Posts Tagged ‘health’

Work/Play

By Chief Oddball on January 16th, 2010 at 4:32 pm

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Local headline: Woman crashes BMW into photo shop while attempting to park.

Well…welcome to winter in Florida. The fact that we’re having our busiest “snowbird season” in two or three years must be a bittersweet pill to swallow for the owner of that Fifth Avenue photo shop, who says this is the third time in 16 years that a car has driven through his front window. Oh well, perhaps the additional business this year will help him pay his undoubtedly increasing insurance premiums.

Anyway, I would also be remiss if I didn’t welcome you officially to Oddball Update 2010. Contrary to recent evidence, this blog has not fallen under new management. I’ve simply been too preoccupied with not doing anything constructive to give much of a crap about posting anything. In truth, the holidays this past year were rather hit-and-miss. The last two weeks of December were an emotional roller coaster of good and bad, hair-pulling frustration and classic good times. It was hard to know which you were going to get when you woke up in the morning.

Things have settled down a bit in the past week or two, but the “head in the sand” mode into which I regressed during the holidays is still here. I work every day ’till six or six-thirty, take a brisk walk for my daily exercise and fresh air, and play some enjoyable video games in the evening before kicking back with Apple for some chatting, gossiping or giggling like schoolchildren before bed. The routine hasn’t varied much, if at all, in a month. It’s quite comforting, really, like your grandmother’s fresh-baked strawberry pie or a nice hot bowl of soup on a cold day.

Unfortunately, this routine hasn’t been very conducive to creative pursuits, such as writing, designing, recording or any of the other constructive tomfoolery I like to get up to from time to time. Even so, I’m trying to move beyond caring about such matters. Somewhere after I got out of high school and into a job where I actually had to (and wanted to) care about what I was spending my time doing, I started getting very sensitive about how my hours were spent. I’d get all guilt-wracked if I felt like I hadn’t “accomplished something” or “done something constructive” even during my off hours. So on those nights when I’d just feel like playing a game, watching a movie or reading a book, I’d go to bed feeling like I wasted the evening.

Not anymore, really. I’m eating it up. Give me three hours to explore the wasteland in Fallout 3, or explore the galaxy in Star Trek Online (which I’ll talk more about some other time). I’ll go to bed happy. Usually much happier than I was before I started playing, when I’d just gotten off work for the day. In fact, during the holidays I was pretty damn surly just about every weekday, at least until the sun set.

For a time, there, I really felt like the guys at work were trying to screw me. Not really on purpose; I had no illusions about them deliberately designing a conspiracy against me or anything grandiose like that. I just felt marginalized, like it was easy for them to make choices that ended up screwing me because I’m out of sight and out of mind down here in Florida, whereas the rest of the crew is in another part of the country (or the world, in some cases). See, when I was first asked to sign on with this firm, I was part of a small Florida satellite office that no longer exists today. Or, more to the point, I’m the last remaining member of its former ranks.

It all started just days before Christmas, when the company admins decided they wanted to switch our health insurance group plan to a new vendor by the first of the year, in order to save everybody some money on premiums. Unfortunately, since I work out of a different state and am thus a 1099 contractor (so the company doesn’t have to play by Florida’s rules), the new heath insurer decided I wasn’t going to qualify because they don’t like contractors. So this touched off an immediate scramble where I and the human resources coordinator tried to put together a solution that would allow Apple and I to retain coverage. Given that we’re still trying to get pregnant right now, the possibility of losing health coverage was not something I wanted to hear.

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Reloading

By Chief Oddball on December 21st, 2008 at 3:42 pm

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I’m sitting in the lounge of Sittara Spa in Hat Yai, Thailand, while Apple enjoys a 50-minute reflexology session (that’s a foot massage to the rest of us). I would have gotten one, too, except that we were walk-ins and there was only enough room for one. Because of the possible benefits of reflexology on total body health, including the reproductive system, the choice of which one of us should get the massage was obvious.

There’s very calming music playing in the lounge. It actually sounds like music you’d hear in a baby’s nursery, akin to the chimes of a music box. It actually reminds me of the music from that part of Fallout 3 when you’re a year old. It’s quite comfortable and relaxing in here, even if I’m not having a massage myself. I could use the quiet, frankly. It’s been a busy week. So far, with the exception of my ability to sleep late this morning, the weekend has been likewise.

