Joe Paterno just got a 3-year contract extension. Yes, he's got the most wins in the history of large-college football, but the man is 82 years old, for Pete's sake. His actuarial table doesn't even go that high.
Like much of the rest of the country we're in the midst of some pretty nasty winter weather. The temp didn't hit 60, and it rained off and on all day. More of the same for the next 48 hours. So this evening I put all my summer clothes into a Tupperware bin and took it up to the attic space.
This is my idea of brutal winter weather!
Dreamt is the only English word that ends in mt.
I finished the list of 52 verses for S & M today, one verse (or 2 short verses) for each week of the year. Their goal is to memorize one entry per week in 2009, a really excellent plan.
I wondered about which verses to include on the list. Some are really basic (Jn. 3:16), but we decided to include some of those to make sure a baseline was established. And in the end I decided there can't be a "wrong" verse.
Tomorrow I'll format the list in an Excel spreadsheet. If you want a copy I will email it to you when I'm done. Go to the Pathway web site, click on "contact us" at the bottom and use that to send me an email with your name and email address.
We could get sophisticated about this and set up a virtual accountability group. Facebook? (I'm there.) Let me know if you're interested.
I read this article on Slate.com today. The author, who has written on motorsports for the NY Times and produced a show on SPEEDTV about NASCAR, makes a pretty convincing case that NASCAR should be shut down. Interesting article that comes at the issue from a unique angle. Even if you're not a NASCAR fan (and I'm not), it's thought provoking.
From me to you.
Seriously.
Christmas Greeting
I went to the gym this afternoon. Did two miles on the treadmill at a moderate pace and followed that with 10 minutes on the exercise bike. I still don't feel fully recovered from the surgery, which was one week ago today, but it felt good to exercise again. Few things bore me like treadmills and exercise bikes, so as soon as this storm has moved through I'll be back on the pavement.
Tomorrow morning I go back to the endocrinologist. He'll have all my test results and surgical notes. He told me a month ago that he may put me on calcium and Vitamin D supplements to repair any damage done during the time my parathyroid gland was on the fritz.
Those supplements would correct physiological problems, like the osteoporosis that is always present to one degree or another with hyperparathyroidism. But those problems, though real, are invisible, silent symptoms. I would not know I had osteoporosis apart from the bone scan they did, and only a bone scan will show it has been reversed.
Other symptoms concerned me more - those that don't show up on a Dexa scan or blood tests, that are more ambiguous, but are a lot more relevant to my daily life. My reading indicated it can take a month or more for those sypmtoms to improve, but some patients report noticeable improvement within days. So I've been paying attention, all the while allowing that the vicissitudes of daily life could account for any changes I seemed to notice.
Here's my tentative assessment.
I slept through the night last night, the first time in memory. Like I said, other factors could be responsible, like lessening discomfort from the surgery, so more time will tell. But I'm hoping the insomnia is in the rear view mirror.
The acid reflux is also gone. Back to eating anything at anytime. YES!!
The biggest one? No question, the sadness.
My family will tell you that the word giddy has never been used to describe me, so let's not expect miracles here. But I'm finding myself smiling on the inside, whereas a week ago ... not so much. Hard to describe, but I understand why people talk about the clouds lifting, the sunlight returning. I don't want to overplay this; I wasn't Gloomy Eeyore. I just felt down too much of the time. Now I feel lighter and more generally optimistic about life. Hey, by next week I could be starring at the comedy den.
Why am I telling you all of this? Two reasons. First, I can see if people come to my blog via a search engine, and if they did, what they typed in as key words. Over the last year I've had visitors looking for information on vasovagal syncope and hyperparathyroidism. If somebody comes here as a result of one of those searches and reads this maybe they'll be encouraged by it, by the potential for symptomatic relief.
But I also want to revisit something I blogged about a few weeks back. We are complex creatures, "fearfully and wonderfully made." One part goes wrong and others will be affected. Physiology and psychology are interconnected. For some of us, fixing sadness is as simple as a 60 minute surgery. For others it's a lifetime of medicines that may or may not give consistent relief. Either way, there is absolutely no moral dimension to psychological struggles. None. Zero, Zip. He's got diabetes, she's got breast cancer, and s/he has bipolar disorder. They're all in the same boat.
Cut 'em all some slack.
Or yourself some slack.
You know who you are.
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