It's only a flesh wound

The snow is not that bad, guys.

This just in

While Voltaren gel has never done anything for my back (broken vertebrae, muscle fatigue, spondylothesis and spondylosis), it seems to be working incredibly on my knees, both of which have been dislocated numerous times. I'm waiting for the next time my shoulder comes apart to see if it works there, but it's a subjectively different feeling, and I'm not sure it will work as well on shoulders.

For the record, I'd love to have a topical that worked on my back (Flector patches do seem to work, but the vehicle has issues) so that I can apply it where it hurts rather than generally.

And since we're on the subject of patches and topicals, Lidoderm (Endo) is effective for very minor pain caused by bruising or swelling. But it's far inferior to either of the above drugs.

I'm seriously going to have to write a short "Pain, Drugs, and How to Feel Better" book. It's one thing to have your doctor know about the drugs, but it's entirely another to find one that works for you. There are so many different drugs that even somebody who is reasonably competent is going to have to "try a few" before they find the right drug for the pain that they are in. Luckily, I've done most of the research and broken the bones just for you. Heh. A sad kind of 'heh.'

Chase auto financing

It's really kind of disgusting to read the things Chase says and does to its customers. Chase actually called my mother, whose number is about as unlisted as my own, for a car loan (fifteen payments to go, even; we're nowhere even near upside-down) that is paid up. My guess is the last payment took too long in the mail? At any rate, aren't these the folks that so badly mismanaged their own money that they received a federal payment to cover their own losses? Was that loan itself inspiration to ride their customers harder? Has the government actually contributed to corporations surviving to extract additional pounds of flesh from citizens?

This all seems kind of morbidly ironic. When you consider how they got to the position they're in, Chase, and what they are now doing, it is hard not to be sick.

Upon looking deeper it appears that a figure of sixty billion dollars or so was "borrowed" by these loan companies and has subsequently been repaid. I guess what has happened is the banks really don't want to do that again, and the public is so outraged by the situation that they are being even more bellicose than they were before they decided that debt was better than assets. What a bunch of nitwits. It's like a six year old taking out its frustration on a younger sibling.

desperation

I just wanted to point out there is lots of stuff to read on my amazon wish list and that I am presently out of fiction and mostly out of money. Just saying.

Grace

Grace has always been an inspiration for me, and she's out doing it again. Best wishes, Grace.

incidental healing happenstances

I am shifting from flexibility and rehab physical therapy to core strength pt. The difference is quite a contrast, but I need both pieces to fully recover. I am also shifting my diet around a little. I'm becoming much more vegetarian where and when I can; it's not a philosophy, it's simply something that makes me feel better. I will eat meat if it's the only thing available, or if we're looking at raw bigeye tuna.

When changing from water to vegetable juice at home, I discovered that there is a lot of salt in most vegetable juice cocktails including V8. This latter, in fact, has 1/4 a given daily recommended amount. So, if somebody were to complete a 2,000 calorie work out, and then have another because they were parched or weak after the work-out, they would be at 1/2 the RDA, and add to that any incidentals during the day–Gatorade, iced (and hot) teas, vegetable dishes, and so-on–and suddenly, the sodium level becomes quite high. It balances on something like a knife, as well.

The relationship between sodium levels and water is tightly correlated. If one drinks more water, without adding more sodium, one loses sodium with the normal excretion process (including sweating, mind). With increased hydration, blood pressure stabilizes.

Consider though the patient who burns 2,000 calories in a work-out with cardio activity, who drinks vegetable juices and eats largely vegetables, and also drinks a lot of water to counter-effect the pain drugs (in this case, let's just say opiates and even NSAIDs) cause: they severely dehydrate.

In this last case, we see somebody who is very prone to dehydration because of both their salt intake and their use of medication. If this same person notices a change in their blood pressure (through any number of ways; in this case it was both weight loss and a per-volume perceptible increase in sodium intake), they may choose to do things to reduce their blood pressure in what is already a volatile and dynamic situation.

In my case, I cut as close to zero as I could on sodium, increased my water intake, and reduced even vegetable intake such that it would be lower sodium, higher water. At the same time, I remained on the same drugs, and while I was going to PT, I was switching from flexibility and stability to strength-building.

I became severely weak, tired, and uncomfortable. I would drink water and it would make me miserable. After about nine days of this, and having no idea what it was (and being a hundred and ten pounds down from the time of the accident, which masks a lot of things), I had gotten only around eight hours of sleep (less than ninety minutes a night for eight days), I had an overwhelming need for Cup-O-Noodles or Ramen. In the end, I failed on both but I managed to heat about twelve ounces of water to boiling in a small bowl with a single chicken bouillon cube and a handful of mostly crushed ramen noodles. It was amazing. I suddenly became so thirsty I reached in to the fridge for something to drink and I wanted nothing more than the iced tea. I killed most of 750ml of that and immediately collapsed into about two hours of sleep. I subsequently woke up and finished the rest of the tea and had what little V8 I had left in the fridge.

Was I really noticing a correlation between getting sleep and drinking, literally, salt water? Apparently. I was very confused and spoke to my pharmacist because I couldn't keep track of all the processes going on here:

Weight loss
Spine injury
Narcotic, continuous-delivery pain medication
Dehydration
Insomnia
Valerian & Trazodone
Vigorous exercise, the cessation thereof, and switching to another form of same

She told me that what I had going on was a very serious lack of sodium. Because I was compelled to drink so much water in general, and I had curtailed my use of sodium, I was experiencing a lot of discomfort because the un-salted water I was "taking" was dramatically reducing my sodium levels, in combination with my own reduction in sodium intake. When I began getting sodium back into my diet, and I took water with it as well, I immediately started getting sleep. So much in fact that I need to be careful to take sodium where I can sleep.

Now, I guess I need to just go back to my old routine of getting sodium in the way I was and keep an eye on the V8 product. I'm going to cut back to one a day. It's a great serving of nutrition, but it really should be one-a-day. Probably a litre or two during and surrounding workouts, and then a V8 before dinner and not too close to going to bed (it does give me a touch of indigestion). But in general, I'm going to un-do my moving away from sodium.

Who knew?

Interesting vectors

I could have guessed many of the things I'd be doing twenty years later when I was in school. I could not however guess that I would be doing all of them. Spacecraft and unix engineering and mechanical engineering and teaching?

It is tremendously rewarding to have all these things in my life. I made a decision years ago, I suppose, that I couldn't stomach just being one-disciplined. I got sick of being just one kind of engineer, working in a homogeneous environment with largely homogeneous people. At the time, it was incredibly frustrated. It felt like I had painted myself into a corner.

At no point did I look up from my plate and think, hey, where did that turbine come from? Have I actually managed to gain new skills and experiences? That's peculiar. Rather, it all kind of just happened. There were a couple of head traumas along the way (how a head trauma can lead to developing new skills is still beyond me, but it's undeniable that it happened) and some other physical obstacles, but the logical end is a sea change that started many years ago and has crested into a wave on an entirely different shore.

Which, really, is more where I want to be.

Recycling F-16's

As F-16's are turned into QF-16's and the QF-4's are running out, there is now a fairly straight market for the parts from a decommed Viper. As it turns out I'm able to get flight-ready components (as to maintain my flock of fighters) and build a "ground station" that can fly an F-16. My purpose is actually to use this for ground stations for Spun's UAVs. I can't wait. I haven't flown a Viper since 2005.

I'm going to love having a sidestick.

yes, i am asleep at the wheel. news later.