Broken Foot

X-ray of fractured metatarsal

One Accident-Recounting to Rule Them All

Many have heard by now about my foot, but I've been inconsistent in how much I felt like retelling the story when various people have asked. So I'm going to write it up here, and refer people here for the details.

One-Stop Pub Crawl

The in-laws visited last week. On Wednesday night, Forrest's brother, Ari, stayed over at our house so we could do a "pub crawl" with our friends Jerry and Aaron. We ended up staying at the first bar we went to: Ballard Smoke Shop, my favorite locals' bar in Seattle. They pour cheap but strong drinks, and are always friendly in a down-to-earth, no-nonsense sort of way.

Walking Without Rhythm

After several drinks, we started walking the 1.5 miles back to our house. We were definitely buzzed, but no one was weaving or stumbling or talking funny or anything like that.

I forget how the subject came up, but I started talking about the funny dance/walk thing that Christopher Walken does in the music video Weapon of Choice. The lyric goes, "Walk without rhythm, and you won't attract the worm" (which is a Dune reference). I started to demonstrate the silly walk.

Unfortunately, I happened to start walking in this exaggerated, unstable manner right at the corner, where the sidewalk slopes down for wheelchair ramp access. My bad right ankle, which I have twisted before, rolled on the uneven ground. I fell onto my left side. Somehow, I skinned my left elbow and knee without tearing my jacket or pants — luckily, this means I got more of a "rug burn" than dirt and gravel dug into my skin.

Bruising at my ankle and toes

I'm pretty sure I would have twisted my ankle regardless of whether I'd been drinking before; this is the ankle I've rolled several times over the years, and it's prone to injury these days. But maybe I would have tried to catch myself while falling. But then maybe I would have hurt my wrist too? Or gone down harder on the knee cap itself, rather than distributing my weight over my entire side? Being tipsy might have actually been a blessing in disguise. (I absolutely am willing to "walk silly" in public without any alcohol, so that wasn't a factor in the inciting incident. ;))

Painful Foot

I knew right away that I'd hurt my ankle pretty bad. I didn't even try to get up on it. Instead, I asked my friends to pull my fully onto the sidewalk and out of the street I'd half fallen into. (I'm grateful this was past midnight, so traffic was very light.)

In an encouraging note for humanity, no less than 3 separate strangers stopped and asked if I was okay. I looked up at each of them and calmly told them I'd just twisted my ankle, my friends could help me get home, but thanks for the concern.

They helped me stand up, and I thought I could still hobble on it. So Forrest helped me cross the street, continuing toward home. But we didn't even get halfway across the street before I realized my foot was hurt much more than the "usual" twists and sprains I'd had before. I really couldn't put any weight at all on the foot. So we ordered up an Uber taxi, even though we were less than a mile from home. (I learned that Uber has a $12 minimum. Worth it.)

Only 3 or 4 people could fit in the Uber car, so Jerry and Aaron graciously offered to walk home, leaving enough space for me, Forrest, and his brother to get back to our house. I'm really grateful that everyone was chill about me "ruining" the evening and having to cut the night a little short. Good friends.

Swollen foot, the day after

Dealing With the Injury That Night (smart)

At home, Forrest had the unenviable task of bandaging my skinned elbow and knee. Damn did that sting. (And, unfortunately, we didn't get the larger knee scrape cleaned enough. It's still sore a week later, so I suspect it might be mildly infected.) He helped me to bed, got me a bag of ice to get the swelling down, and gave me some ibuprofen. Once we'd done everything we could, I stayed lying down while he went back out to the living room to spend some more time with his brother.

In the half hour or so that it took for the combination of ice and ibuprofen to kick in, I was very uncomfortable and distraught with the pain of it. But finally the pain subsided to more manageable levels, and I fell asleep.

Ignoring the Injury the Next Day (not smart)

In the morning, I figured out a funky way of moving on my left foot, sort of a "twist and shout" dance maneuver to get enough momentum to slide on my sock while only on one foot. I also used the wood trim of the house to pull myself along; it made surprising good handholds. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to go in to work that Thursday, so I stayed home.

Between my semi-mobility and Forrest still visiting with his family, I didn't think I needed to take the time to go to a doctor. I figured it would heal up and be fine, just like the previous times I'd twisted the ankle. We went to dinner at The Met to celebrate his parents' 30th anniversary. I hobbled around, often with help from someone, definitely in pain, but I was determined to be as normally-mobile as possible. (Dinner was fantastic, as always.)

But everyone at dinner expressed concern about my hobbling, and insisted that I have a doctor look at my foot. So I agreed that I'd take a taxi to a walk-in clinic the next day.

We also stopped at the drugstore on the way home and bought me some crutches, so I could stop doing the twist and shout around the house. ;)

Diagnosis: Fractured Metatarsal, Undisplaced

And I'm glad I did have a doctor look at it. Because, as it turns out, I actually broke the damn foot.

The doctor gently poked at my foot in various places. Based on where it hurt (the ankle, a little; and especially mid-foot on the outside) and where it didn't hurt (anywhere along the inside of the foot), he said that pattern of pain was normally seen with a fractured metatarsal.

