Happy Thanksgiving!

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I like this stripped-down cover of the Neil Young classic

Really? The Librarian Missed This?

Worst thing about being off work for 3 months: They went and had an honest-to-God Scholastic Book Fair while I was gone. 🙁

Here's hoping they do it again. At the old building, we'd occasionally have a group called Books are Fun come by and sell books and various curiosities, but this was actually Scholastic itself.

I am so jealous.

Back to work and it was exhausting

Officially back at work. I worked two days, our lighter days at work, Thursday and Friday, while the temp who had filled in with me was still here. Thursday morning, I got up at 5:30 because I was afraid I'd oversleep (I set four alarms five minutes apart) and took most of what I'd brought home in July back in two rucksacks, one on my back, and one rolling bookbag.) I spent the morning watching a four-hour video training that was engaging. That afternoon. Then Kathryn (the temp, an excellent person who is going to come volunteer with us and once she can, hopes to come back and work for us. Everyone really liked her. Plus, she knows about Sarah Millican (the comedienne) and Cthulhu. She's read 71 books so far this year, which blows my reading challenge completely out of the water), and I took turns at the computer. After work, I did many errands, and by 10:45, I went into the bedroom, took my meds, got into bed, but didn't fall asleep till right before midnight, as I was still a little wound up. Friday I woke up on my own at 5:20 so I decided to go ahead and get up, I went to Kroger, got some things for lunch like peanut butter and jam (but forgot the bread, so wound up eating fig newtons and popcorn) and a couple of plants for work, and went into work a little early (I got there about a half an hour early, so I took an amazingly long time in the store, apparently.

Anyway, again, Kathryn and I took turns, covered each other's breaks, etc. Almost everything is the same. The only real surprise is that I am now a headquarters employee who clocks in and out, including for lunch, on the computer, which is taking some getting used to. But that will come pretty quickly. I also got my flu shot today. I learned I needed to stand more, maybe while I'm folding letters to go out, because it'll keep my legs from swelling, but also they hurt after a while if I don't. Plus, my watch makes a happy noise if I get up. It tries to tell me to get up every 45 minutes anyway, although I tend to ignore it. I will not be controlled by my machine overlord.

I left early this afternoon to go to PT, had a good session, including being able to do bridges for the first time in ages [arching the back by putting up the knees and putting all your weight on the shoulders], and doing 60 step ups (30 on each leg) which is amazing, giving I haven't been able to do steps in years. That's stepping up and down on one foot and down, but doing three sets of ten x 2 when you're not used to doing it is quite a workout. I then took the bus to my car (I'd taken the shuttle from the parking garage next to our building down the street to PT after changing from my jeans to shorts since he'd need to get to my incision for the massage part of the session). I came home, had a couple of things to do here, went to get dinner from Bourbon n' Toulouse, but went to the Sharkey Way location, even though it is across town and I hadn't been there before, because it has better parking (it actually just opened a drive through) and a vegetarian dish that the main Chevy Chase location doesn't have.

I went, got the food, and made a terrible mistake. I came back through downtown. I don't know what was going on at Rupp Arena, but the event caused a lot of traffic that didn't open up till I got onto Fontaine Road and then Chinoe. I was in bumper-to-bumper traffic. All told, I think the trip took an hour. The town's not that big.

We ate Sabbath dinner. I saved half of mine for today. I was so tired and uncomfortable. It was hard to finish. Afterwards, I took care of the dishes (my main chore, since he normally is the one who cooks), and then took my meds and collapsed into bed, exhausted, and I lasted 5 minutes, had trouble setting an alarm for tomorrow, and then I was gone. I woke up about 4:30 am and went to the bathroom, got a banana and some water, and got on the computer for just a bit. I'm going back to bed for a couple more hours.

I did snap a picture of myself in the break room in my new employee-appreciation gift t-shirt. It was supposed to be royal blue, and this was substituted, and while I look best in royal blue, I love this colour. Anyway, it's nice to be back, it's nice to see people again. But I'm glad Kathryn was here, and that I could ease into work this week. I hope I can do okay next week as I'll be back on my own. Goodness, I was so tired last night.

#14

I just read an entire book from my list in the last three hours, and I'm crying.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi [New York: Random House, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-/129-8840-6] chronicles the abrupt change in his life as a senior neurosurgical resident who is diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. It was very meaningful and well-written. Paul died in 2015, and the book was published posthumously. In it, he examines both questions of what it is to be alive and to be dying and his own experiences with both. It was very moving.

#13

Neurodiversity for Dummies by John Marble, Khushboo Chabria, and Ranga Jayaraman. Wiley, 2024. 324 pp.