My parents know this already, but our first round of fertility treatment has concluded in failure. Everything went as perfectly as one could expect, but when it came time for the forces of nature to do their thing, we just didn’t get lucky. Such is life.

We actually handled this turn of events pretty well, all things considered. Especially Apple, whom I am very proud of for picking herself up, dusting herself off and keeping herself busy with forward-looking activities and plans — and in relatively short order. It will be a couple of months before we can try again, so in the meantime we’re trying additional treatments, both holistic (cue the foot massages) and spiritual (a planned trip to visit a famous monk in northern Thailand who is well-known for assisting couples with fertility issues). And in my case, there’s always work, so I haven’t that much time to dwell on it all. At least I can say that my work is going very well.

Tonight we’re having a big family dinner — a Christmas dinner, I do suppose — at a popular Chinese restaurant. I’ve been there before. It’s always one of the favorite destinations when our family wants to have a big get-together, particularly when there is some occasion to be celebrated. The traditional multi-course Chinese meal usually includes fish maw soup, steamed bass with ginger and vegetables, fruit salad, and lots of other things. Quite a bit different from the western-style turkey and mashed potatoes that I’m used to at the holidays, but certainly no less enjoyable.

At times, particularly after the failure of our first IVF attempt, I was feeling a bit consumed by consternation and despair over our situation. How many more sacrifices would be necessary? As much of a pain as these setbacks may seem, today I had to admit to myself that we could be in much more dire straits. An article on MSNBC’s website about the abject hell that my hometown (Detroit) has slipped into was the galvanizing force behind these feelings. We have almost no debt, no other health problems to speak of, wonderful families on each side of the Earth, a stable and well-paying job, a house of our own in the mostly-pleasant climate of Florida, and yes, plenty of toys. By comparison, I could be unemployed, living in a burnt-out corridor of Detroit with nothing but a rusted-out Toyota Tercel and a GED. Things could be much worse. And it’s this thought that I try to use to motivate myself when things seem bleak.

This coming week will probably be pretty quiet due to some family members heading off on a vacation of their own, so I’ll use this time to recharge myself and collect my thoughts. I probably won’t take any days off for the holiday; maybe one at most. But at least they’ll probably all be fairly calm days. I expect to immerse myself in a lot of reading and writing, especially out on the patio where the cool breezes of Thailand’s mild season are best felt. (Oh yes, there’s another reason to celebrate my present circumstances: No snow to clean up, drive in, or otherwise deal with.)

Apple should be done soon, so I’ll wrap this up. Did I mention the spa has free broadband Internet via wi-fi? I think I will be glad to come back here whenever Apple would like.

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Progress

By Chief Oddball on November 29th, 2008 at 4:08 pm

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When I first had the bright idea to prefix my entry titles with “Travelogue” while we’re overseas, I didn’t really stop to consider the result: that every post I make for the whole rest of this trip would start with that word. That’s an awful lot of posts. As you can see, I gave up.

It’s Saturday afternoon, and I’m just finishing my work. For the uninitiated, many Thai people work six days a week, Monday through Saturday, including my wife’s family. Since everyone else is working, I figure I might as well, too. Sometimes I use this as an excuse to put in a few extra hours and make some more money. Other times — like this week — I use it as an excuse to piss away half of Friday playing games during business hours, and then finishing the other half of my day’s work on Saturday. :) The little gaming setup I put together for myself here is paying for itself over and over again. It’s great to have a little slice of home here in Thailand to help recharge my batteries. I still thought I’d miss driving, but so far I don’t. Perhaps because I’ve been playing a lot of driving games!

In relatively short order, we’ve fallen into our usual routine here. Each morning, Apple’s brother and his wife and daughter leave the new house at 7:30 so they can travel back to the family business, known to me as the “print shop.” (Which is exactly what it is: a printing business, old-fashioned mechanical presses and all.) I stay at the new place with my computer stuff and do my own work for the day. Around 11:00, a tuk tuk arrives with my lunch, a specially-prepared “miniature version” of the family meal at the print shop (we’re reimbursing Apple’s family for the cost). Usually Apple goes over to hang out with her family by mid-afternoon, and returns in the evening with dinner.

