This is just a note to let you know that I am still alive and survived my surgery!!

I was in surgery last Thursday May 20th all day from 8:30 am until 6:00 pm….Then I was in ICU for a day and a half and finally got discharged from the hospital on [...]]]> Hi family, friends and fans,

This is just a note to let you know that I am still alive and survived my surgery!!

I was in surgery last Thursday May 20th all day from 8:30 am until 6:00 pm….Then I was in ICU for a day and a half and finally got discharged from the hospital on Tuesday of this week.  I hope to be able to be released from doctor’s care in early July.

Unfortunately during surgery they found more “dehiscences” (medical term for a hole in your head…..) besides the one they had already visualized through the superior canal bone via the CT scan.  The other dehiscences were in my mastoid bone…..they could not see these particular dehiscenses from the CT scans.  Basically I had perforations through my skull base and I was leaking cerebral fluid out of my head into my inner ear and sinuses.  Very appetizing, I know! LOL.  Among other things, this could have caused me to get meningitis if not corrected, but they tell me they got them all patched.  I also ended up with a cerebral spinal fluid leak and an air pocket that caused me the hugest headache I have ever had and took several days to get under control.  A lumbar “blood patch” did the trick, thank God, otherwise I would have been staying the night again at Hotel Swedish.  Home is good.  :-)

So, right now I exercising my faith in my surgeons and God as I currently cannot hear in my left ear at all except for sporadic very weird, “zinging” and “buzzing” sounds.  I could swear every now and then I can hear some kind of radio transmissions in my left ear as well!  I am serious! They tell my my they monitored my hearing during the entire procedure and that my sensorineural hearing is just fine and that right now the reason I cannot hear is because my mastoid bones and inner ear are full of fluid that should dissipate over time and they expect me to fully recover my hearing and have normal balance again once I am all healed in 4-6 weeks.  I also came away with one heck of a scar!  I told the surgeon I liked to play the bass and wondered if he could fashion a bass clef shaped scar!! He must of thought I was serious because  I think he came pretty close!! LOL! It’s very bad.  Here are some lovely pics for you at the bottom of this post.  :-)

At the risk of being redundant, but for the benefit of anyone on the Internet reading this who might also have SCDS and had or will have the surgery, here is a bullet list summary of my post-surgical experience:

• Unable to hear in my left ear Day 1 post op to present
• Spinal headache Day 1 post op to Day 5 post op
• Very dizzy Day 1 post op to present (this will be a longer term healing and adjustment process according to doc.  Position changes still cause me a lot of dizziness, especially driving in circles!)
• Unable to see or focus on things steadily, especially things more than 5 feet away  Day 1 post op to present  (this has improved slowly each day.)
• Nauseous  Day 1 post op to Day 3 post op.  (I’m glad that stopped!  The hospital actually had some really good tasting food.)
• Able to get out of bed and walk with a walker by day 3 post op
• Able to walk around hospital without a walker and use handrails by day 5 post op
• Able to walk out to mailbox and back with my wife’s assistance by day 7 post op.   Now we will be gradually increasing my distance each day.
• I have a post-op follow up appointment to have my 35 staples will be removed next Tuesday.

Pam and I would once again like to thank everyone who has stopped by the hospital, our house, called, and emailed and brought us food and other things.  Old fashioned thank you cards will be going out to you in the snail mail.  Thanks to all my family and friends for your love and generosity.

-Chris

Chris’ Craniotomy Pics

This is to let you know that I will be off-line for a little while. On Thursday, May 20th I will be having a brain surgery. I do not have cancer, but this is still a major operation, I will be in the hospital the better part of a week and recuperating [...]]]> Hi everyone,

This is to let you know that I will be off-line for a little while. On Thursday, May 20th I will be having a brain surgery. I do not have cancer, but this is still a major operation, I will be in the hospital the better part of a week and recuperating for 3 to 6 weeks. They will be repairing a “superior canal dehiscence”….basically they discovered that I have a hole in my skull base allowing my brain to be exposed to my inner ear which has been causing me dizziness issues and hearing loss.