I really liked this because it provided a great overview from a neurodivergent-friendly angle (at least one, and possibly two, of the authors have neurodivergent differences) of a group of conditions that included not only autism and ADHD, but also dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dyscalculia, as well as some comorbidities. It is for those with neurodifferences, as well as parents/caregivers, teachers, managers, human resources, and anyone trying to understand and interact, making things better for people who live in a world that wasn't designed for them but who have valuable abilities to bring to the table. It is very readable, like most of the 'for Dummies' books (I hate the titles, but the series is great), and covers a lot, but isn't an onerous read [which is great if you have ADHD]. It covers a lot of misconceptions, and also a lot of coping skills that neurodivergent people have used that then cause them problems later in life. It covers issues with relationships, whether platonic, romantic, or familial, workplace issues, school challenges at all levels, and becoming your own advocate. It covers building communities and finding others who 'get' you. And it covers learning to figure out how other people think and how the things you find tedious, like small talk, or don't understand, like innuendo or implication, play an important part in social interaction. (For example, autistic people often will not socialise with others unless explicitly invited, even though the others thought their implication was sufficient. Or, they may not realise that the nice person who picks up the tab for dinner thinks they are dating. One of the authors had this experience. I feel so much better about myself for doing this, not once but twice.)

Anyway, since I have 13 out of a goal of 15, I'm ahead for the year, which is good, as I go back to work Thursday and I won't have as much time to read. Even with the time I've had, I haven't gotten through all the other library books I've checked out.  Here's what I have out right now:

The Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Action Plans: 4-week meal plans to heal the immune system and restore overall health by Dorothy Calimeris 

Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Dummies by Artemis Morris 

Anti-Inflammatory eating made easy: nutrition plan and 75 recipes for a healthier body by Michelle Babb 

Autism Adulthood: insights and creative strategies for a fulfilling life by Susan Senator 

Confident Coding: learn how to code and master the essentials by Rob Percival 

DASH Diet for Dummies by Sarah Samaan 

E-Z Spanish by Ruth J. Silverstein 

The Electricity of Every Living Thing: a woman's walk in the wild to find her way home by Katherine May 

Enjoy German by Heiner Schenke 

German for Dummies by Wendy Foster 

Gut Feelings: healing the shame-fueled relationship between what you eat and how you feel by Will Cole 

Hebrew for the Rest of us: using Hebrew tools to study the Old Testament by Lee M. Fields 

How to be Human: an autistic man's guide to life by Jory Fleming 

A Little Less Broken: how an autism diagnosis finally made me whole by Marian Schembari 

Mind Your Gut: the science-based, whole-body guide to living well with IBS by Kate Scarlata 

Off the Spectrum: why the science of autism has failed women and girls by Gina Rippon 

On Book Banning: or, how the new censorship consensus trivializes art and undermines democracy by Ira Wells 

The Pattern Seekers: how autism drives human invention by Simon Baron-Cohen 

Take Control of Your IBS: everything you need to know to feel better by Kirsten Jackson 

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi 

The White Storm: how racism poisoned American democracy by Martin Gelin 

Plus, I have two on hold: 

The trouble of color: an American family memoir by Martha S. Jones 

Unmasked: the ultimate guide to ADHD, autism and neurodivergence by Ellie Middleton

My roommate says I'm hoarding books, and he's right. I've had some of these out for a while. So I'm going to go through a lot, especially the diet books, and see what I can do to take some back before Thursday. Most of those are recipes, anyway.

But, hey, I'm up to 13; that's better than a book a month. Since I struggle to read these days, that's good. And while my roommate came up with the answer a long time ago, this puts it succinctly. It's probably why I do mostly non-fiction now. I spent my entire childhood wrapped up in fantasy books and a fantasy world. I got pulled out kicking and screaming from that world in my 20s, and I needed to be, but I've never quite recaptured that immersive story, the magic, while being firmly grounded in reality again, at least not like it was.

Wow...a keiki!

So if you've been around me in the last few years you know I grow orchids. Well, I had one I'd gotten a cut rate that stil had some blooms on it that bloomed for some time, and the stems stayed green for a long time (one still is), so I didn't cut them back, as stems can sometimes branch off and bud from there.

What I did not expect was this. I have a stem that had turned partly brown, and I'd meant to cut that part back because it was a little unsightly, but hadn't, and now there is a keiki, or orchid baby on it. It might be hard to see against the African violet behind it, but it's there. Now, keikis are sometimes meant with dread because they often indicate the parent plant is stressed and may be about to die. I'll check on it. It does have new leaves coming out, too, so that's a good sign. I'll check the root system and make sure all is well. It doesn't mean a death sentence. And those stems had come from the base, which is good. Phaelenopsis do make keikis that aren't death knells. But I've never had one before, so I'm a little excited. 😀🥰😁🙃

#12

The DASH Diet Mediterranean Solution: The Best Eating Plan to Control Your Weight and Improve Your Health for Life by Marla Heller. Grand Central Publishing, 2018. 272 pp. ISBN: 9781538715253.

I liked this so much that while I checked it out as an e-book from the library, I've ordered a copy from Better World Books to have for myself. Although it does have some intriguing recipes, it is mainly a discussion of the basics of both eating philosophies (I hate using the word diet, as it's so loaded, but yes, diets), but as a mashup of both, including meal planning suggestions that are not just here's what to eat but what type of food to plug into in a way that I haven't seen done as well in other books.

