ACL Surgery: After 3 months

Many things going on. Neither unpleasant nor pleasant. I wrote about my first 2 weeks. Pain and swelling has certainly gone down after first 2 weeks. I started PT with very basic leg lifts and other exercises to increase my range of motion. I stopped pain killers but my biggest complaint remained, NOT BEING ABLE TO SLEEP. I returned CPM after 3rd week after going till 110 degrees. By the end of 3rd week, I was practicing walking without immobilizer. But I could not get through sleeping issues as I wanted to bend my leg. bending my leg wasn't painful but releasing it required my attention and I would be half awake while doing it. I slept very consciously and less. 4th week, I started going to office and I started walking more than I use to do. It was uncomfortable but not bad. Those hallway conversations were very uncomfortable as I had to stand still and narrate my experience. 5th week, I removed my immobilizer and started limping. limp walk was comfortable and I was very happy about progress. Occasionally, my leg would give up and I didn't push it after that. I started driving comfortably. I visited doc and my doc was very happy with my range of motion and progress I made considering the DVT I had. I think I took total bath here and removed all wraps around my knee. 6th week, I started biking around my community. My wife use to run along with me to make sure that I am safe :). I used to bike only around community to avoid traffic and power stops using my right leg. first few rotations were very painful on cycle but slowly it got comfortable. I really pushed my limits here. it yielded good results. I was able to sleep properly. Once I started sleeping comfortably and pushing my limits on cycle, my confidence has gone up and I was able to make very good progress in PT. By 2 months, I was comfortably walking but with little limp still. We worked on my limp and started doing weight exercises to strengthen my leg. I purchased new bicycle and started more bicycling. I almost got back to normal. It is almost 3 months now, I started going to Yoga (will modify some postures) and working on my lateral moves. Good luck to those reading with ACL concerns. Feel free to drop a comment for any questions.

ACL reconstruction surgery experience:

Before Surgery:

It’s Monday January 28th. I went for haircut, called a cleaning company to get our home cleaned. Fasted till my surgery (no water for few hours).

Check-in:

Myself and Pranitha checked into surgery center at 1:45 PM and filled out couple of forms. I was taken for dressing. After dressing, pre-requisite work starts. A needle went inside my left hand. So soft and unnoticing as numbness cream is applied. This is to keep me hydrant. Nurse took out a pen and wrote “YES” on my right knee and “NO” on my left knee. Just to avoid confusion at surgery room. Anesthesia doctor checked in and explained about anesthesia. As I have motion sickness, anti-nausea was also prescribed along with anesthesia. Surgeon checked in and took us through operation again.

Operation theater:

I was taken into Operation Theater. Anesthesia doctor tried to make it easy to me by putting up some conversation. I started answering them. 1, 2, 3…my surgery is done. When I woke up I could see Pranitha and my friends. I was given bread, juice, pain killers etc., I was too drowsy to talk. It is evening. They gave us some instructions and wheel chaired me to our car. Bhanu drove me back home along with Pranitha and Pravin drove our car home. We came home. I was given shoulders to get into home. As our steps to upstairs weren’t so spacious. I sat on steps and climbed up.

Surgery night:

I was hesitant to take oxycodone as I was told, it will increase constipation. I took it and thought it is last time I am going to take it. I slept fine without any issues. Not a lot of pain. I was able to get into restroom and sit. Ok no more oxycodone I thought.

Days 1 and 2:

It is better to stay ahead of pain I read. It was extremely painful for me later. I was adjusting my elevation of pillows. I tried to do knee bending exercises and stopped. I should have taken pain pills. I took it later, but it was too late. Pain all over. Second day afternoon, I called doctor to explain the pain and he referred me to ultra sound check.