On Saturdays, it’s a bit different. We’ll get up early and go to the print shop with my brother-in-law at 7:30. Getting up early this one day is not usually a big problem, but it was particularly difficult this morning for some reason. Perhaps in part because we got up early yesterday as well, because we had an appointment at the hospital for the next milestone in our fertility treatments. And I must have slept weird, because my neck is all sore. Anyway, I’m ready to go back to bed, the earlier the better. Tomorrow’s Sunday, so we don’t have to get up too early, but the housekeeper is coming to clean the new house so we’ll have to get out of the way at some point.

Through all of this, we’ve been making progress in our fertility procedures. Despite being the last woman to enter this month’s treatment regimen (her doctor only accepts a small number of IVF patients every month or two), Apple was the first to produce a set of healthy eggs for retrieval. After the eggs and a sperm sample were collected, they were brought together in a lab — and now, five of those eggs have been fertilized and are showing good progress. Soon, we’ll be ready to transfer some of those eggs back, and then all we can do is wait and see what happens. I know my fingers are crossed!

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The Southeast Asian Mash-Up Post

By Chief Oddball on May 17th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

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I have a ton of stuff to say on so many different topics, there is absolutely no point in trying to name this post after any of them. So I’m going for the “mash-up” theme. This entry will be about anything and everything that’s come to mind over the last week or so, with the exception of the United States presidential election, which is so utterly and completely FUBAR it deserves its own, forthcoming, entry.

Time has been passing with astonishing speed, particularly this past week, which seems to have lasted about three and a half days instead of the usual seven. Our trip, which started out chaotically as you might recall (just read my previous post if you’ve already forgotten), has gotten steadily better since, and has become one of the best trips I’ve taken to Thailand (surpassed only by that time we went to Phang Nga…man, was that place beautiful).

Apple’s surgery went perfectly, and she has greatly recovered from her ordeal already. She will have a follow-up appointment with her doctor on Sunday to make sure everything is OK, but judging by her condition and appearance, we’re all more than confident. The jury’s still out as to whether Apple will come back to the U.S. with me on our original schedule; I’ll keep you all posted.

Regardless of who returns and when, it’s definitely decided that we’re going to return to Thailand in late September or early October to begin our fertility treatments. Since this will likely require us to stay here for several months, I’ve already started making preparations to set up a more semi-permanent home for us here. Apple’s parents have graciously allowed us to stay at their new home for the entirety of the trip so far, and it’s made a world of difference. Last week, I bought a desk and office chair to put in the bedroom, transforming it into a sort of office suite. It’s really quite “de-luxe.” In fact, the chair is nicer than the one I have at home — far nicer. It reminds me that the next time I buy a chair, I should really dispense with the OfficeMax Blue Light Special and order a real chair from someplace that knows how to build them.

Additionally, I’ve decided that when we come back in the fall, I’m going to get a real desktop computer with a pair of monitors so that I can get back to my regular working speed. My typical warp speed touch-typing with a laptop keyboard is “seriously not on,” as the Brits would say, and being confined to a single monitor…well, that’s just not on, either. Additionally, I’m going to see if I can make enough money doing side jobs this summer to buy myself an Xbox 360 to keep in Thailand, so I can enjoy some game time while I’m here. Ironically, just as the side job subject came up, I had four contacts whom I hadn’t heard from recently all email me asking for help on new work. It’s like “ask and ye shall receive,” without the “ask” part.

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THIS! IS! THAILAAAAAND!

By Chief Oddball on May 9th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

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Okay, so I never saw the movie 300, in which Gerard Butler screams “THIS! IS! SPARTAAAA!” But I’ve witnessed that particular scene about a billion times since it became an Internet meme, so now of course it’s gone where all other Internet memes go to die: this blog. Seriously, any such jokes are guaranteed to be played out by the time I use them.

But in all seriousness, this is Thailand. We’ve been here a little over a week now, although it feels like it’s been at least twice that long. I would have posted something earlier, but this trip…well, how should I put it, exactly? Hasn’t quite gone to plan.

