It's just called "fifth disease".
It's not a disease, but I'm really surprisingly inflexible.
As I've mentioned before, I have Gilbert's disease. As diseases go, it's not a bad one to have.
I used to faint as a teenager -- never got diagnosed as anything, I just couldn't skip a meal without passing out. So, kind of the vapors. It was always terribly embarrassing slumping bonelessly against the lockers murmuring "Somebody... get me a candy bar." It stopped when I was in college.
I have a variety of now-discredited conditions.
I'm healthy as a horse.
Before or after eating a ton of American grass?
I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant, because I am old (probably). I got better when they removed the parasite.
It was a drag because, you know, I didn't get to eat potato chips and ice cream or whatever. I ate seitan and steamed vegetables and ryvita with almond butter. The day I realized I could eat pappadums to no ill effect I nearly passed out from joy.
Before or after eating a ton of American grass being eaten by a Tongan?
3: We've noticed So am I. I'm about the only one I know who dives (controlled fall) a lot in racquetball, but it's often easier and more effective for me than bending over. It's vital that you hit a winner when doing it, however.
5. Does Gilbert have your disease? Because you could meet in a bar and swap them back...
I've never been diagnosed but I probably have attention deficient di
8,10: There you guys go with the ad houyhnhnm attacks.
I share LB's non-flexiness and youthful vapors, though mine lasted longer. I also have a lazy eye and I don't have binocular vision. I can easily switch from eye to eye. And depression. I tend to get high fever spikes when sick, particularly when I get the flu, though less so than I used to. Through my early twenties I'd get a 103 fever several times a year, a 104 one about once a year, and a 105 one about every other one. What else, hmmh, anybody here get cramps really easily. My toes seem especially prone to seizing up.
Other than the depression this is all minor stuff that goes away nicely with no medical intervention.
I let my wife cut my hair and it's constantly uneven.
I'm amazingly inflexible about touching my toes. In elementary school, we did the sit-and-reach, and the box that you put your feet against had a lip that probably stretched 6" over your toes. I couldn't reach the box. As a child.
I also have a lazy eye and I don't have binocular vision. I can easily switch from eye to eye.
I have a student who has a lazy eye, which has progressed rapidly over the course of the semester from being undetectable over the first month or two, to really, constantly obvious. Does it worsen with stress?
The insurance people are going to have a field day with this thread if the ACA gets declared unconstitutional.
Heh. I kept the BRCA thing a secret for 10 years for that exact reason.
Seriously?
Have had:
*Mumps
*Measles
*Rubella
*Pertussis
*Scarlet Fever
*Chicken Pox
*Gout
*Benign (presumably) tumour on cervical vertabrae
*Amoebic dysentery
*etc. etc.
Congenital shit
*Cerebral Palsy
*Deformed aortic valve (surgically replaced)
Ongoing entertainment
*Undiagnosable chronic pain/numbness in left foot
*Increasing knee and hip joint issues (standard for old people)
Hey, let's party!
Heebie has Thread-In-Poor-Taste Syndrome!
I'm also super inflexible. There are a bunch of studies [somewhere, OK -- no I'm not looking them up, I read somewhere that there are STUDIES] that show that flexibility is far more important for attractiveness than weight. Oh well. MobilityWOD.com. Also, I have pretty severe scoliosis, as I've mentioned here before.
I have some kind of skin condition. Psoriasis? Athlete's foot? Allergies? Maybe all of them. A doctor diagnosed me, but (a) I'm not confident I remember what he said, and (b) it didn't respond to the prescribed medication as well as I think it should have, so I'm not sure he was right. It comes and goes, so by the time I get to a doctor's appointment I have to say things like "Sometimes it's much worse, and in the winter I get something in the same place but that looks completely different." I like the dermatologist I found for my sebaceous cysts, so I might ask them about this the next time it gets bad.
23: I really debated this! It seemed interesting and not necessarily peer-pressurey? But you're really not supposed to ask people about their diseases, usually.
There are a bunch of studies [somewhere, OK -- no I'm not looking them up, I read somewhere that there are STUDIES] that show that flexibility is far more important for attractiveness than weight.
This sounds far-fetched.
Also, holy cow, Chris. That is a laundry list.
I'm quite flexible (although not as much lately). On the other hand, my connective tissue seems to have a noodle-like tensile strength.
Shoot, that was supposed to be I'm quite flexible ... laydeez.
This sounds far-fetched.
Flexibility offers the potential for a bunch of crazy pornstar sexual positions, whereas inflexible people are restricted to half a dozen or so?
Depends on your definition of attractive, I guess.
Oh, I also have psoriasis, which comes and goes. It's been a while since it last flared up.
24, 28: Someone mentioned these studies here a while back and I was instantly crushed. On the other hand, how does someone looking at you tell how flexible you are? I can't touch my toes, I can't squat with my heels on the ground, and so on, but most of the positions I find challenging don't come up on a daily basis. I can't really see how flexibility could be the basis on which people assessed each other's attractiveness.
22.1: I've had chicken pox! Kids (with non-crazy and community-and-science-minded parents) these days don't even get that!
I don't think my lazy eye is affected by stress, but the only way I can tell what's going on is if someone tells me or if I look into a mirror. I can also stop it by switching to that eye, however, other than for reading I generally use the other one. But judging from comments over the years, there is no correlation with stress.
To keep from injuring myself while running, I had to keep stretching until I could touch my toes.
I have all kinds of crazy diseases. Or just one crazy disease. It all depends which of 500 equally useless doctors you ask, so I mostly don't. (ask)
flexibility is far more important for attractiveness than weight. Oh well. MobilityWOD.com Yoga!
I'm pretty bendy, but I also have extremely short limbs, so I don't have to go as far to touch my toes.
I have a heart murmur caused by a teeny hole in my heart.
37. If you touch your toes while running, you'll trip over your hands and injure yourself.
I can't squat with my heels on the ground
This is somewhat common for Westerners, isn't it? Sitting in chairs makes your hips all tight.
It's okay, heebie. If people aren't comfortable with it, they can just give their diseases pseudonyms.
I'm further away than most. Weightlifting, I can just barely get my thighs down to almost parallel with the ground before my heels pop off the ground.
41: I just tried. It is hard, but I can do it. Maybe I'll try one of those Asian floor toilets?
I have a heart murmur caused by a teeny hole in my heart.
Get that sucker monitored occasionally. I was told the same thing for decades until I encountered a new cardiologist who whipped me in for an angiogram and said, "you might last five months or you might last five years, but either way we need to operate."
I have a severe case of phallus humungous.
Maybe flexibility manifests in one's carriage.
Scoliosis that I whine about more than Halford does and accompanying constant back pain and periodic sciatica and the like, anemia, really annoying recurrent uterine polyps. I had pretty much daily migraines as a teen, but rarely have them now. I was also anorexic from 11 to 17 or so, which always makes me think that later health problems are all my own fault. I had a whole lot of major depression and some OCD and OCPD and so forth going on then too, though I'm managing wekk these days. Oh, and I'm a buzzkill.
43 -- you can seriously improve; I was where you are 2 years ago but can now squat very easily. Still can't touch my toes, though.
I have very mild scoliosis. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with that information.
47 -- carriage and posture, I think. You could probably improve those without actually improving your overall flexibility.
Yikes! I'll run it by the doctor next time I go in, which should be sometime this summer.
Oh, well, given that my posture is perfect and my carriage is queenly, nothing to worry about then.
*Epstein-Barr Virus back in high school, which caused gastropareisis, which caused me to drop from 185 to 115 lbs during my Junior year.