Ultra sound:

I visited clinic and I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t feeling pain. I felt much better to walk on crutches. I went through ultra sound and they found couple of blood clots. Damn it! We had to go to another clinic to meet nurse practitioner to discuss options. We drove there. She pointed us to time sensitive medication. Injections every 12 hours for first couple of days and tablets for next 3 months. Hardest part is follow up appointments. I had 2 extra appointments to check on blood clot above my surgeon’s appointment on Monday.

How is it now?

Well, it is not very comfortable obviously. I wake up at around 2 AM with a pain on lower part of my knee. I changed elevation and started using the machine given for knee pushing as my elevation. I took my brace off. Initially I felt comfortable with these settings but it is same again while writing this (5:00 AM on feb 1st ).

Tips:

Talk to your surgeon about knee elevation and if possible, get a demo. Those pillows didn’t prove comfortable to me, but maybe I did not place them right.

Take medication as prescribed. No matter what your fkking pain level is.

Pain in Calf: Do not take it easy. It could be blood clot. it is better to tackle it early.

It’s been a month since I properly walked (running is out of question)

Dec 31st night:

It’s on NYE, my right knee gave up and I couldn’t stand on dance floor. I felt like someone kicked on my knee outside in twice in split seconds. I couldn’t sit in car without falling down. We drove to emergency at 12:30 in the morning on Jan 1st 2013. I was given immobilizer to stabilize my knee and was asked to use ice pack to avoid swelling. I asked for an x-ray report and it showed nothing.
Follow up appointment with orthopedic:

I was getting better with my walking though little far from being perfect. I booked a follow up to get an orthopedic opinion. If I did not fall down again in my office while walking, I wouldn’t have bothered putting more questions. But I did fall down and Ortho asked for MRI scan.

MRI room:

This is another day. A scary thing without second doubt! You shouldn’t move for 20 minutes. You shouldn’t watch those rays in front of you as they are dangerous. I felt so conscious and moved all my body parts. Technician there said, he is going to try one more time or else he will put me on medication so that I wouldn’t move. I was disappointed and more conscious not to move my body parts. This time I was successful.

Follow up appointment:

Big day! Ortho said my ACL is fully torn and I have to go through surgery. As an alternative I can go through Physiotherapy but no guarantee that I will not need surgery. Ortho took me through the ACL reconstruction surgery video. At this point, I knew they are going to get into my knee and shave torn tissue, open tunnel etc., nothing pleasant. I was warned of severe pain post surgery and no travel. Being fast in decision making, I wanted to schedule surgery appointment for following Tuesday to get the surgery done but I am married. I have to take consensus before making decisions and I had orthodontic appointment following week to check on braces.

Orthodontic appointment:

After 20 months of having braces and restricting myself on biting few food items like burger, I am tired of braces. Doc asked me to keep them for few more weeks. I requested him to take them off to be ready for surgery so that I don’t have to come to this doc post surgery. Thus! Braces are removed. From orthodontics to orthopedics now.

Second opinion:

I am restless between surgery and physiotherapy. Everyone around me had their say. Even people who doesn’t have a clue about ACL and pain had their say. I wanted to get an appointment with Physiotherapist to get his view. I called pro-club and they had orthopedics too but no surgery center. Good one, no business of pushing patients towards surgery. I visited doc for second opinion. He looked into my MRI reports and said, it’s all spaghetti inside now and I have to go through surgery. My question “did dance really do this”, he said it must be skiing or some other activity in December before dance and I did not realize it. He said dance wouldn’t cause such a damage. Alright, it feels reasonable now. I did my first time skiing during X-mas a week before NYE. No second guess on surgery, I can try PT but ACL re-construction wouldn’t happen on its own. I might be able to walk now after PT, but risk of falling down is same even after PT.

Conclusion:

Decided to go on surgery. Couldn’t wait. Called doc on Thursday to check on Tuesday slot but it was booked. I made some reasons to get faster appointment and they said, they will look into it. They did not update me anything later. Some guy who provides rental CPM and other post surgery equipment called me and said, he got an order to deliver this equipment to me by Friday as surgery is on Monday. I said, it’s a news. I did not know that I got surgery scheduled for Monday. Called doctor’s assistant and confirmed. Paid some annual deductible on Friday to get things going. Surgery experience in my next post.

