ProfessorTomoe

10:48 p.m. CDT 20170601. The month of May sucked so bad. June isn't starting off much better. I've been feeling off my feed all day, even when sleeping with my feet elevated. Tonight, things got worse. The edema in my right foot began hurting. Bad. Stabbing pains, short duration, but most uncomfortable and on multiple occasions. I asked Mrs. Prof to do what my primary doctor suggested—get a heating pad for me so that I could put it on my bruised shin, in the hopes that it would help the edema have a drain outlet. Didn't work after the first try, of course. In any case, if my edema is still in place tomorrow, I'm going to try and get an appointment with my primary doctor. Edema shouldn't hurt like a spike stuck through your foot. Energy levels have been back on the sine wave again, with a rather large negative DC offset. I haven't spent much time in the y > 0 territory today. It isn't due to a lack of metformin—I finally got that filled Tuesday. It's not the antibiotic, either, nor is it from a lack of sleep. It might have something to do with the edema, but I sure as hell hope it doesn't. That would be very bad indeed. One step forward, two stumbles back. I'd say, "give me a break," but I've already got one.

Catvfefe.

Huh, well, that's neuter me ...

Oh my God, he's got us by the shorthairs.

Run fur your life! /me is coming!

Elevating is a bit painful, for the same reason. It's not as painful, but it's still uncomfortable. I'm going to have to figure out a new pillow configuration for sleeping. Hoo! It's getting late. I'm starting to see double. I could use a cup of covfefe.

11:28 p.m. CDT 20170531. I'm going to post a couple of pictures. They're not gruesome, but they're not pretty by any means. They're of my bruising and swelling on my right foot and leg. If you'll recall, the podiatrist told me to "pump" my foot to get rid of the edema/swelling. One problem with that: it aggravates the nerve pain that runs from my spine down my hip and leg into my foot. It's also the reason why I can't drive at all. In other words, it's not going to work. I can't figure out how to use the spoiler feature with pictures, so be warned. No gore, just eww. tOH, if you can edit this to use spoilers (and if you feel they're necessary), please feel free. Here we go, starting with my inner ankle of my right foot: The scar is where my hardware was inserted when I broke my foot. I've got screws implanted beneath. On a normal day, there's no bruising and no swelling. The bruises developed after my lumbar caudal epidural steroid injection, and the swelling developed over the past 24 hours or so. Picture number two is of my right leg: You can see the bruising along the shin. Again, that developed after the lumbar injection. It got a bit more pronounced after the left big toe surgery, where they put air compression leggings on me before going into surgery. I think. (I was a bit groggy.) Again, you can see my hardware scar on the inside of my ankle. What isn't as evident is the edema in my foot. That's because my foot is tilted to capture all of the bruising. There are no pictures of my left foot. It's in a boot, which is rather boring,.

Mrs. Prof brought home Grandy's chicken fried steak tonight. First time in many years we've had Grandy's, for good reason. It's been bleaugh the last times we had it. Well, for some reason she decided to break our ... boycott? Not sure that's the right word, but my brain's not working right at the moment. Believe it or not, it wasn't bad. Decent gravy, half-way decent steaks, just good in general. I ate too much. Had to take a Zofran afterward because I overate. That'll teach me.

I used their bigger bigger brothers, the Jaz Drive (SCSI version), as a go-between to store samples and programs for a Kurzweil K2500RS and an E-Mu E4XT when I was writing music for the original Shadow Warrior. Talk about a nightmare trying to set up the SCSI chain and terminators with a PC involved. Made good music, though, IMHO.

This is about as off topic as you can get. If you're a fan of the webcomic Misfile by Chris Hazelton, you know he's got a Kickstarter going. There are only 8 days left, and he's raised $10,125 of an all-or-nothing $14,000 goal. I'll be honest—I'm plugging it because I want what he's offering. I'd also like to see him hit his goal because he's had some rough patches lately. If you're not familiar with his webcomic, please check it out. It's well worth the read, and IMHO well worth the Kickstarter support. I hope you'll agree once you've read enough of it, and that you'll join in before the deadline expires. (I'm sorry if I've broken any forum rules with this, tOH. Delete this and admonish me appropriately if I have.)