*Psoriasis, which flares up during stressful periods, although it hasn't cropped up since my last break-up
*Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which sounds really serious but didn't land me any SSRI-type drugs; just Buspirone, which is a good fit for me. (Also, CBT, which is great.)
*Directly related to the GAD, I'm a very lapsed Catholic with rather a lot of baggage dating to the schism.
*My sinuses are chronically fucked, and I want them removed.
54:
I never thought of it before, but queening probably does help posture.
Stanley, you don't want your sinuses removed; that would just leave a bigger cavity. You want them filled in.
There are a bunch of studies [somewhere, OK -- no I'm not looking them up, I read somewhere that there are STUDIES] that show that flexibility is far more important for attractiveness than weight.
Multicollinearity alert!
Unless your VIF is above 5, I don't think you need to worry about it.
I have an overabundance of black bile.
My husband's therapist diagnosed me with Asperger's even though he's never met me. I think it's bullshit and highly unethical of the therapist to go around diagnosing me. Sure I'm weird, but aren't we all?
I think it's bullshit and highly unethical of the therapist to go around diagnosing me.
Me too.
My brother had what was allegedly St. Vitus's Dance when he was a kid, but in retrospect we think it was more or less a nervous breakdown.
I was also anorexic from 11 to 17 or so, which always makes me think that later health problems are all my own fault.
That's some pretty fierce blaming the victim.
I have ADD! No one else does though, right?
I don't take any speed for it. That shit is powerful.
My husband has Asperger's and there's a theory that people with Asperger's pair up with each other so if he has it I probably have it too. I exhibit a lot of "symptoms" but I maintain that these are coping mechanisms for living with someone who has Asperger's. For example, I create a lot of rules to avoid getting into arguments, but I wasn't like that before I lived with such a tempermental person.
I think it's bullshit and highly unethical of the therapist to go around diagnosing me.
He didn't even meet with you once--now that is efficient use of time in therapy. The guy I linked would be proud.
I already mentioned the toe fungus, but I also have very little enamel left on my teeth, which has them horribly yellow and icky. Both of these conditions seem at least partially genetic, in that at least one parent shares each, but there's also enough of a behavioral aspect to each to make me feel like it's my fault. How repulsive they make me feel depends on how repulsive I'm feeling more generally, which right now--what with the woman with whom, on Friday, I went on what I thought at the time was a rather nice date not having replied to my text--is pretty darn repulsive. Blargh.
I'm completely healthy. Am short-sighted, and can't touch my toes, but otherwise perfect.
I would think that any action associated with having little enamel was the result of brushing your teeth too much. Which means you're fastidious and not at all repulsive.
And the toe fungus thing seems to happen pretty randomly to people. Both my mother and grandmother have had that issue and there didn't seem to be anything they could do to fix or prevent it.
I have Chronic Daily Headaches - an official diagnosis, by the way, and one that I waited several months to get from a neurologist. Yay!
I have a seizure disorder, probably caused by a little cluster of veins inside my brain; my symptoms are controlled quite well by medication. Besides that, just the usual late-30s aches and pains, knock on wood. Oh, and my new therapist said maybe I have ADD, but she didn't do any testing or really say much about further evaluation, so I think it's just a sort of default proto-diagnosis with her.
Conditions: a once-torn Achilles tendon (left) and a frozen shoulder (right), both mostly healed. Nearsightedness. Otherwise, this long disease, my life.
I currently have a beer deficiency.
Yeah, I mean, a long time ago, I would have just been fat, balding and moody, but now I could probably go get diagnosed with about 100 different things. The gout is pretty much the worst chronic thing (other than the now-abated allergies) though. And the depression.
82: thankfully a treatable condition.
82: A common side effect of 15-hour exams, I bet.
I would think that any action associated with having little enamel was the result of brushing your teeth too much. Which means you're fastidious and not at all repulsive.
In my case that probably wasn't a significant factor--drinking too much coffee, soda, &c., plus grinding my teeth, are more likely. But I suspect a fair amount is hereditary.
84, 85: both true. I'm currently vacillating between getting a lab beer and trying to find somebody to meet me a a bar.
86: Okay, well you're still not repulsive.
19: Yes, eye problems get worse with stress. My poorly coordinated eyes don't know what to do up close. My brain, it says "which one should I suppress"? Reading glasses with prisms help.
I ate seitan and steamed vegetables and ryvita with almond butter.
You know, that's totally a diet that's OK, can live with. And then you think, FOR SIX MORE MONTHS JUSTKILLMENOW.
I think I could probably handle a restricted diet for some length of time, and it might do me some good. But every fiber of my soul revolts from the idea. I'm fine with tweaking my diet at the edges - e.g., I've mostly cut out chips and such, we eat more veg and less meat - but the idea of going a week, let alone a month, on a really narrow diet horrifies me, even though, as I said, oud's anti-diabetes diet sounds totally livable. It has more to do with the pointless self-sacrifice than with the narrow diet as such. Maybe I can find a quack doctor to tell me I need to do it for a month or I'll die.
Sorry, not trying to make this a food thread. I don't have any diseases*. Sorry!
* AFAIK
I do get migraines, but extremely rarely, and never severely*. They have decreased as I've aged; HS was probably the last time I got them with anything like frequency. Never any clear triggers, certainly not dietary. I had a bunch of them in a short period a couple years ago, and my doctor gave me a scrip for an MRI**, but then I didn't get another one for 6 months or a year.
* they debilitate due to the aura, but the pain is mild, thank goodness
** I don't know if I could handle an MRI tunnel
They make some really big MRI tunnels these days. Just list your weight as four hundred pounds.
My Mitochondrial Mystery Malady seems to have come up with a fun new symptom. Now, a day or two after severe episodes (typically, several days of vomiting, loss of balance, memory issues, random muscle spasms and general pain and suffering) the skin of the first finger segments on my middle and ring finger, of my right hand only, gets covered in... something. I can't figure out what it is. It looks like a ton of tiny blisters, but they don't hurt and don't seem to be full of fluid. Then a day or two after THAT, some of them scab over and some of them disappear.
It's happened four or five times in a row now so I am pretty sure it's a pattern, but it is a super weird one that doesn't make much sense to me.
A sort of friend of kid B's has been going around at school acting weirdly and telling people that she thinks she's schizophrenic. And apparently this week told someone that she went to the doctor over Easter and had an MRI scan and they diagnosed an over-active imagination! Which I laughed at, of course, but the whole thing is getting a bit odd and confusing for kid B and her friends.
Hashimoto's thyroiditis. (I think I probably mention that every time someone complains about being tired or cold or gaining weight of feeling mentally foggy... )
Also, wicked allergies (tree, grass, and weed pollen and cats).
Also, wonky knees, which ||I'm signed up as a very novice runner to run a 10-miler end of May. If my knees are sore, better to take a break or stick to the training schedule?|>
My gym teaches us to back off instantly at joint pain or muscle pulls. Faster you take a break, the shorter your recovery. Run in the pool or walk to do some sort of training?
I've decided not to run through too much pain but I have no idea how to convey how much pain that is?
96: Have you ever lost part of your eyebrows? Jonna Rubin (Jonniker) has Hashimoto's and she mentioned that as a problem.
flexibility is far more important for attractiveness than weight
I am pretty alert to whether a person is graceful, which is probably some combination of flexibility and coordination. I would confirm Halford's half-remembered STUDIES.
Agree with Megan here, though I'm not a runner. I'm signed up to do a half-marathon in August but I think I'm going to do nothing but Crossfit and see how I do.
101 to 97, though let me be the first to agree with Megan agreeing with me.
