Diary of a Network Geek

Right, so, I survived my biopsy.

Anne, my friend from church, got me there with plenty of time to check-in and fill out massive paperwork.  They collected the rest of my deductible for the year, which turns out to be more than I thought.  So, now I feel like I should drive recklessly to get my money’s worth out of the insurance company, but I assure you I won’t.

I was prepped and waiting for hours, in part for blood work to get done and in part for the doctors to figure out just precisely how they wanted to get into my lung for that biopsy.  I think the long waiting was about the worst part.  But, I had my own, private nurse there with me, who prayed with me and generally made me feel safe, secure and as at ease as possible.  I have no doubt that there’s a special place in Heaven for Anne, who was an absolute angel to be with me and help me through this.

About 11:00am, the came and got me for the first of several CT scans. The first the did with contrast, to help find “details” like major veins and arteries.  Apparently, it would be a “bad thing” to nick one of those while going into my lung, so I was quite happy that the radiologist took his time finding them all.  Then, they took another CT scan to line up where they were going to put the needle.  A couple shots of local anesthetic, lidocane I think, later the nice doctor had shoved a six to eight inch needle into my chest.  Then, another CT scan to make sure he’d hit his mark and he took a biopsy.  Then, I waited.  They ran the sample down to pathology to run some kind of test on it and decide if they wanted more samples.  After the longest fifteen minutes of my life watching that chest needle bounce around every time I coughed, twitched or moved at all, they took three more samples from that same needle.  Though, the radiologist did “stir” it around a bit in my chest to get a fresh sample each time.
I’ve done a lot of strange and freaky things in my time, but having a doctor wiggle a chest needle inside me rates right up there on the Freak-O-Matic scale.
But, with the third sample, he pulled the needle and gave me one last CT scan to make sure everything looked as good in the inside as it did on the outside.  And, finally, after more than twelve hours, they let me get a glass of water while I waited to have two chest x-rays done, again to confirm the wholeness of my insides.

So, I don’t know for sure when I’ll get results back, but it should be later this week.  Worst case will be in two weeks when I have an appointment scheduled with my pulmonary specialist.
I will add this, though, when they were taking samples the second time, I overheard them saying that one was for a culture.  Now it seems to be that they wouldn’t need to grow a culture of cancer to figure out what it is, so I’m hoping that means they’re leaning toward infection.  Anne tended to agree with me that, generally, one grows a culture of a mystery infection to figure out what it is and how to treat it, but that’s generally not something one would do with cancer.  At least, that’s what I’m hoping.
Of course, the results are still pending, so it could yet turn out to be the evil twin I’ve never had.  We’ll see.
When I found out more, I’ll let you all know.

But, now it’s time for bed.

Not much going on this week, so I might as well have an update! Anne’s sister has been with us for a couple of days and I’ll be taking her to the airport later this afternoon. In spite of some setbacks, it looks like she’ll be doing the move to Pittsburgh just fine. She’s a little worried about the whole thing, but so was I when I moved down to Houston. I think she’ll be okay, once she starts to adjust to living in a new state. I’m not sure that her parents will adjust, but that’s a different story.

Speaking of different stories… I activated a second resume on Monster.Com yesterday that has more of a focus on management than my other one. It’s gotten about 25 “views” so far, but I’ve already had two calls. I’m not sure that either of them will pan out, but at least someone’s showing interest. One of the things that might have been slowing folks down was that I had mistakenly left March as my out date. Yikes! I wonder how many people passed me over thinking that I hadn’t found a job in four months!! Or, almost as bad, that I’d already found a job and wasn’t really looking anymore. Well, at least I’ve corrected that problem.
On a related note, since I’m taking Nancy to the airport, I won’t get out to the “job fair” at WIZARD. I called J. to tell him, but I had to leave a message. I haven’t heard back from him, so I can’t help but wonder if he’s wise to me. Or is that, that he knows I’m wise to him? Cheap, shady tactics result in cheap, shady jobs. And, that’s all I have to say about that.
Speaking of not getting a call back… I haven’t heard from D. at the Waco Syndicate, so I called her this morning. Unfortunately, I had to leave a message there, too. I really wish I could get more information on the job she had dangling before me. Or, if it’s passed me by, I’d like to know that, too. *sigh* Ah, well, it’s a bit of a waiting game. I figure that if I haven’t found something permanent by the end of the month, and we don’t get extended again, I’ll just start contracting. In fact, that’s what I’ve saved my other Monster.Com resume for, contracting. I reworked it with a contracting slant to it. At least I have some kind of fallback position. Thank God I’m in an industry that lends itself to that.

