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Its time – warming up a bit I’ve got a boat-load of boat projects to get cracking on. Not quite warm enough to begin working on the brightwork, but there’s that forward hatch cover I started to rebuild last fall, I want an autopilot for motoring (have a Monitor for sailing), radar for the fog, and a new diesel heater for the nights. Lots to do and I hit it today with a vengeance. With luck, I’ll have the hatch cover torn down and ready to build back up by end of day today. |
Archive for the ‘personal’ Category
Boat Maintenance Season Kickoff
Sunday, April 9th, 2006Health+=1
Friday, April 7th, 2006Tara Hunt today mentions she has been putting off dealing with some “minor” health related issues. She says “no more” and I applaud her (much as I applauded her at Seattle MindCamp – she rocks). Its the little things that add up to kill you.
In related news, I went in for my weekly treatment for hemochromatosis and got the results of the first six weeks of therapy – my FE load is down nearly 25%! HC is a classic example of a little thing that, left untreated, will kill you pretty soon. It just doesn’t pay to put this stuff off.
I’m kind of excited that what looked like an 8 month treatment program is now looking like 4. I’m also getting used to the phlebotomies. I’ve worked out my fluid regimen and I can “fill the bag” in about 15 minutes and be out in less than an hour.
Very cool.
Treatment Day
Friday, March 31st, 2006I’m learning to hate Fridays. This is the day I drop a pint of blood in an effort to reduce my iron stores. About 4 hours later I just want to crash. Today, I’m going to actually try to go into work afterwards and see how I do.
I think I’m starting to get used to it. Which is good, since I’m angling for a new role at work and it will probably take a lot of energy. More on that if it materializes.
Update: I actually made it in to work so I guess I am getting used to it. I left a little early but I don’t feel quite as wiped out as I had in times previous.
How to get ahead in a big company
Wednesday, March 15th, 2006At least where I work, the key to moving ahead seems to be to stick to your knitting and not to work to head off organization level problems before they surface. Its also a good idea to get other people to do work for you at the expense of their scheduled deliverables, thus making yourself look good in relation to everyone else whom you’ve made late.
I’ll be keeping these in mind from now on.
What else could go wrong?
Sunday, March 12th, 2006Bad idea to ask that question, I might not like the answer.
Superbowl weekend I developed severe vertigo and nausea and ended up pulling off the road on the way to the hospital and dialing 911 because I couldn’t drive anymore. The doc in the ER pronounced it most likely a virus and gave me valium. Large valiums. I slept for a week solid before I started cutting the doses and made it into a regular Dr. While the vertigo did last “about as long as a cold”, the blood work showed abnormally high iron content.
A subsequent genetic test confirmed that I have double gene Hemochromatosis, a disease affecting about 1 in 100 Americans. It is tremendously under diagnosed and the genetic tests to detect it are fairly new. It also might explain why men in my family haven’t generally lived long (both grandfathers died at 54).
The care is straight forward – weekly blood donations until iron levels drop to normal. This is expected to take several months and is definitely leaving me in a low energy state. After that, either meds or less frequent blood donations are required for the rest of my life to prevent iron buildup and organ damage.
The good news is we caught it early. The bad news is the treatments leave me tired about 4 days out of 7 every week.