Saturday morning I dragged myself out of bed a bit earlier than usual, so I could walk to the community center where the country was running its H1N1 vaccination clinic. I got there 30 minutes before the clinic started, and there were already 500 people in line. I stood in the rain and cold for [...]
Tue, November 17 2009 » Uncategorized » 2 Comments
As a complement to yesterday’s post, and perhaps a bit of counterpoint, let me recommend a movie called Music Within. I caught the first half of it this morning, which reminded me to write about it. The film is based on the life story of Richard Pimentel, a talented public speaker who was deafened by [...]
Thu, November 12 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Kairol has done an excellent job hosting Patients for A Moment at Everything Changes. I see some familiar names and a few new ones, which is great. I plan to spend a few free minutes later on perusing the submissions. For those of us still suffering from Pinkness envy, Slate has an Explainer on how [...]
Wed, November 4 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
This month is National Blog Writing Month, or some such, but I’m not participating. You probably already knew that, as sporadic as my posting has been. The thing about being sick is that even though it forces you to take time off to care for yourself, the stuff that you’re not doing doesn’t magically disappear. [...]
Tue, November 3 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
Last week, about midway through my bout with the flu, I woke up to an empty cupboard. Well, not “empty” exactly – but out of breakfast foods. And since I didn’t have the energy to comb my hair, much less fry pancakes, I was forced out into the wild. Fortunately, “the wild” includes a Dunkin’ [...]
Wed, October 28 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Last week I was mostly wiped out with the flu – not fun. Now that I am recovering, I discovered one helpful benefit from the disease: it burned off a lot of my excess fat. I’m not a particularly muscular guy – nor was I particularly flabby – but what muscles I do have are [...]
Wed, October 28 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
I’ve been cooped up in my house for five days, getting over this cold – which I am now prepared to call the flu. I have gone a bit stir-crazy, got a touch of the old cabin fever, that gnawing claustrophobia telling me the walls are closing and squeezing in and I must do something. [...]
Fri, October 23 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
You know the one: “How Drug-Industry Lobbyists Got Their Way On Health Care“, by Karen Tumulty and Michael Scherer. It’s worth reading if you’re not familiar with the issue, but there are a couple of aspects important to patients that the authors don’t quite spell out. First, this bit: But there’s a dilemma: policymakers want [...]
Thu, October 22 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
You know what sucks? Being sick. You know what sucks more than that? Getting sick when you’re already sick. I spent the weekend suffering and now recuperating from some sort of upper respiratory infection. I knew I was coming down with it by Saturday afternoon, but spent an ambitious evening out anyway. By the time [...]
Mon, October 19 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
From 2003 to 2006, maybe even into 2007, I was more or less sick full time, and everything else in my life was secondary to trying to get well. Being sick compressed my time horizon: I couldn’t look any farther into my future than six months. Part of the problem was the non-trivial chance that [...]
Fri, October 16 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
A novel crime against decency by Duncan Cross