How does twisting an ankle break the foot bone, you ask? Read Dancer’s Fracture (5th Metatarsal Avulsion Fracture) for details. But basically, there's a ligament that goes between your ankle and the outside metatarsal. When you twist your ankle, sometimes that tears. But other times, it holds, and instead pulls on the base of the metatarsal it's attached to so strongly that it actually fractures the bone. That latter scenario is what happened to me.

Boot for my broken foot

I took a wheelchair ride down the hall to get x-rayed, then was wheelchaired back. The doctor came back in and told me the x-rays confirmed the fracture. As far as broken bones go, mine was relatively minor: it's not "displaced," meaning it didn't completely break of a chunk of bone; and it didn't even go all the way through the bone, either.

I asked him to scare me with what would happen if I ignore his recommendation to keep my weight off the foot; he laughed and said, "Oh, you're one of those personalities." :P The potential Bad Stuff was sufficiently bad that I have not tried to walk on the foot since my doctor's appointment. Surgery and pins in my foot are things I'd like to avoid!

The doctor offered a prescription for vicodin, but last time I had it (for my wisdom teeth) it made me nauseous, so I declined. He told me to be wary of talking any NSAIDs like ibuprofen, because it might interfere with bone healing. He instead recommended acetaminophen, although you have to be careful with the dosage and avoid drinking while taking it.

Finally, he got me a "walking boot" to semi-immobilize my foot and told me to follow up with my regular doctor in a week.

I'll know more about how it's been healing up, and how long to expect complete healing to take, this Friday at that follow-up appointment.

Treadmill Desk, Two Weeks Later

On April 11th, after months of toying with the idea of setting up a permanent treadmill at my work desk and asking my coworkers if they'd be bothered if I did so, I bought a (relatively cheap) treadmill off of Amazon. On April 16th, the treadmill was delivered. (Shout out to the amazing facilities crew at work, whose only questions were "when would it be convenient to you for us to bring the treadmill to your desk?" and "let us know if you need any help putting it in a vehicle later!")

Treadmill desk setup

It's been a little over two weeks of using the treadmill at work now, and I have to say: treadmill desks are awesome!

I had been using a standing desk for months, listening to my body: sitting when I was tired, standing when I was restless. I'd gotten to the point that I was standing most of the time. I think this has helped in my quick transition to the treadmill desk, which obviously doesn't allow for a chair at all. And anyway, I think walking is easier on your feet than standing still, at least for long periods of time.

When my feet really do want a rest, I just take my laptop over to the couch that's just 50 feet away and take a short break.

I am "allowed" the treadmill in an open office floor plan only at my coworkers' good graces. So the first thing I did to the treadmill after turning it on was disable its super-annoying, constant beeping.

Thankfully, the treadmill itself is only minimally noisy. Honestly, I think the tiny fan I bought is noisier than the treadmill. The important point is that no one at work has complained about the treadmill yet. On the contrary, even strangers have wandered over to ask variations on "what the heck is that?" and "how did you get it?" and "can you really type on that thing?" (Answers: a treadmill! with money! and yes, just as fast as before.)

Treadmill "desk" — a $6 shelf from Lowe's

The treadmill's computer console does not disconnect entirely, but its cords are long enough that I can set it down on my old standing desk and get it out of the way. The handlebars are welded to the base frame, and as such are not (easily ;)) removed. But they are horizontal enough that a $6 wooden shelf from Lowe's is extremely stable plopped across them. I thought I would have to somehow secure the plank to the handlebars, but so far it's shown no inclination to move and I haven't bothered.

From the photo of the treadmill's console hiding on the old standing desk, you might think that it's really inconvenient to use. Luckily, this treadmill model also has redundant controls at the ends of the handlebars, which stick out well beyond my shelf "desk". So I only need to reach across the desk to push the console buttons when I want to reset the statistics mid-day (which I almost never care enough to do; my Fitbit tracks all the stats I want).

Treadmill console sitting on the standing desk

As for the health benefits... Make no mistake, walking at a speed that doesn't interfere with creative computer work (ie, 1–1.5 mph) is not an aerobic workout. I barely break a sweat when I walk for an hour straight. But what it is better than is sitting my butt in a chair 8 hours a day, only to come home and sit on the couch until bedtime.

The treadmill does not replace my actual workout/gym time. But it does replace a large chunk of my 100% sedentary time that I otherwise couldn't get away from, given my job as a programmer.

Ask me how I feel about my treaddesk setup in two months... But after two weeks, I'm just mad I didn't decide to do this sooner!

How to disable the buzzer on a treadmill in 8 steps

I bought a treadmill to use at my standing desk at work. It's just a cheap one, the Exerpeutic TF1000 Walk to Fitness Electric Treadmill. Given that it's not a, uh, deluxe model, there is no way to control the volume of the beep it makes, nor a way to disable it.

And wow does it like to beep. It makes two beeps when you first power it on, to say that it's boot-up test completed. Then it beeps when you press the Start button, and it does a 3-beep countdown as it's about to start, and it beeps every time you modify the speed — which you have to do a lot, since it changes in only 0.1–mile increments.

Since I'm using this treadmill in an open office plan, that beep had to go. Even if I were using it the treadmill at home, I want that beep to go! So here is what I did to kill the annoying beep (do at your own risk, unplug the treadmill & ground yourself, etc etc):

Step 1: open the console

Open the console

Get a Phillips screwdriver and unscrew the back of the console.