We did not know about my recovery time from bed. We decided to make better week end. We went for a long drive to mountain loop again into snow (accidentally) :) and We watched silver linings. Enjoyed Spartacus.

New NPO in progress

Is it the time to shape my little chunks of ideas and interests? Is it the time to have a definitive goal towards giving back? A friend of mine initiated this idea of starting an NPO and made us all part of it. While we are in the process of structuring NPO, here are my ideas towards its name and vision, i am making it public to attract any suggestions -

Name of the NPO:

For me, name of the NPO itself doesn’t have to show the vision of the NPO. Name should be pleasant and closer to the members and targeted people of NPO. Something that represents India and intensions of the members (representing unity, clean intensions towards charity etc.,).

Names I liked in recent days are
• Samukyutha
• Cheyootha
• Baasata
• Sahaya spoorthi
• Names of kids we helped for operations in recent days (Pranay, Prathibha and I don’t remember other names).
• Some tweaks to white color.
• Name of the season like spring.
• Famous Telugu words.

I will be posting the same to my friends and getting their opinions too. I should be finalizing some name soon.

Vision of the NPO:

My 2 cents while NPO is being structured.

I stepped into many activities like following in the past

• Donations to NPO’s
• Volunteered NPO’s and spending some time with children.
• Pooled funds and handled operations for needy people.

But this was so random and my target was completing my instant interest of helping needy. I never aimed high or deep on this, but my baby NPO is in progress and I can put forward my thoughts, my experience and aim high.

My vision to adopt an NPO down in India and adopt a village to start with and arrange camps covering following

• Medical tests
• Tracking education progress and helping financially or other related stuff.
• Assignments on life science. Essentials like cleanliness and other stuff.
• Counseling children (and parents) and drive motivate them towards above mentioned items.
• Increasing re-usability awareness.

Agenda for every month should be prepared, discussed and centralized. Discussions can be achieved in the form of a thread and later finalized by committee members over conference call.

Apart from above, i would suggest focusing on operations to kids too.

Other than these, we will have to target on forming committees, forming a group (facebook or yahoo or google)and pledging everyone on donations.

Year 2010 reviewed

Reviewing 2010:

I know 2010 has been nice to me and it’s so plain. Still there are few nice things I want to recollect and pain things I have to review.

Departing to India beginning of this year:

No doubt, I had struggle staying in US last year. But when I decided to go back, my mind turned fresh and balanced (neither excited nor sad), going back to my home pacified visa issues and struggle. My flight kind of landed me into trouble during transit, but with fresh and balanced mind, I found this trouble nothing.

Completing stamping:

My plan after visiting India is to complete stamping and decide on my next steps. If I am successful in stamping, I already got a job to take up after 3 months. Stamping went successful and I hard coded my mind “I have a job waiting in 3 months and all I have to do is enjoy my stay at home”.

Good times with kids:

I never spent so much time with kids anytime in my life. Once I visited India, I stayed with my brother’s family in Pune. Here is my nephew (4) and niece (2). I watched all their comics along with them, I use to pick them from school sometimes, and I use to take them out sometimes, take my nephew to movies some times. We have been to Mumbai twice to watch t20 match. I remember the fun my nephew had when we watched a cricket match in an amphitheater. He loved cheer leaders there ;).

Special mention to a situation, where my nephew was hurt because of me. When he was unbearably mischievous during lunch, I had to handle him hard out of frustration and he fell down from couch (I didn’t see him sitting at the corner). His hand was hurt for at least 2-3 weeks and he missed his dance programs and stuff at annual day celebrations. I felt myself sick for being hard (though part of it was mistake, you cannot bring back his annual day celebrations).

