From Dead to Obnoxious Ain't Bad

This was me about 3 years ago. Not a pretty sight, but every once in awhile I like to remind my readers (and myself) just how far I've come. I can still only type with one hand, but I'm not complaining. As you see...things can be a LOT worse.

The really interesting thing about this shot is how peaceful I look, even though that blue thing in my neck is connected to my Superior Vena Cava, just outside my heart, and the red thing is hooked right into my Carotid Artery.

The reason I'm smiling is because I'm listening to Stephen Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell, and I'm actually understanding it! Not bad for a high-school graduate enduring a procedure known as plasmapheresis (where they extract the plasma from the blood and replace it with donor plasma!)

Anyway, my life is actually a LOT harder now (I have to shop for groceries via bus, while using a cane--try carrying a week's supply of food while walking with a cane and crossing a busy street). But I'm grateful that we have such high-tech care available here in the United States, because losing 20% of your motor-functions at 36 is NO PICNIC.

Author's Addendum:
I'm uncertain now which artery is feeding the red tube. Maybe not the Carotid, but definitely a MAJOR artery coming off my Aorta. The blue tube is DEFINITELY returning blood to my heart through my Superior Vena Cava. As any good plumber knows, a job of this magnitude requires pipes that can handle that much liquid...

Author's Addendum #2:
As I study more closely the process of continuous flow centrifugation, I realize that BOTH of these tubes may be connected to venous blood-vessels. This is why I'm not a Plasmapherisis Nurse, like the nice lady from Texas who did THIS PARTICULAR treatment. Again...I'm genuinely appreciative of the highly-trained practitioners who tended to me when I was in the throes of my first-ever M.S. attack (presumed to be acute disseminated encephalomyelitis this early in my diagnosis).