Step 2: unscrew the circuit board

Unscrew the circuit board

Set aside the back of the console and unscrew the circuit board too.

Step 3: identify the buzzer

Identify the buzzer

See the little black cylinder in the top center of the circuit board? That is the buzzer that makes the terrible beeping!

Step 4: flip the circuit board over

Flip the circuit board over

Be careful when flipping over the circuit board — the LCD screen is just taped onto the board, not soldered, and it will fall off if you bump the board around too much. (If that happens, just put it back in place. The circuit board screws hold it in place.

Step 5: identify the trace to cut

Identify the trace to cut

On the back side of buzzer, identify the copper traces that connect to it. Those are the traces that need to be cut to shut up the buzzer. (See the next step, showing the trace cut, if you're not sure which ones I mean.)

Step 6: cut the trace

Cut the trace

Use an exacto knife or similar to cut the copper trace to the buzzer. (I didn't have an exacto knife handy, so I made do with a puship and a pair of scissors. I don't really recommend those tools, but they got the job done.)

Step 7: confirm the trace is cut

Confirm the trace is cut

Get some good light in there to verify that the copper is no longer continuous.

Step 8: make sure the buttons are "loose"

Make sure the buttons are 'loose'

When I first put the console back together, I realized that my Start button was stuck down on the left side, and pushed up on the right side. So I had to open the console up again, unscrew the circuit board to un-stick the button, jiggle things around until the button was "loose" again, and the re-close the console.

So! Make sure your button is not stuck before closing up the console.

Success! No more annoying beeps!

CrossFit Seattle: not a "cult" gym

So @PhDinParenting on Twitter shared a post their personal trainer wrote about CrossFit.

And I have to say whoa, that is not my CrossFit gym at all! Thankfully!

"Everybody does the same exercise, with the same load, for the same reps with absolutely no respect to form and technique. Get it up with any means necessary."

This is so opposite of my gym, CrossFit Seattle! My gym won't even let you join the group classes until you've done three 1:1 sessions with a trainer to focus exclusively on form, because they don't want you to just jump into classes, not know what you're doing, push yourself too hard, and hurt yourself.

Then, once you're in the group classes, each individual is lifting different weights, depending on ability. And the trainers absolutely modify exercises for newbies or people with medical conditions. Because I'm a weak newbie myself (everybody's gotta start somewhere), the trainers have lowered my weights, reps, or changed the exercise entirely to something more appropriate for where I'm at as an individual. The other members are equally supportive of starting at where you're at, which is great.

I've also seen no evidence of other cult-like aspects I've heard ascribed to CrossFit. Namely, I've seen no one encouraged to "work until they puke"(!), pressured into adopting toe-shoes, or converted to a Paleo diet. Everyone looks like they're working with high intensity, but in a sustainable manner, not a crazed manner. People wear a variety of things, and no one seems judgmental or even caring about what you're wearing. I've overheard two members talking after a workout about how they eat, but it seems like a normal conversation about health, not anything evangelical.

In short, I'm thankful that I chose my CrossFit gym based on coworkers' specific recommendations of it as a "non-cult-ish" CrossFit place. I think I'm getting a challenging yet safe workout from CrossFit Seattle.

Weight, Todos, Anniversary, and Jambool

The month of September: a summary... I struggled but succeeded in maintaining last month's weight loss, I found a todo app that works for me, and Forrest and I celebrated our 1-year anniversary. See also WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

LoseIt Weight, 2012-09

Weight: 5 pounds forward, 5 pounds back

I had gotten my weight down to 150 pounds at the start of the month — a weight I haven't been since last year! But then I had trouble not reverting back to my old eating habits while I spent a good chunk of the month visiting with friends in Seattle, so I regained a couple of pounds. I reapplied myself and eventually re-lost the pounds by the end of the month. So it goes.

Getting Things Done

I tried out several todo list apps. They're all very similar, but often missing one key feature or another. I eventually settled on OmniFocus (despite the hefty! price tag) on a personal recommendation. It's awesome! Instead of putting of chores that I know I should do but never feel like, my todo app "makes" me do them. Rent was zero days late! My bathroom countertop is clean! I followed up with terrible, I-really-want-to-avoid places like the DMV! It's been pretty awesome, really.

It works well for me because A) it syncs on both my Mac laptop and my iPhone (if I had non-Mac machines that I used regularly, OmniFocus wouldn't be the right choice), and B) it allows for infinitely nested projects with a rich set of recurring options (which appeals to the OCD in me).

It's not without its faults, but overall I'm glad I bought the licenses for the Mac and iPhone versions of the software.

Our 1-year anniversary

We took two days off work to have a long weekend together to celebrate our 1-year anniversary. It was very nice and relaxing. We had a fun time walking around downtown, strolling through Pike Place Market, etc. Oh, and we also spent the afternoon at the 40th-floor Starbucks, finishing up our wedding thank you cards. :/ But the etiquette rules all agree, we had until one year after the wedding. Perhaps the rules didn't mean it quite so literally, but there you have it. ;)

For the evening of the anniversary itself, we went out to a fancy steakhouse in Seattle, the Metropolitan Grill — best steaks I've ever had. They did not disappoint.