As part of our ongoing (and so far unsuccessful) attempts to have children, we decided to get ourselves checked out by a fertility specialist here. Having not had any further luck with conception, it made sense to make sure there wasn’t some major medical problem in the way. And of course, getting such examinations in Thailand is always a good idea because 1) it’s far, far cheaper, and 2) the standard of medical care here, on a personal level, is actually higher than in the U.S. in some ways.

We went for our checkup pretty much immediately, and as a result, our latest crisis started pretty much straight away.

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More Than Meets The Ear, and Other Randomness

By Chief Oddball on January 15th, 2008 at 12:22 am

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It was an interesting weekend.

I worked half a day on Saturday, doing “post-launch” tasks in the wake of getting the new websites online. On Saturday night, Apple and I watched a bunch of HDTV, including movies like Panic Room and Men In Black, just because. It was fun being lazy.

On Sunday we were going to go out to see a movie (in the theater this time) and grab some dinner, but my right ear had other plans. A “debilitating buildup of earwax” sounds like one of those embarrassing problems you only hear mentioned in equally embarrassing TV commercials for prescription drugs. Nonetheless, that’s exactly what I was suffering from, to the point where I could barely hear out of my right ear.

That’s no condition to watch a movie in, so I broke out the Q-tips. In retrospect, this was a bad idea. Folks, let the record show that if you have an earwax problem, a Q-tip is not going to solve it. Nay, it will merely make it worse — mostly by relegating whatever wax is in there to the even deeper, darker reaches of your ear canal. By the time I was done, I had completely lost all hearing in my right ear, which was also swelling up pretty severely and giving me a hell of a headache.

Over-the-counter “earwax removal systems” (no, I’m not kidding) did not help, so I had to visit the local walk-in clinic today to have my crazy delinquent ear looked at. Apple was kind enough to drive me there, since I didn’t think piloting a car with half of my aural instrumentation offline was a terribly bright idea. It took a pressurized water irrigation to actually restore my hearing 100% — which hurt like a bitch, I don’t mind telling you, probably thanks to the inner ear infection the doctor discovered I had. Got some antibiotic pills and some drops and went home.

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The Week In Review

By Chief Oddball on April 13th, 2007 at 6:30 pm

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Random bloggage is imminent. All hands abandon ship.

So here it is, Friday evening, and I’m about to sit down to a meal of home-cooked chicken fricassee. It’s the (welcome) end of another work week, during which I got a lot done and learned a good deal in the process. This weekend I’m planning to chill out, do some creative writing (a continuation of something I already started on earlier this week), hang out with Apple, play some games, go to Sushi-Thai, watch some TV, maybe do some driving, and enjoy life. It’s what weekends are supposed to be!

In case you hadn’t heard — I understand you midwesterners are busy with the recent snowfall, of all the ridiculous things — we here in Florida have been baking to death. We’ve had next to zero rain since 2006 ended, and that currently has us in what is being called the worst drought in Florida in over 100 years. All of the man-made lakes in the community are down at least two-thirds from their usual levels, and officials are starting to worry about the drinking water supply. There’s still another month or two before the rainy season normaly kicks in, so to mitigate the disaster, the South Florida Water Management District has imposed the rarely-used Phase II restrictions.

What this means is that you can only water your lawn twice a week, for four hours a day between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. You can only wash your car on those same two days between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. And this time, businesses and golf courses have to play by the rules, too. The car wash rules even say that you have to wash your car on a non-paved surface, or in a place where the water will drain to a non-paved surface so it can soak back into the ground. (That’s not possible in our community, because we’re not allowed to park on the grass, even if we own the property on which said grass is planted.) And local cops have been ordered not to give warnings to first time offenders, but rather to just hand out multi-hundred dollar tickets instead.

So as you can imagine, I’m glad that with restrictions like these, we’re not getting any rainfall — because if I needed to clean my car, the only way I could 100% comply with the law would be to go to a car wash, where they use unrestricted reclaimed water (read: toilet wastewater that’s been treated). And that should be all you need to know, in case you happen to visit Florida and wonder why our car washes smell so bad.

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