Over the past 5 to 10 years I began to experience hearing loss in my left ear. I first noticed this when I realized I was not hearing my clock radio in the morning and it was more than willfulness to play hooky. This condition caused me a lot of frustration as a musician as I began to have trouble not only hearing external sounds but it was becoming hard to hear my own pitches internally. I could not figure out what was wrong at first. I kept thinking, “What is the matter with me that I can’t find these pitches when I want to!?” On top of that I began having other strange symptoms like if I heard a loud sound or sang very loud myself my left ear would “reverberate” or kind of jangle and echo, but not my right ear. Loud sounds would also make my left ear ache very badly and radiate out around the side of my face. Besides these hearing issues I had other odd things that would go on….for example if I called someone on the telephone, as the phone rang in my left ear my eyes would vibrate and whatever I was looking at would shake in synch with the telephone ring! But this shaking only happened with the phone on my left ear and not my right. I was never sure why that happened, I thought it was kind of strange, and I wondered if everyone was like that.  LOL!  To top it off, I often ended up feeling dizzy and losing my balance and if I squatted down to look at something or work on something for a minute or two when I stood up I would get very dizzy and at times felt like I was going to pass out. I did not know what was wrong or why an otherwise very healthy guy would have such weird and annoying things going on.

But the most annoying thing was the hearing loss. Since music means the world to me, I was determined to find a way to restore my hearing. So I began getting hearing tests to try to discover what exactly was causing the hearing loss. The hearing tests showed that my mid and high frequency hearing was very good for my age, but I had a 35-40dB low frequency loss on only my left ear. This is called a “conductive hearing” loss because the middle ear bones which conduct the sound waves to the inner ear were not working correctly, so they thought. There are surgical repair techniques available to fix the problem and restore the conduction path, but when this was first discovered in me my ENT told me that it was too early to consider surgery for me and that they would need to observe me for a few years and retest to determine if the condition had stablized or was continuing to worsen. In the mean time, they suggested that I try a hearing aid and see how I liked it.

I tried the hearing aid beginning in 2007. At first it was very embarrassing for me to wear in public. Call me vain!  But once I got used to it, it was a mixed blessing. It did increase my hearing ability, but its ability to discriminate sounds was limited and especially in public, loud environments it was very hard for me to separate a person speaking directly to me from all of the background noise. So, I was on again, off again with the hearing aid for a while.

Finally, early this year I decided to try to seriously pursue the surgical repair technique. I went back to see my ENT again. He retested me again. We agreed I finally was a candidate for a stapedectomy procedure. But…..he said my test results were not exactly textbook….something was not quite right….so he decided to refer me to the absolute best otolaryngologist in Seattle. Well, to make a long story a little less long, he determined that my conductive hearing mechanism (middle ear) as well as my inner ear is just fine (that was the good news) but a specialized CT scan of my head discovered I have a hole between my inner cranial space and my inner ear allowing my brain to bump up against the vestibular canals of the cochlea acting as effectively as a “mute” (musicians should get this concept) as well as screwing up my vestibular system.

So anyhow, to correct this they will be performing a “middle fossa craniotomy” procedure to go in and patch the hole. (My dad used to ask me if I had holes in my head…) Essential, they will go in through my skull, move my brain over out of the way and repave the bottom of my skull. (technical terms) But they claim they have had 100% success on the folks that have had this surgery and no adverse events. The medical term for my condition is “left-sided superior canal dehiscence”.

Here are a few cartoon pictures to give you a general idea of what they are going to do to me!

The last picture shows a neuroma on the vestibular nerve, which I do not have…the neuroma, not the nerve…I am missing a piece of bone over the superior semicircular canal.

I will be having the craniotomy surgery on May 20th and will get to enjoy hospital food for most of that week. We have prayed about this and turned it over to the Lord. May he guide the surgeons’ hands. I have two top notch surgeons who will operate on me: A neurosurgeon and an otolaryngologist.

I hope I get a room with a view. I plan to be healed up and back to a normal routine within about a month after surgery. Life is too short, there is simply no time to waste!

More information than you ever wanted to know on superior canal dehiscence can be found at the web site of Dr. Timothy Hain (http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/unilat/scd.htm). For the Über curious amoung you, a video of the surgery can be found here: http://www.otosurgery.org/sscd_surgery.htm

Thanks for your prayers and good wishes.

-Chris

This page and web site is a place for anyone interested in bringing music into a care-giving environment. Care-giving environments can be such places [...]]]> My mission is to provide “Music for Caregivers” to integrate into the lives of people living in nursing homes and to those with physical, developmental or neurological disabilities living in our world.

This page and web site is a place for anyone interested in bringing music into a care-giving environment. Care-giving environments can be such places such as a nursing home, a convalescent center, a group home, a hospital or to individuals living in the community.  This is dedicated to all those people with either physical, neurological, or developmental disabilities and for all those that are all too often forgotten and hidden away by our self-absorbed culture.

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
And have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
Your walls are ever before me.