Jambool reunion dinner

Jambool reunion dinner

Near the end of the month, all the ex-Jambool folks got together in San Francisco for a 2-year post-acquisition reunion dinner. It was great to see everyone again and catch up.

HealthMonth Rules for March

HealthMonth March Rules

Tomorrow starts a new month, which means new rules for HealthMonth. My friend Ben (who got me into HealthMonth) will continue to participate, and I talked my middle sister into trying it out with me too!

I'm keeping all my February rules except one ("track meals every day" — because HealthMonth requires typing in the foods eaten, which was annoying duplication of effort with my calorie-tracking that I already do via Lose It). I'm keeping my exercise rule the same, increasing my German-studying rule from 4 to 5 days a week, and no longer allowing myself to count "stay below calorie limit" if I encroach into the 500-calorie-per-day deficit I need to lose weight. Finally, I'm keeping my writing rule, but lowering from the far-too-ambitious daily goal to just 3 days a week. Hopefully I can actually manage that one with a little effort (as opposed to losing tons of health points over it — evidence that I over-committed).

In addition to those February rules that I'm carrying over, I'm adding several new ones: floss every day, get up earlier, limit snacking, volunteer, and work on conlanging or personal programming projects.

Since there's no iPhone app for HealthMonth (yet), I made myself a lockscreen wallpaper to remind me of March's new rules. The red "badge" numbers mean the number of days a week I'm supposed to follow the rule.

The icons stand for the following rules:

1. floss 6 days per week [source]
2. stay under my weight-loss calorie limit 6 days per week [source]
3. exercise 5 days per week [source?]
4. study German 5 days per week [source]
5. get up before 10 AM 4 days per week [source]
6. snack only 4 days per week [source]
7. write 3 days per week [source]
8. eat fruit 3 days per week [source?]
9. do household chores 2 days per week [source]
10. volunteer 1 day per week [source]
11. program or conlang 1 day per week [source & ?]

HealthMonth: Good Peer Pressure

I'm up at 8:15 AM, and I'm blaming a combination of HealthMonth and Forrest.

Forrest has requested that, if I wake up before him, I should get out of bed rather than read in bed. Apparently he subconsciously notices some change when I'm reading rather than sleeping, and it eventually wakes him up. So there's that force.

Then the other force: HealthMonth. Ben introduced me to this website last month. It seemed more or less like any of the other social goal sites, nothing really special. Except that I had zero friends using any of the other sites out there, whereas Ben said he'd actually be using HealthMonth. I figured the social pressure might be helpful for motivation, so I signed up.

Now that February is almost done, I can honestly say I'm surprised by how much HealthMonth has been helpful. I've exercised more, eaten less, written more, and put more effort into studying German than I had in January.

I lose a point for each of my "rules" that I miss each day — which you wouldn't think would be a strong motivator, since those points don't mean anything except I "lose" the month if I run out of points. But just that simple gamification has made me tell myself, on more than one occasion, "c'mon, better walk today, or you'll lose a point for your exercise rule."

Strange psychology.

But anyway, the getting up early thing. Next month, I'm adding a new rule: get up before 10 AM at least 5 days a week. Forrest and I have slipped into the get-to-work-at-noon thing again, and while I love sleeping in, I do feel "lazy" for starting the day so late (even when I work the same amount as my coworkers, just on a shifted schedule). So I want to try getting up just a little earlier, more consistently, in the hopes that it has feel-good-about-myself benefits.

So when I woke up this morning and looked at my phone to check the time, I actually did think about next month's rule and decided to get up for "practice." How weird is that? Strange psychology, I tell you.

Fondue is Healthy, Right?

Today was a little lazier than the previous two days. My excuse is the my right foot's been hurting, so I skipped y half hour walk to give it some break time to recover. I'm planning on taking some friends cross-country skiing on Sunday, so I want to make sure my feet are in good shape.

I also indulged in some delicious Melting Pot chocolate dessert fondue, um, deliciousness. It was date night! Interestingly, even with that I'm only 250 calories above the lose-a-pound-a-week number of calories for the day. In other words, 250 below for weight maintenance. Not too terrible, and I did "plan" on a once-a-week semi-indulgent day... So log as I don't do that too regularly, and keep it as a treat, I should be good.

I wish I did enjoy the gym more. It's easier there. But I just get soooo bored. Maybe I should try rollerblading again. And set up my DDR home pads. Or drag Forrest out to a tennis course. :)

German

One unexpected Spanish interference with my German-learning is that I tend to make my H's silent. Oops!

Ich habe meine Lehrbuch, das heißt German: A Self-Teaching Guide, heute gelesen. Es lehrt mir viele neue Wörter. Aber habe ich nicht mehr zu sagen jetzt. (Korrekturen sind gutes! :))

Gym == Boredom

Exercise

Day 2 of HealthMonth, going strong! Well, all of me except the arch of my right foot; it's kinda achey, not so strong. I tried going to the gym at work today, intending to do 30 minutes on the elliptical machine instead of walking like yesterday. Within 5 minutes, I was bored to tears. I decided it would be better to do a less intensive workout that didn't make me hate exercise, y'know? As soon as I started walking outside, the boredom went away. So that's good to know about myself.