Despite my weight loss to be honest, I haven't learned to eat as well as I should. These two plans are considered among the healthiest of all diet plans and are good for lifelong health. Also, they're good for pescetarians, actually founded in that type of eating primarily, although people can eat lean meats as well. I'm looking forward to getting my copy, plus, unlike Amazon, BWB donates a book each time you buy one, plus I donated $1 to their literacy programme and another to another book-related charity.

Since I had revised my goal to a more realistic 15 books for this year, I may very well reach that goal. Yay!

Things seem a bit empty...

I haven't been on Facebook much lately, but I should have said, part of my bedroom is now empty because they came and took the ROMTech bike away the day before yesterday. That part of my therapy is now over. It's been a big part of my day for three months now, so it's weird. But I have more floorspace. 😀

After the rain...comes rainbows

Yesterday I did a whole slew of errands, which meant driving in heavy rain, which I find nerve-wracking, almost the whole day. Finally, at 5:42 PM, while I was going to get my holds at the Tates Creek branch of the Lexington Public Library, I was rewarded. It immediately disintegrated after I took this, so I was lucky. 🥰🌈

I stopped at the circulation desk and asked if they wanted a copy. The librarian gave me her work email, so I sent it to her.

I think my orthopaedist will now realise I am a klutz, if he hadn't before.

I had an incident Friday after PT where I went to get into the car and instead of getting in like they tell you by sitting down and then swinging your legs in, I did it like i normally do, by putting a leg in and then easing myself in. However, this did not work. My steering wheel was set too low, so when I got in, my right thigh somehow got caught between it and my body and for a moment or two I struggled to free it, and it hurt. I went on for the rest of the afternoon, but since then it's been swelling more, and whereas my pain had fallen to a 0-1, it's been a 2-3, mostly due to the swelling, and a little sharper around the actual kneecap.

So, I did what any patient with anxiety would do. I went on MyChart and sent a message explaining this, asking if I needed to come in before my appointment that is on October 14th and have my x-rays early just to make sure everything is in place. It's probably fine, but I know there's a lot of cement used and there hasn't been enough time for the bone to heal over it much. So someone will read this Monday and go, 'really?' and pass it on to a PA, I'm sure. But I figure it would be better to speak up rather than to say nothing. If I have done something, I don't know what to do. I'm out of FMLA for the year. Hopefully, that is not the case. Sigh. Only me. Can't even get into a car gracefully and without injury.

I told myself I would not watch one of these until I was done with all this

and now I have...

Wow. PLEASE CLICK ON THE BLOCK BELOW TO WATCH A REALLY NEAT VIDEO ON ROBOT-ASSISTED TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT IF YOU ARE APPARENTLY OLD ENOUGH. It didn't occur to me it would be age-restricted and only available on YouTube. I assure you, it's not sexy.

By the way...

This video is from another place, but let me just say I am really happy with my experience at Baptist for a number of reasons.

1) I went to Dr Talwalkar for my knees based solely on the fact that I work with his brother, which in a way is a silly reason, but he's just as great and a very caring and experienced surgeon, and I'm very impressed with his skill and manner. He has now done three surgeries on me (also a rotator cuff).

2) My hospital stay was pleasant. The food was great. I was so exhausted from my anxiety leading up to the surgery that I slept well. I wasn't constantly bothered, but they were attentive. PT was great.

3) Pre-op testing was great. One of my former co-workers was one of the ladies who did it.

4) The surgery scheduler worked a miracle to schedule my second surgery so I wouldn't have to redo my leave and mess everything up. The next available was originally sometime about the time I was supposed to come back. She and the doctor got together and did it earlier than originally expected, and right after a holiday on his normal day, but as his only case, stuck at the beginning of the OR schedule. I have my suspicions, and I am very grateful to both of them.

5) I got a bill for a code that was written off by UnitedHealthcare, and when presented with the paperwork, Baptist instantly erased it.

6) Any correspondence I've had--with PAs, CMAs, registration staff, medical records, billing, pharmacy, even security (I thought I'd lost something at the hospital that turned up when I went to pack to go back five weeks later) was cordial, timely, and productive. It's been a very good experience.

7) The use of that attachable nerve block that attached and went home with me for five days really made a difference because I was in very little pain for the first few days relatively to others I've talked to and was able to get up and get moving quicker, even use that range of motion bike, and as a result hit my 3-week goals a week or more ahead of schedule. On the left leg, I was cleared for driving in 2 1/2 weeks, on the right 3 1/2. Even the doctor has been impressed with how it's gone. I think that made a big difference. I was up and on that walker a lot early on. It was a pain lugging around and making sure the cat didn't play with the line, and the second time I accidentally pulled on the catheter slightly, and that caused issues, but it still worked, and that's what mattered. And it was easy to box up and return, plus they give you free batteries. 😃

Anyway, I have healthcare providers in every system in this town, plus one in private practice, but I will continue to use Baptist Orthopaedics, and I highly recommend going to Janak Talwalkar if you can.