Well, it’s been a while since I put in an update, so hold on to your hats! A lot has happened in the past two weeks.

First off, I went back to Binder and made my sales presentation. It actually went quite well, in spite of the fact that I was very nervous. I didn’t sleep for two nights before the day of the presentation I was so nervous. But, I know I did okay, because they made me an offer. In fact, they made me a nice offer. The base salary was a 9% increase over my current salary, and with the “sales incentives” it would have been a 39% increase! Yikes! But, I had to turn that job down. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Well, I just didn’t think that either Anne or I could quite cope with the 75% plus travel that I would have to be doing. And, I just wasn’t sure that this was the direction that I wanted to take my career. But, I have to admit, I’m going to be thinking about that decision for a long time.
One of the many reasons that I thought the travel would be too much for us both is that Anne would be almost totally alone. Her sister, who she’s very close to these days, is getting a divorce and moving to Pittsburgh, of all places. It seems she found her first fiancee, whom she was ready to marry at 18, and they’re getting back together. It seems her parents didn’t approve at the time, but now she’s old enough to make that choice for herself. I say, good for her! After all, I moved down to Houston from Chicago two years ago, and things have worked out pretty darn well for me. Well, except for the whole job search thing… She’ll be coming back this week for a couple of days to stay with us. She has a few things to wrap up before moving up to Pittsburgh pretty much for good. She’ll come back down to get her stuff into a U-Haul and take it back up in a month or two. I wonder how that will effect how Anne’s mother talks to her?
Well, sorry for that departure into Way Too Much Personal Information Land, but it’s a pretty good example of how personal stuff effects the job search.

On other fronts, I’ve been talking to D. at the WacoSyndicate about that management job. She expected to get the job description last week. I haven’t heard from her yet, but she still seemed positive about the whole thing, so I hope I will this week. (D. if you’re reading this, I have my cell phone with me most of the day!)
I never did hear back from T. at DÜT about their position. I suspect that it was because there wasn’t a position at all. I found the exact same job description on Monster.com and I applied there. Also, I think DÜT is part of the WIZARD “family” of companies. And I’m growing more and more disenchanted with them as time goes on.
Which brings me to J. from WIZARD… He wanted me to come to a “job fair” to look at positions they need to fill. Mind, he didn’t have any in particular that he wanted to show me, but he suggested that there might be one that he “missed” that I would like to do. To be honest, after having someone there not return my calls, having another person tell me that I was making too much money for my skill set, and then not having any real jobs that fit me (i.e. no management positions), I really don’t think I’ll be able to make their “job fair”. Also, Anne has worked with the WIZARD people before, so I know that their “job fair” is a list of jobs that they need to fill taped to the wall in their office. Wow. Sounds like the big time, hunh? Luckily, I gave them the excuse that I was going to have houseguests again this week, so I might not be able to make it. Nothing like thinking on your feet, eh?
On yet another front, someone I used to work with at Harbor has found a job at a financial firm. She called last week to tell me that they’re looking for Network staff, so I sent my resume over to her. Her boss, a Vice President walked it over to both HR and to IS, so hopefully, I’ll hear something from them soon.

Well, until something breaks, I’m still pounding the digital pavement. If anyone reading this has a Network Management position, y’all let me know! Anything for a medium to small sized company would be great. I can run a help desk, too, so a position that combines both would work.