German

Heute sprach ich mit deutsche Leute im IRC. Ich habe über das Wort „Wort‟ gelernt. Es hat zwei Plurale. Lies diese.

Note: If you hover over the German text, it will translate itself into English for you.

Health, Happiness, and Hochdeutsch

Resolutions, Goals, Rules, Whatever

It's a new month, which is the new New Year. At the suggestion of a friend, I'm trying out HealthMonth for tracking weekly goals. Nothing too surprising here:

• Exercise for 30 minutes at least 5 days a week
• Stay under my calorie limit at least 6 days a week
• Track your meals at least 6 days a week
• Write or journal every day (blogging counts)
• Study German at least 4 days a week

I had been using Lose It to track my calories and eat more consciously, but I haven't logged in for a month or two now. So I started up again, to support my HealthMonth goals. HealthMonth uses gamification — points and teams — to encourage you. End of day 1 is looking pretty good. :)

Moving Back to California

So pretty much everyone who knows me in real life already knows this, but this month Forrest and I are moving back to California. When the startup we worked for was acquired by Google, moving to their headquarters in Mountain View was one of the conditions. So February 18th, we're packing up all our stuff and heading back to the Bay Area.

I've lived in Seattle since 2007, and we both really like the area. We had always strongly considered moving back to California... some day. We're not especially happy that we're being forced to move back sooner than we wanted to, however. (Despite great benefits and good pay. I know, I know, it's not really a horrible situation. I'm lucky that this is what I have to complain about. I get that.)

Neither of us like the sprawl of the South Bay, where you have to drive to get anywhere. We are definitely going to miss our apartment in Fremont, where we can walk everywhere or hop on a super-convenient bus. So rather than settle for some expensive, small apartment in some crappy, sprawling suburbia, we found ourselves a cool rental house 8 minutes above Los Gatos. (Note: There's a Borders in Los Gatos! Alas, they may soon be filing for bankruptcy...)

The house is this 150-home community in the middle of the redwoods of the Santa Cruz mountains. It's about as big as our old rental on Dexter Ave, except it has a second bedroom instead of a weird office/walkthrough area. The yard is pretty small, but big enough for chickens! I'm really quite excited about keeping a small flock of chickens. Number and breed TBD. Apart from the yard, there's a small deck between the bedroom's back door and said yard, and then there's a much larger deck off of the living room and kitchen. There is a wood-burning stove in the living room, and a pot belly stove on the large deck. All in all, I think we'll like it there — it will definitely be a nice daily break from the South Bay sprawl.

No, we don't have a date yet

Forrest and I are still engaged and still planning to get married in California this year. We've been holding off on setting a date, because we were waiting until we had moved to California. It's difficult to get a good sense of venues solely based on their websites — they tend to portray only their best side, y'know? And since venue will be the determining factor for specific dates, that's just going to have to wait a little bit longer.

Starting to Learn German

My sister Lisa foolishly said in my hearing, "I want to learn German." You should not say you want to learn a language in front of me. My response: "Orly? Let's!"

Turns out, she was actually serious. She's got some good motivation, since her boyfriend speaks German. We had some snafus with studying together remotely, however, so for now we're studying independently.

Ich nicht spreche Deutsch jetzt, aber ich studiere es. Ich lese deutsche Tweet, und ich höre ein Podcast bei Deutsche Welle.

Recovered; Still Engaged; Moved; Aunty C

English:

It's been so long since I've written! First, I'm completely recuperated from my surgery. I'm very, very happy that my stupid, broken gallbladder is no longer attacking me. :) I can eat whatever I want now and I don't have to be afraid of it hurting.

On the topic of weddings, we are still engaged and we still don't have a more concrete date than "some time in 2011." We continue not-planning. ;)

We moved from our rented house to an apartment in the Fremont neighborhood. Packing our boxes and bags and everything was an epic disaster that lasted for 2 or 3 weeks. And now in the apartment, we still have the majority of our things in boxes. At least the boxes are only in one room of the apartment and we can use the rest. There are photos on Flickr.

Other news... Forrest has a full-time job at Jambool as an engineer! Yes, you read that right, he's working with me at the same company.

And in other, sadder, news, I attended the memorial service for my Aunty C, who died this past winter. She was 96 years old, was always feeling bad, and it was simply her time to go. Her family meet on Mount Diablo to scatter her ashes.

Spanish:

¡Tanto tiempo que no he escrito aquí! Primero, estoy completamente recuperada de mi cirugía. Estoy muy, muy contenta que ya no me ataque mi estúpida vesícula biliar rota. :) Puedo comer lo que quiero ahora y no tengo miedo de que me duela.

De la tema de bodas, todavía estamos prometidos y todavía no tenemos una fecha más concreto como "algún tiempo en 2011." Sigamos no-planeando. ;)

Nos mudamos desde nuestra casa alquilada hacia un apartamento en el barrio de Fremont. El hacer de las maletas y cajas y bolsas y todo era un desastre "épico" que prolongó atrás 2 o 3 semanas. Y ahora en el apartamento, todavía tenemos la mayoría de nuestras cosas en cajas. Al menos las cajas están en sólo un cuarto del apartamento y podemos usar los demás. Hay fotos en Flickr.

