the Prismatic Dragon
a personal journal

making progress…

Thursday, April 15, 2004
I got another update from my parents about my brother...

He is starting to become aware of things. The nurses will ask him to do things (move his finger, etc), and he responds by doing what they ask.

Sometime last night my dad was talking to him, and my brother opened his eyes & mumbled. That was the first time he'd done that since he's been in the hospital.

So he's making progress, which is good. Now we just wait and see just how much damage his brain suffered in the injury.
Posted by Niki on 04/15 at 12:17 PM
Family • (2) CommentsPermalink

They’ve finally used the word…

...coma**.

Even though he thrashes, tries to sit up and opens his eyes, because he is not aware of his surroundings and does not acknowledge them when my family tries to talk to him, he is technically in a coma.

They also finally admitted to my family that there was a fracture at the base of his skull.

Way to withold information, you bunch of prats.

There is talk of moving him out of the ICU and into a normal room in a few days, or even to a rehabilitation facility so they can do physical therapy to keep his muscles from atrophying, since they can do the same monitoring of his vital stats there as well...
Posted by Niki on 04/15 at 02:22 AM
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my brother

Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Just a quick update...
They took the breathing tube out yesterday. He's breathing on his own, if somewhat labored. The CAT scan from yesterday showed no additional bleeding, and no brain swelling.

They're easing up on the sedating & pain meds to try to get him to wake up, to see if they can find out how much of anything he remembers. He's still not truly "aware", although mom said she's been able to calm him when he gets agitated*, so apparently he's at least recognizing her voice.

*(which is rather ironic considering the two of them butt heads A LOT, and sometimes viciously)

The hospital staff say there's a possibility of a personality change (we're hoping for a good personality change if that's the case), memory loss (his injury was to the frontal lobe), and potentially even the loss of remembering how to do mundane things like walking... although they're not too worried about the latter since he does thrash his arms & legs when he gets agitated, so on some level he still remembers how to move his limbs.

For now it's a waiting game.
Posted by Niki on 04/13 at 12:34 AM
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Eee-oooo-Eeee-oooo-Eeee-oooo!

Sunday, April 11, 2004
I got to spend about 3.5 hours at the hospital tonight.

My youngest brother rolled my other brother's pickup. Less than 1/4 mile from my parents' house in Chino Valley... He had just left the house, to go get something to eat.
Posted by Niki on 04/11 at 09:12 AM
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Custody battle, nearly overwith

Thursday, November 20, 2003
Well, my brother has custody of his daughter now. I am not sure if it is full custody or not (her mother is still allowed to call her to talk, supervised by my brother), but at least she is home.

However, her brother is still in foster care in Iowa. Apparently because my brother isn't "foster parent" qualified, he cannot take custody of his daughter's brother, because he is not his blood relative. The only good thing about him staying in foster care is it means he's not being given back to his mother. And the foster mother is a decent woman, and the boy has improved many times over since being given to her care.

Eventually I hope that maybe my brother can get custody of his daughter's brother as well, as he is technically the only father that boy has known his entire life. His own blood father relinquished all parental rights before he was even born. (his mother is a manipulative bitch who was purposely getting pregnant by miltary men to "trap" them... the other guy washed his hands of her completely, but my brother fell for her ploy, hook, line and sinker... she ended up running up all sorts of credit cards in his name, ran him $50K in debt in a matter of weeks...)

But anyway, it's good to know he at least got his daughter. She's certainly much happier for it.
Posted by Niki on 11/20 at 07:48 PM
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back from the road trip

Sunday, September 28, 2003
Got back at around 8:30p. The Sony is all settled in at its new home. We took a copy of Trophy Hunter 2003 in case my dad's old version (the very first one, I believe), won't run on the new system. He asked if his Jack Nickolaus(sp?) golf game would work on the new computer.. I told him I wasn't sure, since it is also an older game, and sometimes older software just won't run on the new OS (winXP).

So, if it won't run, and he doesn't get himself a new copy before Christmas, that is something I will probably put on my list to buy for him as a gift.
Posted by Niki on 09/28 at 11:50 PM
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Road trip

Saturday, September 27, 2003
A mini-one, anyway.

We're taking one of our extra computers that we're selling to my parents, up to their house in Prescott to set it up for them. Their current one is around five years old I think. They've been wanting to upgrade but haven't had the money to shell out for one up front, nor do they have the credit (not anymore) to buy one on a charge card, so we're going to let them pay $50 a month (or more if they can afford to pay more) until it's paid off. I think we agreed upon $800 total.

