The Cure for Anything - Wednesday 4/22/2009

Antipasta (fka Tomasina) went under the knife Wednesday morning, but she rallied by the afternoon so we could have our writing group. Knee surgery. She was still a little loopy fromthe anesthetic, but what a trouper!

She ordered in Thai food, Braveheart brought appetizers from Porto's, and I stopped by Pavillions and picked up a trio of Haagen Dazs flavors.

I had Black Walnut in mind, but when I saw the Ginger, well!

The Ginger, Mango and Vanilla Bean were great together. Kind of like the three of us in the writing group. (sniffle) Even though we'll keep critiquing each other's work (the first half of my April poems and Antipasta's ongoing play.) We're all going to miss this when Braveheart moves away.

Talkin' 'Bout My Gym - Thursday 5/29/2008

Okay, can I gush about my gym for a minute? This is the branch of 24 Hour Fitness in Santa Clarita, which is the one I visit the most. It has a nice mix of features. So far I'm using the cardio machines and some of the weight machines the most. I've also been to the Lancaster, Hollywood, and Palmdale West branches. I like this one the best, but I love that I can use the other locations when they are handy or offer a class that I want to try.

It's about half-way between work and home, and past the two major snarls on my commute--where the 170 meets the 5 and where the 14 peels away from the 5--so I stop there on weeknights.

I bought their package of 5 25-minute personal trainer sessions for $149 and I'm really glad I did. Did I tell you that my trainer is from Indiana and that I rode the school bus with her uncle? How weird is that?

So, anyway, having her lead me around the gym over the past 4 weeks has been really helpful. I feel I have permission to use areas and to move the movable equipment (like mats, balance balls, etc.) around the facility in ways I'm sure I would have felt timid about.

I have one more session with her and then I'm going to use the gym on my own. I will probably hire her again in a few months to help me up my levels if I need to or if my enthusiasm has started to wane.

I haven't lost a lot of weight, but my trainer and my doctor both predicted that given my body type I'd put on muscle easily. It's those European plow-following, sheep-toting genes, I tell you. My mom's been active all her life with gardening, yard-work, walking and now line dancing. My dad was a big jock--basketball and Golden Gloves boxing (he was a regional champ!)--so I'm going to try to think of myself as an old athlete myself.

Oddly enough, I realized when I received my membership card that I had signed up not only on the same day that my commitment to Taking the Reins ended, but also on the anniversary of my father's death at age 62 of a heart attack (April 17, 1990.) Dang, that sounds younger every year. I can't believe how much he's missed...like just last week a new great-granddaughter.

I have this fear of my own heart that I am trying to overcome.

I've exercised more and less throughout my life, but I'm seeing that after just a few weeks my body is responding. I feel stronger and more emotionally satisfied, too.

Yay, me!

Flowers - Monday 10/22/2007

Thanks for the flowers from Tomasina and Braveheart and from my wonderful co-workers. They were delivered in the afternoon. Mom noticed the handy barf bin from the hospital between the bouquets, but we decided to leave the photo as is.

I think I was still feeling the effects of the morphine from the gall bladder operation I had this morning when I took this.

We saw fires in Canyon Country along our drive down the 14 toward the hospital early in the morning. They were moving away from our area. Pretty dramatic lines of orange tracing the hilltops, and smoke lit from below in the otherwise dark. (Arrived at the hospital at 5:15, left by about 1pm, sans gall bladder.)

Small Office, Big Hearts - Thursday 10/25/2007

OneL learned this week that she has breast cancer. Damn.

It's Stage One ductal. If you are familiar with these sorts of diagnoses, you know that this was caught early and that this is the very most survivable form.

But treatment still involves surgery, radiation and medication. (No chemo predicted at this point.) It's all scary.

Another coworker put these flowers on her chair for OneL to find in the morning. She even had it downlit a lot like this (recreated with software here.)

Sometimes working in a small company has its downsides, like a bit of career insecurity and having to pick up the slack and work long hours some times. But we do care about the business and our work and each other.

Fear and Perception - Monday 10/8/2007

The illustration above clarified my thinking about the gall bladder: it's green, it lurks, and you have to go in X-Files style and route it out. Afterwards--or maybe even during the surgery itself--you will be able to eat a cracker with a big lump of cheese on it.

All right!

For those of you outside the range of my whimper, this will be news.

I'm going to have my gall bladder removed on October 22nd. I have a 2 cm+ gall stone that periodically causes me pain and discomfort. I've been convinced, as the surgeon said last night in the pre-op consultation, that "The risks of not having this surgery are greater than the risks of having it."

Plus, I don't trust the state of health insurance in America. If I should leave or lose my job, this would be a pre-existing (read that: non-covered) procedure. As it is, it's a common and low-risk surgery.

Still, I'll be taking off work for the two weeks the surgeon recommends. My mom's coming out, so we can talk a lot and she can make sure I keep walking more every day, etc.

I feel a lot more confident about this after having the consult last night (with Hydra there for extra questions.) They also ran tests, most of which I have the results of already (kudos to the Internet and Kaiser's use of it), which identify me as in good health going into this. Better than in a crisis, which a gallstone can create.



Seriously, if you'd asked me yesterday morning, I would have described Dr. Z (the surgeon) as looking kind of like this guy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's ultra-creepy episode, "Hush," but with wispy hair and a fillet knife behind his back.



After seeing him last night, I realize that I would actually cast James Olson--remember him as the single guy with the key from Andromeda Strain (1971)?--as Dr. Z.

Much nicer.

Cool Thing: On a side note we watched a PBS show about California during World War II last night and I learned that Kaiser Permanente really started the concept of HMOs with the Kaiser Shipyards. When I looked up their history, I see that it's earliest incarnation was in Mojave, CA and that it treated workers on the Los Angeles Aquaduct that brings water from my beloved Owens Valley to L.A.

Heeeeere Kidney Kidney Kidney! - Monday 8/20/2007

Yes, I'm looking up interesting facts about kidneys online. Why, you ask?

I had a sonogram a couple of weeks ago (stupid painful gallbladder) and they couldn't see my left kidney. So they kicked it upstairs to the CT man, and he seems to have confirmed that I have only one kidney!

That's a little startling, but much nicer than something massive in front of the kidney obscuring the view, for my money.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, this means I should give up contact sports, including "boxing, field hockey, football, ice hockey, Lacrosse, martial arts, rodeo, soccer and wrestling."

Dang, this is going to put a serious crimp in my exercise routine.

Okay. Honestly. Not so much.

But I'm really glad I didn't know this growing up because I have always considered myself pretty strong and healthy. And this doesn't mean I 'm not, as far as I can tell from my trusty Google searching.

But I probably wouldn't have ridden that electronic bull at that cowboy bar in celebration of my 21st birthday, and that is a memory I do treasure.

Apparently 1 in 750 people has only one kidney (though most singletons are men). I was telling Hydra this via cellphone while driving the 5 in rush hour traffic and he said, "There are probably that many people around you right now!"

And I said, "They should thank me!"

I've flirted with the idea of a tattoo now and again, but haven't really been motivated. This has gotten me thinking that one might really be advisable.

Perhaps a small diagram of a pair of kidneys with a red circle/bar in front of the left one.

Or better yet, a little note on my right side: Dear EMS Tech: There is only this one kidney. Please contact family members for replacement parts.

I am a secret organ Sneetch.



How many kidneys do you have?