Otherwise, this long disease, my life.
That's about how I feel right now. Seriously sucky. Regret it very much.
I used a 1-10 scale for pain quite a bit, but detecting injury is different from detecting muscle soreness. If it feels like an injury, I say to stop instantly and start rehab. The more you put it off, the longer you will eventually have to break from training.
I have a great deal of soreness but it goes away once I start moving. If it doesn't, I stop.
I ran through small pain but not large pain until I almost couldn't walk up stairs and then I stopped running entirely and then I started again and now I'm stopping entirely again. I'm confident this is the optimal strategy for something or other.
99: A friend recently pointed out to me that I don't really have any eyebrows, so maybe? I'll have to check old pre-Hashimoto's photos to see if they were ever any thicker.
97: Thanks, Megan. I don't know that it's injury per se. But I'd definitely prefer to avoid one -- whether now or mid-race, given that my only goal is to actually finish in one piece.
asthma is my ailment, though it's rarely the acute kind anymore. these days, it's mostly just chronic low lung capacity.
allergies are constant.
After a long run, I take a few days off. I can't follow the training schedules for a half marathon because they are too much for my calves and feet.
One day, during recess in the sixth-grade, a kid kicked me in the shin so hard that it fractured my tibia. I didn't take it to a doctor for 6 months - after a giant egg-shaped lump of bone grew out of my leg. So, it didn't heal quite right.
Now it hurts when I use my leg too much, and sometimes when it rains.
Oh yeah, I have asthma too. And allergies that have at times been absolutely immiserating - I grew up in a house with cat and a lot of dust and mold and was surrounded by trees full of pollen. Now that I live in an antiseptic apartment, its not so bad.
I find that Pittsburgh has really helped my allergies compared to other places I've lived. But maybe getting older helped also.
Exercise-induced.... something. Asthma? Not so much an inability to breathe, but mid-workout (or sometimes if I'm just walking quickly) I'll feel absurdly full of mucus and need to blow my nose or swallow a lot or something, or start gagging. Has occasionally led to vomiting mid-workout or mid-walk-home. Medical science has been remarkably useless so far.
a great deal of soreness but it goes away once I start moving
Not on your shins, I hope?
113: huh, I get all kinds of snotty when I ride my bike any real distance. I just figured that was normal.
I do get exercise-induced asthma.
... if that is defined as "coughing after exercise, especially when it's cold".
91: MRIs are cool and I am even maybe a little bit claustrophobic. When I felt I was about to freak out I just convinced myself I was in some Christian Marclay performance/installation piece.
if that is defined as "coughing after exercise, especially when it's cold".
I sometimes get that after running but I don't think it's asthma.
113: That used to happen to me a few years ago. Then it stopped. No clue why in either case.
114: At first, it was the shins. Now it is more the lower calf. My heels don't hurt anymore.
110: Did they remove the bone growth?
I cough when I've been exercising for a while. My insane invented diagnosis is that mucus pools in the bits of my lungs that aren't necessary for day to day living; when I need to use my entire lungs, I have to clear the junk out.
I realize this makes no sense.
asthma is my ailment, though it's rarely the acute kind anymore. these days, it's mostly just chronic low lung capacity.
Oh, right, this too.
Back in the day I had severe knee problems, which cut short my once-promising career as a short-track speed skater (Midget--jesus, they must surely have changed the name of this age-classification by now--Boys National Champion, woo!). I suspect I'd have the same issues now if I did anything knee-stressing, but I'm not about to test this theory.
I have mild scoliosis and I had scarlet fever as a child. I used to be really healthy, but now I've started racking up mild issues that are all fine in isolation but annoying in the aggregate. I get heartburn, my left knee is chronically achy and lately I keep getting raised itchy patches that randomly appear and disappear. The patches started out being slightly larger than goosebumps and have graduated to being large welts. They appear on my arms, legs, neck and even my head.
Apparently's it's 'runner's cough'?
Laaaame.
In fact, it doesn't look like they even have any age-group separation in the national championships anymore. Huh. I guess they decided it didn't seem very big-time to have 13-year old "national champions" and so on.
124: Hives? I have a relative who gets chronic hives with no clearly identified trigger.
Laaaame
Hey, take it to horse thread, bub.
My insane invented diagnosis is that mucus pools in the bits of my lungs that aren't necessary for day to day living; when I need to use my entire lungs, I have to clear the junk out.
I have a similar theory. I've noticed that if I do moderately strenuous exercise after a long layoff that the next day I feel horrible in a recognizable way. My theory is that using muscles that I haven't used for a while pushes some accumulated toxins (toxins) into the body.
In a way, I don't care if the theory is correct or not, it does seem to function as predictor/description of how I will feel.
127: Yeah, some kind of hives. But why did it start? I did the usual examination to see if I changed detergent, etc. and nothing! I should start taking an allergy pill, but they dry out my contacts.
|| http://www.tellussomething.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/05_2012-03-07_TUS_KateMorris.mp3 |>
96: Have you ever lost part of your eyebrows? Jonna Rubin (Jonniker) has Hashimoto's and she mentioned that as a problem.
I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis and my eyebrows have almost disappeared. There are still some hairs there, but they're almost invisible. I just got a Latisse prescription, and am trying it out but I kind of hope it doesn't work so I won't have to decide whether it's worth a ridiculous amount of money to have eyebrows. But I look way better with them, so I use eyebrow pencil and am considering tattooing, just to save trouble. What a stupid problem.
121: No, the bone growth kind of went down on its own after about a year. There is some residual misshapenness, but you have to squint hard to see it.
Our older child came home from school today with a note that another child in her classroom has scabies. I had to mentally remind myself not to overreact. Older child is old enough to read the note, and, whereas I was just going to tell her that it was an itchy rash, the note actually mentioned that there was a parasite involved. Older child did not seem to fully understand what a parasite is, and she proceeded to tell me about how one of the boys in her class (a popular one, thankfully--I mean, I'd hate for it to be a kid that was going to be teased about it) had an elbow rash and was chasing girls on the playground and grossing them out with his rash (one wonders if this is really the behavior of a popular third grader? I only have unreliable secondhand accounts for most of this information).
80.1: So do I. I think another (now sometime) commenter here does as well.
101: that's nuts. A five k? Sure absolutely. A 10k? Maybe maybe but probably not. A half marathon? You'll certainly have a nice walk.
I might try like a 7 mile run some weekend to see how I do. But I think a lot of people do CF and little to nothing else and are fine for half marathons. I'm sure my time will suck.
Some of the workouts have you running 3-5 miles, although broken up, so it's not like Halford's coming from zero.
Well okay, I've seen running in some the workouts I perused. But 13 miles is bastard far. I'm certainly willing to believe that some people cf only and manage... but I'd still probably guess that like as not you'd be doing a fair bit of a walk.
There are 12 week half marathon training guides. I think most presume some base level of fitness that isn't too high.
I'm sure your time will be better than 12 weeks, even if you only do CF.
Anyway, my first six mile run was in late January and by April I was able to do six miles four times in a week.
I am worried about pacing. I did a 5k last month which was totally easy except that I completely fucked up the pacing -- went balls out at the beginning and then finished with a super mediocre time.
140: I followed an I think 16 week training program for marathon prepping. It was a bad decision because I started out NOT in shape and about 20 lbs over weight. I think I damaged my cartilage a fair bit--knees swelled up like balloons, did so whenever I'd run more than a 1/4 mile for a couple of years... That did eventually pass.
