Feet (again) SFW Pics

We have been waiting for my new antibiotics regimen to take effect before scheduling the next MRI to measure the state of the bone infection. While waiting, the gangrene cap on my right foot has started to detach. It's like a toddler loosing a tooth - first it moves a little, then it wiggles, then it flops around, then it falls off. Last night mine finally came off. Unfortunately it left some of my toe bone exposed. That needs to be treated right away - either graft on some skin or cut off some of the bone to close it up. Neither of those make much sense if we are going to amputate the toe in just a few weeks. So I need to do the MRI now to see if the infection has continued to spread. If not, we stitch up the one toe; if it has spread we are going to amputate them to remove all the infected bone. 

The Gross Foot Picture Reduction Act of 2015 is now in effect.

Workload

It has been tough first week, each day a bit harder then the last. I'm still struggling with a low energy level, partly due to liver and kidney function problems and partly due to the amount of antibiotics im taking to control the bone infection in my feet. I'm really looking forward to getting off the antibiotcs to see how it impacts this problem. Until then I will endeavor to preserver.

Major Milestone: Back to work

Today I started my new full-time job for a mid-size video product company in San Jose. It's quite an adjustment after many years of consulting. Unfortunately after 15 months of hospitalization and recovery, getting the consulting business going again proved too difficult. After falling off the face of the earth it's hard to get back on peoples radar. I also want to get back into a social environment where I can interact with others and work as a team. I kind of miss that. So I'm back at a 9-5 (at least) and working hard to get up to speed. It's nice to be back. I'll admit there was a long time when I feared this day would never come. I'm glad it's finally here.

Stratocaster modding

I decided to change the look of my Stratocaster by replacing the white pick guard and other plastic bits with black. My guitar is Lake Placid Blue (LPB) in color which is a common for Fender instruments and is almost always paired with white or ivory plastic. I saw a LPB Telecaster with black plastic at a shop a few weeks ago and thought it looked really good.

Installing the new parts was a little harder than I thought because I had to remove the guitar's neck to reinstall the pick guard. Here are the before, during and after pics. I think it looks a little "meaner" now. I still need to set the pickup hight and find matching black knobs and switch tip but the hard work is done.

Custom Shop Stratocaster as delivered

During Installation

New plastic bits and strings installed