10:45 a.m. CDT 20170531. The podiatrist has finished his appointed task and has left, although I think he put my boot back on a bit too tight around the toe. My stitches are out, my foot is re-bandaged, and according to him the Augmentin is doing its job wonderfully in getting rid of the infection in my toe. It's also doing its job wonderfully in giving me the runs, which I had in abundance last night (urrrrrgh). Otherwise, I'm doing fine and I'm supposed to see him again around June 8th or 9th. I still don't know when the pins are coming out, but he said I most likely wouldn't need even a local anesthetic when he removes them. I showed him the letter from my primary care physician about the Charcot foot "warning," and he concurred. Thought it was a good idea to be careful. I also showed him the edema in my right foot. His advice was to elevate it and "pump" it, like you'd work the gas pedal of your car. Said that'd help get the fluid back where it belongs. In other news: somehow, the conversation moved to computers (he worked on my foot in my living room, where my laptop sits), and he admitted he was concerned that he might have been vulnerable to the WannaCry ransomware since he's still running Windows 7. I told him that Windows 10 was a bit different, but then I introduced him to my favorite little utility: Stardock Software's Start10, which takes the (IMHO) clunky Windows 10 menu and lets you flip back and forth between it and the more familiar Win7 interface with a click of a button. Costs $4.99 USD, and I couldn't use Win10 without it. /* end shameless plug */

9:02 a.m. CDT 20170531. A new problem has arisen, almost literally. I am developing edema (fluid swelling) in my right foot—the one without the broken toe, but with the broken ankle hardware still in place. It's also the one that developed the long, purple bruise down the front of my shin after the spinal steroid injection. That bruise got somewhat worse a few days later after the podiatrist fixed my broken toe. However, I've just now noticed the edema in the foot. It's swollen to the point where it leaves a depression when you press on it. I'm leaving a sock off of it so the podiatrist can get a good look at it when he comes out to remove my left toe stitches today.

Try my great-grandmother's cough medicine. Whiskey, honey, and lemon. Could be served warm, but she never took it that way—not that I know of.

Oh, hallelujah! Mrs. Prof didn't get selected for Jury Duty. She just checked in via phone. The relief was evident in her voice. She's picked up my prescriptions and shower what-nots from CVS and is taking some "me time" to get her nails done. Can't say I blame her. I needed some good news today. Glad to finally get it.

2:38 p.m. CDT 20170530. Just realized that I didn't put a time on the above rant. Probably a good thing, because it might have upset the time vortex if I had. I got an e-mail from my primary care physician through the patient portal system a short while ago, prior to the incident which spawned the rant. It has to do with my left foot fracture. To wit: My doctor apparently misunderstood the timeline concerning the house call, as you can see. It's scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday, May 31st 2017). I also wonder if the infection explains the myelocites. Either way, I've got a lab-only appointment set for June 8th to get re-checked. Man, this is complicated. Too many doctors, as usual, and too many lab tests to go with them.

Damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it et cetera ad nauseam. I absolutely HATE IT when doctors start changing scheduled appointments. I know they're human, and I know that they get enough patients who change appointments on them. But when I have a nurse call me and tell me that "something's come up," and under her breath she lets slip that it's a stinking CONFERENCE, I have no tolerance for that. Conferences don't just pop up, damn it! I've got three doctor's appointments, one lab-only appointment, and one house call tomorrow (!), and all of them were carefully scheduled around Mrs. Prof's available times. Now, I have two of the doctor's appointments on the same day, meaning one of them is going to have to go somewhere else, and I'm going to have to deliver the bad news to Mrs. Prof after she's dealt with a day of Jury Duty which, as the hours grow later and later, does not seem like it's going her way. She is most likely not going to be a happy camper when I tell her that we need to find yet another open time slot. And you wanna guess which doctor it was whose nurse called and made the change? Yep—the doctor from Spine Team Texas! Oh, how I've grown to detest them lately. They offered to let me keep my same time, but instead of seeing the doctor, I'd be seeing a physician's assistant. NOPE. I want to look that doctor straight in the eyeballs and give him EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of the 14 hours plus worth of agony I went through in order to get an injection that did me absolutely no good whatsoever. If I could borrow Eric Draven's empathic power from "The Crow," I'd give him those hours. I don't need them anymore. Damned rescheduling. Damned last-minute CONFERENCE rescheduling. He's really going to have to convince me to keep from changing doctors.

I wondered about my blood sugar as well. I haven't been able to time out the highs and lows to match what I've eaten. If my sine waves flatten back out after my metformin supply is replenished, then that'll answer the sine wave question.

Right, right. I remember that much. "DC Offset" was what I was looking for, in recording terms. I've been offset so that the mean of my signal is centered around a negative Y value.