140: I was looking at the route for your race and noticed that the half wimps out before going up the big hills. But I suspect the Birmingham Bridge is going to feel like climbing a mountain by the time you get to it.
||
I just came up with probably the single worst idea I ever have, and it's cracking me up. Unfortunately, I can't tell you about it.
|>
144 sounds bad. I actually have zero interest in distance running, but my GF is doing it so I thought it would be fun to try. But I'm not permafucking my legs to do so.
146: Does it have anything to do with puppies?
Which means you're fastidious and not at all repulsive.
With no implication intended toward Mr. Trapnel, I can't agree with the implied relationship between fastidiousness and repulsiveness.
148: no, no. It would almost certainly result in my assassination, I think.
I'm sure that whatever it is you've had worse ideas.
Light, infrequent migraines (which I'm not sure I've had at all in the last few months, breaking a trend).
Hypertension (well-controlled) and high triglycerides.
And obesity. I'm not inactive, at least - I bike to work - but it's still at an objectively worrisome level.
145: The last couple of miles are downhill. That's going to help, I hope.
147: had no training base, was fat. These things happen when trying to recapture lost youth (at 22 (i blame the startup and the stress of first yr of grad school)). After your prolonged cf lifestyle shift you could totally do it safely unless you are genetically destined for failure!
unless you are genetically destined for failure!
Maybe James will agree to give you a consultation.
Anyway, my first six mile run was in late January and by April I was able to do six miles four times in a week.
Able to do physically, I can imagine (someday... maybe...), but how do you find the time? Do you run fast?
Ok, what the hell. I have a mitral valve prolapse which doesn't do much and doesn't even mean I have to take a ton of antibiotics before dental work anymore. My digestive system doesn't work well in ways I've all but given up on doing anything about. I'm sure I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder in grad school when I was having acute anxiety and panic attacks, but nowadays feel more cyclothymic, not that that's a diagnosis anyone uses. I can't concentrate but I doubt I have ADD. I'm very often congested and get headaches easily but they're not very bad.
Oh wait here's one that's actually interesting because I rarely every meet anyone else with it: clear liquor, especially if its low quality and/or in sugary drinks gives me shooting pains through my jaw that feel like the bones are splintering. Quite painful, goes away in twenty minutes. If we ever go for margaritas, you may see me massaging just under my ears.
The title of this thread might have been: your WHAT hurts?
156: I run in the evenings, after the kid is in bed. Now that I think of it, my goal was 6.6 miles four times in a week, but I only made 3x6.6 plus another two miles (heel pain got me to stop). That's the most I've ever run in a week. I don't run very fast. I do ten minutes miles mostly, but a bit slower than that if I get much past 6 miles.
157: From your tweeting, I see your distances increasing pretty rapidly. It's impressive, but maybe you should take it slow for a while if it hurts.
72: I don't know, weird stuff happens to me like less than ideal tooth enamel and scoliosis and having to have my gall bladder removed at 27 that make me wonder whether I might be healthier if I hadn't been starving when my body should have been growing. It's not that I beat myself up about it quite as much as my first comment implied. I think mostly I'm just vaguely defective (lots of sinus stuff, too, but that's true of just about everyone in this river valley) and there's no reason to worry about the cause.
160: Trying to follow the schedule on a Runner's World app. I'm actually surprised I've gotten this far without my knees bugging me. But maybe slacking off a bit makes sense.
I am reasonably flexible for someone who doesn't work at it much -- enough to impress my running group, enough to flop over and put my palms on the floor (but I may just have short legs.) Downside is joints that seem to take stability as optional. I had plans to run a half marathon but my knee basically said, bite me, overpronator and the doc said: 5k this year, 10k next year, half marathon in three.
Somebody sold me magic shoes* that are supposed to help my pronation and it seems to have worked. Anyway, they stopped my heel pain.
* They better be magic because they cost over $100.
Wow! I also am curiously inflexible and get the vapors...coincidence or correlation?? But more seriously, I got a B in high school PE because I failed the sit and reach. I also had to go to physical therapy last year to help with overly tight core muscles, and I'm supposed to stretch every day. I'm pretty bad at it, but I feel really tight and get back pain if I don't, so I end up stretching several times a week. I also have bad posture if I don't think about it. Also, I get lightheaded and sometimes pass out if I stand up too quickly. My overzealous doctor made me get lots of expensive tests, and the answer is some long complicated-sounding medical condition which basically means low blood pressure and lazy veins. If I drink enough water and get some salt I'm usually ok.
I have terrible eyesight and astigmatism in my right eye. I am on the generic of wellbutrin for depression, but since my depression correlated with a terrible relationship, I don't know if I still need to be on it. Basically, I have most of the 21st century nerd illnesses.
When I lived in China I caught cholera, which is pretty much one of the most unpleasant diseases ever. It's rapidly fatal (it can kill in 24 hours from onset of symptoms) but also very curable with proper and timely treatment (less than 1% fatalities in healthy adults), and I went to the hospital pretty quickly so it wasn't like I was ever in too much danger. It took a long time to fully recover, and I lost some weight and was ridiculously thin (bmi 16) and pale and sickly looking for some time, which in China basically made me extremely attractive.
163: Downside is joints that seem to take stability as optional.
Huh. I don't know if this is a real thing, but my yoga teacher 15 years ago said that I was remarkably flexible -- can flop over and put my palms on the floor, etc. -- and then just a few years ago when I developed lumbago (lower back pain that turned out to be degenerative disc disease between two lumbar vertebrae), the physical therapist said I exhibited "hyper-flexibility", which is a bad thing. Oh. The answer was to be weight training, core body strength, go easy on some of the kinds of extended stretching that some yoga calls for. That was a bummer, as I really enjoyed that stretching.
I caught cholera
Whoa, terrifying! Even the cholera shot you get when going to third world countries is horrific; I can't imagine what the disease is like. That must have been horrible.
What's so horrifying about the cholera shot?
The "cholera shot" is the dirtiest restroom at Newark International.
Robert @ 167:
It was like the worst case of gastroenteritis, times 1000, with some unpleasant details I will not share. Within 6 hours I went from feeling vaguely nauseous to lying on the floor unable to sit up. Luckily urban China has good (though basic) hospital facilities with well-trained staff and is extremely affordable.
I spent about 20 hours on an IV with rehydration formula and some antibiotics and then I was able to go home. I spent the next week living on orange Fanta and potato chips, which was pretty much all I could eat.
According to wikipedia, it isn't a shot anymore but an orally administered vaccine. Also, it still isn't very effective.
Ugh. And I though salmonella was bad.
I got a B in high school PE
You were graded on PE?!
170: Ugh, all my sympathies. I had regular gastroenteritis and spent two days in the fetal position clutching my stomach and crying. I can't even begin to extrapolate up. Ugh ugh ugh.
172: I almost didn't graduate from high school because I kept failing gym (never brought shorts to change into). I only escaped by ginning up a phony independent study program in ultimate frisbee.
teraz @172
Yeah, PE sucked. 1/3 of our grade was fitness, 4 areas and to get an A in any area you had to be in the top 10% of the presidential fitness test, B in the top 10-20%, and so forth. (I think I was maybe 40% for flexibility). We also had written exams, like of the muscles, and of the rules of games. A low point was when we had to line up shirtless in the girls' locker room while the PE teacher measured our body fat with calipers and then commented upon it in front of all the other girls.
As a kid I had:
rubella
chicken pox
and I think that's about it. No mumps, no measles, no tonsillitis, or usual childhood things.
