It's been awhile

[KA9MOT]

Hello this is Steve it's been awhile since I checked in with y'all. I've had some medical issues past 2 years and a I've been unable to do much. So my health is finally getting better an I'm able to get into the shack and get back to some of my old hobbies.

I lost a foot in June of 2019. I struggled with the stuff until June of 2020, it never healed which created some major problems.
I was not hospital about 7 times do to sepsis and was in a nursing home for 6 months. I came home December 2019 an stayed home until June 2020.
The stump from that foot never healed, it continued to get infected and I would end up with sepsis and back in the hospital. All the hospital trips, all the CAT scans and MRIs, and the chemicals they put in your body to do it CAT in cost me my kidneys.
I wasted a year, not being able to walk and struggling to recover.
While I was in the nursing home in August 2019, I lost my wife. 40 years old and she just dropped dead......no warning and all alone. My friend Scott KC9SIW found her the following day, with my German Shepherd laying at her feet whining and then trying to protect her, when anybody got close.
In April 2020 my baby brother Curtis, crawled up in his sleeper and didn't wake up. they found him 3 days later. It is thought that he had a stroke.
In May 2020 my brother Robert, a career Marine and fitness fanatic had a stroke and died. He was 1 year younger than me.
In June 202 the infection in my foot was so bad they did a Below The Knee amputation on my left leg. My kidneys had failed for good this time and I've been on dialysis 3 days a week since then.

Today, I'm back to struggling and not being able to pay my bills, my I am healthier than I have been in years. I feel great, as long as I don't miss a dialysis treatment, and I'm happy. I'm learning how to use my prosthetic leg and I really have no complaints.

So hopefully in the future I'll get back into posting in these forums. It was a long swim back to the Island...........

[N8YX]

Damn, Steve...that is a very long row to hoe but glad you're doing better.

We lost George ('AMR) around this time last year. Suddenseer has been quiet for a while - hope he's still with us.

[kb2vxa]

Well Steve, according to AJ YOU'RE a majority! You're in the club now, like Audie Murphy you've been to Hell and back, and you're living proof the song is spot on, it says you've got to go through Hell before you get to Heaven. I know where you're coming from, thanks to smoking I have heart problems so I have a pacemaker with a defibrillator, peripheral artery disease that put me in a wheelchair, was laid up with Covid 19 for 4 weeks, and am in a nursing home I probably will not leave alive. I have no family and fewer friends As Time Goes By, play it again Sam. (Dooley Wilson at the piano) Hey, if it makes you feel any better, remember there is always someone who has it worse than you, but what about the LAST guy? Nobody has it worse than that guy! (Credit to Arlo Guthrie.)

All that having been said, Welcome Back Cotter... Steve. BTW I knew that kid in the upper right corner when he lived in Metuchen, NJ.

[KG4CGC]

Prayers and good vibes, brother.

[PA5COR]

^ that, talk about bad luck in life, feeling suddenly healthy with just a stent in the ticker...
Stay healthy, welcome back on the Island.

[WZ7U]

Damn Steve, you've been through it. It's good to see you well enough to want to mess with typing and thanks for using that energy to get back across the bay to the best Island in the world. Stay safe my friend.

[W3WN]

Welcome Back, Steve. Your presence has been missed.

Am sorry to hear about your difficulties (to put it mildly), of course.

[ad4mg]

Welcome back, Steve. I, too, am sorry to hear of your struggles. We all must deal with what life throws at us, but it doesn't always seem fair. All we can do is keep fighting.

Keep fighting, man. Hope to see you around here more often.

[kb2vxa]

I just remembered something, you don't have to be Irish to be a fighter. Here's a song for you Steve, and all the fighters out there!

[KA9MOT]

Damn, Steve...that is a very long row to hoe but glad you're doing better.

We lost George ('AMR) around this time last year. Suddenseer has been quiet for a while - hope he's still with us.

Thank you. Damn...AMR an maybe Suddenseetr.....that sux.