Otras noticias... ¡Forrest tiene un trabajo a jornada completa en Jambool como ingeniero! Sí, lo lees correcto, él trabaja conmigo en la misma empresa.

Y hablando en otras cosas, cosas más tristes, asistí a las honras fúnebres para mi Tía Cita, quien murío el invierno pasado. Ella tenía 96 años, siempre sentía mal, y simplemente le llegó la hora. La familia de mi tía reunimos en el Monte Diablo para esparcir sus cenizas.

Lesson Learned: Don't Push Yourself When Recovering from Surgery (Duh)

With respect to my recent surgery, I thought I was recovering nicely. So well, in fact, that this weekend I did quite a bit of walking around with my friends. Come Saturday night / Sunday morning, I barely slept because pain in my side kept waking me up. Last night I slept with the help of 2 Percocet. :(

I was supposed to go back to work today. But because I was dumb and pushed myself too much too fast when I thought I was feeling okay, I'm going to have to wait a little while longer. So I'm taking it easy again today — lots of lying and sitting around is on the menu.

Gallbladder, Bother Me No More!

My gallbladder obviously reads my blog and took offense at Tuesday's post. So much so that it decided to attack me, unprovoked, on a nearly empty stomach, from 9:30 PM Tuesday until 4 PM yesterday — at which point we cut the damn thing out of me! So I'm at the hospital, recovering from my cholecystectomy that the surgeon says went very smoothly. (Well, for me. Not so much the gallbladder. Muahaha!)

I'll report more later, but for now I wanted to let y'all know that I seem to be doing just fine. Thank you everyone for your well-wishes!

Surgeon, Take 2

English:

I met with a second surgeon today. I liked him much better; I'm very glad I didn't just go with the first guy I talked to. So, dear gallbladder, start packing: you're being evicted next Friday!

Spanish:

Encontré a un segundo cirujano hoy. Me caía más bien que el otro; me alegro que no elegí el primer hombre con el que hablé. Pues, vesícula biliar querida, vete a freír espárragos: ¡ya te desahuciaré el viernes que vienes!

Notes:

vete a freír espárragos

go fry asparagus

Isn't that an awesome turn of phrase? Sure, it means something closer to "go jump in the lake" or "go fly a kite," as opposed to "start packing" or "get lost" like I originally meant... but it sounds so cool!

desahuciar

to evict; to declare terminally ill

How's that for a perfect double meaning? You hear that, gallbladder??

Dismissive Surgeon

I had my consultation with a surgeon about my gallstones today. Overall, I was pretty disappointed with the guy. He was very dismissive of my concerns — "Don't bother reading studies, they're all crap, there's practically no risk, none of my patients have ever complained, I hesitate to even mention these risks because I don't want to put them in your head, so let's schedule the surgery!"

I'm mostly convinced that I'm going to have to get my gallbladder removed, based on what I've heard from doctors and what I've read online. But, as far as I can tell, there are some risks involved (particularly the possible long-term side effects such as chronic diarrhea or pain). I could believe that the risks are low and that it's still the best option I have... but I want a doctor who's honest about this stuff, not dismissive.

As Forrest pointed out, he's not just the guy doing the surgery, but also the guy I'll have to work with if I have any post-operation concerns. And I really just don't get the warm fuzzies from this guy.

So I think I'm going to shop around for a different Seattle gallbladder surgeon.

When Gallstones Attack

Since it's 4 AM and I'm going to be awake for the next hour or two, I might as well update y'all on what's been going on with me.

I'm awake right now because I'm having my third gallstone attack. It's this sharp, crampy pain in my upper right side. If this attack goes anything like the first two, it will get increasingly painful over the next hour, stay like that for a while, then gradually resolve itself. What's happening is the gallstones in my gallbladder got agitated around in there, and are moving in and out of the various tubes in the area, causing pain as they do so.

As long as the gallstones don't get stuck anywhere, my only symptom will be pain. If they do get stuck and block something, then I could develop a fever, nausea, and other fun things that would make this more of an emergency situation. I'm hoping it's just pain for the next few hours. :( I've taken ibuprofen for pain management and am being (hyper)vigilant about any more serious symptoms.

Apparently, gallstones don't dissolve themselves over time, nor is medication very effective at breaking them up. I've read that if you have only a few small stones, lithotripsy can bombard them with strong acoustic pulses to break them up. ("The final power level usually depends on the patient's pain threshold" — oh great...) But that method is often ineffective at preventing gallstone recurrence.

Otherwise, the other primary options are gallbladder removal and the restricted-diet-and-cross-my-fingers approach. I don't particularly like the idea of surgery, even laparoscopic surgery... but then I don't like playing Russian roulette with my health, either. Even religiously following a fat-restricted diet does not guarantee that I'll have no more attacks, it merely decreases the likelihood of their frequency.

Wednesday I have an appointment with a surgeon to discuss options and get his recommendation for my particular case. I'll keep you guys informed.