Gamifying my Agendas

I'm a big fan of to-do lists, and I make one practically every day on my Kindle Scribe, especially on weekends. But, once upon a time, I used to use an app that made me very happy, called Habitica (it's also a website). It gamifies to-do lists, habits, daily tasks, etc., so that instead of just checking them off, you are rewarded, not with points, but with something fun. It's a throwback to Dungeons and Dragons-style role-playing games. You have a little avatar with health, experience, and mana (magic). You have a class (mage, warrior, healer, and rogue). When you do your tasks, you are rewarded with gold to buy equipment, but you also gain points that go towards the health, experience, and mana, and you level up. Your equipment can affect your basic stats, and buff them up. It's just like a role-playing game, tabletop or video. I was on it for five years straight and took a break for a while, but I'm back on it. I've joined a party, which adventures together, taking on quests, where as long as everyone keeps up with their tasks, we do well. Those tasks do damage to the bosses when completed. This party is no-nonsense. We are expected to do over 300 points of damage per day and there's a script they had me create and run (with directions) to automatically accept quests because they do about 15 a day. There are 28 people in the party as of today. I have spells that help the party against the bosses and finish the quests as well, and I cast those throughout the day when I have a moment. It actually takes only a little bit of my time; it's just a matter of going in occasionally and checking off my tasks and hitting the magic spells (I'm playing a mage, of course; others would have other abilities). But it's been fun. You can also do challenges and win gems. You can subscribe and get gems to buy special equipment, too. I used to subscribe. I can't right now. I have a ton of gold right now, and eggs and food to hatch more pets and mounts. Yes, you can make dragons and or ride wolves. There are backgrounds to customise your avatar square. Lots of equipment to change your stats, but at the same time, you can wear a costume to look a certain way. Here's my profile; I just realised I've been on Habitica for almost 10 years. You can find it at www.habitica.com :

I'm not sure who came up with this, but I'll credit it if someone tells me

 

because it's pure genius.

Rise and Shine

I was going to get up at 7:30 AM today because I have to get my friend up for class at 8:30 and I want to make his coffee first, but I was woken up by the garbage truck and the subsequent woo woo by one of the dogs who was also disturbed at 6:10 (I am in the front of the house with the window open). Yesterday I got up at 5:30 AM. Most of the time that I've been off, I've gotten up sometime between 6 AM and 7:30 AM, so not really sleeping in, but I need to get used to being more on the 6 AM side of that. I usually try to get to work between 7:30 and 7:45, as I clock in at 8 AM, and I have a bus I take from the stadium to the medical centre. I go back to work in 13 days. So even though the alarm was set for 7:30 today, I think from now on I'm going to set it earlier on weekdays.

Of course, yesterday I got up earlier, but about 10 AM, I was so sleepy, and I'd been so productive, I went back to sleep for an hour and a half. I won't be able to do that at all, so I'll have to resist doing that, too. Besides, that goes beyond a nap. That's a sleep. 😊

Today I have to stay up. I have PT at 2 PM. I want to do a lot of reading and studying. I may or may not have to go to one of the pharmacies we use--I have to call once they open. I do need to put some laundry away, and maybe do some, or at least get some of that out of the way this weekend. I'm keeping up on my room, and I need to see about moving back into my normal weekend chores. I also want to finish up the game notes from the last time we played. Now that it's not sweltering in the house (we didn't have air conditioning in the house, except for my room, due to the central AC going out), I'm hoping we can play the game again, now that I'm doing better, but I need to do those first.

Okay, it's really quiet. I've got a little time. I think I'll go make coffee and wash some dishes, so those are done, and then set an alarm for 8:30 AM and do some reading to get something off my list. Oh, and I can eat breakfast now. I took my thyroid pill over an hour ago. I have to wait to eat with that.

I remember this sort of thing

We once had a donation at college of those overruns in the student centre, where they can't sell the books, so they cut the covers. They were mostly Penguin classics. I gathered up so many that I couldn't really carry them well, and I filled up a couple of bags plus more (they're small, but still). I was late for my next class. My professor actually helped me carry them to my car. Afterwards, I went back and picked through what was left and found quite a few more. I was a history and classics major, so these were right up my alley, things like Scipio and Herodotus, Descartes, etc., but also some esoteric subjects like understanding tarot as well. I wound up with about 100 of them. I still have them. It was so worth it, even with damaged covers.

Now I will say, when I got home, a friend looked through them and asked to pick one or two for himself and my greedy pigginess got threatened (hey, I didn't share well back then; I'm an only child and I'd worked hard at getting them home). He'd missed out on the whole thing. He got mad and decided I should be buried with the 'imperative books' or, in my case, cremated with them. Since he's in charge of my funeral, he may just do it, despite my advance planning, and the thought of him burning books in a crematorium does bother me. He'll know which ones are which due to the covers, too.

Sigh.

Hmmm....

