Degenerative Disc Disease

This image is mine taken the first week of January. Looks like I have put off having this surgery long enough.

I started having symptoms again in December. I would have episodes where I would have allot of intense numbness in my left arm. A couple of years ago I had somewhat similar symptoms on my right. The symptoms this time come and go whether I am sitting or standing. Putting it off any longer could mean that I lose motor function in the arm. My physical therapist says that I have more weakness in my right arm when compared to the left so although I have not had any problems with the right in the past 1.5 years or so, damage was still being done.

I have two more days of therapy and then I see my Neurosurgeon again on 2/16 and will tell him to go ahead and schedule the surgery.

What he said he will do is most likely go in from the back of the neck and fuse three vertebrae (I think C4-6) with a plate. That should alleviate some of the compression that you can see from the photo, but may take months to get results.

On another note. I had my one year follow up for my left knee replacement....all is looking great there.

I am starting to think I should have signed up for some kind of surgical rewards program.

Upward Basketball Luke 11:12

Yup, I did say Luke 11:12.

Jesus said to them, When you pray, say: "Father, we paray that your name will always be kept holy. We pray that your kingdom will come."

Zachary started the local Upward Basketball program last Wednesday. Zack has done two seasons of baseball and soccer and this is something new for him. I have to say I like the organization of it and the church is where they have the practice and the games is aboslutely cavernous.

A few weeks ago they had the evaluation for the program where they graded each of the players on four different basketball functions. All the scores are uploaded into a program and each team is given a couple players in each developement level. At game time each player will have a colored wristband and plays against a player on the opposing team with the same colored wristband or skill level.

They are given a little card with a verse on it for them to memorize prior to the next week. If they memorize it for the next practice or game the following week they get an iron on star to go on their basketball jersey.

We havve one more practice on Wednesday and then his first game is Saturday. They also have blow up tunnels to come out of for the games and there are lights and strobes....should be pretty interesting site to see when he has his games.

Barack Obama's Connection To President Abraham Lincoln

Direct Link To My .pdf File of Barack Obama's Genealogical Connection To President Abraham Lincoln.

When the presidential primaries started and Barack Obama won in Iowa I felt that we had finally grown as a country. I shared my feelings with my wife Shelly and she quickly reminded me we as a country took just as much of a step forward with Hillary.

It is of great importance that Barack Obama came to us at a time in our history when we needed him the most.

Since I have been working on my genealogy for well over one year now I have come across many interesting and noteworthy people that we are connected to. I even put some of it in a small book to give to my immediate family for Christmas. One of those people is Dick Cheney which I discovered some time ago. Another interesting and noteworthy person is President Abraham Lincoln.

I have one line on each side of my family, Fisk(e) from my father and Bigelow from my mother's side that can be traced back to the early Massachusetts settlements. This is where I came up with the name of my family history site Fiske-Bigelow If two families can be traced back to those early settlements then it is not surprising to find that they intermarried.

It was a little interesting when at some point during the presidential campaigns that it was discovered that Barack Obama was a cousin of Dick Cheney. If I have a connection to Dick Cheney and Barack Obama has a connection to Dick Cheney then not only would I have a connection to Barack Obama....

By the way, my son Zachary just loves the idea he's related.

but through my family line somewhere would Barack Obama have a connection to President Abraham Lincoln.

I thought it was fitting that today on CNN there was a spot on the similarities between Barack Obama and President Lincoln...the man for hope, for change, etc so I thought today was as good as any other to get my site up with that information.

The Fiske-Bigelow site is set up where the photos and stories are separate from the main pages and consequently the family links within the photo pages are not accurate and photos/stories are not located in the main pages.

One is updated frequently whereas the other is not.

The file that shows how Barack Obama is connected to Abraham Lincoln can be found within http://www.fiske-bigelow.com/Photos.htm then viewing either page for President Lincoln or Barack Obama.

Or, you can Go There Directly

Back To Normal

This photo was taken from the stairway that goes up to our master bedroom on the 2nd floor.

Christmas vacation is over and school started back up today. it's been a busy couple of weeks for all of us. Tuesday we had Shelly's parents come up from NY and we also had Shelly's sister and her fiance come up from NC and her brother and his family come up from Georgia.

We had an extra 9 people in the house at one point, all together 4 families....wow. It's slowly getting back to normal. I think I did 5 loads of laundry the day after everyone left...lol. It was nice to have mostly everyone from that side of the family together. We plan on heading south for Easter.