Update, 7:22 AM: Pain's gotten worse, not better. Still no nausea, fever (subjective judgement; can't find thermometer), or other worrying symptoms. But this pain sucks. I've been writhing on the couch for the past three hours. Doctor instructed me over the phone to take two more ibuprofen and two Tylenol. She said if it didn't get better, it means the bile ducts may not be opening back up... which would mean emergency open surgery, not the "friendly" laparoscopic surgery. Fuck. (Sorry, Mom; but sometimes it's appropriate, eh? ;))

Update, 2:12 PM: The ibuprofen + Tylenol combo helped enough that I fell asleep from 7:30 until 10 AM. It was still hurting then, but in a very manageable, beginning-of-the-end sort of way. I felt maybe 70% better. I moved from the couch back to bed then, and slept until 2 PM. I feel 90% better now; there's still some twinge of discomfort going on, but I'd no longer describe it as "pain."

So it looks like I've escaped the emergency scalpel, but let me tell you, I'll be all ears when I talk to the surgeon tomorrow.

Week-Long Headache

Last Monday night, I developed a nasty headache. A sense of nausea came along with it — it felt like motion-sickness in my head, not like food-poisioning in my stomach. I went to bed, hoping to sleep it off.

But it didn’t go away Tuesday or Wednesday, even though I stayed home and rested. So Wednesday I went to one of those drop-in medical clinics. The doctor wasn't exactly sure what's going on. Her best guess was that it might be my first migraine. (Apparently only some migraine-suffers are sensitive to light and sound, which I didn’t know. Specific migraine symptoms are supposedly rather individual.)

But it might something else. Helpful, those doctors are. :( (As if humans are complex or something! Psh!) She said there's a stomach flu going around that does have headache and nausea as symptoms, but my stomach feels and sounds fine. (As I said above, the nausea feels located in my head, not my stomach.) She said it could be low thyroid. She said it could be related to my other weird neurological thing. They took some blood samples (botching up my elbow all bruisy while they were at it) to rule out non-migraine causes. Update, 4 PM: The blood work all came back normal. So "migraine" remains the most likely diagnosis.

The doctor prescribed some Vicodin for the pain, which I took on Thursday. Unfortunately, it makes the nausea worse. I'd rather have a headache than worse nausea, so I stopped taking them.

Now that I've had this headache and nausea for a week, I've noticed patterns. The headache is worse in the morning, right after waking up. The nausea seems motion-sensitive: I inevitably feel sick in a car, and just walking or pacing can bring it on, too. Update, 4 PM: Rapidly scrolling text also triggers it. Awesome! Sitting still makes the nausea go away and lets the headache recede to mostly-ignorable levels. If I sit still long enough, I feel pretty much normal. So I've found coping strategies. But it really should just go away, dammit! :(

Motion Sick from Ball Chairs

Ball Chair (©Mitchell Joyce)

I had read that using exercise balls as office chairs was supposedly good for your posture and core muscles — you're constantly making minute adjustments to stay balanced. I'd noticed some used (and unused) ball-cum-chairs in others' offices and was curious if they were all they were cracked up to be. So I asked my coworker Rachel if I could borrow hers. (She has one in her office but I've never seen her use it.) She said sure, so I brought the thing back to my office.

I'll admit, it was fun for a few minutes, bouncing around at my desk and generally feeling pretty silly. :) But as I settled down and started to just use it as a chair, I noticed that I was developing a headache. I was actually getting motion sick from the darn thing! My inner ear sure is picky — to the list that includes elevators and car acceleration, I can now add exercise balls. :(

Thus ended that short-lived experiment in alternative office furniture.

I later googled around about the benefits of ball chairs and found (surprise, surprise) that not everyone agrees.

Phantom Spill Sensation

About a week ago, I was drinking a cup of tea when I felt the tea spill onto my right hand. But when I jumped up to grab a towel, I realized that I hadn't actually spilled anything. It just felt like I had spilled tea on my hand. I thought it was strange, but shrugged and moved on.

Now, today (by which I mean Thursday) while I was shopping I felt the same sensation in my right foot. It felt exactly like there was warm liquid in my shoe, except there wasn't.

I posted on a forum an hour and a half ago asking if anyone else had experienced such a thing, and already 3 people have said they have. I'm asking here to get a different set of peoples looking at the question. Some no responses to balance the yes ones would be interesting. Even more interesting would be that everyone feels this sensation but never mentions it... but I doubt that's true.

So, my (admittedly small sample size of) blog readers! Have you ever felt a warm, wet sensation, like you've spilled something on yourself, only to discover there was nothing there? Post in the comments, email me, whatever.

Root Canal Fun

Dental Stupidity During College

When I went to college, there was no Kaiser Hospital within 50 miles of San Luis Obispo, so I wasn't able to remain on my parents' medical insurance plan. Which meant that I didn't have insurance for most of my college years. That, combined with my strong dentist-visit anxiety, meant that my teeth didn't get their regular 6-month checkups for 5 years.

Which, based on the title of this post, you might guess led to bad news in the dental health department. You'd be right.

Along with all the "little" cavities I now have to take care of, I had this one really nasty one. One of my upper right molars had a huge cavity in it — large enough, in fact, that I could feel it with my tongue and from which I sometimes had to dislodge rice. Amazingly, it didn't hurt.