As an adult:
various joint problems -- knees, and hip mostly, although occasional back trouble.
thyroid tumour [not malignant], and as a result, thyroid deficiency.
umbilical hernia [repaired]
flu [once]
some sort of nerve impingement thing -- cubital tunnel or something else that impacts on the ulnar nerve. Probably from typing/desk work.
I seem quite resistant to colds and other bugs, though. I'm also fairly flexible [kicky stuff, etc], although I have poor upper back flexibility. Flexibility is odd, though. My dynamic flexibility is much better than passive -- so I can kick high, but can't do various yoga positions that class-mates [who can't kick as high] can do easily.
Good lord you sickies, Medicare has some rough times ahead. I've had, uh, chicken pox and...not much else. Once I ate a bunch of kiwi and the insides of my ears got itchy. No real joint issues yet. I avoid distance running because fuck that noise.
A low point was when we had to line up shirtless in the girls' locker room while the PE teacher measured our body fat with calipers and then commented upon it in front of all the other girls.
I think your high school was a sorority.
175: A low point was when we had to line up shirtless in the girls' locker room while the PE teacher measured our body fat with calipers and then commented upon it in front of all the other girls.
You cannot be serious! (Where's ogged's old audio clip of John McEnroe uttering those words?)
Wow.
166: Yeah, my PT and doc basically say that I'm naturally hypermobile ("with that range of motion, you should have been a baseball player") and a lot of what I do for PT for various injuries is aimed at stabilizing all manner of muscles that do things like keep your shoulder in its socket.
177: I like the trails on the bench too much not to give distance running the ol' college try.
184: "[T]rails" might in fact support that.
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Speaking of cooties, judicial heckler Antonin Scalia goes full right-wing rock star.
|>
182: aimed at stabilizing all manner of muscles
My PT said he needed me to attend to maintaining what he called a "neutral position". Centered around my, um, center.
That means things like not sleeping partly on my stomach, partly on my side, with one knee hiked up toward my chin. Think about how your skeleton and spine are arranged in that position! Just no good at all.
I occasionally suffer from a painful affliction that has been undiagnosed, but which my wife and I refer to as "supergas".
Maybe you're a superhero who is avoiding using his power for good.
No, I like gluten just fine.
I think its related to a parasite I picked up drinking from a mountain stream in Glacier National Park during my early teens. That was the first time I ever experienced the metallic burps that are its harbinger. It usually sticks around for a day or two, cleans out my intestines, gives me a high fever, and then goes away.
For a while it was showing up in a regular pattern every six months or so, although I haven't had it in about five years. But its been dormant for years at a time before, so I feel like it could show up again at any time.
You might consider a cleansing fast. It's to detoxify your gut flora.
"Help, supergas! The oil well caught fire!"
Oh gosh, 193 (somewhat of a joke) crossed with 192.
Metallic burps, you say?
Metallic burps, you say?
Like I swallowed a zinc nugget.
177: Yeah, this series of posts has recalibrated my self-pity meter. I'm getting a bit creaky and my balance isn't good enough for motorcycles but I'm still quite functional.
I've done that so many times. So unpleasant!
196: I ... am completely stumped. Haven't a clue. Do you have problematic fillings in your cavities (in your teeth)?
No idea.
I have a filling on one of my molars that will slice dental floss if I hit it. It isn't really a disease, but it does waste a great deal of floss. If I ever have a job interview again, I'm going to use it as my greatest weakness.
169 The "cholera shot" is the dirtiest restroom at Newark International.
I think I was there today!
200: Nope, no fillings at all! My mother is very proud.
204: As she should be.
Well, okay, so you don't have heavy metal fillings that are periodically making you have metallic burps and a high fever and the intestinal part.
That was pretty much a wild guess anyway. It's a pity we don't have any doctors in the house, because this metallic burps thing seems pretty specific. I bet House could figure it out.
parsimon I think Spike said that the metallic burps were a side effect of the intestinal parasite he picked up.
Googling, it does indeed appear to be a common side effect thereof.
this metallic burps thing seems pretty specific
Sounds Smells like giardia.
Okay! I'd never heard of this, and hadn't googled.
Smells like giardia.
In fact, the original outbreak ("Supergas: Origins") was thought to be giardia, but whatever test they ran at the time came back as "not giardia."
Also odd was that the original outbreak was accompanied by massive vomiting, which is not typical of giardia. Or so the doctor at the time told me - although Wikipedia now tells me that vomiting is "possible(but rare)".
In all likelihood, I'd say probably yes, giardia, and probably that "not giardia" test result was a fluke.
Or perhaps I've got some other parasite that no-one has heard of, but acts like giardia, or is some weird strain of giardia. That's my preferred scenario, because it makes me feel special.
As a precaution, I'd recommend that nobody drink any water that I've pooped in.
I make an observation that heebie's invitation in the OP to offer up health-related things one might have about which other people would go "Cooties!" hasn't turned up a single thing that's actually cootie-like. Because you know, people aren't going to offer anything like that up publicly. People aren't going to say if they're HIV+ or something.
211 before seeing 210, which is making me laugh: okay, Spike has poop-water cooties. So just be aware of that.
Smells like giardia.
Here we are now, enterogatritis.
The metallic taste is a side-effect of treatment, not of the parasite itself. Rather than suffer with chronic nasty GI symptoms I'd go in for a complete poop nuke & replace or whatever else it took.
The debilitating stuff:
Cluster headaches. They were episodic for about a decade, but became chronic about 2 years ago. They started off as an occasional intrusion of my life (for 2 weeks I'd get a 2-4 hour headache once a day and then I'd get a 6 month break; 2 weeks on, 6 months off--a very regular pattern) but have progressed into a general lifestyle (8-14 hours/day, every day--I get maybe 10 pain-free days/year).
Chronic testicular pain. My left ileo-inguinal and/or genito-femoral nerve is screwed up (best guess: caught in scar tissue from a few surgeries). Basically, feels like my testicle is being squeezed/crushed more or less constantly. Standing and walking (and anything more strenuous than that) makes it hurt worse, so I do that as little as possible. Thus, I use a wheelchair if I plan on doing any more than shuffle from room to room.
Annoying Stuff:
Trigeminal Neuralgia. Hurts a lot, but not as much as the Clusters, and is really intermittent--only affecting me maybe 3 weeks total out of the year. Doesn't really affect my general lifestyle except to raise my misery quotient during the days it decides to hit.
Insomnia. Or more accurately, Shift work sleep disorder. Basically, my body wants to sleep from 4am - sometime in the afternoon (this has gotten progressively later as my other issues have gotten worse since being sick is f**king exhausting) despite all attempts to get me on a normal circadian rhythm. This makes interacting with the rest of the world tricky from a scheduling point of view.
I get maybe 10 pain-free days/year
Arrrrrrghhhhh.
Basically, feels like my testicle is being squeezed/crushed more or less constantly.
ARRRRRRGHHHH.
This plus the kissing thread is making me feel much better about my life, but also much guiltier for feeling that way.
I had a slight cold quite recently. February I think. But I generally only get one every two or three years, so I'm fine for a while now.
A fair number of broken bones, not all of which have set quite right.
I haven't had malaria, but I've taken Lariam and WOW. That's interesting stuff.
Asthma. I'm allergic to most dogs and cat hair but not actual cats unless they scratch me (also ponies, but they're more avoidable in the big city). Very manageable, though I can't exercise comfortably, not that I ever really tried. Yoga breathing exercises that taught me to breathe from my diaphragm made a significant difference about ten years ago.
This arrant dickishness is making me Bob out this morning.
216: All of that sucks. Maybe you can work on sleeping from 5AM on and then 6AM. Eventually you'll get to 9 or 10 o'clock.
