Post-Surgical Update, 4/16/98

Hello. Well, if you haven't already guessed, I've recently had surgery. How can you have a post-surgical update without surgery, right? Okay, enough stating of the obvious. The surgery, for a double ventral hernia, went well. Unfortunately, being a member of an HMO, I was sent home the day after surgery, with a J-Tube...things didn't go perfectly, however, and I was re-admitted two days later because of either an Illeus (Paralyzed Bowel) or a bowel obstruction. It took 4 days of having an N-G tube, and, straining the patience of saintly nurses (I really need to be buying them a tree for their Break Room...), but, the Illeus cleared up, and, I was re-released.

"Complications"

Although some may be disappointed, no, besides the Illeus, and, the additional 4-days in the hospital, there weren't any further surgical complications.

9/22/99 Well, I was wrong about there not being any further surgical complications, perhaps an admixture of trying to look on the bright side, and, giving my surgeon the benefit of the doubt. However, the "soft tissue swelling" that my surgeon said should reduce two weeks after surgery, then, a month after surgery, then, 6 weeks, two months, etc. hadn't gone down by my 6 month post-operative visit, he finally told me that this "swelling" was permanent. At that 6 month check-up, he even called in his surgical partner, and, his partner said that my swelling was a "phenomena".
Currently, I'm still thinking about whether I should file a lawsuit, and, at my last post-operative checkup, my surgeon stated that he thinks my weight may have been responsible for the "swelling". Well, I guess it might be true, but, why didn't he say something before the surgery, so that I may have made both my recovery and my subsequent difficulties less "permanent"?

Actually, worse than the surgical complications, I returned to my apartment to discover that my computer's hard drive had basically gone ka-phlooey, and, wasn't accessible no matter what the Gateway2000 Tech Support staff suggested that I try. Although I'd been thinking about writing a web page using MS-DOS ("Microsoft®-Disk Operating System")' Edit program (If you are somewhat of a Masochist, and, just want to try using Edit, click the 'MS-DOS Prompt' through Start | Programs | MS-DOS Prompt (in Windows95...), and, when the DOS [Sorry, but I'm using MS-DOS and DOS interchangeably...and, I should throw-in PC-DOS, the close cousin of MS-DOS, but which is what IBM calls their version of MS-DOS. Microsoft® did write PC-DOS for IBM...until 1991, so, certain similarities yet exist.] window pops up, simply type edit at the prompt {C:\_edit}. To get out of edit, you simply need to hit the Alt button, then type f, then x, and, you'll be returned to the DOS prompt (either A:\_ or C:\_ ). Then, type either exit or win, and you'll be returned to friendly old Windows!*), I'd been very successful at avoiding it. No longer. Now, with my hard drive (C:\_) kaput, I'm stuck using whichever programs are available, on a floppy-to-floppy basis. For example, the floppy that I booted with was my Windows95 Start Up floppy, which, thankfully, comes with the Edit.com program, that I'm using to type this very page! I've now switched to booting with any floppy other than my Windows95 Start Disk, because almost any other floppy will allow me to boot faster than the 20 minutes that floppy routinely takes!!
Well, despite being without a working hard drive, I'm glad that I'm at least slightly conversant with MS-DOS...after all, I can still write web pages (though, if I were only able to write HTML using an HTML writing/editing program, I'd be stuck, because I can't think of many HTML writing/editing programs small enough to fit upon a floppy, although HomeSite version 1.0 comes close...)! Now, if only I had a MS-DOS browser with which to look at web pages, while I'm writing them, access to a small FTP program, and, last but not least, some way to get my modem working, preferably X-modem, Y-modem, or Z-modem, so that I could upload!! Although being able to write web pages in MS-DOS is a Good Thing ™ for my particular situation, I cannot imagine writing web pages in DOS too often! BTW, I haven't yet found a floppy with Mouse.exe residing upon it, so, I'm using all keyboard....

More Technical Stuff

I'm discovering that I need to learn more about MS-DOS. My replacement ("Refurbished"?) hard drive is hopefully starting it's trip east from Sioux City, Iowa, however, I think that I'll have a couple more days where DOS will be my only computing option!! One of my little computing 'hobbies', because I believe that DOS is fully capable of doing everything that Windows95 does, though perhaps not as prettily, nor as simply, is to make directories or folders in DOS, then, copy and move files that way, also. If you wanted to rename your 3000 .url files ("Favorites") to .txt files, in order to write a links page, for example, how would you accomplish it, in Windows95? Maybe I haven't fully researched this enough, but, in my experience, you'd need to rename them each, singly. In a DOS session, you'd cd ("Change Directory") until you get to your Favorites folder (C:\Windows\Favorites), then simply type ren *.url *.txt, and, hit "Enter". It may take a few minutes, but, DOS would rename all of the .url files to .txt files in that single, simple step!! Uhoh...I've just gotten one ring on my apartment's intercom...which means that the UPS man has arrived with my "new" hard drive, and, I might have Windows95 again!!

Updated in DOS Edit, 9-22-99