broterblog

The Last of Finger Fun

2007-05-31T13:00:00.000-07:00

The arthrodesis is done. I had the last of two wires removed and the last stick is gone. The finger shows good stability, but is not at all bent. The remaining joint in the right index is just as flexible as before, so that's back to normal. I've even been able to go back to playing classical guitar.

I still experience some soreness, as I would expect, when using the finger a lot. It still has an odd shape to it - most likely due to my over-eager Coban wrapping in the early stages. The color and texture is still odd as well, but the doctor assured me that that will return to normal in time. The prescribed treatment is massaging the digit with lotion.

All in all, it seems to have worked out good enough for me.

Finger Fun

2007-01-09T13:15:00.000-08:00

After all the trials and tribulations, it seems I'm in the home stretch. There's pain only rarely when I smack it around. It's mostly normal, though there's a wire close to the surface that may poke through. I'll just have to see.

The joint is at about a 10 degree angle; half of what I was hoping for. It's still skinny from excessively agressive use of Coban tape inthe earlier stages. I'm hopeful, though. The worst part is waiting to use it. I played a little guitar last week. The whole hand was sore, and the experience may be the cause of my sensitivity this week. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Religion

2006-10-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

"If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time."

- Bertrand Russell

Oh, religion; a disease of language, the crack of the mind, that teddy bear delusion that most of the world holds tight. Like a junky smacking his veins, the faithful hold on to their beliefs beyond all reason. Long past the point when a rational being might say "I'm in error."

It seems that Religious Folk (tm) have greater need to protect their religious experience than they do to save their religion. Consider evolution. Despite the evidence of a dense fossil record, and the clear web of evolution being discovered in the DNA we, and all live, are built from; there are those who claim that it's unreasonable to say Evolution is more likely than a creation myth from ancient Mesopotamia. What's even more galling is that these same people have no problems reaping the benefits of science that clearly shows their religion is tripe.

Now, for all those who don't interfere with scientific pursuit I have no problem with the kindness of saving them from whatever horrors science can protect them from. But consider the various calls for a ban on stem cell research. Is it reasonable to exclude all those people from whatever cures are discovered by it? It's not ethical for a doctor to refuse anyone treatment who needs it. But what about for society? Is it ethical to demand a cure that you tried to quash? Is it ethical for us to let someone die just because they're foolish and misguided?

Religion seems to be as permanent to the human condition as drug abuse. While we are homo sapiens, we'll never escape this comforting delusion called religion. Maybe it's due to the stress that comes with planning an uncertain future that gave our ancestors who could brush off anything that wasn't going to kill them immediately an advantage. Perhaps religion's use comes in unimportance of long term planning for the vast majority of the human population. For most of human history, only a few made choices for the whole population. If so, then Democracy may be the most inhuman of pursuits. We can either let one or the other fail. I'd just as soon change humanity then change democracy.

[EDIT: Here's a great interview with the makers of Jesus Camp. ]

How We Fail Our Forefathers

2006-09-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

New York Times editorial

"Americans of the future won't remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration.

"They'll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation's version of the Alien and Sedition Acts."

A New Direction

2006-09-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

My finger is improving. Still more mobile than I'd like, but at two months out at least it's beginning too look like a normal finger with wires and pins sticking out of it... With Coban(tm) tape marks. I love Coban. A wonderful invention.

But it isn't Coban that's taking up my mind today. It's the notion of invention and scientific progress. Most recently the topic of the Islamic world's contribution to society has come up. Phrased in middle eastern editorials, it seems as though all these new idea appeared fresh from the minds of Arab scholars that wrote them. From my experience in mathematics, I know that advancements - including the ones we had put people's names on - only build on what's there. This seems to be tied up in ethnic pride and nationalism. Northern Europeans put themselves at the top of "White Man's Burden" to save the savages of the world. Greeks and Italians see history from their respective name sakes' golden age. Muslims ignore a long and varied history and only see the works of great men like al-Khwarizmi.

American slang has a term for this. It's "My shit don't stink." The belief that anything that you do is justified and beneficial.

Another common source for this kind of blindness seem to be conflating the accomplishments of people in a geographical region with the current occupants. This was most recently made by before the invasion of Iraq. Statements like "the Iraqi people founded human civilization." Clearly not - the middle east has been invaded, migrated, and decimated so many times that Indians, Moors from North Africa, and Londoners have as much relation to the people who lived in the Fertile Crescent as the current Arab population. That's like giving a cowboy credit for creating a peaceful hunting culture that lived in tepees.