I have:
IBS (should have commented in the gut-brain thread!)
Bad eczema--each summer/spring it manifests as little, extremely itchy bumps on my fingers
ADD treated with not very much speed
Infertility (polyps, tiny uterus, messed up fallopian tubes)
Nothing life-threatening; much to be irritated by.
I'm frequently drinking energy drinks or otherwise consuming large amounts of caffeine to abort/treat my Cluster headaches. So while I occasionally have plans to do stuff like 216, my body's clock gets forcibly reset by meds pretty reliably.
Hmm. I have horrible disgusting pus-y bleeding ingrown toenails. And one of my teeth is literally falling apart. (and food gets trapped in there which is hugely annoying.)
Also, sometimes I have a horrible feeling that certain parts of my brain are a horrible parody of an author-surrogate character in a Heinlein novel but that is more of a metaphysical cooties fear than anything else.
Oh, that reminds me--I left a few things off the Annoying list:
Infertility. Along multiple axes, so even something like ICSI IVF (where they take 1 single sperm and inject it directly into an egg) wouldn't be effective.
Mild Depression. I'm inclined to think of it as a reasonable and rational response to absurd amounts of chronic pain and the accompanying disability. I feel like for Depression to get into mental illness territory, it has to be more irrational than where I'm currently at. I've had full on Mental Illness Depression before, so I know what it's like, and this is not really it. That answer seems to satisfy my friends/family/doctors.
Oh look! It's 5:20am. I guess it's time to go to bed! Good night everyone!
211: I offer the counter-observation that this may be an audience less likely to respond, "Ewww, cooties!" than other audiences and that the absence of such responses is not reflective of whether of not anything "cootie-like" has been disclosed.
213 is the most appalling pun I've heard in a week.
I guess the internet addiction is a given for everyone here?
the internet addiction is a given
You kids today, I had to earn my internet addiction.
93: I think that's one of my skin conditions too. Eczema maybe? I have no idea why your MMM would cause it to flare up, but a dermatologist might be able to help.
231: I think of it as a symptom of undiagnosed ADD rather than a condition of its own, but what do I know.
I was under the impression that sleeping on your back was better than lying on your stomach for lower back pain. Maybe this is wrong? I've been sleeping (obligatorily) on my back for 8 months, and I frequently wake up with hideous lower back pain. Is my ass falling into a hole in the mattress? Is the mattress possibly slanting? Not sure I could test it with a spirit level, or roll a ball over it, or what. Does anyone know of a remedy other than the full mattress replacement (which will happen this year, just not today)?
My toes lose circulation in the cold, and occasionally under other circumstances. The women in my (mother's) family believe, with a fair amount of evidence, that they have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome to varying degrees of severity; if I've got it, it's on the mild side, but I am unusually flexible and I think the skin on my arms is stretchier than usual.
I also turn into a fountain of snot while exercising -- hate, hate, hate.
Is my ass falling into a hole in the mattress?
The Ass in the Hole in the Mattress is a Shel Silverstein book, right?
177: I like the trails on the bench too much not to give distance running the ol' college try.
Ah, I didn't think of that. If I was to do more running that would definitely be the way to go. In academy we did a bit of running on the trails up City Creek Canyon and it was pretty nice.
Have cootie-like thing. Did not disclose.
In Harold Bloom's "Stories for Highly Intelligent Children" or whatever it's called, there is a story called "The Ass Eating Thistles," my reaction to which title casts doubt on the heights of my intelligence.
234: Put a pillow under your knees when sleeping on your back or between them when sleeping on your side. It helps keep the spine in a neutral position. The pillow is called a 'Dutch Wife' for some reason. I remember this sort of stupid shit but have to look up the damn resistor code every time I need it.
The pillow is called a 'Dutch Wife' for some reason.
Because of the feathers.
Oh, cooties. I get cold sores aka herpes simplex 1. I've gotten them ever since I can remember, although now their occurrence is pretty much limited to when I have a cold and irritate the sort of bottom left bit of my philtrum by blowing my nose. In college I'd wind up with a bunch of them after sitting drunk in the sun for multiple days (Croquet Weekend, Reality Weekend), but that activity hasn't been on the menu in a while.
A pretty high percentage of folks have one or the other sort of herpes.
No cooties. After interesting behaviors in exotic environs with diverse companions in the early to mid-80s, I awaited symptoms, but they never showed.
What do I know, I haven't really been examined since grade school. Draft physical. 4 traumas, doc-in-the-box and antibiotics: cycle crash at 70 mph, two animal attacks, q-tip through drum with labyrinthitis but no pain or fever. Haven't vomited or had a fever in decades. No rashes. An occasional stye. Twists and turns I treat myself.
I figure I'm thirty years past my sell date, and fear only suffering and humiliation and hurting others.
Symptoms and stuff?
1) Lower back pain, hip pain especially right, usual expected arthritis of a 60 yr old hands ankles etc.
But I can walk the dogs til I'm dragging them whimpering behind me. I can squat ten times fast with heels on the ground and not holding anything.
I got this weird thing where my left arm spasms...I will be holding a glass of water and suddenly it's on the wall and I am "whahappen?"
2) Probable emphysema. Occasional chest pains right, nothing in arm or shoulder, not really short of breath. Could go any minute. Weird muscle spasms in left thorax. Asthma and allergies.
3) Soft mass and harder nodule in scrotum, one testicle bigger than other. Yeah, had a bad infection decade back. No symptoms, no pain, everything functions great. Cancer with metastasis still likely.
4) Fucking gotta pee every five minutes. Prostrate. According to what I read, I don't have bad symptoms. But still, death's door.
5) Wounds heal slower than I'd like. Obese, but it's all belly, thin muscular arms and legs. Probably liver.
6) BP great, blood sugar terrific, pulse fine. No headaches.
7) Sleep inconsistent and unpredictable. Labile.
8) Looked in the mirror last week and my fucking bushy eyebrows have gone dead freaking white. I won't make that mistake again.
Me too on the cold sores -- I forgot to even count that as cootie-worthy. They've been gradually getting less frequent over the years, though; I don't remember my last one. (Or it was last week, but so mild that it never quite erupted -- I thought I was getting one when I had that cold last week, and then the blister never formed.)
243: Me too. Very sporadic, not especially linked to overall health (mild stress/fatigue correlation, but not consistent in either direction).
Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure I got it from my old boss. AFAIK we never shared food (or bodily fluids), but he got them regularly, and while I was working there was when I first got one. It was a home office, so I was generally all up in his business.
Fucking gotta pee every five minutes. Prostrate.
Doesn't it get all over you?
My son was diagnosed with a mild bleeding disorder - Von Willebrand Diseason Type 1. One interesting thing about it is that it's hereditary - for a kid to have it, one parent must have it. We're pretty sure it's me, but I haven't bothered to be tested.
We worry somewhat obsessively about any bleeding my son does. We don't worry about me at all.
I ran five miles yesterday in 50 minutes - for the second time in my life - and was feeling very smug about that right up until I read Moby's comments in this thread.
220: Who is that dickbag, and why are they being such a dickbag? Is that a parody? Is he about to sell me a time-share?
What is it with management dick-bags and Apple, anyway?
What is it with management dick-bags and Apple, anyway?
Eight years ago the management dickbags were all about Google. Fifteen it was Microsoft. Somewhere in there it was all about GE.
Management dickbags are like remoras on successful companies.
The fact that Apple/Jobs is charismatic as well as hugely successful amplifies the effect, but it's always there.
Doesn't it get all over you?
That would be a supine condition.
