Good news - Skype’s recent injury is healing well. The vets optimism that it was a muscular problem and not something arthritic or nerve related seems well founded - after 3 days of kennel rest and anti-inflammatory drugs he’s already feeling much better. Last night he was even able to (slowly) crawl up in to bed with me again!
I spoke with the vet and she confirmed that this was a good sign but urged me to continue to keep him very calm and on the anti-inflammatory drugs for the remainder of the course to prevent re-injury. As much as he’s bored to tears and getting frustrated I’m just glad it’s something he will be over soon as opposed to a life time of pain and aggravation.
Poor Skype is on kennel rest (very low-key, no running, no playing, no stairs) for a week thanks to a sacral canal(?) injury on his back. It’s most likely a minor muscle injury at the junction of his spine and rear hips. He got diagnosed yesterday at the vet after a few days of pain when walking up stairs. It’s actually gotten so bad that he can’t get up on my bed or the couch because angling his rear legs up is too painful.
The good news is that if the vet is correct he will be much better in a week or so. The bad news is that this kind of injury can be a very early sign of canine arthritis - certainly something I hope is not true. I don’t need to see poor Skype endure pain like my grandmother did through much of her life.
Science Blog writes about a Princeton University study on how people perceive and experience pain as viewed through the filter of their economic status. The study found that pain levels for residents of households making less than $30,000 were on average twice as high as the pain levels of residents in households with incomes above $100,000.
As strange as this sounds it does make sense - insurance and health care is expensive these days, and the lower salary ranges tend to have more physically oriented jobs. Not having the money required to fix the root cause of a particular pain leaves the sufferer with two choices: dull the pain with inexpensive drugs (read: over the counter drugs), or suffer onward enduring the pain. Neither option really strikes me as an ideal long term solution, but until a national health care plan with reasonable reach and plausible economics exists do we have another option?
I just got back wet and depressed from the preamble to the Medical Marijuana March in Seattle. I really believe in the mission to legalize medical marijuana (and legalize marijuana in general), but unfortunately neither case is likely to happen any time soon thanks to the general strategy and constituency of the legalization movement.
Admittedly due to the rain the parades attendance was down from what the organizers would have hoped for, but worse was the cross section of society that showed up. A good half of the attendees had the stereotypical stoner look - not what you want showing up on the evening news though. When people see the B roll footage that is likely to make the media what will they see? Certainly not sickly looking patients desperately needing marijuana to survive. Certainly not professional and trustworthy looking people - just stoners through and through. It presents the public with a rough image composed of stoned hippies drenched in patchouli eating chips rather than doctors and businessmen giving credibility and weight in the public eye.
What the marijuana legalization campaign really needs is a true spokesperson. Someone professional and educated with a sharp tongue and an even sharper suit. A spokesperson to show up on TV and talk to the American public - not show up at a hemp rally and talk to stoners. The kind of people who attend rallies marches, and events are already swayed - the movement needs to broaden its focus and broaden it’s message to the other 99% of the public.
As Abraham Lincoln once said “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.” To enact the same kind of broad social change that Lincoln once did the movement needs to sway public sentiment, not stoner sentiment.
Update: My friend Shae just pointed me at this article. It would seem Rick Steves has stepped up to the plate to hopefully be just the spokesperson I’m looking for here. Go Rick!
I just put up a new page for a new project: 101 in 1001 - check it out. I won’t write anything else about it here as I’ve detailed everything there, but keep an eye on the blog for updates as they come.
Aside from spending my day prepping the 101 in 1001 list and designing the page for it I’ve been resting - I was sick the last couple of days and it’s really nice not to be knocked on my ass any more.
Side thought - the older I get the more sick I get when I become ill. Trend, inevitability, or side effect of a desk-job lifestyle?
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
A hand brushes my ear sending a shiver down my spine. Soft whispers grasp at my consciousness as a vibration begins, slowly and rhythmically moving about my head.
And then I snap out of it and realize I’m getting a haircut. Have I been single too long that this is the closest I’ve come to a truly intimate moment in as long as I can remember? I’m not sure if that’s progressively transhumanist, or just plain sad. In this day and age biology still holds sway over technology.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Just when I thought I was feeling caught up the viral crud that has been going caught up with me and put me right back behind the eight ball. It all hit me Saturday morning while installing my new lighting (separate post on that soon - I promise). I started to feel ill, and by the end of the evening I was all but gasping for air.
Having spent Sunday and Monday mostly in bed with an endless shuffle of Mythbusters keeping me semi-conscious and stuffed with explosions and witticisms from Adam I’m ready to get back to it. I have a ton of stuff to catch up on at work, and a all but full time career search to boot - busy week ahead, I can tell already.