Late Night Thoughts

Wednesday 05.07.2008 02:42AM

I should write a blog post, eh?

I keep thinking that, but have not made the time to do it. That usually makes me think about the busyness of life and how I have not been doing well at balance, as far as being productive with my time. It is easy to let the free time slide, especially now that Spring is here and there is plenty of fun to be had. I am not too hard on myself about it, but have been breaking my to-do list into easier, discrete tasks and using rememberthemilk.com to keep on top of them.

I have not done the “No Screen Night” consistently, unfortunately. The other week I really needed it though, so disconnected for a night. Nothing interesting to report there, except that I got several things done and it was relaxing.

For some reason, I have never really jotted notes or drafts for blog posts. I should probably do that more often, then I would have more frequent posts – and of a better quality than this one.

Changes. It was back in February that I started to decrease the dosage on my anti-spasmodic prescription, and as of April 22 I am off it entirely. I have had no symptoms or side-effects during that time or since stopping entirely, so that's good. Since they do not know how my body might react after being on the medicine for about a year, I'm not supposed to drive for several months (seizure risk while driving).

My California plans are most likely on hold for a little while longer. I need to finish my degree, which unfortunately means enrolling as a returning student and putting me under a different course bulletin than I was before. It has not changed a lot and all of my courses will apply, but I will probably have to take two or three more classes instead of one. I'm ok with it, I guess. I'm not as concerned about the “safety net” of having the degree as I am just accomplishing it. Plus, I get to be around my Midwest friends a bit longer; leaving was never going to be easy.

I voted for Ron Paul today in the Indiana primary. I never got around to writing more in-depth about him and why I support him, unfortunately. Maybe I'll write something later, in retrospect (or not, since that will fall in my to-do list and disappear :). I know McCain has the nomination sealed up, but it's just a primary and Paul is still on the ballot. It was symbolic support for the message, which I always thought was more important than his chances at the nomination / Presidency.

I am excited to see that Mary Ruwart recently announced she's seeking the Libertarian Party nomination. She's the author of the book I have been reading, Healing our World in an Age of Aggression. Every article I have read (and her book) has been principled, consistent, and articulately deals with issues of liberty. She has a long history as a liberty activist and knows her stuff; I'm really hoping she gets the nomination.

And now it's quite late. Stream of consciousness over.

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Health update

Thursday 03.06.2008 12:57AM

Overall: alive.

++ In January I had another echocardiogram, this time with an exercise stress test. I have not been exercising much over the winter, so I was out of shape and the treadmill wiped me out. The result was “normal”, which means an ejection fraction of about 55-60%. When I initially left the hospital it was 20-25%, a month later it was 40-45% – so this is very good news, meaning my heart is recovering and working well.

++ The other week I met with my neurologist. The results of my EEG were normal, which I guess means I still have something like a brain up there. I have been on an anti-spasmodic prescription because I did have a seizure during the event. Since the EEG looks good, I have no prior history of seizures, and it's been 8 months, they're starting to slowly take me off of that. As long as I'm responding well and there are no problems in April, they will take me off it completely. She did advise me to be more careful about driving distances, and if I notice any symptoms, including staring - like zoning out for a bit. These aren't very likely, but are possible, so let me know if you see me zone out. :)

-- I have shingles on the left side of my face. I had a bit of lymph node pain the middle of last week and started to notice a small blotch on my cheek on Friday, but did not think much of it until over the weekend I realized it was a rash of some sort. I should have gone to immediate care on Saturday, but oh well. I went to my doctor on Monday and they got me on some Valtrex (yeah, har har. Shingles is in the herpes virus family). Thankfully, there hasn't been a lot of pain associated with it so far and hopefully it will clear up soon. There is a bit of reaction on my eardrum. There is a risk of Bell's palsy if that were infected, but currently it's looking good, so that should not be a problem. If sharp ear pain develops, I'll see the ear doctor again and we'll go from there.

-- Most likely I got shingles because my immune system was weakened about a month ago by the flu, which hit me for about 5 days despite the vaccination (aside: I've heard this round of vaccination has a rather poor 40% rate of effectiveness).

So yeah, that's the health update. Overall, pretty good, but the last month or two, not so great with the flu and shingles. I think my body has just decided to get all the typically “older” health issues over with now, so when I'm 40+ I can be fit as a fiddle and not worry about them. :)


It is pretty crazy how many medicines I'm on at this age.

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