I want to set that blog post to music, perhaps as an aria in a heroic opera. Or maybe it would work better if it sounding like Entertainment-era Gang of Four. Steady, minimal bass and drums with periodic clanging guitar and multiple layers of deadpan reading of the text.
The pillow is called a 'Dutch Wife' for some reason.
Originally a Southeast Asian bamboo cylinder embraced at night to keep cool. Now the Japanese word for sex-doll.
A couple of notes on the lack-of-flexibility thing.
1) We the inflexible are probably not as far out on the curve as we think given the number of us reporting that as an issue.
2) It can serve some purposes. I am pretty sure that my ability to be fairly active after an unrepaired ACL tear (it did rehab with excellent results) is due in part to having no bendiness to begin with. Although admittedly lack of flexibility undoubtedly contributed to tearing it in the first place; I've learned to "play within myself" more (almost literally) and do things like the falling and not overreaching or twisting.
Other than that main nagging physical complaint that I have is sinuses (never did get my somewhat-deviated septum corrected, perhaps should have) and general respiratory ailments including one pretty nasty bout of pneumonia.
Yeah, I do kind of believe that the inflexibility is why I don't get twisty/sprainy sorts of injuries.
I too have an unrepaired ACL tear, and credit the excellent results of my rehab to my Wolverine-like healing ability.
239 is totes right about the pillow under/between the knees. No sleeping on the stomach, period (at least in my case); it's weird how this has apparently become so internalized that I don't even try to do it in the middle night when asleep. Miss it, though.
I'm used to turning a lot while sleeping, so it has been aggravating that I currently can't sleep on my right side because my shoulder is bothering me too much (my guess is I tore the rotator cuff when I broke my arm as a kid, but no medical professionals have been involved in this diagnosis). At times, I can't even sleep on my left side because the weight of my right arm pulls uncomfortably on my shoulder.
And speaking of undiagnosed (231) and heritability (247), a thing that has been slowly but steadily increasing in frequency in my life is a tendency towards something akin to coprolalia. Not referring to my frequent conscious swearing, but actual involuntary utterances*. It was something of a running joke in the family that "Dad has Tourette's", but a few years back when I checked the DSM-IV (which no longer has "The disturbance causes marked distress or significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning." as a criteria) I realized that I arguably met it. The questions would be on pre-18 yr old onset, and whether my various motor "tics" are really that (thumb/finger (not nail) chewing, finger snapping and a few other demonstrative actions). Not overly interested in the precise diagnosis**, I can control it so far, but in certain situations of half-concentration--driving a car or falling sleep--it increasingly manifests itself.
*It is somewhat profane, but based on frequency of mention as noted by family members, my subconscious seems to be concerned with dogs, killing, free-floating profanity, and real and imaginary sports triumphs; all of it laced with random but curiously specific numbers ("37 dogs!"). I did have a real fear of dogs as a kid (and actually somewhat justified in my particular neighborhood, the Island of the Blue Dolphins).
**Tics and/or stereotypic movements are something that unfortunately two of my three children have some degree of, and both to a more socially-debilitating level than I ever experienced. Treatment/interventions for them were evident without need of delving deeply into my own particular mishegoss. In retrospect, I can see hints of the general pattern in my father as well.
216: Oh my. wink, I don't know you, but my dear, you have my sincere sympathies. I hate to sound silly, but man, I guess it wouldn't help to cut the testicle off (I guess not, if it's nerve-related). Somebody should be able to do something! But I gather not. My sympathies. Chronic pain is no joke at all, and takes a great deal of courage. Chris Y's CP takes a great deal of courage as well. I humbly salute you.
I second 260 on all fronts. Good luck and courage to everyone.
I have several small emminently treatable things, which I am therefor treating: hyper-tension, mild depression and anxiety, sleep apnea. I have borderline high cholesterol (I'm vegetarian, so it seems to be almost entirely genetic), which I should probably a) be getting more excercize in response to, b) treating. Hopefully by taking these pills and sleeping with a c-pap every night I get the prize of not dying of heart disease in my late 50s like my dad.
I've had giardia (among other things). The gas with that has an unforgettable sulferous quality. So probably not giardia, but since it is recurring, I agree with Biohazard that it's probably worth suffering through one of those horrible gut-destroying antibiotics like ciprex and then eating yogurt for the next month to restore your intestines to a functional ecosystem.
256: I too have an unrepaired ACL tear
Pittsburgh is a good place to "model" that particular deficiency as former Pitt basketball player DeJaun Blair and, more famously, Hines Ward both have missing/unrepaired ACLs.
My brother and his girlfriend just had giardia and said that metallic burps were the giveaway.
Stormcrow, that's fascinating! I don't have specific questions but would love to hear more. (I mean, nothing more specific than "37 dogs?!?!???") There are a lot of what I think of as OCD-adjacent traits in my family. I think two of my three brothers actually got the Tourette diagnosis at various points. One has severe ADHD and now a bipolar diagnosis; the other is in engineering school. I don't think I qualify for anything diagnosable on that front anymore, and the third brother is smart, charming, handsome, and popular. Both he and the non-engineer are hipsters with ironic facial hair, though.
I can control it so far, but in certain situations of half-concentration--driving a car or falling sleep--it increasingly manifests itself.
A friend's husband has Tourette's, and these are in fact the two situations in which the verbal tics most often come out. They warned me about it the first time he drove me somewhere, not to let it worry me because it actually was a sign of him paying attention to the driving.
The gas with that has an unforgettable sulferous quality.
Yeah, sulfurous might be a better descriptor of the taste than zinc. Maybe its zinc sulfate.
265.2: Well, go ahead and send me an e-mail at my pseud link if you want details too boring for even this forum. People around me are more aware of what I say than I am, but the dogs are usually being threatening, attacking, coming from or going to some geographical location*, or what-have-you. The numbers actually come up more with regard to casualty counts, sports accomplishments and statistics, or even just in nonsense strings.
*Other bits of my psyche and interests** come out as well.
**An almost presidential other thread-worthy aside (but it was all smoke and no fire) is that I occasionally mention the name of a woman who I did have a crush on some time ago (but not long enough ago ...). The statistically significant frequency of utterance of that particular name did not escape the attention of my wife and it led to a discussion somewhat more frank than anything which occurred back in the moment. So if you think at some future point you might lose control of your utterances get involved with someone with the same first name as you spouse be careful.
In that case, maybe try and convince your doctor to prescribe the giardia cure first. As far as I know, it doesn't have any negative side effects and is a whole lot easier on your body than cipro (not ciprex, sorry) and such like. mine cleared up within a day and a half of beginning treatment. The other tell-tale sign was a memorably described by a friend a foamy diarrhea. Not the most debilitating form of diarrhea, but decidedly unpleasant.
coming from or going to some geographical location
A couple of nights ago, a bartender asked me where I was from and I said, for no reason at all that I can discern, "North." I do that kind of thing from time to time.
266: Hmm, interesting, thanks. A semi-worrisome time when I notice that I have to stifle the urge (and occasionally fail) is when I first leave a situation where I have been rigorously and effectively stomping on it* (work, mostly). So upon entering the parking garage at the end of the day, or even going into the bathroom**. Problem is, people are sometimes still around.
*Except through wisecracks, which actually do seem to have some of the same tension/release cycle.
**In these instances I often find I want to verbalize commentary ("going home"). So in the bathroom it's not quite a fist pump nor is it "Pooping!", but it's not not that.
So in the bathroom it's not quite a fist pump nor is it "Pooping!"
Oh, I do that every time.