Everything we do and create comes from our rich history; both that which is consciously learned as well as the sum of world view that is automatically indocrinated. al-Khwarizmi built on the works of Diophanus, Indian number systems, and a host of Greek thinkers. Every discovery made in the United States comes from influence from foreign thinkers (sometimes directly as grad students). Newton's advancements in calculus we obviously founded on thinking of the time since the same work was being done concurrently by Gottfried Leibniz . To claim your tribe is the fountain head from which all knowledge springs is absurd. Worse, it's putting ideology over reality.

What would no doubt help are examples. In future rants, when I have more time, I'll endevor to provide some.

New Angle on Old Finger

2006-08-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Almost two weeks after the 14 day check and my finger has a visible bend. It rarely hurts anymore, and looks much better. There's still a long way to go, but now the highest priority is getting mobility back in the proximal interphalangial joint. Right now it bends about 90 degrees, compared to over 105 on the other index finger. There's a fine line between stretch and pain. It needs to be stretched to regain the lost range of motion, but pain may cause the hand to inflame the joint. The healing continues.

Arthrodesis

2006-07-31T14:34:00.000-07:00

Typing with one hand, this will probably be a short session.

Two weeks ago I had an arthrodesis of the distal interphalangial joint on the right index finger. The surface of the joint was removed and the carpals were fixed together so that they will fuse. After a conversation with the doctor performing the surgery and his chief resident, I decided on a 20 degree bend since I was assured the recovery was the same. The difference being a rather stable screw holding the carpals firmly for a strait finger verses two pins and some wire for a more natural bend.

Now that you know what was done and where, here's a little about how. For the procedure,I had an anesthetic refered to as "twilight" by the workers. It's common for patients to be aware during the operation but not remember anything afterwards. I don't remember a thing after complimenting the anesthesiologist on her handling of the bed down the hall when it all faded to black.

The doctor gave me a local numbing agent to easy my recovery. It lasted about13 hours from when I came around. At the time, I did know how bad han surgery could hurt. I learned at 2:11am when it wore off and all I had in me was 1 vicodin. Bad idea. It is easily the worse pain I've felt. Worse than a fractured fibula, ruptured spleen (that healed), and worse than the ligament damage I had lived with for about 14 years. Itook 2 vicodin as soon as I could and bit down on a wash cloth to try and manage the pain. I slipped off to sleep for about 5-15 minutes at a time at around 7am. After the next scheduled dose (2 pills as recomended this time) the pain was managable. I was still biting on the wash cloth.

After a call to the doctor's office, they suggested taking ibuprophin allong with the vicodin. Now, I wonder if the night was when thetrouble started. The rest of my recovery was more managable.

Today, I went back and got the bandages off. I turns out that, dispite the postop notes, my finger does not have a 20 degree bend. It's strait. The doctor was out, so I was seen by a resident. At first I thought it was just swollen, and since I didn't get to see the x-rays I didn't know I had a strait finger until the therapist commented on it when she was making the splint.

I went back to the doctor's office and inquired about the lack of 20 degrees. The guy had been there at the surgery so he seemed as puzzled as I was. However, he said there was nothing to be done except let it continue to heal. I'm underwhelmed to say the least.

I guess the lesson here is to make sure you get through the front lines and speak to someone with a clue when you have a problem. Figuring out if the person you're talking to has a clue is another problem.

Needless to say, the doctor's office will be getting regular calls from me until I speak with my hand surgeon again.

Thoughts on Baking and Music

2006-04-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

I think I started cooking simply because I wanted to eat better when I lived along in the Bay area. It became a surrogate for music, which I stopped playing when severe hand pain made it impossible. Baking became an extension to that, and bread making became the pinnacle of it. The problem with bread making is that it takes a very long time; especially for the nice preferment I like to use.

But I really want to play music. Sometimes when I listen to Radiohead or David Gilmore my heart feels like it's trying to stop. Like a junky who needs a fix, I know that I need to go back. I need music. I pick up my guitar and feel the notes flow through me. A little faded now, but still there.

The cure is an arthrodesis (spelling?). They fuse the first two carpals together. Is the wire they use ferric? If they use ferric wire then can I have an MRI? What sort of functionality do I need to get used to? - this last one is not too difficult since I have my right index and middle finger taped together.

But I think it's a done deal. I'm planning on getting it fixed within the next year.

Lessons from Automated Spam detection

2006-04-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

Lesson #1 for creating a blog on blogspot is don't let its name contain the word "bot." Try to be clever...

Never the less, here's my second attempt at a blog. I'll see how it fairs before putting any effort into it.