Surgery

Will now be July 6th. (I didn't want to cause my work any hardship by having to take off 4th of July in my recovery period.)

My surgeon wants me to wait a good 2 weeks before returning to work. She says "If you had a desk job, you could go back to work after 3 days. But since you're on your feet all day, I want you to give it time to heal". Makes sense. But it also means that I will be relatively mobile.

Sick leave is drawn from a couple different PTO banks at my work, but until I've been out more than a certain amount of time I am forced to burn a few vacation days. Therefore, assuming my foot is healing nicely and without complications I feel zero guilt sneaking home at the end to see you. Expect me somewhere in the July 15-19th range, depending on how the foot looks.

Labels: surgery

  ¶ 09:12

Forces at Work

When you hold two magnets apart, you can feel the fields pulling your hands together. MRIs are kindof like that, except you can feel that force moving through your body. It was a strange experience, lying in that tube. The machine was very loud. I twittered: "The vibrations of the MRI are, to me, the sound of tribal drums. I feel the fields move the atoms of my body in a dance of plus and minus." And it was true, I could imagine the rhythmic patterns as a voice speaking in time with the visceral humming of my cells. "Let there be light", it said, and somewhere in a room beyond my body did light up according to it's density, and pictures were taken.

Now my foot surgery is scheduled for June 22nd. More details will follow. I hope I can take a few days at the end of my recovery period to visit with friends.

Labels: surgery

  ¶ 15:51

The Foot

I went to the podiatrist yesterday and she says I need an MRI of my foot.

For those of you who don't know, I've had a disgusting lump on the inner arch of my left foot for as long as I can remember. It's been kinda sore lately and growing again. Fed up with it, I went to a doc to talk about getting it out. So now I am getting an MRI Monday so she can see exactly what kind of lump it is: fatty or fibrous. The type of mass it is will affect the way it will be excised and how long I will be off my feet. It's not likely to keep me down for more than 2 weeks, but it's a pain in the butt anyway. There's never been a good time to stay off my feet for that long.

So I'll keep you posted on the drama of the Foot. I've never had an MRI before, though I've taken my own patients to several and I think it will be neat to look inside my body.  ¶ 19:56

Continuing Work, Fantasy Books

"Links" page is updated. "Projects" page is halfway done. I'm going to start posting and integrating a Picasa album to display photos and crafts. I need to redo the scripts for the old comics too. I'm sure you've also noted my Twitter account on the sidebar as well.

This weekend I'm going to Houston for my birthday/Mother's Day with the Matthews family. I've already selected an audiobook for the journey. See, Jeff has bought a few sets of different fantasy series soley based on reviews and his intentions to read them "one day". Because I cannot bear to have so many novels on display without anyone knowing what's in them, I'm working my way through a few. I already finished The Name of the Wind, which was excellent though it cuts off abruptly. Currently I'm working through The Book of the New Sun, which is also good, but a little more confusing. Once I'm done with that and it's sequels, I'd really like to get into the Malazan series, but there are unfortunately no audiobooks out for it. I do read actual books every day, but I prefer my fiction to be consumed while commuting, cleaning, or shopping. (It's nice to just plug into my headphones whenever I'm doing something that doesn't otherwise require narrative thought.) I'd have to set aside my nightly studies to take up Malazan right now, so it will have to wait. I am, of course, looking forward to the next Wheel of Time Book, Gathering Storm.

Something I'd really like to do with this library sometime soon is scan it into one of those Delicious Library clones for Windows. You just scan a barcode, or even hold the barcode up to a webcam, and it catalogs your stuff. I should really bid on an old CueCat and do this sometime.  ¶ 17:29

New Layout

Well, I'm halfway done with this update. I'll finish sometime next week.  ¶ 17:23