D-time:

3 months are over. Now I am in Kadapa, having discussions with “I” company. I got an offer to join Chennai location (after 3 months of simple and long interview process). Now they tell me” we don’t do visa transfers”. It is all a mess now. I spoke to “M” people and worked out with “S” and I booked tickets next day. There was nothing much I could do here. Late night long distance calls concerned mom and Dad a little as I keep too many things in dark some times.

Seattle En route Houston:

I took Emirates. I decided to pay more, spend more time in flight and avoid BA. I reached Houston, met my employer and took pot full of Chivas Regal. Hang over after long time and in 6 hours flight to Seattle. Everything was much comfortable than earlier this time.

Casino’s and crazy stuff:

I won 600 on my first visit to Casino (poker). Thus, I loved it. I didn’t believe in beginners luck and thought it’s my poker talent. You have to pay for wrong analysis and I did the same in coming weeks. I don’t want to talk about crazy things which happened later. These incidents only kicked my inner impression on” being dark” (when you start making relation with non-human stuff, you are to be reviewed immediately).

Activities and self-analysis:

Finally I ended with me, myself with more activities. I stepped into gym, hiking, climbing, snow-shoeing etc. these are lot of activities to keep you occupied. But there are various occasions where my weak nesses took over me. My poor self-marketing skills, my lack of continuous focus, my curiosity (taking poor decisions later) surfaced back and slapped me saying “you have few gaps to be filled to be complete”.

I give this year 3.5/5 for being soft and plain to me.

SFO trip for Thanks Giving 2010

Quite honestly, after staying for 3 months in Fremont last year, if I have to go back to SFO it would only be to enjoy night life, bicycling and etc stuff. So when Bhanu and Phani proposed a trip to SFO, I reluctantly accepted it. I sniffed on how it’s going to be? On a discussion, I proposed down town, golden gate bridge, Alcatraz, pier 39, 17 mile drive and Livemore temple as the famous places to visit.
There were couple of hiccups due to snow on Monday, but we took a start on Wednesday morning. So members of our gang are Bhanu, Phani, Sajay, Sowjanya (w/o Bhanu) and Divya (w/o Phani). Our vehicle, white colored Chrysler. If you have seen our gang before, you would only notice us for spontaneous and crazy fun (not much by me and Sajay though).

Day 1:

When we started at 5 AM in the morning on Wednesday, Phani was our pilot. We have 4 drivers on record just to make me comfortable. Bhanu extensively used Facebook check-in feature for IPhone at every road and made people perceive that we are having blast. Our first stop was Portland rest area. It was so damn cold and we couldn’t have our home made breakfast (Idly) comfortably. Sajay took over the driving seat for next couple of hours and we stopped at some unknown (means I don’t remember) rest area. Here I heard some good news, a call from MS that I cleared first few rounds of interview and asked me to be prepared for final round next week. We had lunch here and we started off. Ash ford drive is recognizable drive surrounded by Snow Mountains and curvy roads cleared from snow so soon. It ends Portland and takes us to California. No need to give any special mentions on California roads, they are the best. As soon as we entered California, bright sun was awaiting us and certainly a view for Seattlites. It was at 8:30 we reached Fremont

We checked into Homestead, Fremont. I give it top position from the bottom of all the hotels I have stayed. Roll away bed was listed on the site, but hotel just got 3 roll away beds for so many rooms and they didn’t offer one to us. Some essential stuff was not given too. We had dinner and immediately slept as it was a long day.

Day 2:

I took over the driving seat and we started at 9 AM to SFO down town. Headed to Pier 39 straight, not many sea lions were available for us to watch. We had couple of photo sessions at piers and fisherman’s wharf. Later we visited wax museum. I wish I haven’t seen it. After visiting Madame Tussuads in London, it seemed below average to me. We decided that morning to go to New Delhi restaurant near union square. So, after wax museum we headed to this Indian restaurant and we missed directions for some time after that tiresome first half (of the day). Bummer, restaurant is closed for thanks giving. We took a turn back to have taco at Mexican restaurant, but same there. Subway had no sitting tables. We hopped on to Tian Sing, a chinese restaurant to experience the pathetic service. No one was content with quantity of food or quality of service. Our next visit is to Golden gate bridge, I didn’t find any one enjoying the bridge but I walked on bridge for some time and I bet, it’s the best experience one can have.

