Just FYI…

The aftermath of having a vasectomy is like the moment 20 seconds after you’ve been kicked in the crotch–the point where the really serious nausea-inducing pain has passed and it’s starting to fade into a dull ache–except it goes on for hours and hours.

At least, that’s what I think it’s like–I have to admit it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten kicked in the crotch.

Navigating the medical system (Part 0)

Almost exactly three years ago–shortly after getting back from my stint in DC–I got a physical. I wrote about it at the time “because I found out I had a hernia”:/2004/11/by-my-body-betrayed.html. As I said in that article, the doctor didn’t think it was a big deal, and so as much as it freaked me out, I didn’t worry about it much.

A couple of months ago in a conversation, the subject of a friend’s hernia came up, and I commented that I had one and it didn’t seem to be that big a deal. A long discussion that made me feel more than a little green ensued, and I ended up convinced that I needed to get it fixed. But it’s been a crazy couple of months, and I just haven’t gotten around to it.

But I am now.

This is going to be the first time I’ve braved the wild world of serious health care, well, pretty much ever. I intend to document the process as I go. Maybe, just maybe it will go smoothly. I’m not holding my breath.

Tai Chi

So a friend of mine and Anne’s wanted to take a Tai Chi class at “Inside/Out”:http://insideoutbodytherapies.com/ (where I teach yoga on Thursdays). This being one of the couple that we invited along to swing dance classes earlier this year, they invited us along to Tai Chi classes.

It’s funny how much yoga stuff I have to not do to Tai Chi correctly–it’s a much more relaxed, softer practice than yoga. So in that sense, it has been valuable to highlight habits I’ve acquired and make me think about them once again.

That said…I’m not feeling it. If everyone else is inclined to keep going, I suspect I’ll do so–it’s an hour, it’s not without value, might as well–but I doubt I’ll be arguing _for_ it.

But if you find yoga to be too much like work, you might check it out.

The new lead paint?

So, “Slashdot has an article about paint that will help you protect your wireless network”:http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05%2F01%2F14%2F0028208. By lacing the paint with copper and aluminum fibers, they’re hoping to create a simple “Faraday Cage”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage (hey, that’s my first-ever link to wikipedia!), thereby reducing or eliminating the amount of RF passing through your walls.

Hope you don’t watch broadcast television.

But, much more worryingly, am I the only one who remembers the decades of issues we’ve had in this country with lead paint–lead having been a great pigment for getting a nice bright white color–and small children eating the paint when it chipped off, and the neurological problems that that engendered, and at the same time remembering that copper can be poisonous, and aluminum may be connected with Alzheimer’s (though Wikipedia’s article on Aluminum suggests that that’s been refuted)?

I have heard it suggested that Rome may have systematically poisoned itself into irrelevance when they lined the aqueducts with lead. Are we considering doing a similar job?

By my body betrayed!

So, knowing that I was going to be suffering some bad allergies when I got back in town post-election, I made an appointment with my doctor, with the intention of reviewing the drugs I take for them (and the related asthma), but the doctor decided to turn it into a full physical checkup since, well, I hadn’t had one in four years.

Heck, I haven’t been to the doctor at all in two and a half years–I’ve been healthy.

So, anyway, I was kind of expecting some plaudits for having dropped 20 pounds and generally being in better health, plus some new drugs.

Instead, I found out I have a hernia.

Well, the doctor _was_ complementary about the fact that I’d lost 20 pounds without resorting to diets and so forth, but it kinda paled in comparison to the fact that I have some surgery I need to schedule.

This has totally freaked me out.

I mean, intellectually, I know that as such things go, this is trivial, and, frankly, the doctor doesn’t even seem to think there’s any exceptional urgency–it’s not large, I don’t have any pain associated with it, etc.

Yet, I find myself vaguely nauseous every time I think about it. While I’d originally thought to wait until after the holidays to get it done, now I’m thinking I may need to get it over with sooner, just so I won’t dwell on it.

Anyway, it’s nothing major, but boy, this is not what I wanted to come home to.

I’ll try and quit being a baby now.