming back negative or normal. My podiatrist stopped by to talk to me today and told me that cellulitis, or infection of the soft tissues (which I have) is notorious for being painful, so that is probably the only thing that could explain the pain.

In any case, right now I'm back on Dilaudid for pain. I'm on vancomycin and Rocephin for the infection, although they've had to lower my vancomycin dose since my serum level got too high. I have no idea how long I'm going to be back here, since it all boils down to how long I'll need major pain management.

[Murdoch]

There has to be an infection somewhere. Something no one is spotting that's having this unintended side effect. My Dad had something similar a couple of years ago, a lot of severe pain no one could figure out until his old GP was back in town. Took one look at him, massaged something and popped it back into place and volia.

[Kyka]

Get well soon Lee. Wishing you every health and healing. And like Murdoch said, hope you get it sorted really quickly. As do you I am sure.

[leejacksonaudio]

12 hours ago, Murdoch said:

There has to be an infection somewhere. Something no one is spotting that's having this unintended side effect.

I just spoke with a doctor who ordered blood work to look for hidden infections. The tests came back negative.

 

My podiatrist told me last night that "cellulitis," or infection of the soft tissue (which has already been confirmed) is notoriously painful, so that's probably what's at the root of the problem. The doctor I spoke to this morning is going to adjust my regular pain medicine in an attempt to control said pain.

[deus-ex]

19 hours ago, Murdoch said:

There has to be an infection somewhere. Something no one is spotting that's having this unintended side effect. My Dad had something similar a couple of years ago, a lot of severe pain no one could figure out until his old GP was back in town. Took one look at him, massaged something and popped it back into place and volia.

 

You don't massage away infection and you can't pop something in to cure it either. I guess your dad wasn't affected by an infection back then? Probably it was an inflammation?

[leejacksonaudio]

Quick update: my infectious disease doctor has swapped the Rocephin out for a different antibiotic called Cefepime. From what I understand, it's a broader-spectrum antibiotic, and it's one that has to be taken more often than once a day, unlike Rocephin. I'm also going to have to be on both antibiotics (Cefepime and vancomycin) for two weeks longer than originally planned. For these reasons, it's looking like I may have to go to a skilled nursing facility whenever I'm discharged instead of going to my home. This does not make me a happy camper, but it will be the only way that I can receive high-level pain relief (can't receive Dilaudid at home).

Edited July 21, 2021 by leejacksonaudio

[Murdoch]

22 minutes ago, deus-ex said:

 

You don't massage away infection and you can't pop something in to cure it either. I guess your dad wasn't affected by an infection back then? Probably it was an inflammation?

 

I was just using that as an example of something where it took just the right person to see the thing everyone missed and solve the problem. 

[Murdoch]

51 minutes ago, leejacksonaudio said:

or these reasons, it's looking like I may have to go to a skilled nursing facility whenever I'm discharged instead of going to my home.

 

That sucks :(

[leejacksonaudio]

Further update: I just saw my podiatrist/surgeon a few minutes ago. He took a fresh look at my toe. It looked redder than it was yesterday. My left leg was also warmer than it was yesterday. He went ahead and wrapped my foot and leg in a couple of ACE bandages to apply compression in an attempt to press the excess fluids out of the affected areas. I also talked to him about the screwball adjustments that the hospital's doctor made to my Dilaudid (decreased from every 4 hours to every 6 hours (???)). He said he was going to discuss both the frequency and the dosage (.5 milligram) with the doctor to see about adjusting them.

 

Today has been rough. I've had to wait as long as 3 hours to get a Dilaudid shot from the time I pushed the nurse call button. It's taken me as much as an hour and a half just to get some ice water. The kitchen staff haven't managed to get a single meal 90% right. I'm going to have the same nurse tomorrow, so I can only hope that she does a better job then than she did today.

 

EDIT: One of the worst things about this hospitalization has been all of the needle jabs. I've been getting twice-daily injections of Lovenox, which is a blood thinner designed to prevent blood clots in people who are bedridden (like me - I'm not 100% stuck in bed, but I'm supposed to elevate my foot/legs as much as possible, which means "stay in bed"). It has to be injected into the stomach area - a very painful ordeal on two accounts. First, the stomach area has lots of stray nerves, which makes it easy for the nurse to hit one with the needle. Second, the Lovenox itself stings like a motherfarker for at least ten minutes after injection. Most uncomfortable.

 

By far, though, the worst needle jabs took place Tuesday morning, when the blood draw nurse came to pull samples for testing. Due to the placement of my PICC line and an IV line on my right arm, she had no choice but to look toward my hand for a vein. Problem was, I was dehydrated after a long night with very little water intake. She tried to jab a very thin vein, with no success - level 9.5 pain for at least 2 minutes. She then moved on to my right wrist, where she found another small vein in the area where you'd cut yourself if you were trying to commit suicide. Ohmydearlord. She made me scream. Level 10 pain for what seemed like an eternity. I actually cussed her out - served her right, she had NO bedside manner. I had bruises on both spots where she poked me, and residual pain that lasted until lunchtime. Thank the maker that they were able to pull out the IV from my right arm so she could use the crook of my right elbow to draw blood today.

 

I can certainly do without the needles, thankyouverymuch.

Edited July 22, 2021 by leejacksonaudio