Another Lump bites the dust . . .

As some of you know from previous blog posts here, I am battling an illness called "Valley Fever".  I have had it since 2006 and it has been a real pain.  I have just had another lump taken out of my arm, just below the last one.  They are leaving the wound open, as they did with the last one, to let it heal from the inside out.  So I have a big ball of gauze shoved into the spot in my arm where they cut the lump out.  Luckily my wife is not squeamish, because the gauze has to be pulled out and repacked daily. . .pretty disgusting!

So here is a pic . . .note the previouse scar above.

I know it could be a lot worse, but I am definitely ready to be done with this.  My prognosis is good, but it will probably be another year on high doses of medicine.  I will post some more pics later and keep you posted on my progress.

Tractor Porn

You know you think my tractors are sexy!

I was driving around yesterday and thought I would share some of what is going here right now. . . and this is the time we consider to be slow!

Deep Ripping

One pass tillage

90' spray boom

Corn harvest

Final product

Tomatoes - these are where your paste, ketchup, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, etc come from.

25 tons of tomatoes

Melon harvest - back breaking work

Mobile packing

Holy Hotness Batman!

Maxim got it right:  Marissa Miller is "the hottest woman in the world" in 2008 - hell in any year!

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355663,00.html

What say you? 

The nightmare continues. . .

Probably none of you want to hear about my medical issues, but I need a place to get some of this out and this is going to be it. 

So I stopped . . .

March 2008: a lump in my arm starts growing and is painful. Finally it needs to be cut open to relieve the pressure and remove the infection. Pus and fluid come out and some is taken to be cultured. A "filamentous fungus" is found in the culture. I don't have a positive id yet, but odds are very high that it is Valley Fever . . .what the hell else could it be?  So the doctor closes the gaping hole in my arm and doesn't put in a drain.  A couple of days later it is swollen again and yesterday they slice me open again.  This time they just pack the big hole in my arm with gauze and send me home.  Here is the G rated pic, scroll down if you want the real deal.

So back on the Fluconazole (antifungal medicine) and in to more tests. This medicine is nasty on the liver and I will have to be on it for a year and guess what else?  NO DRINKING while on the meds!!!  No drinks for a year!  Woohoo! 

The Doctors are not calling me back and I feel like shit. The old tightness in my neck and paleness in my face has returned. I can't believe this is happening. Three little boys and a wife who is organizing an auction (that is this weekend)  for the boys' school . . .the timing of this sucks big time.

New Toy

I thought I would show you all what my new (part time) office looks like.  In a couple of months I will be in this thing for 12-14 hours a day.  This is a brand new John Deere 4720 sprayer with a 90' boom.  It will have a gps guidance system that will drive it in a straight line with no help from me.  You take your hands off the wheel and it does the rest.  This thing will cover several hundred acres per day.  Probably not so interesting for the rest of you, but this is "cool stuff" for us farmers.  Sort of has a mech/transformer vibe to it?