# I'm back!



## upcyclist (Feb 28, 2017)

Hey all--someone commented that they were worried because I haven't been on in weeks. I'm okay, just at home healing from a stint in the hospital. And no, it wasn't related to refining 

I had a diverticulitis attack, and it was a doozy. It turns out I had a 15mm perforation of the colon, so they removed about 10" of colon (hooray for semicolons!) and gave me a temporary colostomy. (TMI? Sorry!) We'll reverse it in 3-6 months, luckily. I'm just relaxing at home, off work for another week. My 75-year-old mother actually drove from Minnesota to Maryland to take care of her boy. She left Saturday, so I started doing some gemcutting again.

I haven't done any refining lately, didn't want to be under-strength while I'm working with the chems. Also, if I inadvertently got a whiff of anything bad, coughing is not cool when you have a surgery wound healing up on your belly 

The weather's been great lately, so it's a shame I didn't get out to enjoy it much. But I may do some light work tomorrow or later this week--just cleaning up old stockpot residues (way too much AgCl from having a single stockpot) with old jeweler's pickle (sodium bisulfate) & iron. 

I missed you guys!

--Eric


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## Geo (Feb 28, 2017)

Welcome back! Sorry to hear about your problems. We all need to take better care of ourselves. 

Hurry up and get well soon.

Jeff


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## chuckgambale (Feb 28, 2017)

Glad your ok


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## FrugalRefiner (Feb 28, 2017)

upcyclist said:


> hooray for semicolons!


 :lol: :lol: :lol: 
Glad to see you back!

Dave


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## Lou (Feb 28, 2017)

Sorry to hear about it. Wish you best and speedy convalescence.


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## aga (Feb 28, 2017)

Hope the bowels get all fixed and that they can remove the temporary plumbing soon :shock: 

Next time upcyclist visits the Grill, doc says it must be a wholemeal bread bun with a veggie burger with extra cardboard, hold the mayo and cheese ok ?

A beer should be OK with that


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## upcyclist (Feb 28, 2017)

aga said:


> Next time upcyclist visits the Grill, doc says it must be a wholemeal bread bun with a veggie burger with extra cardboard, hold the mayo and cheese ok ?
> 
> A beer should be OK with that



The heck with that noise. I'm back on a full solid diet. Now that you mention it, I think I need a good old bar food cheeseburger for dinner tonight! 

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## aga (Feb 28, 2017)

Enjoy !

(also heal and be well)


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## UncleBenBen (Feb 28, 2017)

upcyclist said:


> aga said:
> 
> 
> > Next time upcyclist visits the Grill, doc says it must be a wholemeal bread bun with a veggie burger with extra cardboard, hold the mayo and cheese ok ?
> ...



Yep! He's back!

Glad it all went well! Good to see you back.


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## butcher (Feb 28, 2017)

Great to see you back enjoy the burger!


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## upcyclist (Feb 28, 2017)

It was a delicious mess! 

Thanks for all the well wishes, folks. 

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## Grelko (Mar 1, 2017)

upcyclist said:


> Hey all--someone commented that they were worried because I haven't been on in weeks. I'm okay, just at home healing from a stint in the hospital. And no, it wasn't related to refining
> 
> I had a diverticulitis attack, and it was a doozy. It turns out I had a 15mm perforation of the colon, so they removed about 10" of colon (hooray for semicolons!) and gave me a temporary colostomy. (TMI? Sorry!) We'll reverse it in 3-6 months, luckily. I'm just relaxing at home, off work for another week.



Really glad to hear you're back.

My aunt had that happen a while ago, she's doing good now, it just takes time.

As for me, back on the 23rd, I got a pinched nerve in my right side and have been getting real bad anxiety since then. It started with part of my face going tingly, so we immediately called an ambulance. I was at the Er twice, but every test they did checked out fine. Basically slept the entire weekend but I'm doing ok for now.

I'm sitting here trying to type with my hands shaking a little, but I'm ok for now. I got in with a chiropractor and hopefully we can get this nerve unpinched very soon, so I can get back to working on refining and everything else.


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## upcyclist (Mar 1, 2017)

Ick. I hope they get that pinched nerve nipped in the bud, and that your anxiety goes away with it. Neither of those are any fun.


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## Topher_osAUrus (Mar 1, 2017)

Welcome back!
Glad to hear you are doing okay!


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## Tndavid (Mar 5, 2017)

Welcome back. And prayers for a speedy recovery!!


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## snoman701 (Mar 10, 2017)

diverticulitis sucks. I've got a combination of that (if I want to upset it) and either Crohn's or IBD. Thankfully it's never been REAL bad, but I've known a LOT of people like yourself. 

Dad has a colostomy from colorectal cancer...he hates it, but I know others that found new freedom. The most colorful exclamation was from another cancer survivor. He said before cancer, he'd go out fishing in the morning, and it always ended with the coffee forcing him to come back to shore to poo. Following, he could just "stand up and drop anchor" (and at this point, he actually stood up from the table (this is at church) and lifted his shirt up, pulled the bag out and proceeded to act like he was dumping it. Some people are more comfortable with the changes than others....there shouldn't be shame either way I'd like to think.

What kind of gemcutting do you do? Just cabs or faceting as well? I've tried cabs a few times but can never get the dop wax to stick good.


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## upcyclist (Mar 10, 2017)

I do mostly faceting, but do some cabbing on occasion. The trick with dop wax is to make sure the stone is warm too, and sometimes giving it an initial dip in some shellac doesn't hurt either. I just dissolve dop wax in alcohol to create the shellac.

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## snoman701 (Mar 11, 2017)

I never did either of those things! I'll have to give it another try!

I've got some YAG laser rods if you want one for faceting. I just saw on Ebay where people sell them for faceting? I don't know anything about it. 

Send me a PM with your address and I'll try to get it in the mail this week. 

Got any pictures of your work?


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## upcyclist (Mar 11, 2017)

If the YAG is sizable (at least 10mm or so), it'd a great teaching material - polishes easy like a garnet, but flawless. 

For pictures, try www.arctangentgemworks.com. 

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## snoman701 (Mar 14, 2017)

I think it's only 8 mm. 

Great photos! That's the hard part of artisian work. You have to be artist, marketer, photographer, web designer....and more!

The inclusions almost look like scratches in the stone! Thank you for the suggestions. If you ever do any carving, I have some norton diamond discs....I think 35 mm diameter...happy to send you some! 


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