For a P4 1.8GHz with 512MB of RAM, I think that's not too shabby a deal. It's a Sony, not some cheap PoS HP or Compaq, and we're asking about half for what we originally paid for it. I think it's been about two years since we bought it.

I was just looking at some of Sony's newer computers, and frankly, the only things one of their newer ones has over this one is the processor speed, and the fact that the new one has USB2.0 instead of the first version. Big whoop. Oh, and maybe the hard drive space. I am looking at Sony's VAIO Digital Studio RS400C, the second set up that costs $1013.99, base, before any customization.

- The new Sony has a P4 2.66GHz processor. Ours has a P4 1.8.
- The new Sony has 512MB of RAM. So does ours.
- The new Sony has 120GB hard drive. I think ours has an 80 or 100GB drive.
- The new Sony has a DVD+RW drive, and no other CD drive. Ours has DVD+RW and a CD-ROM drive.
- The new Sony comes with WinXP Home. So does ours.
- The new Sony comes with MSWorks 7.0. I'm not sure about ours, but it might. I never really installed many things off of the software disc.
- The new Sony comes with different digital media software titles. I believe ours did too, but I doubt my parents will use all of that functionality. And if they do, I can probably locate at least some of the software.
- The new Sony has some silly integrated graphics card. Ours has a GeForce Ti 4600. We bought that separately, but even the card the PC came with was not integrated, and was probably better than what the new Sony has.
- The new Sony has i.Link (firewire) and USB 2.0. Ours has i.Link and USB1.0.
- The new Sony does NOT include a multimedia slot (memory stick reader). Ours DOES. Not that my parents would probably use it. They don't own any Sony cameras.

But anyway, for $200 more, the new Sony has fewer options than ours, and a faster processor. Compared to what my parents currently have (an AMD K6-2 or something like that, compares to a P2 400 I think), ours will be lightning fast to them, so what's a measely .86MHz of speed? And without internet, they would be hard pressed to even fill up their current 15GB hard drive, so I think an 80GB will do them just fine. And two CD drives are always better than one. And if they ever decide to buy a Sony camera, well, the memory stick reader is already built right in, so they won't have to shell out $50 or more on an external reader.

So frankly, I think they're getting a better deal buying our computer. To get something that is truely comparable to ours (at least with a Sony.. I think I'd have to advise them to stay away from HP/Compaq, and probably Dell, too), they'd have to spend almost $1600 (that is without a monitor, of course, but our Sony is going to them without one, too, since they already have a monitor).

Sure, one can get an HP/Compaq or Dell for about the same price they're paying for our Sony, but I've heard horror stories about the customer service from Dell and HP/Compaq. My parents' current computer is a Compaq, and I don't know about them, but I've always thought (even when it was new), that that thing was a piece of shit. They bought it because it was a package deal, they got the computer, a monitor, a scanner, and a printer all for less than $1K, I believe.

Personally I prefer Sony's computers, although the Alienware I currently have is pretty decent too. Hopefully the Sony won't give them any grief, it was a pretty good little trooper for me.
Posted by Niki on 09/27 at 11:02 PM
Family • (1) CommentsPermalink

packratitis

Saturday, September 06, 2003
I'm a pack-rat (<objects.stuff they'd hung on to over the years that some of it filled a room that had to be at least 300 square feet in size, to the rafters, plus another room about 110 square feet (half-full, and leaving about two feet of space to the ceiling), not to mention the other stuff they had about the house for day-to-day living. They've taken at least two 25' truckloads of their stuff up to Prescott, and I think they may have managed to cram most of their furniture in one of those. Shoot, maybe they used three 25' trucks.
Posted by Niki on 09/06 at 09:55 PM
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technology will be their demise

Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Who exactly am I talking about? My dad (and as a result, my mother), and my brother.

What technology? The ability to check their checking account balances over the phone (or internet).

Why? Because they're both stupid and forget that the balance they hear is NOT the actual balance of their accounts. They forget the little charges/checks here & there that are still pending. This results in a negative account balance sooner than later.
Posted by Niki on 09/03 at 11:27 PM
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R.I.P.

Friday, August 29, 2003
My mom called this afternoon to let me know that an aunt of ours had died the other day. She will be on her way to Kansas tonight with her cousin & his wife to attend the funeral tomorrow.
Posted by Niki on 08/29 at 07:26 PM
Family • (1) CommentsPermalink

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