Isaiah 49:15-16

I have answered God’s call to stand up for the rights of these our brothers and sisters and most importantly come to them simply as a brother with his guitar and his voice. A little music can brighten one’s day, lift spirits, revive memories, and reduce depression and feel less lonely. All this is possible with no prescription and no side effects.

If you would like me to play at your nursing home or for your group, please contact me. Click here to Email Me

On Friday (Halloween was on Saturday), we went to see the Seattle Symphony play the music to Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Psycho” while the movie played on a screen above the orchestra.  It was great [...]]]> I was kind of busy this past week, so I am a little bit behind in getting this Halloween related post posted.

On Friday (Halloween was on Saturday), we went to see the Seattle Symphony play the music to Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Psycho” while the movie played on a screen above the orchestra.  It was great fun, and attracted a lot of people who from their looks and dress were obviously big time Hitchcock fans and/or Halloween aficiandos.  One picture that I wish I could have taken was of the guy who showed up dressed as “mother” and came brandishing a 10 inch butcher knife.  The ironic part was that as this guy was pretending (I assume he was pretending, but these days you never know for sure.) to be stabbing his wife, and while he was doing this someone snapped their picture.  When the camera flash went off, an usher ran over and admonished them, not for bringing a dangerous weapon to the symphony mind you, but for violating the “no flash” rule.  Ha, ha.

Dale Chihuly glass masterpiece in the background.  The pride of Seattle, Starbucks in the foreground.

Seattle’s “Ban Roll-On” building at night.  I never have figured out what the real name of this building is.

Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, nearly empty.

Benaroya Hall with the symphony warming up.

My friend, Joe.

OK folks, we are getting ready to go into Seattle on Friday and see Jonathan Coulton in concert with Paul and Storm.  Jonathan, aka JoCo, is my creative commons demigod and guru that I have been following and listening to for at least the past year, and probably even a bit longer than that.  He [...]]]>

OK folks, we are getting ready to go into Seattle on Friday and see Jonathan Coulton in concert with Paul and Storm.  Jonathan, aka JoCo, is my creative commons demigod and guru that I have been following and listening to for at least the past year, and probably even a bit longer than that.  He was my original inspiration that is not only okay but good and necessary to squeeze my creative lemonade and offer the world a free seat at my juice stand and to even help me blend the concoction if they want.  Anyway, it’s time for you to help JoCo out as he still has a few tickets left to sell.

I’m home for a couple of days and then out again to Seattle on Friday and Portland on Saturday – still still plenty of tickets left for both, so don’t be shy.

You can check the schedule and ticket stuff here:  http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2009/01/21/more-shows-2/

I updated my schedule with what I know is going on next year through early summer.  Looks like I’m going to be kind of busy.  Busy is good though!

The first big concert is on December 6th – the Woodinville Concert Band performs a Christmas concert in the shadow of Seattle’s Space Needle. Come on [...]]]> Some Shows

I updated my schedule with what I know is going on next year through early summer.  Looks like I’m going to be kind of busy.  Busy is good though!

The first big concert is on December 6th – the Woodinville Concert Band performs a Christmas concert in the shadow of Seattle’s Space Needle. Come on down and enjoy the music.

I use the list on ReverbNation as my master schedule, so you can always go there directly (go to the “Shows” tab) to see if things have changed.

Some Videos

Java Jive!  This was recorded at a nursing home in northern Indiana:  St. Anne’s Home.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Take Me Out to [...]]]> I added some video clips from my recent road trip to the midwest.  They can be permanently found on my Live page.  For now, they are right here in this post.

Some Videos

Java Jive!  This was recorded at a nursing home in northern Indiana:  St. Anne’s Home.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game/When the Saints Go Marching In.  This was recorded at a nursing home in northern Indiana:  St. Anne’s Home.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Asperger Support Network is a place to find resources related to living life with Asperger’s Syndrome and relate conditions in Seattle, the Puget Sound, and Washington State.

So, if you [...]]]> I have updated my concert schedule on the Live page.  In October I will be performing for the Seattle Asperger’s Support Group’s 10 year anniversary celebration.

The Asperger Support Network is a place to find resources related to living life with Asperger’s Syndrome and relate conditions in Seattle, the Puget Sound, and Washington State.

So, if you belong to the Asperger’s group, please attend!  And happy birthday!

Truefire. What is Truefire you ask? Here is what they say:

What is TrueFire?

Since 1991, TrueFire and its collective of 450+ artists and educators, has produced thousands of guitar lessons and interactive video courses, which are available as downloads, streaming video and CD-ROM. We also [...]]]> Oops…I forgot one other to include in the list:

Truefire. What is Truefire you ask? Here is what they say:

What is TrueFire?

