health

The Over-Arching Problem

I am a walker. I get an itch if I haven’t gotten my walk in by mid-afternoon. The length may vary, but the inclusion cannot.

During a recent walk, my right arch didn’t feel quite right. Being a fixer, I “knew” I had the means to fix the problem. (A little background here…when this happened in the past, I became a Good Feet customer. I spent an outlandish amount of money on their arches. Yet, it fixed the problem.)

Knowing I had good arch inserts, I decided I would attempt to use them correctly. With Good Feet arches, you are encouraged to use velcro dots to hold the arches in place. One dot goes on the bottom of the arch support, and the other dot goes on the inside bottom of the shoe. If installed correctly, the arch is “perfectly” aligned. Your arch will smile no matter how many miles you force it to endure.

I don’t think I installed my Velcro dots correctly. After installing them on my right shoe, I took my 4+ mile walk. The walk may or may not have been the problem. I believe the combination of the new arch position and slanted sidewalks was the issue. Forcing my ankle to work on an angle with the arch in a new position was an easy scapegoat. Halfway into my walk, I was walking on the outside of my foot. And, by the time I got back home, I was hobbled.

My injury was further complicated by my competitive nature. My iPhone Fitness app has given me a walking goal for the month. To achieve this goal, I must walk. This injury was going to complicate this. While I could justify one day off, I couldn’t explain too many more off. A visit to the Good Feet store was added to my errand list.

At the Good Feet store, they took my problem seriously. They checked out the bottom of my feet. This is pretty low-tech. I step on a piece of carbon paper. It makes an impression on the paper below. It allows them to see if my foot impression is correct. (Why else would they look at the bottom of my feet?) They determined my “lifetime guaranteed” arches were a little flat. They replaced these for free and accurately attached the Velcro dots to position the arch appropriately. So I wouldn’t get out of their store for free; they charged me an excessive amount for the new anti-smelly-feet shoe liners

While I was considering postponing a walk for one more day, my daughter wanted to take a walk. I decided to take a short walk with her. When I got home, my right foot didn’t feel too bad. I still had to think about walking on my full foot and not avoiding the inside of my foot. The next day, I decided to take a longer walk. I forbade slanted sidewalks while settling for redundant scenery. (I walked around a track a few times.) Again, I had to concentrate and be a foot-whisperer, “You are a healthy foot. Act like a foot that could walk 100 miles.” My foot didn’t embrace the entire message, but it heard some of it.

With 7 days removed from the injury and 4 days post-Good Feet visit, I think my foot will recover. As important as the foot recovery is, the fulfillment of the iPhone Fitness challenge is not going to go unmet. I took on the over-arching problem and temporarily removed it as a factor in the length of my walk. The only concern now is if I can tolerate a brisk Oklahoma winter wind.

Oklahoma Vampires

While this may sound like a late Halloween post, it is not. It does, however, involve blood. It was a pint of double-red O+.

After 14+ years of donating almost entirely double-red blood in Texas (Carter Bloodcare is crediting me with 7 gallons of blood during that time.), I did my first donation in Oklahoma yesterday. As with many things, it was exactly the same but a little bit different. Prior to Texas, I also made several donations in Ohio. Those were pre-blogging and before I observed such things for my own entertainment.

The first difference was only a difference in intensity. Giving blood makes me nervous. It causes my blood pressure to spike. The first attempt to get a reading had them standing with a defibrillator over my anxious body. The second attempt was a manual reading. I still had a high reading, but it was acceptable. Driving home, I realized I usually avoided caffeine on “donation” days. Scheduling the donation the day of the letting made this a little different.

When I was in the middle of the donation, I usually look at the screen. Double red donations involve removing red blood cells and returning the remaining blood back to the body. When the blood is leaving your body, you are supposed to squeeze on the squishy object. During returns, you aren’t supposed to squeeze on anything. The screen mounted to the device is a convenient way to track what is happening. Squeezing when you are not supposed to could have detrimental results. When I asked the nurse what I should use to determine “to squeeze or not to squeeze”, she said, “When the big dial is spinning, it is a return.” If they only had created a screen for this purpose, it would have been easier. I always relied on this in the past.

When blood is returned, the point where the needle is inserted often feels ” chilled.” This could also be accompanied by a coppery taste in the mouth. In the past, I begged to get a Tums. The calcium counteracts this. At Our Blood Institute, they hand out tootsie roll-flavored candies. They were less gritty and tastier. I didn’t taste copper, so they must have worked.

Finally, as I was finishing up, the guy across from me had a seizure or some other negative reaction. I heard ice packs being thrown around and 4 people gathered around his station. He recovered and was talked before I left.

Like all previous donations, I left a pint lower. There is nothing wrong with the Oklahoma vampires’ approach—it is just different.

Burning My Face Off

The picture just looks like rosy cheeks. The cracking skin and uncharacteristic hat scream of something else. The evidence smells of advice from a dermatologist. And, yes, you would be on the right track.

After visiting the dermatologist for several years annually, the visits bore fruit last fall. (Not happily born, but it was present nonetheless.) There was a small spot on my shoulder that was easily and almost painlessly removed. Yes, it did hurt. It hurt my dream of living forever more. The cancer was one of many strong arguments that confirmed I won’t be on this planet forever.

So, when I had another dermatology appointment 6 months later (2 weeks ago), I was hopeful it would be a quick body scan followed by a thumbs up. It wasn’t a thumbs down, but it did have a “…maybe you should consider.” Apparently, I had some pre-cancerous “stuff” on my face. I could ride it out and see if any of it graduated to real cancer, or I could apply this cream for 5 days. Being a cautious guy, I took the “short-term pain for long-term gain” approach. I only have a few regrets:

  • My face feels like it is cracking when I scrunch it up. Nothing a little shiny Vaseline won’t help.
  • Fortunately, people will never say anything in public about your shiny face. But, I am convinced they notice the Vaseline glistening off your face.
  • I was told to apply the cream to my forehead, temples, and the top of my ears. These 3 were not the source of emotional trauma. The lateral cheeks are where the redness/sunburn leaped off my face and into the eyes of everyone I encountered. An incredibly humbling location was the corner of my nose to the corresponding corner of my lip. It was a bright red, and to fulfill the sunburn warning I was given, these locations thrived on peeling.
  • The hockey games we attended were low lighting, but I was still convinced every conversation had the other party’s eyes riveted to my scorched face. The Brahmas baseball hat could not cover my whole face. The experience was very reminiscent of going through puberty and the challenges of unexpected acne.
  • The hat I am wearing in the image is my Outback Hat. It may not be what they wear in Australia, but in my mind, this hat style is tied to that continent. This hat has become my new companion as I continue to take my walks and limit sun exposure.
  • The humorous explanation was, “My wife’s superpower is her X-ray vision. As she has gotten older, her superpowers sometimes ‘sneak out’ without her being able to control them. She accidentally irradiated my face. Fortunately, my eyes were closed when she did it.” (Yes, I have come up with better stories, but the skinburn lingers. I will be able to laugh more about it next week.)