Mortal after all

I've got some surgery coming up real soon and I'm a little nervous about it. It is not really major surgery, but several minor ones rolled into one visit. With any luck, my lower legs will be fixed and I can enjoy walking again. Also, my left shoulder will be fixed and I can enjoy moving it again. If he (my surgeon) decides to do (repair the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) my left wrist , I should be able to play the guitar for longer than 30 minutes at a time with no pain.

All of the above should/will improve the quality of my life tremendously. Might even improve my mood.

What I'm nervous about is nothing specific. It is just a vague sense of unease about the whole affair. It's going to be done on an outpatient basis, but they will be putting me under anesthesia. So I'll be unable to breathe on my own for a while, but I will be unconscious and I think that's probably a good thing. Because he will be cutting into me in several different places and it's good that I won't be seeing or, more importantly, feeling that.

So what's to worry?

I worry that my chart might get mixed up with someone else's and maybe I'll lose a leg or something. I'm worried that maybe it won't work and I'll be even more messed up than I was before. I'm worried about not having any degree of control over myself and my immediate surroundings. I'm worried about basically being dead there on the table for a while and totally at the mercy of complete strangers. I know in my mind that none of the above is likely to happen or to be a bad thing, but still...

I've had surgery before with this same surgeon. I have no doubt but that he will do a fine job. He always has.

So I shouldn't worry. Right? Right. Yeah...

I'll let you know how it turns out after the 27th of this month.

Thoughts?

Pax,
Nelson

Labor Day 2007

Sometimes, it's good to just start typing and see what happens. Today, I washed a few dishes, futzed around on the computer (a lot), Spent a little time with my son and an even smaller amount of time with my dear, very tolerant wife (who is pregnant with our second child). I wanted to spend more time with each, but I did not.

I have no job. I have no desire for a job (not true). I have no immediate need for a job (growing less true daily) and I have no real qualifications outside what I was doing with **** (not entirely true). The ability (ies) I supposedly posses are drawn up short by other disabilities. I want to play my guitar (and banjo) and get better at it. I cannot play longer than an hour, sometimes hour and a half, without pain and numbness in my left hand. I want to write more, but I have a hard time getting started and organizing my thoughts. I want to get closer to people, but I have a need to be alone much of the time. And I'm lonely during some of that time, but resent company. I want to get into better physical shape. I can't walk or (as I found out [to my embarrassment] this weekend) dance. I can ride a bike and I can swim, so I'm glad of that.

Some impediments I cannot remove. The personal and physical which seem to grow in number with each passing week, I can do little to reverse. Those external impediments to progress which I can remove seem to reveal other impediments dependent upon others, dependent upon still more until, in thinking of all this, I become stagnant.

I'm now trying to think of a word similar to stagnant which conveys a slightly different, yet more accurate meaning. Instead of leaving it alone and checking it later after my thoughts have all run their course, I'm checking on line to see if there is a Plugin Thesaurus for OpenOffice Writer (the word processor program I'm using to type this whatever-it-is). I can't find one, but I do find mention of the fact that there is one somewhere within the program. Turns out, there's one in here after all: I just had to hunt a little further. Unfortunately, a better, more accurate word eluded me whilst using the built in Thesaurus so I'm going to have to think some more.

Static: I become static. I have so many possibilities that I might choose, I am frozen in a moment not of time but of indecision. Dead in the water. I am unable to choose a starting point and as a result unable to accomplish anything. This has been a repeating pattern (with few exceptions) for my whole life.

So what can I do? I'm seemingly self-screwed and zipped up tight. A-quiver with indecision, stand (or sit) I.

The trick (and it doesn't always work) is for me to go find something different to do. Instead of wasting life worrying about where to start, a particular job, go find another one to work on, one that I can begin with no difficulty. If I can't finish it in one sitting, that's OK: I still have the other thing which may not be so insurmountable this time when I try it. However, I've got to come back and finish what I started eventually. When I finally finish one of the tasks I've begun, there's that all-too-brief feeling of satisfaction which gives way to the depression of being done and having to find something else to do. Yeah, I get that, too. I have not answer for that one yet, other than having something at hand to begin. And sometimes that won't work either.

Turns out, I can't help this behavior: it's the way I'm wired. I am one of a small percentage of the population who suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD. I did not know this prior to a year ago. I learned about it through counseling with a therapist. The behavior, will very likely not change, but since I'm aware of the condition, living with it is may be a little bit easier.

Why should you care? Good question. Maybe you recognize some of these behaviors in other people you know who, at first glance, seem to be lazy and aimless. Maybe not. Maybe you recognize them in yourself. Maybe not.

If so, cut that person (or yourself) a little slack. If you feel like you know them well enough, tell them about ADD. Maybe they'll check up on it: maybe they won't.

There's also a variation on this theme: AD/HD – Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder. I don't suffer from the hyperactivity part.

I seem to have lost the point here of the posting. So that's a good time to stop.

Anyway, if you want, you can find out more about ADD AD/HD. This website will give you a lot more information and, hopefully, understanding.

Thoughts?

Pax,

Nelson

Bike

I used to walk for exercise. Three times a week, I'd get out there and walk about 2 & 1/2 miles and count myself as doing the good thing.
Unfortunately, it hurt my legs to do that. Hurt them a LOT.
So I went to the doctor and it turns out I've got a relatively rare (for people in my demographic: i.e. middle-aged fat guys) condition called Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome. In a nutshell, it seems that our lower legs are made up of four compartments housing our muscles. When I walk for exercise, the muscles swell and build up fluid. Since the compartments are not elastic, they have no where to expand and they just get tighter and tighter. This ultimately hurts so bad I can scarcely stand it and eventually, if unrecognized and treated, it can cause nerve and tissue damage. Sometimes it is NOT good to 'work through the pain.'
I'm really very glad I went to my doctor.


The only treatment options are either surgery or a change of activity.

Guess which one I chose.

SO.

I went to get my old bicycle out and found, to my dismay, that it needed some major (read 'very expensive') work done to make it serviceable again. I was disheartened. I've had this bike since I was 14 (that's 32 years). Despite the deep emotional attachment I had for my old bike, it was time for a new one.

I got myself a 2007 Trek Navigator 2.0 and let me tell you people, it is a whole new world. Totally different ride from my old Azuki racing style bike. The feel and handling is completely different and it takes a little getting used to. The new one is also far more comfortable to ride.

This thing ROCKS!

This morning was my second ride on the bike trail. I rode over 6 miles today with no pain other than the normal exertion pain. I can't tell you how good it is to exercise without constant pain. I am certain I can go at least that far every time I ride which will be three times a week. Or maybe more!

Love my new bike. Don't know what to do with the old one yet: maybe I'll give it to Good Will with a note explaining that it will need some work. I am not sure, maybe I should just junk it.

Thoughts?

Pax,
Nelson