Friday, April 29, 2016

No Fitbit found.

So I had a Fitbit one and I've had it for a while. I've gone through periods where I lost it then later found it. Most of the time there was laundry and washing machines involved with fitbit disappearing but I normally found it after a while. Then last week happened.

I was in Raleigh visiting my eldest at Duke and setting up my youngest at Chapel Hill (actually buying most of the clothing in the book store), when, while driving in a crappy Jeep Cherokee rental car, I reached into my pocket to take out my cell phone. That same pocket is where my Fitbit usually lives. My fitbit fell out and landed on the floor of the car. When I later stopped, I reached down to get my fitbit and all that was there was it's case. No fitbit found.

I looked under the seat. No fitbit found. Looked in the back seat. No fitbit found. I decided to wait until the next day for the sun light.

The next day I looked again. No fitbit found. Then in a moment of technology genius, I synched it with my phone. The phone found fitbit!

So it was in the car but I couldn't find it. I felt a very small hole in the carpet under the rail for the seat and all I can assume is that fitbit, while trying to run away, fell into that hole. I looked for it for a few days. The phone taunted me everytime it synched with my fitbit. I never found my fitbit.

When I returned the car I asked if they could continue my search for my fitbit. They said if they found it they would put it in the lost+found box at Hertz in RDU. I think deep down they were laughing at me.

Little do they know but I'll be back at RDU in a few weeks. I looked at a garmin tracker and the Apple watch but ordered a new watch-like fitbit, a Curve, as a replacement for my One. It won't live in my pocket. Maybe I won't lose it as much and if I do, I hope will be easier to find.

Now, where are my sunglasses?

Sunday, April 17, 2016

The journey starts with a single step

The initial goal of my retirement is to heal my body. Simple to say, difficult to do.

The first problem that I'm working has to do with my gastroenterological system. I had my gall bladder removed last December. I had some "plumbing" problems before that I haven't solved yet. I think a lot of this has to do with too much medication interacting in undesirable ways mixed in with some diet woes. This is moving along.

More of an issue for me is my back. Over 25 years ago, in what seems to be a different lifetime, I had surgery on my back. An L5/S1 discectomy. The issue then, and as it recurred, involved weakness in my right leg with sciatic pain to my toes. I had good days and bad days after the surgery but had a recurrence that we tried a then experimental process of epidural steroid injections into my back. I did three of these shots and they helped me recover and be OK for a while.

Over the past few months my left hip and leg started hurting. I thought this might be a hip or some other type of issue happening and first saw a chiropractor. He immediately said go see a real orthopedic doctor. I found the doctor who did my surgery a gazillion years ago. He was still practicing, sent me for PT and said to come back if I wasn't cured. I tried that PT, it didn't fix me, then went for an MRI which showed I have almost everything that could be wrong with my back is wrong with my back. My main issue is spinal stenosis. I also have herniated discs, nerve damage, scar tissue, degenerative disc disease and other stuff I've forgotten.

Meanwhile, I can't stand for more that a minute at a time nor walk more than 100 yards.

We decided the try the now non experimental shots again. They hurt a lot more than I remember. The first one didn't lead to any relief. I just did round 2 last Thursday. I'll find out if it works in about a week after it kicks in.

This injury is odd in that rest doesn't help. I need to be active but being active triggers pain. Dr.Internet says to get a cane or a walker or anything just to get more active. David Wright of the NY Mets has the same issue and they say he needs to workout and stretch for up to 3 hours a day just to be able to play. I started today with 5 minutes on the 'mill and some stretching. This was an improvement from the one minute limit of last week so I'm going to try to do this a few times a day, mix in some swimming this week, and see where it leads.

I know that losing weight can only help. If I don't fix this with this approach, the next surgery would include screws and titanium rods in my back to fuse discs to together. That, my friends, is something I want to avoid.