Saturday, October 17, 2020

Pocket Preparedness

I have had a KelTec P3AT as a backup and pocket gun since a few months after they came out, back in 2003... In fact, it was the second handgun I bought for myself when I came back from Ireland, at the very end of '03.

I've had a pocket clip, a CT laser (because the sights are more... notional than actual let's say) and a 9 round extended mag with grip extension, since all of those products came out as well... Along with a DeSantis nemesis pocket holster with the "wallet flap". In that holster it really does look like a largish wallet in your pocket. 

After about 7 years of daily pocket carry, and range trips one to four times a month... between 1000 and 1500 rounds of +p carry ammo (two 9rd and one 6rd mag each range trip, for 7 years), and another 1500 or so rounds of practice ammo (I'd usually fire three full mags of practice ammo as well, plus the breakin and testing round count) it became my secondary pocket gun, as I had acquired and customized a Smith and Wesson 340pd (a titanium/scandium/aluminum ultralight .357 revolver, to which I added a full four finger grip sized CT laser grip, and an XS big dot front sight... both of which I strongly recommend). 

As it happens, I got the 340pd while the P3AT was out to KelTec for warranty repair. Unfortunately, KelTec chooses not to use stainless steel springs (to be fair, it is an under $300 gun, and stainless is 3 times the price of mild steel) and with 7 years of daily carry, and all the heat and humidity and salt that entails, the hammer spring broke, having corroded enough to weaken itself. 

From then on, I haven't shot the P3AT nearly as much... probably less than 500 additional rounds total (I shot 100 through it on return from repair just to make sure it was good to go, and only sporadically shot it after that).

Now... my remaining firearms spent two years in police storage in New Hampshire, and I only just got them back recently... And "somehow" in that two years, the two 9 round extended mags "disappeared", leaving just the 6rd standard mag... and "somehow", the hammer spring broke again. I got it back with the hammer spring broken clean through, and hanging out in space inside the grip frame. 

Oh, and my other holster, a hand made leather wallet style holster (not an aow, just really nicely made) was also missing "somehow".

...Well I no longer have the 340pd, and I still have need of a pocket gun and backup gun... 

..And I found out that someone makes a stainless hammer spring, stainless extra power recoil spring for +p ammo, and a stainless guide rod, to add some weight and rigidity at the front end.

...They're on order right now. Hopefully I'll get them next week. 

I also managed to find exactly ONE single grip extension mag in stock, anywhere in the entire country. That should be here next week as well... Because never mind the extra capacity, the grip extension nearly doubles the useful grip length, and makes the gun more pleasant and more accurate to shoot... making it worth the SUBSTANTIAL markup from MSRP.

I've added a couple pictures, so you can see just how small the P3AT is... its actually just about smaller than the palm of my hand... and how little grip I can get on it without the mag and grip extension. I also added a pic of the extended mag with grip extension, so you can see just how much it improves my grip on the gun... and what the heck, might as well include a shot of the new stainless parts I ordered (hammer spring, recoil spring, guide rod, and some wrap around sticker grips).

Anyway...all of this means that, hopefully, my pocket and backup gun will be up and running next week... Which is a good thing.

Friday, October 09, 2020

Well... Hell... Time for Round 5

 





I have been struggling with when and how to talk about this for a while now...

A few months ago, my blood sugar started rising again... after having been falling on its own without requiring insulin for almost 2 years. I also started having recurrence of other symptoms, which I had experienced 4 times before...

As it happened, I was starting a new job, and my new health insurance wouldn't be active until September 1st... and then I had to get a new endocrinologist and get the process of confirming the diagnoses started. 

I just got the ultrasound report back today... Its been an almost two month process to get here... and the cancer is definitely back.

Well... hell...

The good news... so far it doesn't look bad. Only 13 suspect masses, 10 of which are small and may not be cancerous. 3 larger ones are definitely cancer... they're all more than in inch in every direction.

That said, they are all round or ovoid, and they're free not implanted or infiltrated... I can actually move one of them around with my fingers its close enough to the surface... and the larger ones seem to be encapsulated well. 

Those are all good signs. 

I've also had supporting blood work, which was mostly good... my CEA, creatinine, calcitonin, and thyoid antibodies are all good... which means there is no recurrence of medullary or C-cell anomaly cancers. My thyroglobulin was pretty ridiculously high (1800) and theres some kidney damage that is probably leftover from the rhabdo and the paraneoplastic insulin resistance... but may indicate spread elsewhere. 

Next steps are biopsies of the masses, and then a full body contrast MRI to look for distant masses.... particularly on other organs. 

The good news is it looks like there was no spread into my chest... the cancerous nodes all seem to be among the few left in my neck after the last three radical neck dissections. None of them were in the mediastinal area, which would indicate direct spread... There's still a chance for distant spread, but hopefully it's just local lymph nodes... the MRI will confirm.

So... hopefully, the solution should be just another round of surgery... maybe another round of radiation after... we'll see. 

My work is 100% supportive of me, it should all be good there. And I should be able to work right up to the surgery, and be back working the next week.


Monday, October 05, 2020

Alternate Means of Communication

 

If anyone wants to arrange more secure messaging that respects users privacy, I'm on Signal, and I strongly recommend it to others. 

I've switched mobile providers and was unable to port my old number, so I've got a new Signal account. Message me directly to arrange contact transfer.

Oh, and in case anyone wants to connect there, I'm also on MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/cbyrneiv

And on Parler: https://parler.com/profile/Cbyrneiv

Though I don't really do much with either, since there isn't much to do, or many to do it with.

And of course, like everyone I'm still on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/cbyrneiv/

And twitter at: https://twitter.com/chrisbyrne