270: "All anyone ever knew was that he said he came from the North, drank Rusty Nails, and left in the direction of the bus stop, but his legend lives on from the Homestead High Level Bridge to Schenley Park."
Why in Gods name have I read this whole thread? Is that a symptom of something?
275: You work for an insurance company? (Per Josh in 20.)
I said, for no reason at all that I can discern, "North."
From Lonesome Dove:
"It struck Call that they should have educated the boy a little better. He seemed to think north was a place, not just a direction."
220: god, that really is rage-inducing. The worst part is the bullshit pose about "I'm just describing how it is, not judging," only a few paragraphs down from his explicit advice to fire people who seem to care about work-life balance.
I sometimes sing little songs to myself about whatever I am doing or thinking. That's normal, right?
I know it can get me in trouble. Once, driving into the parking lot at work, I passed a coworker, and instinctively started singing "[coworker] has nice boobs. Has nice boobs. Has nice boobs. [coworker] has nice boobs. Hibby-dibby dip dip dip."
Fortunately, I was alone in the car. But I do have to watch myself sometimes.
That's a fairly subjective sort of judgement. I don't see how people could say you were wrong. You should be O.K.
280, to the tune of "No More I Love Yous", right?
279: *****
Commenter is excellent. Would read again!
Ha. That piece even made me feel bad about my strict metacritic ratings-filter for movies--"shit, I use basically the same filter this asshole does, and he's a total asshole, so there must be something wrong with what I'm doing..."
Let your preternatural consumer flag fly, x.trapnel!
Oh, god. Yeah, "preternatural consumer" alone has that guy up against the wall when the revolution comes.
I met him several times in the late '90s during the original "Silicon Alley" boomlet, and he is definitely one of those people it requires concerted physical effort not to punch in the face.
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Why have I spent three hours so far applying for a job I won't get and don't really want? Well, never mind that. The real question is: whom to use for references? The online application system wants me to type in names right now. I haven't applied for a (reference-calling) job in two years, so I assume I have to ask all these people again, and it's now been two more years since they worked with me. How far back should one go? Should I bother new people?
More pressingly: I believe that I've been a dismal failure at everything I've done, and that it would be insane to ask most people to give me a reference for a future job that I can fuck up. This isn't really compatible with applying for jobs, and thus it is not compatible with survival. What standard should I actually apply? To give one example: I had a sterling relationship last year with professors X & Y, and was tapped to lead a big research initiative in my department. Unfortunately this other dude also joined the initiative, after I said yes, and my working relationship with him was so bad that I actually had to back out for my own sanity, thereby blowing every shred of professional capital I had built up over a year. (Also, I had no time. But it was mostly the guy.) So -- it would have been nice to ask Profs X & Y for a reference, but what are they going to say now? "She quit to spend time with her family?"
Still too grim to be funny.
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That sounds awful, Lurid. No advice to offer, but sending good vibes.
260: Believe you me, I've considered that more than once. But we're sure the pain is referred and that nothing is wrong with the testicle itself--on a couple of occasions, the pain has abruptly switched which testicle I was feeling it in. And we've already tried cutting the nerves, to no effect as the problem must be upstream from there so removing the testicle downstream wouldn't do anything.
288.1: Talking to them wouldn't hurt, but two years isn't that long for a reference. Bother new people only if you can get a better reference.
288.2: In my experience, it takes much larger than that to blow away even the first quarter of your professional capital. I and everybody I've worked with have really dropped the ball on at least a few things. And I wouldn't be surprised if Profs X & Y don't know exactly how bad that guy is to work with.
Also, a lot of times references don't actually get checked.
Right, and they won't get checked before I get called for an interview, I imagine? Which does not seem likely anyway. Sorry, btw, to have been posting so much negativity -- apparently it's been a bad time lately, or at least I momentarily lack distractions from the bad parts of the current mixed time. I'm sure I'm not the only person who faces a post-academic job search by curling up into the fetal position under multiple blankets for hours, but I'm the only one under these particular blankets, so it seems unusual.
Maybe I will use one of the professors. Surely they wonder what happened to me, so it would be an excuse to talk.
Ugh, that really does sound awful. Best of luck getting out from under the blankets.
And who the hell am I to know, and maybe it is all but impossible that you get the interview, but getting the application out is at least a step. Give yourself credit for that much, because I think plenty of us know how hard that is to do from under the blankets. You never know when serendipity is going to strike.
Job searches are horrid, academic/professional job searches doubly so. Just to make it explicit, talking to a professional can somtimes help with the blankets. I know it did for me in finally finishing the diss. Just because there are objective reasons to feel blech, doesn't mean you have to deal with the blech feelings all by yourself. And Moby's right, profs understand that sometimes people have to disappear for a little while. If they aren't psychos, they'll be happy to hear from you again
Oh yeah. I get cold sores too, although now I refer to it as mouth herpes to make it sound more disgusting. I haven't had an outbreak in years, but occasionally I get a tingly feeling in the corner of my mouth, which I've heard means the virus is active.
On sleeping, my PT told me to sleep on my back with one flat pillow, or on the side with a pillow between m knees, rather than curled up in the fetal position or on my stomach with my limbs curled up under me. It probably would help with back pain, but I've decided the tradeoff isn't worth it.
I don't have testicles, but I am extremely grateful I don't have testicle pain on a regular basis. That sounds terrible. Low level general pain problems pretty much sound the worst. (I do get cramps semi-randomly after my IUD was inserted, but they are easily manageable with ibuprofen).
Oh yeah. I get cold sores too, although now I refer to it as mouth herpes to make it sound more disgusting.
For similar reasons, I refer to having a cold as "skull incontinence".
On the Calacanis subthread, check out the Wikipedia article and the vast amount of not-actually-achieving-very-much involved. Uh, you were the webmaster for the Netscape homepage some years after that became utterly pointless. Great. And Weblogs, Inc - "like Gawker but even more shit". (Quote: "By early 2004 Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker Media were establishing the two most important templates for networked blog empires". Yeah, fuck off.)
Further, a running backdrop of low-level dickishness.
Actually, this is amusing as well:
Weblogs, Inc. was purchased in October 2005 by AOL for a reported $25 million. While details were sketchy, it was reported in "Blogebrity: The Blog" that the bloggers would maintain all their rights, and would even come out of the deal in better condition. Headlines from blogs would begin to appear in AIM and at AOL.com
AOL.com! Jason, you rock!
Wait, he's not some random crank--he's a famous enough crank to have a wikipedia page?
Shorter that column: Be excellent to each other.
A Wikipedia contributor, Jasoncalacanis (talk ยท contribs), may be personally or professionally connected to the subject of the article. Relevant guidelines covering this situation include Wikipedia:Conflict of interest, Wikipedia:Autobiography and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view.
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Nice to see that Wikipedians are working on a bio project. There was much talk about bio pages at Wikimania '06. --User:Jasoncalacanis
I agree that the link in 220 was horrifying, but I actually like the sound of something on his Wikipedia page:
Calacanis was involved in a 2010 Internet hoax involving his Twitter postings regarding the introduction of the Apple iPad. In his tweets, he claimed to have a "reviewer's copy" of an iPad device describing in great detail the features of such device. The device in question was not in his possession nor did it exist. It was explained to have been an attempt by Calacanis to expose the hysteria regarding Apple product launches. The hoax also called into question the fact checking and verification processes of the mainstream media who published the hoax story as true.
For similar reasons, I refer to having a cold as "skull incontinence".
There are a surprising number of conditions that end in "rrhea", that medical professionals refer to with no apparent disgust or intent to make them sound like "diarrhea".
Logorrhea could also be viewed as a form of skull incontinence.