I was looking at a list of autistic traits, and I'd never thought of doodling as autistic 'stimming'. I did this all through school. I didn't need to really do notes back then, or at least didn't think I did, and did well enough on exams; this belief was underscored. Given that later I took notes for our Cthulhu game, initially for myself (I didn't know it would be for posterity and for the group, and that I'd be doing it 34 years later), my notes from then would suck. Those early notes are full of doodles, but little content, and of course I remember little of the stories, and I've gone back and looked at the modules, but our game master does so much improvision and modification there was no way to get the notes right, and most of the people who played are gone on to other things and are unavailable. I have tried to reconstruct them, trust me. But when I was younger and unmedicated, and therefore my memory was less impaired, I did actually remember more of my classes, and there was structure, and I comprehended most of what I heard, plus I was pretty much bored because I'd read the assignment and many of the lectures were just out of the book, so in my boredom I drew doodles in the margins and took few actual notes. It worked for me at the time. I got A's and occasional B's in secondary school and early college. Things started to unravel once I started to have a social life, and I lost the structure that I'd had in high school in school in college. I still did okay, but let's just say I only made the dean's list my freshman year. I needed to start taking notes, but if anything, I just doodled more, because it was a way to soothe my anxiety.

Also, two of the things they list that are missed in girls a lot are twirling hair and biting nails. Also me. My mom had to get this bitter stuff to put on my nails. I'm surprised my hair didn't break off, too.

PS For the last 15 years, for the game I've used a digital voice recorder that plugs into a USB-B slot into a computer and transfers a file so I can then listen and write up what happened; not so much a verbatim transcript but the gist in story form. My phone will do an AI transcript, but that actually takes longer to turn into story form than listening, believe it or not, because there have been a couple of times I've run out of batteries and I've had to use it as backup.

Wow

At the Lorain Public Library in Ohio, 19 bookshelves holding 50,000+ books collapsed in domino style after the first shelf gave way. The library was closed for a day to clean up the mess, 1971.

I loved that scene in the 1999 film 'The Mummy' with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, and I saw it at the drive-in that used to be right outside Winchester, so I shook the entire car laughing, but this...

Oh, I'm so glad I wasn't the librarian working there that day. This is why I hate metal shelving.

Interesting

Early vs. Late Autism Diagnoses Linked to Distinct Genetic Profiles

A large-scale international study has revealed that autism diagnosed in early childhood is genetically and developmentally distinct from autism diagnosed later in life. Researchers analyzed data from over 45,000 autistic individuals and found that early-diagnosed children often show social and behavioral difficulties from a very young age.

I haven't followed this too closely, but...

Okay, I can't imagine liking his music, even though I must admit I haven't heard it, so I can't say that for sure (I'm not much into rap, except maybe if you count Linkin Park-style, where you've got some nice melody intertwined with the rhythm, and I've been told that's not rap, in which case I like it very much), but Puerto Rico is American, and people who say otherwise are idiots. Many non-US acts have also performed at the Super Bowl.

It's just a music act anyway. Not some reason that has to get all political and crazy. It's just a musical act at a football game, meant to be fun. Really, folks, this is why we can't have nice things. If people would stop losing their shit over the small things and just be a little kinder to one another, the world would be a better place.

Going along nicely and finally reading fiction again

#11: I've been meaning to read this forever. My roommate has read all of the October Daye books, I believe, except the one that just came out last month (the 20th in the series). This is the first, 'Rosemary and Rue'. It's wonderful; I've put it off only because I've been in such a rut with fiction. But I made it through all 27 chapters and enjoyed every one. According to him, there's a huge story arc that hits you hard as you go along, which she plots out well from start to finish throughout the series. On to the next one.

One of the things I didn't think, of course

When I got my phone in July, I didn't even consider that it would mess up my blood glucose monitoring. I have a Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitor and wear a sensor with a built-in transmitter on my arm, which then pairs with a device such as a smartphone.  I can then, through a lovely free app that some kind soul provided, run that from my smartphone through my watch face through what's known as a complication on my Samsung watch. This was all working splendidly on my 3-year-old Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 phone and Galaxy 5 Watch.

Then I came across a deal on T-Mobile for the upgraded version of my phone, the Flip 7, that essentially gave me credits that made the phone, which is usually $1100, free except for taxes and activation, plus a preorder incentive of 512 GB storage rather than the standard 128 GB. Since I'd almost capped my storage on my device and had kept it a long time, through three iterations of the Flip, I thought that was a pretty good deal, plus I didn't mind getting locked into the credits because I've been a T-Mobile customer for 25 years (okay, I'm not happy about the Starlink partnership, I will admit).

The problem is, Dexcom has to test new phones to check the compatibility with their applications, the Dexcom app and their Clarity app, and neither of those are yet because they haven't been tested with my new phone. You can check it on their compatibility page. This is for the G7, but you can hit a tab for the G6 system as well. The Stelo has a different page altogether, so you'll have to search that.

Today, while doing my periodic checking (they update regularly, and it populates with each day as the most recent list), the companion phone, in fact, the bigger phone that was released at the same time, the other foldable, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, is now listed on the page. That might mean mine will be soon, so I'm excited.

By the way, if you can't use your smartphone, all is not lost. There is a receiver you can pair the sensors to, and that will provide readings. I've always had a receiver and have paired it to both phone and receiver, to have a backup, as it can be paired to two devices at once (remember, the watch just piggybacks off the phone, sharing data from it).