I have called my engineering senior friend Sateesh and we fixed on meeting that night for a movie. We all went to Orange movie. Orange is about the age of love and honesty. Honestly, I liked the movie if not the best. It was not the same with others around me. I desperately needed some drinks though we are so tired. I took Sajay and Sateesh to some nearest bowling arena and had drinks. Then we left Sateesh at Sunnyvale and planned to meet him later.

Day 3:

17 mile drive, Monterrey, CA

One of the best drives I have experienced last year. We reached there at around afternoon and had lunch at Anbrosia Indian restaurant. Not a great lunch, but ambience is appreciated. We had fun time at one point and I am little disappointed to say that we neither covered all points nor any one enjoyed the drive. I don’t want to talk about rest of the evening. It was certainly fun.

Day 4:

Downtown and temple:

We visited Livermore temple, one of the best temples I have seen in US and glad that everyone experienced the sacred feeling. I met Sailaja, my friend/partner during some social activities down in India. We maintained a school at Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad in a slum for a year. I have visited her after long time and it was good to see her again. We headed down town to visit Crook Street, china town and etc. More than Crook Street, our struggle to get off the steep uphill road on Lombard will be on memories. It was not an easy drive and we scared the vehicle behind us to hell. Crook street is very good scenic spot (but not worth our drive I feel, it may be easy drive for drivers who are used to such conditions). After a photo session at Crook Street, we visited few shops and thanks me, I didn’t take anything. We played some rummy after reaching hotel.

Day 5:

We headed back to Seattle. Except for couple of traffic jams due to crash, everything was smooth.

New Activities

I love to meet new people and know them. Later, I observe them and later, I absorb part of their activities as well. If you ask me, who inspired you to get into this activity, “I don’t know” will be the honest and right answer because I don’t track it, but I am planning to track it now

Shooting:

It’s been long time, I thought of “shooting” ranges. But I didn’t know where to start. I left it there as I had no clue on how to start it.
I have chosen to close this bad week end with a movie on Sunday night. My self and Subhash checked into “Due date” at regal cross roads, Bellevue. Movie is about two strangers who end up in a road trip for few days. It got some unusual action and unhealthy comedy sequences but not every movie is “hangover”. It still got some ridiculous comedy worth your ticket price. I enjoyed the movie and was happy to end the week end with a good note. Bummer, my car got flat tyred and I don’t have road side service covered in my insurance. So, estimated cost given by my insurance company is 68$ and minimum of 1 hour for towing the vehicle. I am used to these unexpected incidents which will test you during bad times. I called in Sajay (my roommate) and realized that we can fix it with the help of AAA and called them. I didn’t want to waste that lag time and I offered another movie to my friends  (movie after movie, I am fine with it unlike others). We started playing video game for 2 quarters and some gun shooting game. It triggered my interest towards shooting and I proposed it to my 2 friends there and they were ready for it. So, I made an enquiry with Wade’s guns, Bellevue. They offered a package for beginners. We visited them following week, there was a small training on how to handle the gun without hurting yourself and others. Trainer also decided that my left eye is dominant and I have to do left hand shooting. We took some easy targets and started off with 0.22 caliber pistols and then jumped on to semi -automatic pistol. It is a kind of experience I want to have again and I want to try more guns.

