After the decision was made with my back doctor to get surgery (will be performed at UCSF), I signed out a CD ROM with the images from my MRI on it. Hoping I might be able to view the images, I popped the CD into my computer. Lo and behold, not only could I view […]
Running is Mental
July 1, 2009 By 5 Comments
As any runner will attest, and every non-runner has heard, running is part mental. The body can do a lot, yet without the mental will to push forward through neural messages from every muscle in the body screaming “STOP!”, you just aren’t going to discover your full potential. And we’ve all experienced days when simply getting out of […]
Vicodin Haze
July 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Walk through living room into kitchen. Open fridge. Stare inside. not at any particular item. Just stare. Close fridge and turn around to face living room with an inquisitive look. Begin to walk back into living room with no recollection of what you were hoping to achieve by entering the kitchen. Continue back to the bedroom thinking […]
Dean Would be Proud
June 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I finished reading Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes this morning. I was inspired, and tired. After reading about Dean’s long and extreme runs up and down the Sierra mountains, the scorching heat of Death Valley, and to the South Pole, I decided I had to set out on my own adventure. Surely, with the endorphins racing through […]
Through the Strands
June 28, 2009 By 4 Comments
I was recently perusing the Runner’s World (shouldn’t it be Runners’ World?) website and saw an ad that caught my eye. I clicked on it and discovered a very cool website: Strands.com. It’s an activity tracking and social connection service. Once you set up an account, you can enter in your workouts, running routes, and […]
Raising Up, Kind of
June 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The Big Outing
June 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Hypertension — More than being really tense.
June 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I had my annual physical examination with my primary doctor Wednesday afternoon. My blood pressure was high again (154/96), and it had been high two years ago when I visited as well (you can see my annual isn’t actually so). It had been something like 124/90 back in 1997. I have heard the question several times […]
To Surgery, or not to Surgery?
June 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I went to see my back doctor, Dr. Jeffrey Saal at SOAR: The Physiatry Medical Group, in Redwood City, CA yesterday. It had been three weeks after my second cortisone epidural, and two and a half weeks since I had started physical therapy. I was eager to learn what he made of my progress and even more […]
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Vader? Hannibal? Maverick!
My wife likes to tell her friends that sleeping with me is like sleeping with Darth Vader. And it’s not because of the black cape I wear to bed, either. It’s, my breathing, with a full mask and hose going to my CPAP machine. The machine is very quite — the most quiet on the market […]