For more information on that watch app, look for the Gwatch app in the Google store if you're using a watch that uses the Wear app for its settings, etc. and has complications. There is another for older watches in the Samsung Galaxy store.  There is a Facebook group that is helpful for questions. It's a private group, so if you can't join, let me know and I can send an invitation, or you can ask me for technical help and I might be able to help you with the basics.

Here's a picture of what it looked like when the complication was working on the watch. I could just look down and see if I were getting low or not. Since I'm not supposed to drive if I'm under 100, that's useful info. In the example, my blood sugar was very, very low on waking up (my phone and receiver had probably woken me up to an alarm), as it was only 39. It's there on the top. Not only was I not going to drive, I was dangerously low. I'd have had some orange juice or glucose tabs to get it up to at least 80 before I did much of anything else, and definitely not gotten behind the wheel until it was higher. Fortunately, it was Sunday, so I wasn't going anywhere, but that was probably why I took a picture, because it was an outlier. I don't normally go so low, thankfully. This was sometime last year, I think. Oh, and the arrow means it was falling.

Here's the difference in the phones (stock photos):

Flip 4:

Flip 7:

Just how bad they were and how much better they are now

I got my images of my knees today on a disc. I compared them to the ones I had from last year. It's like night and day. No wonder they feel so much better. The ones at the top are after the surgery, the ones at the bottom show the pre-surgery arthritis. It was definitely time. There was no cartilage at all. Since I'm a month out from surgery today, physical therapy was mostly functional testing today, so I'm hurting a bit, maybe a 4/10, but lately I've been a 0 or a 1, 2 tops, even with the range-of-motion bike, which is pretty amazing, especially since I was regularly an 8. Whoo-hoo!

I really believe in this cause--it's a great niche and really needed

I am off the cane, by the way, and I'm glad I can drive again for a slew of reasons, but I've been looking forward to this and was hoping I could go in time; I'd contacted their secretary a month-and-a-half ago about when it would be. I had some bottles ready for the last time in June, and that's when I fell off the porch into a rosebush, so I was in the ER during the dropoff. Hopefully, this time it'll be less eventful this time, as I've got quite a lot saved now. You can drop clean pill bottles and lids off at the Beaumont, Eastside, and Northside Branches of the Lexington Public Library, or the Scott County Public Library in Georgetown, from 1-2 PM on October 4th.  They're usually in a spot in the back parking lot so that you can just line up and hand over the bags/containers. Thank you to the ladies of the University of Kentucky Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and their Alumnae association.

Odd

It feels really weird to weird to wear pants today rather than (one of three pairs of) shorts I have, all of which are in the laundry to be washed, so I'm wearing my wide-legged pants that allow you to push up the fabric all the way up the thigh to get to the incision to massage the patella and incision or check for flexion, etc. The only problem they make for PT is the hurdles. I have to lift my knees a little more and concentrate a bit to make sure I don't knock them over, but that's actually good. But considering it's been 21 days since I've worn pants, it just feels odd. It doesn't hurt or anything; they're healed enough not to be an issue, it's just kind of strange. Funny how we get out of the habit of things. Like when I was first driving after two months. It took the first errand we ran to really get a feel for it again. But it's all good.

Speaking of driving, it's time to go to PT. I did the ROMTech bike after taking my morning meds and some insulin since I'd been high on my blood glucose, and then lay down to put some heat on that pulled muscle, which was tight. My roommate woke me up two hours later, at 12:30, which startled me that I slept that late. I hadn't expected that and hadn't set an alarm. My appointment is at 2 pm. My blood sugar was 43. I chewed quite a of glucose tablets. It's finally 141, so I can drive. But it had been so low it took a while to come back up. I'm hoping I'll get the okay to ditch the cane in the house (to be honest, I've mostly not been using it, to my roommate's dismay). I'm using it out of the house, and of course, on the steps still.

Okay, I'd better go. It's 1:23.

 

Huzzah!

Well, I:

• Drove to the UK area to pick up my friend's jacket, which he accidentally left at a friend's house while celebrating the new year
  
  
• Drove to the grocery store to pick up food, especially as we were out of coffee, so things were dire
  
  
• Drove to Captain D's through the drive-through to pick up dinner
  
  

It was odd to drive after eight weeks, but it felt nice to get some independence back. Yay, I'm back on the road!

Today I cancelled the Chandler Pharmacy's standing order to mail me my prescriptions, so I'll have to pick up a couple after PT tomorrow. So now I can go to my appointments by myself.

To everyone who drove me to my appointments, though, thank you so much for helping me! I really appreciate it.

Yay!!!

I got my bandages off, get to drive (starting small, anyway), and have a return date, right on schedule. Woo-hoo!!! See you all in October!

Here's post bandages being taken off:

The only thing he was concerned about is on my other leg, where the robot incision is, there is some redness around it, but there's no drainage, so he said to just keep an eye on it, and if it looks worse at all, call and get some antibiotics sent over to the pharmacy. Otherwise, not only was he pleased, but he was practically amazed by how well I was doing on it and commented to that effect.