I will grant you that rally is some seriously real racing. It does take a special kind of testicular fortitude to race rally, as to which Robert Kubica will attest. He went from racing Formula One to a successful rally career before nearly losing his life when he was impaled by a fence in a rally stage. IndyCar has its own hazards, as James Hinchcliffe will tell you. He nearly bled to death after hitting the Indianapolis wall a few years ago in a practice run. The deaths of Paul Dana during a practice, and those of Dan Wheldon and Justin Wilson during races have spurred on major safety innovations, such as the SAFER (Steel And Foam Energy Reduction) barrier and better driver safety tubs like the Dallara DW-12 (named for Dan Wheldon) chassis which helped Scott Dixon avoid injury beyond a sore ankle after Sunday's incredible crash. It also most likely mitigated the aforementioned James Hinchcliffe's injuries to the point where they didn't kill him instantly, giving the Holmatro safety crew time to staunch his bleeding and get him to a hospital where surgeons could save his life. I don't watch the races for crashes. A caution-free race is just as interesting to me as one which has several wrecks—sometimes moreso, especially in the small "bull ring" tracks like the 7/8th of a mile Iowa Speedway. No, I watch for the sleek rocket-ship-looking IndyCars themselves. I watch for the incredible speeds at which they run. I watch for the technology, even if it isn't as advanced as Formula One (I watch Formula One as well). I watch for the strategies, both on the track and in the pits. I watch to cheer on my favorite drivers and car owners. And now, I watch because it's a common love which my whole family shares. Basically, I just enjoy the hell out of the rocketships.

Here we go with the sine wave again. See you in a couple of hours.

... and whether or not it is contributing to the "myelocyte problem" my PCP is concerned about, possibly. One thing I'm not looking forward to is him removing the pins. Those things are implanted into my bone and are protruding through my skin. I don't know if I want to be conscious when he pulls them out.

Reading all of the positive reports of Takuma Sato's historic victory in the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500, including the audio of the Japanese language broadcasters losing their mind when Sato-san won. Great race.

4:54 p.m. CDT 20170530. Mrs. Prof was unwell yesterday, so I've gone a whole day without my metformin. It's not like I'm taking much at a time—I'm cutting a tablet in half to get a 250 mg dose for morning and evening—but I'm a bit afraid of what being without it is going to do to me. I'm going to miss a third dose this morning, since she'll be off very soon to report for Jury Duty (no lifetime medical excuse for her, sad to say), so I won't have my metformin until tonight. Of course, she reassures me that it won't do me harm to miss a few doses. My anxiety is spiking over the issue. Meanwhile, yesterday was a "sine wave" day. I'd feel okay for a little while, then I'd suddenly feel like crap for a couple of hours. I'd respond by sleeping. I'd wake up below zero, but on the upward curve. Then I'd peak for a while, like nothing was wrong with me. Lather, rinse, repeat. I think I spent more time in negative territory than positive (can you tell I've forgotten my graphing math?), and I don't know exactly why. I'm guessing it's got something to do with my elevated white blood cell count, plus one or more of the underlying causes (stress and infection, most likely, but my toe isn't throbbing from infection). I'll probably spend most of the day with my foot elevated (i.e., asleep on the sofa), but I do have some Scribophile Moderator business I've got to be vertical to handle. I also have a conundrum—I've got to take a stand-up shower again before the podiatrist gets here Wednesday, and I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. No two ways about it—sponge baths are insufficient. However, my last attempt at a stand-up shower was not only painful, it got water all over the bathroom because I was trying to hang my left foot outside of the shower stall (the wall is on the left and the opening is on the right—picture that). Mrs. Prof is going to go in to CVS and do a bit of searching for waterproof stuff, including waterproof tape for this attempt (not present at the last attempt). I'm going to try wearing just a blue foot-only orthopedic boot instead of my full calf "moon boot" (I wore neither last time), and she's going to look for a "cast cover" that might fit over the blue boot. Barring that, it's down to roll-your-own with plastic trash bags and waterproof tape over the boot. Another thing that caused such a big problem last time was that I started the shower with me sitting on a shower stool in the center of the stall. This time, I'm going to have to start with the stool out of the way at the back of the shower stall so I can stand, get everything (skin) beyond sponge-bath clean, then move the stool to the center of the shower and sit to wash my hair. I did that back before I had a must-keep-dry bandage on my left foot—that's the real problem here, isn't it?—so we'll see how the above waterproofing plans work this time around. It sucks to have to do this much planning just to take a smegging shower. There is a part of me that wants to give up. I'm fighting it.