Whole big poker tournament and new rummy buddies:

On the same bad week end, one of my friends offered me to join their poker tournament following week. It’s just a 5$ check-in and far better compared to my 200$ investment for 0$ output. Again, I took along Subhash and Sajay with me for this tournament. This tournament went on for like 6 hours and finally I took a poor decision and got eliminated in last table. But, 6 hours for 5$, that’s like greatest thing for me. I just hopped on to my friends place (Bhanu) and we started rummy there, thus I got rummy buddies too. I came back home at 1 AM that night after lot of activities.

Rock Climbing:

When I been to hiking for my first time formally (I call it formally because I did many informal hikes at India), I was thinking about mountain climbing. But I don’t have any directions again. So I gave up. I was always impressed with TG’s activities. Her face book page is full with pics of so many activities. When my cricketing season is over, I immediately emailed her about snowboarding and rock climbing. Busy girl took a week to reply me and offered a free rock climbing training. Wohoo! What else do I need, a nice group and a nice start off, I happily accepted the offer and started off climbing yesterday. She helped with couple of easy climbs (5’6’’ and 5’7’’). I did 4 climbs well and 5th one, I couldn’t and I just gave up. I know I easily give up. Yes, something to work on. Thank full to TG.

Snowboarding, I am coming soon.

Deepawali - One such memorable festival

Is there any Indian festival, which doesn't mark the end of evil? I rarely come across such except for the birthday's of God (which is often referred as Birth of Good to end evil), so its again one and same. But the way we celebrate each festival definitely changes the pattern of one's life. Change may be unrecognized and invisible, but i still believe in it.

Talking about Deepawali, Shop keepers launch opening ceremony a week before festival by opening stalls. We step into festive environment by bugging parents to buy more clothes and crackers. Lay over between the time we buy fire crackers and the time we crack them is all an exciting phase. Every evening we feel like journey to cloud 9.

With a slight variation to other festivals, Deepawali starts evening. So, our foot hardly stay on ground during the last hour of the school. On the way home, we feel the festival, every home got smile on its face.

When dusk makes an entrance, clay lights at every home lightens the place. Very symbolic philosophy. I have reached cloud 9. Mom lightens the home and places fire crackers on Wool stiched holder (dont know the exact term). I know they are not all we got and other fire crackers are hidden. But yeah, we have to fire them economically as festival is for 3 days. Except for deaf and old people, every one will be on street firing crackers. You will see some adventorous guys making some adventures (like firing rockets horizantally, i did that after my schooling :)) and your parents will be watching you to make sure you run a mile away from fire cracker as soon as you fire it. This is the right time to take on some painful neighbours (those who mess with you). All you have to do is, fire crackers at 12 AM in front of their home. Its fun. As we will have to celebrate the festival for 3 days and my father's peanut budget to crackers is inversely proportional to my excitement (and me and my brother has to share crackers), it was always incomplete. But yes, Mom know the art of solacing. The word "we still have festival tommorrow" makes it complete.

Our family used to celebrate next day morning and i don't see many families doing it. One extra session brings edge over neighbours and makes neighbour hood kids jealous. Wow, this is a complete feeling. It ends during night. We clear everything. Though we crave for more. But that's it. Deepawali is over.

Oops, did i miss the part of sweets and new clothes? They can be ignored. For other festivals, they definitely take front seat, not for Deepawali.

My writing got a long break and my mind is so occupied with some crap now. I have a good feeling that i am going to set off everything after this writing and work on new resolutions.

Inter state trip for labor day week end

It was just Portland for labor week end 2009. This time, it’s whole different experience. There is no long plan involved, Agassi just asked me to come to Santa Ana for long week end and the thread got extended in a random manner.