Despite the lack of pain, the tooth was so decayed that my new general dentist up here in Seattle wasn't sure that the tooth could be saved at all. We talked about the possibility of a tooth implant. :(

Many X-Rays, Little Action

All told, I had 5 separate X-rays of this tooth, in 5 separate visits, counting two earlier ones not detailed here, before the root canal itself actually happened.

My general dentist took X-rays and referred me to a periodontist (gum-dentist), to get a specialist's opinion. The periodontist took more X-rays and sent me back to the dentist, pronouncing the tooth probably good enough to keep but in need of a crown lengthening procedure (in which they cut back your gums to expose more of the tooth) before a crown could be put over a post-root-canaled tooth.

The general dentist got the information from the periodontist and called me. He recommended I go directly to the endodontist (pulp-dentist) and get the tooth root-canaled right away.

So off I went to another consultation appointment, with another set of X-rays. The endodontist was very certain the tooth could be saved; in fact, he seemed surprised that everyone else was so concerned. He wasn't even certain the crown lengthing would be required, although he sounded less sure there.

The Root Canal

Based on the phrase "more fun than a root canal" and knowledge about the procedure passed down to me through popular culture, I was really not looking forward to the experience at all. I was hoping they'd put me under anethesia, like when my wisdom teeth were removed. No such luck; the plan was to use only novocaine. I requested nitrous oxide*, and agreed to pay out of pocket it for it. Apparently, dental insurance companies believe it to be "alternative treatment" and thus don't cover it.

So today was my root canal appointment. I got the N₂O before the big scary novocaine needle. The endodontist explained that I could expect it to feel somewhat like a "good glass of white wine," and that comparison wasn't too far off for me. My limbs got heavy, like they do when I have a drink. I could think pretty much normally, but it was easier to let distressing thoughts sort of float away and not bother me quite as much. But compared to the Wikipedia description of N₂O, the effects were really pretty weak. None of the depersonalization, derealization, nor flanging of sound. I'm not sure whether "lessened anxiety" is part of the "euphoria" continuum, but I did feel less anxious. My legs still squirmed all over the place and my hands still gripped each other, but the anxiety was less intense than I think it otherwise would have been.

Unlike my memories of sharp pain when I got novocaine shots is the roof of my mouth as a kid, this time there wasn't really any pain per se. It was pricking and unpleasant, I was freaking out in anticipation of the remembered pain, and the sensation of the needle being pulled out was utterly icky; but nothing I'd say was painful.

Digression: Needle Phobia

According to the well-named Dental Fear Central, "local anaesthetic administration can be entirely painless" but "most needle phobics have had a very bad experience with an injection." I really did not like my childhood dentist — he was scolding sort of man, and admonished me that "it doesn't really hurt that bad!". Dental Fear Central lists some reasons why the shots given by the dentist might not be the most ideal, painless experience. Of the 6 reasons listed, I suspect (or for some reasons, know) my childhood dentist guilty of 4.

He apparently didn't get the memo that "the days when 'the lecture' was part-and-parcel of a visit to the dentist are gone. ... [D]entists nowadays realize that admonishing people is a sure-fire way of keeping them away."

Anyhow, the take-home lesson here is to get a dentist who believes painless injections are possible, and cares enough to do the things necessary to make it happen. Numbing gel before the shot itself is a good start!

Novocaine successfully applied and the right side of my face all numbed up, the actual root canal procedure itself started. There were all sorts of pointy tools and files and drills, but I generally closed my eyes while they were in use. The endodontist had told me that a sign of too much N₂O was tingling or pinhole vision. So while my eyes were closed, I'd count to 10, open my eyes long enough to confirm that vision was still normal, then close my eyes again.

A minute or two into the procedure, I was comfortable trusting the novocaine and the N₂O to keep any real pain at bay. Which is not nearly the same as being relaxed, but at least my squirming was confined to just pressure- and noise-induced unhappiness.

While I was trapped in my unable-to-talk state, I tried to occupy myself with things other than the pressure and noise and wondering if something might hurt despite everything. So I listened to what the endodontist was saying to his assistant, or wondered about random things, like:

• Do dental students practice root canals on cadavers? (Afterward, the assistant say, "Hmm... No, that's interesting, but I've never heard of it.")
• Do deaf dental patients not feel as cut-off, communication-wise, when getting a dental procedure done?
• Do deaf dentists feel cut-off from communication in the same way as speaking patients do, or is it different when you're the one in charge?
• What kind of conlang could you make out of the phonemes available to you while having a dental procedure done? (I could use all unrounded vowels up to the close-mid height. I only had from the velars back available for consonants, though.)
• Would someone on N₂O pass a field sobriety test? Would their reactions be distinguishable from a drunk's, even if neither passed?

Isn't that the sort of thing you think about while getting a root canal done? :P

Afterward

I was surprised that I wasn't in excruiating pain, after all I'd heard about how bad root canals were. I've been taking over-the-counter pain killers, which are doing the job. I'm still a little nervous about chewing on the right side of my mouth, but the endodontist says the temporary filling should be good for at least 8–12 months...

* Wikipedia claims nitrous oxide to be an analgesic, but the endodontist was emphatic that it is not. He said you definitely wanted some real pain killers with your nitrous oxide, or else not even the laughing gas would keep you happy.