Excited

I have my post-op appointment here in a couple of hours. Wish me luck and fingers crossed! I hope to get an idea of 1) when I can drive and 2) my return-to-work date. Plus, I'm getting my bandages off, regardless. Woo-hoo!

As far as the fusion bandage, it's all but ready to come off itself:

Jim Henson would have been 89 years old today

This is how the Muppets learned he died while planning a tribute for him. It was a lovely tribute, indeed. We need more Jim Hensons in the world. I wish we hadn't lost him so soon. So here on the anniversary of his birth, I thought I'd leave this here..

Happy Birthday in Heaven, Jim.

Sigh

I was curious as to when I joined Facebook. Apparently, this is no longer displaying in the 'about' section like it used to on my profile page, nor is it buried in the settings like it's supposed to be, even according to numerous instructions on the internet, YouTube videos, and the actually helpful Meta AI program. I finally found it by searching my activity log by filtering by year, as it only presents the years you actually post, and the first year was 2008, and my first post was on March 25th. Considering Facebook, or 'TheFacebook' started out as a college thing and was created in 2004, only being opened up to everyone in 2006, I'd consider myself a fairly early adopter. That means I've been on it for 19 years. Wow. I feel old. Considering it's taken me 45 minutes to find this date, I feel even older. I'm going to go get on that ROMTech bike and do something useful. 

I love this song

But the video makes me cry. It's hard being Superman.

Just as a reminder

We're heading into that time of the year. No, I'm not talking about Autumn, although happy Mabon. I'm talking about Banned Books Week, which this year is October 5th through 11th. George Takei has been named Honorary Chair this year.

So...

I have the t-shirt that says this that I bought from the ALA. Also, the bumper sticker. Always good to remind people. So take up a banned book this year and read or re-read it. Better yet, fight for the rights of others to read them. So many libraries, schools, librarians, and teachers are facing challenges across the nation right now. I'm really interested in seeing The Librarians for that reason, although I may wait till it streams somewhere if I can.

#10

Divergent Mind: Thriving in A World that Wasn't Designed for You, by Jenara Nerenberg. New York: HarperCollins, 2021.

The book itself isn't bad, it's actually pretty decent. I hate how it's exclusively geared towards women but you don't get that until you start reading it--there's nothing in the title or subtitle indicating that, and I think if I were a guy I'd feel like there was a bait and switch, because 1) male experiences matter, too, and 2) with the exception of a few cases, most of what she wrote would also apply to men, but it is written through a feminist, women-only lens. I'm saying this as a woman myself. I'm not saying we can't focus on our issues, but just be up front about it and don't alienate half the population, especially in a group that's already been alienated for being different from neurotypicals.

Good news, bad news

Good news: I've been released by my physical therapist to only use the cane. I'm off the walker both inside and outside, unless I'm in a busy environment where I feel I need it to keep from being trampled. Bad news: I got on one of those boards where you slide and do leg presses today at physical therapy. The mount/dismount is somewhat tricky, and I wasn't quite ready for it, because I pulled a part of my quadriceps muscle up on the upper part of my right (operant) thigh, and it really hurt. My therapist did massage it, and it helped quite a bit, but I'm limping a bit, and it hurts to stand up. It's almost exactly the spot I hurt on my left leg earlier this month when I stood up from the dinner table. My quads are always weak, but especially now, after surgery, and they're just not cooperating with me, even though we've worked a lot on strengthening both. But this, too, shall pass, I'm sure.

In the meantime, I've already transferred all the basic items I had in my walker bag (things like my handicapped placard, lip balm, house keys, and a small planner) to my smaller sling backpack. Time to put the walker away for now. Yay!

#9

The Mindful Guide for Adults Living with Autism: Empowering Adults with Autism, Thrive in Work, Love, and Self-Discovery by Steven Fain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a good overview of what an autistic person needs to know about dealing with adult life, and while helpful for anyone, it would make a good gift for a young adult going into the world or someone who struggles to find mindful balance in life. It doesn't overwhelm with detail, but rather gives practical advice for a wide-range of areas of life in terms of balancing relationships, learning, work, personal interests, and online life in a way that is meaningful while drawing boundaries and being assertive, advocating for oneself, and looking out for one's own mental and physical wellbeing. It is a worthwhile look at all ways to improve all aspects of life that can be challenging to those on the spectrum, without being preachy or pedantic.

View all my reviews

*Note I did receive this book free in return for the request to review it.

And so of course I did a thing...