Since 1991, TrueFire and its collective of 450+ artists and educators, has produced thousands of guitar lessons and interactive video courses, which are available as downloads, streaming video and CD-ROM. We also offer top DVD and Book titles from other publishers.

• You can find me here on Truefire.

I think it is an awesome service for artists and totally free.  There are many more tools available than through MySpace’s music service.  Let me know if you like it.

Do you work for Microsoft? Do you live in the Seattle area or know someone who lives here?

Did [...]]]> I am going to try this one more time. I know I haven’t gotten anyone’s attention yet, and that is okay. I am patient and I believe this is an idea that deserves waiting on.

Do you work for Microsoft? Do you live in the Seattle area or know someone who lives here?

Did you know Wired Magazine ran an article (The Geek Syndrome) discussing findings of autism rates much higher than average among children of high tech workers in Silicon Valley? Other research has uncovered similar links.

The Pacific Northwest, especially Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia are high tech communities and hold the possibility of higher rates of autism.

I wrote a post a few days ago, “How About a Seattle Area Concert for Caregivers?” offering to host a free concert – sing along – get together somewhere in the Seattle metro area especially for long term caregivers who need a little break away from things.

So, I reiterate:

If you live in the Seattle area and would be interested in coordinating this, please comment. My idea is for this to be a FUN event…and an INTERACTIVE event…i.e. some audience participation (sing along) and an ENJOYABLE event…i.e. Somewhere where everyone can RELAX, such as a coffee shop (Yep, we have those in Seattle) or a restaurant, or maybe a club (Eagles, American Legion, etc.) where you can enjoy some food and beverages. Do you think you can pull together 10, 15 or 20 couples to do this?

While I was driving home last night, an idea popped into my head (this seems to happen a lot [...]]]> I will probably post about this a number of times due to the fact that since I have no readers and no fans it will most likely take some time to get this idea off the ground!

While I was driving home last night, an idea popped into my head (this seems to happen a lot when I drive). I know from experience that people who are a caregiver for someone with disabilities or with a serious health condition often find themselves socially isolated. There were many days that my wife and I felt like prisoners in our own home due to the difficulties involved in going out in the community with our daughter who is developmentally disabled and on the autism spectrum.

There are many other people out there in similar situations, who have either a child, spouse, parent or other person that they are responsible for which requires 24/7 level of effort. Are you or do you know someone who is a full time caregiver?

I would like to offer to put on a free concert somewhere in the Seattle metro area especially for caregivers who need a little break away from things.

If you live in the Seattle area and would be interested in coordinating this, please comment. My idea is for this to be a FUN event…and an INTERACTIVE event…i.e. some audience participation (sing along) and an ENJOYABLE event…i.e. Somewhere where everyone can RELAX, such as a coffee shop (Yep, we have those in Seattle) or a restaurant, or maybe a club (Eagles, American Legion, etc.) where you can enjoy some food and beverages. Do you think you can pull together 10, 15 or 20 couples to do this?

I am doing my duty and spreading the word about Woodinville Concert Band’s upcoming Spring Concert. Here are the details and a flyer is attached. I hear the Northshore Performing Arts Center is a very nice facility. We are looking forward to playing there. Hope to see you there. [...]]]> Good morning,

I am doing my duty and spreading the word about Woodinville Concert Band’s upcoming Spring Concert. Here are the details and a flyer is attached. I hear the Northshore Performing Arts Center is a very nice facility. We are looking forward to playing there. Hope to see you there. (Hey, it’s free!)

YouTube video highlights from our last concert are linked in below!

Woodinville Community Band

Directed by Leah MacDuffie

Presents

Winds Around the World

NorthShore Performing Arts Center
28125 92nd Ave NE
Bothell, WA

May 31, 2008
7:00 PM
Free Admission

Click here to view the embedded video.

Victory Music open mic. Alderwood Mall, Lynnwood, Washington. I’ll be there this Sunday. 5:00 pm in the food court in the lounge area by the fireplace.

See you there?

You can find me HERE.

I just finished up playing another show at Clare Bridge at Silver Lake. What a lovely facility! This was a fun show and a great way to warm up on a chilly afternoon. We all had fun doing a sing along to “You Are My Sunshine” – Thanks Governor Jimmie Davis and the [...]]]>

I just finished up playing another show at Clare Bridge at Silver Lake. What a lovely facility! This was a fun show and a great way to warm up on a chilly afternoon. We all had fun doing a sing along to “You Are My Sunshine” – Thanks Governor Jimmie Davis and the State of Louisiana!

Many thanks to the staff at CB who made it happen.

Thank you one and all.

Here is Spencer: