[RTTY] W0ETC

[Larry L Lindblom]

As many of you remember back in July I had a lightening strike damage the
radios, rotors, etc.  Well things here are going slow in terms of getting
it back on the air which is why you haven't heard me in any contests for
a while.   I mounted the new RCS8v at the base of the tower in a
fiberglass box. The old one was at 90 ft.  The new position eliminated
some coax and allows me to switch things around without having to climb. 
Equipment finally started coming back from being repaired or replaced. 
That allowed me to discover other items that needed repair.  
 
Then I got shingles as a 58th birthday present, and not the kind on your
roof. This has kept me form doing much more.  At first I thought they
were chigger bites and treated as such but after a week they were getting
worse and more were developing.  Finally saw the doctor who diagnosed it
as shingles. I'm on antiviral and antibiotic medicines along with two
strong pain pills.  

The shingles run all the was around the left side of my back to the
center of beer gut.  They sting and burn, plus because the spread along
neural pathways there is referred pain. Referred pain is pain feeling
like it is in another part of the body when it is not.   In my case one
night it is a knife in the groin, the next in the hip, then it at time
feels like a back sprain.  It just moves every day.  The pain pills make
me drowsy.  In the day time it is tolerable to no pain but about bed time
it is impossible to sleep more than one hour without being wakened by
intense pain.  Then it is get up for 30 minutes and back to bed for an
hour, and repeat the cycle.  Even when there is no pain I'm brain dead
from all the Codeine and Nueronton. It makes it damned hard to
concentrate, think, or on doing anything.

I believe anyone who had chicken pox as a kid has a 20% chance of getting
shingles.  The RTTY doctor (WA9ALS) can correct this if I am wrong.  I am
one of the lucky 20%. And in 20% of those who get shingles the pain does
not go away.  Please Lord don't let me be that cursed! Eventually I will
get over this (I hope) and the station will finally get back to its usual
state of chaos which is normal.  The strange thing is while I miss
contesting, life without it for a while seems OK.
 
If seems if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all!
  
73 Larry L
W0ETC