Well, I somehow managed to do a klutzy thing with my bandage last night. I've been having trouble with swelling, especially at night before bed, so I'd iced and elevated my leg, which felt like an overripe tomato. I had used an ice pack that velcroed onto the leg, so when I went to take it off, I just reached under to cover, and somehow grabbed the fusion bandage along with it. I heard it rip a bit and stopped, but about 2-3 inches came off the top, to my horror. I got up, looked at it under the light. Everything under it looked good. It was closed and healing well. I asked my roommate (since he was a certified nursing assistant back in the day) what he thought I should do, and until I could ask the clinicians the next day, he put a Band-Aid over the edge of the end to keep it flush for the night. That didn't stay all night, but it got through most of it. This morning, I took a couple of pictures, uploaded them to MyChart, and sent a message asking if I should just trim it back or if I needed to do anything else to protect the incision. A couple of hours later, they said to trim it back, and that it looked good, so I did that. Three hours after that, I managed to hit the incision against the table, and it bled like the dickens. Only me. But with pressure, it did better. I've only ridden the bike once, though, today. I've been a little wary since I whacked my leg on the underside of the table, since it scraped the incision. Pictures below to illustrate what I'm talking about. Keep in mind, I'm two weeks post-status surgery.

 

Peeling

Peeled back

Trimmed off

Trimmed back -  from the top

Trimmed back - the whole view

A little do-it-yourself was in order

Since there was one night I accidentally stepped in dog hack-up (fortunately I did not slide, given the walker has wheels in the front, and the brakes in the back would have only done so much), and I am a klutz (which I think we have long established), but I don't want to wake up my roommate by turning on the hall light either, I rigged up my old cane light onto my walker. I had to change the batteries and clean the contacts. I will probably be released from the walker, at least for indoors, on Friday, but it'll help until then, and I can just move it to the cane after that.

I've been having enough pain to have trouble sleeping lately, so

I went back on the Journavx [suzetrigine], which is neither a traditional pain medicine (i.e. opioid) nor an NSAID, so it avoids a lot of the issues with either of those. It's a sodium channel blocker. The only issue I'm having is, like my thyroid medicine, you take it on an empty stomach and can't eat for an hour afterwards, so since I took it at midnight last night, and you take it every 12 hours, it runs right into lunchtime. So timing can be tricky, especially as we eat late, and so if I take it anytime in the morning, we run into the problem of dinner. But it's workable. It's brand new, apparently. But it really helped last night and today. I wasn't sure about right after the surgery because I had that nerve block on anyway.

[UPDATE: I am totally wrong about how to take this. The food matters for the first dose only. It should be taken one hour before eating and at least two hours after eating, then 12 hours after the first dose. But the subsequent doses can be taken with or without food. Well, that makes my life much easier.]

I don't want to give into the tech overlords just yet; give me a real person anytime

I recently went into a fast food restaurant [cough, cough, Taco Bell on Harrodsburg Road here in Lexington], waited patiently, was finally told someone would be with me after 5 minutes, then was told by the cashier to use the kiosk. When I said no, I wanted to order in person, she gestured there and made it clear that's where she wanted me to order. I said no, she shrugged and gestured again. I left. As I got into my car, she went out for her smoke break, the apparent reason she didn't want to serve me. I complained through the rewards app with details, but never heard from corporate. I will not step foot in that store. I haven't given up on the company, but I am still not happy with the outcome. And I will not use a kiosk. For one, I don't want to deal with what sort of germs before I eat it. I usually go through the drive-through, so I hadn't encountered this before.

The deep down sense of rage may have sparked my need to be a librarian

Or maybe it was the kind school librarian who let me be her assistant in junior high.

Still, I mostly annoyed the Kern County librarian in the same locale, the Mojave Desert, who wasn't prepared for a college-level reader in an 11-year-old. 🙂 I'm still annoyed she wouldn't let me read John Jakes' 'The Bastard', which was a miniseries on TV at the time, but given the subject matter, I guess I understand. But I don't know why she wouldn't let me read anything in the adult section, period. That seems extreme. She made me stay in the children's section. Harumpf.

Ah, the eternal question

Do we take a nap now, messing up the newly made bed, or do we stick it out even though our lids are heavy and we got almost no sleep last night?

[And yes, I know it's not really 'made'. I don't have my duvet on right now. I just tucked the wedge pillow into it's normal configuration, put it in the centre, straightened up the pillows, and put the blankets on those so they wouldn't interfere with the handrail.]


It's not like it's not easy to put back...

So sleepy

Fortunately, I haven't had this experience much with these surgeries, but last night it took me FOUR hours to fall asleep, then it was disordered, light sleep, and I woke up at 8 AM feeling nowhere near rested. My leg was incredibly swollen, tight, and hurting. I tried ice, elevation on the wedge pillow, Tylenol, stronger meds--nothing was doing it. I finally tried side sleeping with a pillow between my knees and my operant knee on top, and that sort of worked (it's my normal sleeping position), but it still took a while longer, and it wasn't good sleep. I had to meet someone at 10 AM, and we saw each other a little early. It is now a quarter after 1,0 and I am fighting the urge to go back to bed.

Memories

These came up in my OneDrive memories from 9 years ago. Oh, how I miss this place (the old Shriners library, for those who don't know. I spent 20 years of my life there). I actually started crying. In some ways, my heart has never moved on. (I did win that Ray Harm indigo bunting print in an auction 2 years later, though, as well as the old card catalogue that was in the attic).