About
I was born and raised in Washington State and lived there until after I graduated high school. During my high school years, I worked for McDonald’s mostly as well as a local pizza place called Alfy’s. From there I entered the United States Air Force where I worked as a Structural Maintenance Specialist on KC-135 Strato Tankers, B-52 and B1 bombers.
After my short duration tour in the USAF, I returned to work managing McDonald’s along with various other odd jobs for several years. I helped with marketing in real estate offices in Washington as well as worked as a professional temp (if there is such a thing). I finally landed a good position with a company I liked in the electronics industry however soon after had a motorcycle accident. As it took me several years to recover I had to return to living with my parents - when they moved to Arizona, it was my destiny as well.
Arizona was another life changing time for me. I attended college for a while taking classes that I liked, but still not having the drive to acquire a degree. However my hours and years spent behind the computer were about to pay off. After taking a job setting up a BBS (before Internet time) at a minimal wage, the experience paid off ten fold and I started working for companies like Williams Telecommunications and SCINET Medical Management systems in Arizona. I did a lot of consulting in the 1990’s as PC’s sales were hot and Dell was not around yet.
During the dot com boom time, I helped develop a software package called Sitemerger. It was very similar to what Dreamweaver is but more for the enterprise; heavily template based with centralized media databases. There is nothing like a project to help you learn to code. Never before had I coded so many lines and this time in C++ integrating with COM, MFC and the full line of IE SDK’s starting at 4.0. I worked with an excellent team at this time and our leader Gary Arnold was the type of person you use to measure others by. An exciting period that ended the way it was destine too, which lead us to where we are today in Costa Rica.
Complications
After the completion of SiteMerger and its sale, the time spent on the keyboard was starting to tax my body. The pain in my wrists and elbows was worsening. I had a cyst growing out of my left wrist in 2001.
That cyst would continue to grow as I continued to work to care for my family. After leaving Graphix Softech on our first return from Costa Rica, my hands were continuing to get worse. Finally in 2005 I had carpel tunnel surgery on my right hand and the cyst removed from my left.
Unfortunately the cyst happen to grow through my nerve. To remove the cyst meant cutting and cauterize the nerve. "In order to prevent painful neuroma’ I remember the doctors notes stating. It didn’t work. In fact, it has only worsen.
Now I have been in extended pain management for going on four years. It has been a life changing experience. One I am trying to be comfortable enough with to share. Just in case there are others out there trying to work through similar problems.