 | eCachecommentary from down jersey |
While I was out today my mother sent me a series of e-mails. They went from asking about Trikkes to sending me video. As I poked around, I found some more. I had never heard of these previously. I think I would enjoy this, but am not certain I want one.
Nevertheless, they are kewl.
I have documented my hearing issues in the past. The gist of it is my ears (particularly my left) sucks. While I have always had ear troubles, the last decade has been interesting.
I finally found an otolaryngologist with whom I am comfortable. We hit upon a “maintenance” schedule that basically had him cleaning my ears several times a year. That kept me hearing . . .
. . . until I my workplace moved. That building was so full of mold I became ill. With the illnesses came fluid issues. That was the start of several rounds of Myringotomies. Eventually things settled down once a tube with a large enough flange was inserted. My poor ear drum is so scarred it has affected my hearing.
All had been well until October or November. I got an ear infection and felt the fluid behind the drum. I chalked it up to having an infant at home. The fluid level seemed to rise and fall, so it seemed like I wasn’t doomed. Yet, I have had fluid ever since. More recently, there’s been so much that not only have I not been able to hear, I have been disoriented.
With one ear not working, everything rings, hums, and echoes in the ear. It is such that I have no depth to my hearing. Students have to tell me when our classroom telephone rings, yet if the door is open, I can hear my neighbor’s ring and think it is ours. When my hearing gets like this, I need absolute silence so I can concentrate. It’s not a pretty sight and I am generally miserable.
That was yesterday.
I decided to take today off from work and go see my doctor. My doctor, as good as he is, no longer performs surgery. He has had surgery on his hand is no longer comfortable taking scalpels to others’ ears. I am thankful for that. As a matter of fact, he has never performed a Myringotomy on me; an associate of his has. The first time she was going to cut me, I realized I was growing older. I stopped her and asked about her experience. She was the first doctor I had who was younger than I was. She and I got to know each other over the years as she continued to insert my tubes. But she left the practice in September.
So, I expected my doctor to schedule the procedure next week with whomever took over for the doctor who left. That did not happen.
My doctor was not in so I met with another otolaryngologist. He pored through my chart and I caught him up to speed. And again, realizing I actually have a say in my medical care stated I needed a new tube since the old one had dislodged. Much to my surprise, the doctor said let’s do it today.
Awesome! That’s service.
Yeah, I feel like I have been punched in the ear. There’ll be more scar tissue. And in a couple years, I’ll need to do this all over again. It’s the price of being me.
I have been listening to Glenn Beck this morning. He has been going off on the negative influence of video games on children. I haven’t quite figured out if he is calling for government intervention. I hope not as this is not an issue for government.
In discussing all this, he related an example from a friend of his who homeschools his children. The friend in explaining why he does so said that it is a matter of We are what we eat. If one pumps in violent video games, he will have consequences. How can he not?
While I am hesitant to jump too far down this path for I have seen plenty of folks make this argument and then dangle themselves from the cliff of reality, I do think he has a point. My daughter is one today. She has an appreciation for books already that fascinates me. We read to her each day. She turns the pages now. She enjoys holding books. She witnesses her mother and her father reading newspapers (although we just cancelled our last of three newspapers in favor of ‘Net news), books, magazines, cookbooks, etc. Reading is a staple in our household.
Good literature put in will materialize in an educated child. I suspect in some households the books are missing and video games are substituted. Where is the love of words in those homes? Where is the printed form? Imagination is replaced by pre-canned images. Total immersion in such a world will have effects that are not what we are looking to provide Beetle.
We are what we eat. Why would the diet be steady junk? As a snack once in a while, video games can be as satisfying as a cookie. But much as we do not eat cookies at every meal and remain healthy, one cannot play video games constantly and remain healthy.
I do not watch many movies on the for-pay channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc.). Frankly, I don't watch a lot of movies anywhere anymore. The last time I went to the theater, was a year ago to see The Passion of the Christ. Once in a while Gert and I will rent a movie. More times than not it is a chick-flick which I abstain from viewing.
Last August my mother asked if I ever saw the movie Supersize Me. I hadn't and explained the above paragraph to her. She told me a little about it. From her description, it sounded like something I would enjoy. But Supersize Me was not shown anywhere around me. I figured I catch it on cable someday.
Someday was last night. As the lead-in to Kirstie Alley's new show Fat Actress, Showtime promoted Supersize Me. I mentioned it to Gert and she thought she would enjoy it, so we hunkered down for a movie. Five minutes in I actually put away the laptop (that doesn't happen much) and watched the movie.
In June I will turn 40. Over the last several years I have seen my age growing on me. I am not as active as i once was. I cannot burn off what I eat like I used to. Red meat takes its toll on my digestive system. I eat smaller quantities because I cannot handle what is normal. These are all things I have noticed and done, without too much reflection. I have a middle-age roll to my physique. While I was once young and skinny, I am no longer.
I feel I know what I need to do healthwise. My diet, while perhaps better than it once was, is not as good as it should be. There are too few fruits and vegetables. There is too much soda. Mid-week, when we are feeling run down, I find it too convenient to rush out for fast food or a pizza. McDonald's once was a staple.
The ol' #2 (two cheesburgers, soda, and fries) was something which I looked forward to. But even before last evening, McDonald's had lost its spot in the rotation. It hardly mattered what I ate there anymore, it passed through me in record time. More and more, Wendy's and Burger King were visited. Within the last year, Taco Bell was added, even though I had never eaten there before.
Morgan Spurlock is the creater of the movie Supersize Me. The premise of this documentary was to find out what would happen if one ate only McDonald's food for a month. The results were not pretty.
As one would expect, Spurlock gained weight (25 pounds), had his cholesterol count skyrocket (65 points), had a whole host of other medical ailments (to the point of his physician stating that he was sick), was lethargic, and had heart palpitations. None of this, I suspect, is a surprise. And yes, eating only fast food is unrealistic. But I suppose I, like many others, was just amazed at sitting down and seeing this spelled out in front of us. Sometimes we know something isn't good for us, but it takes a careful look before it changes behavior. Needless to say, Gert and I were affected enough to make changes.
It is easy to get riled up from watching a movie and proclaiming that we'll never eat fast food again. While possible, I suspect, knowing the two of us, doing so would find us breaking that proclomation soon enough. Rather, I will say : I'm pushing 40. I already am overweight. I am already lethargic. It is time to get busy.
Stay tuned. I am off for a walk . . .
The other day in the mail came two pedometers from my mother. "Huh?" It seems she has caught the pedometer craze and wanted to make certain my wife and I had one. I didn't give it much thought.
Then came the e-mail. "Have you received your pedometer? What do you think?" I think you're calling me fat, Mom. No, I didn't really say that. But what the heck. Anyhow, I took one of the pedometers out of the package the other night and set it up. I am a tech guy and I couldn't figure out how to turn the silly thing off. It turns out there is no way to do so. So, it's not efficient that way. But I played with it some and began wearing it on Tuesday.
Each day my mother has e-mailed me to ask how many steps I have walked. It just so happens that the first two days were much more at the desk days than normal, so my steps were not particularly good. Today I didn't have the pedometer fastened to me in a very good place, so until about 10:30 this morning, it had registered but 269 steps. I did that walking for the morning paper. I re-positioned the thing and it began recording properly.
Everything I have read has indicated one needs to walk 10,000 steps per day, at a minimum. My wife wore hers today for the first time. She called me at lunch time and announced she was just about there. Those three-year olds keep her on the move!
I like data and wearing this thing provides me some information. I need to get moving.