September 3rd 2010 - South California by South West

It was total different experience with South West. There was no seating assignment and you will be given code somewhere between {A1 to A60} to {C1 to C60} with good priority to passengers who planned and brought their tickets early. Though i was allotted B20's, i got window/Aisle every time. Crew was totally attentive. Ah! I don't like middle-aged crew, but it happens with every airline in US. There was lay over at Las Vegas, so in a way, South West gave me first LV experience. It started with amazing view of red rocks and red soil. Curiosity level doubled while departing LV to Santa Ana. On reaching Santa Ana, took a cab to La Quinta Inn hotel. Surprised, to see unhappy cab driver though I offered $2 tip for 10$ worth travel. Hotel receptionist was the first happy person i saw after landing. Dropped my luggage and planned to hang out whole afternoon, when asked for the right place, hotel guys pointed me to south coast mall. Couldn't really understand what makes mall a hang out place. But with no option, went ahead. Again, i could see no smile around that area.
So, high lights of the day were "lay over at LV", "Lunch at Italian Cafe and tasty wine", "Dinner at Indian restaurant".

September 4th 2010 - On our way to Grand Canyon

Here comes Agassi, Suman later joined by Vinay and Rakesh. Agassi is the only person known to me, but it wasn't long for others to have easy talk. We started off with lunch at "traditions" and then buying camera and aux cable at radio shack. It was an eye feast watching Californian Mountains and then Arizonian red mountains. We reached best western hotel at Williams and took rest. Denny's was real bad experience for us. I vowed myself never to visit Denny's again. They took one hour for our To-Go, which almost made our friends sleep after tiresome drive and they were defiant.

September 5th 2010 - Canyon Experience

Till now, it was more of food and drive experience, activity actually started today.

We booked Jeep Safari at 11:15 AM from Grand Canyon to visit Canyons. We were to be picked at 11:00 AM at McDonalds. So, we went around and William's beauty and its railway station. We didn't count on minutes as we had lot of photography. At 11:10, we realized that we are 60 miles away from Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon also got Best western hotel and McDonalds sitting closer. So we missed Jeep tour and management was kind enough to void our charge. Same people booked our Helicopter tour for afternoon. We reached Grand Canyon and rushed to check-in at Helicopter tours to make sure we won't miss it again. But it was a windy day and we were asked to expect delay. So we were off for lunch and by the time we came back, stage is set for tour. We missed safety video and rushed to helicopter. We couldn't wait any more for that exciting trip. We posed for a pic and soon started our trip after fitting safety equipment. Though pilot was less interactive, we got over this when we were over canyons. Awestruck! Once in a life time experience. We had some bumpy ride due to winds, but it is all negligible after flying closer to Canyons. Nothing else was closer to exciting after this tour.

September 5th 2010 night - Entering Sin city

Traffic was not that bad. Everyone was super excited to visit LV. It started off with Hoover dam followed by few Casino’s followed by stunning view of Vegas. Is there any one, who is not excited about Vegas? From the day i started poker, i always wanted to play at Vegas. I hated slow moving traffic, not even interested in capturing alluring view of Vegas. Want to sit at table as quickly as possible. We crossed MGM, and decided to make fortune at Bellagio. Couldn't get parking for long time. Oh no! We got it early and we were waiting for other car to back off. As it was taking time, we allowed the car behind us to move on. It may be funny/foolish, but we considered it rude behavior to make our-self comfortable :-). It is downtown Vegas...Moved on and took a room at Bellagio. Woo! Hot girls, well dressed people. We are so tired and i wanted to step into room ASAP to avoid being odd.

There are many items in fridge, but touch it if you want it, otherwise ignore it. They got motion sensors..loll..if you have to use internet, you have to pay. Man! Insane prices and limited facilities. I stepped into poker room and started off losing 100$ (I got 2 K's, but 2 8's won the game..dang). I continued with another 100 and made decent profit of 110$ on a whole. Later i stepped into Vegas streets along with Suman. We had dinner-fast at Subway and continued to mm..some other places.

Again visited Bellagio and played Blackjack and made profit of 75$.

September 6th 2010 - Back to Santa Ana

Pretty tired and back in La Quinta. Postponed my flight few hours late so that i can sleep enough. It was so sad, but unavoidable, had to come back to Seattle on 7th by South West.