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1:72 Grumman/General Dynamics F-111B "Beta Tomcat"


Navy Bird

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I hope you are able to get home soon Bill. Keep rested and get well soon :).

 

Best regards

TonyT

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That's not good to hear Bill, best wishes on a speedy recovery.

 

Don't feel like you need to rush back, it'll give us a chance to re-stocked up on popcorn for the next installments.

 

Take care

 

Rich

 

..and a few dancing Penguins to help cheer you up. :penguin::penguin::penguin::penguin::penguin::penguin::poop::penguin::penguin:  :D

 

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Finally! I am home from the hospital - nine days is long enough. The x-rays show that the right side pleural effusion is gone, no sign of any fluid. After they got as much fluid as they could with the chest tube, they used an ultrasound machine and a centesis needle to drain the remaining isolated pockets. They had about a centimeter margin from puncturing my lung. No fun at all. I can't believe how much fluid they took out, and nasty looking stuff at that, like bloody mucus.

 

Twice each day I went through this routine where they would put anti-blood clotting medicine into the chest tube, and then I would lay on my left side for half an hour, then on my right side for half an hour. Problem is when laying on my right side, I’m laying right on the chest tube/stopcock – and it hurt!

 

When the sinus infection was diagnosed, they identified the bacteria as some form of strep. Since I was on antibiotics prior to going to the hospital, the tests they ran on the fluid from the effusion showed multiple infections ("clusters"), but none of the cultures grew. They don’t know whether it was the same bacteria or something different. So I remain on wide-spectrum antibiotics, nothing targeted.

 

In the hospital, someone has to do something to you about every two hours. So I had no meaningful sleep for nine days. And then I didn’t sleep well last night – in my own bed. Kept waking up. About every two hours.

 

Anyway, I am extremely fatigued. It hurts when I breathe. And we have a family holiday planned starting next Saturday. This may be OK - we rented a beach house in Delaware, and we have the whole family plus a bunch of in-laws coming down. We'll be driving to Delaware, and I just have to sit in the passenger seat. Once we're there, I don't have to do anything other than sit on the beach or sit by the pool. It should be quite relaxing. Everyone else can do all the work. Wifey won't allow me not to go, so I'll milk it for what it's worth.   :)

 

I hope to do some work on the F-111B this coming week as I start to feel better. I do breathing exercises with a spirometer every hour, and I can see some slight progress in the inspired volume of air already. Not close to my target yet, but I'll get there!

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Good to hear that you're back home Bill :).

 

Good heavens that sounds like a very challenging hospital experience :o!

 

You certainly are very resilient. It sounds like you need to sleep for around a week.

 

It sounds like the holiday could do you good, especially with good weather, to try to help dry up the infection. I hope the car journey isn't too far and it's a nice comfortable car.

 

Great to see you back. I know you don't need any of us to say take at nice and steady, but I just did :D!

 

All the best

TonyT

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Great to hear you are on the mend Bill. Didn't that doctor say something about taking some modelling on holiday to help you relax? Surely Mrs Bill wouldn't stop you carrying out doctor's orders!

 

Martian the Helpful

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10 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Great to hear you are on the mend Bill. Didn't that doctor say something about taking some modelling on holiday to help you relax? Surely Mrs Bill wouldn't stop you carrying out doctor's orders!

 

Martian the Helpful

 

Now that sounds like a plan! Good show, Martian!   :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

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On ‎11‎/‎06‎/‎2017 at 10:06 AM, Navy Bird said:

 

 Everyone else can do all the work. Wifey won't allow me not to go, so I'll milk it for what it's worth.   :)

 

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

Always good to have a man plan 

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Blimey. To say you have been through the wars would be a gross understatement.

 

Obviously your health is the most important thing, but we don't mind if you work your styrene magic too 👏👍🏻

 

In in the meantime, I found this......

 

http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2017/06/f-111b-hulk-mojave-scrapyard/

 

Trevor

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Hi mates,

 

Sorry to report that there is no way for me to finish the F-111B before the end of the Group Build. Rest assured I'll move the second half of the WIP over to the regular Aircraft Modelling WIP section and I'll finish her up over there.   

 

Unfortunately, I basically lost the month of June from my modelling schedule. From the 1st through the 9th I was in the hospital with the pleural effusion, then spent the next week recovering (slowly I might add!). I went with my family this past week to the beach house in Delaware, and did nothing but either sit on the beach or sit by the pool. I just wasn't strong enough yet to do much of anything else - and that includes drinking with my son and sons-in-law. Obviously I was not feeling 100%!   :) 

 

Now that I'm back home, I've learned that I have to return to the hospital this week for an Immunoglobulin G (IGG) transfusion. It would seem that my history of serious infections this year is due to low IGG levels. IGG are the antibodies that handle the majority of the body's defenses against infection. Essentially, I've had a significantly depleted immune system for several months, hence my inability to fight off what started out as relatively simple infections. Low IGG levels are not unexpected in cancer patients who have had the type of treatment regime that I went through. 

 

The IGG transfusion will probably require a few days recovery. Hopefully, it is a one-time event, but there is a remote possibility that it will need to be repeated. Let's hope not! My understanding is that it is quite expensive. My insurance will cover it, and my co-pay isn't too bad. But who knows what brilliant ideas might come out of Washington, DC to "improve" healthcare. Ugh.

 

Cheers for now,

Bill

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Sound like a bundle of laughs Bill, not! Hope the IGG treatment does the job, you've had a crappy time of late & [selfinterest] we miss you modelling skills here[/selfinterest] ;):D

A bit more about the -B that Trevor linked to above. A furkle around on Google Earth found it in a scrap yard on the north side of Route 58 just off the south east end of Mojave's Runway, it was there in may 2009 according to the imagery date, but gone a year later. Some info about it in this thread from Wreckchasers.

Take care.

Steve.

Edited by stevehnz
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Hi Bill, welcome back!

 

I was going to press the 'like' button on your last post but thought it wasn't appropriate, so instead I hope the ongoing treatment is successful and that you get back to plastic fettling asap.

 

Regards

 

Trevor

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Bill, I hope that this all goes well, and you have the best outcome, all your health issues over the years are something that requires stamina to carry on, something you seem to have in spades..

 

I am sure that SWMBO looks after you very well, and good on her for that

 

We are all sending you our very best wishes  

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That's ok Bill, it's more important that you get yourself fit and well again.

 

I look forward to following this again when you're back all fit and well.  

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9 hours ago, stevehnz said:

A bit more about the -B that Trevor linked to above. A furkle around on Google Earth found it in a scrap yard on the north side of Route 58 just off the south east end of Mojave's Runway, it was there in may 2009 according to the imagery date, but gone a year later. Some info about it in this thread from Wreckchasers.

 

Thanks, Steve. It's really a shame that 152714 was scrapped. I believe that she was stripped of all usable parts at MClellan AFB prior to ending up in the scrapyard. Not sure where I read that - Tommy's monograph I think. It would have been difficult to restore her as a museum display, but still. I just hate seeing something that rare destroyed. And even things that weren't rare - I cringe when I see the videos of the F-14s being shredded at the boneyard. At least there are a lot of those in museums, and even some still flying!

 

And thanks for introducing me to the word "furkle." Gotta remember to use that one!   :) 

 

5 hours ago, Max Headroom said:

I was going to press the 'like' button on your last post but thought it wasn't appropriate, so instead I hope the ongoing treatment is successful and that you get back to plastic fettling asap.

 

Thanks, Trevor! I want to get back to fettling as well - perhaps I can find some time prior to this IGG transfusion. I just read that it requires thousands of donors to prepare the blood plasma that I'll be getting, which is probably why the treatment is so expensive (here in the USA, donors can get paid). Based on my blood type, I can only receive AB plasma - not sure if that's more difficult to come by than other types. Oh well, not to worry, just do it and get back to the rest of my life - which includes a stash that's not getting any smaller. Are my kits reproducing or something?

 

4 hours ago, Graeme H said:

Bill, I hope that this all goes well, and you have the best outcome, all your health issues over the years are something that requires stamina to carry on, something you seem to have in spades..

 

I am sure that SWMBO looks after you very well, and good on her for that

 

We are all sending you our very best wishes  

 

Thanks so much Graeme. Although I poke fun at Memsahib every now and then, she is the most fantastic caregiver. There is just no way I would have made it through all of this stuff without her. I feel guilty putting her through it all (and I know that I shouldn't) and am always trying to make it up to her. But it's her nature, and I am so fortunate that she's been with me for 42 years (and counting). 

 

4 hours ago, trickyrich said:

That's ok Bill, it's more important that you get yourself fit and well again.

 

I look forward to following this again when you're back all fit and well.  

 

Thanks, Rich. I've always wanted an F-111B in my USN collection, and this Group Build was the motivation for me to start the project. But life intervened, and there's not much you can do about that. The model will be finished, though, there is no doubt about that! Thanks for hosting the group.   :) 

 

Cheers,

Bill

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As others have already said health is definitely more important than a model. Take care with your recovery and I really do hope that all goes well with the IGG treatment. It has been nice to see this build especially with all the differences between the B's themselves let alone with other types of F-111s, I only thought that it was a short nose and long wings. I do hope that this is completed to its logical conclusion.

Edited by Jabba
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