No Blog for You!

Posted by Chad Orzel on January 26, 2008
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i-733052cb2ef8181c80846cb9ed056e64-sm_wrist.jpg

I got hit on the wrist with an elbow in Wednesday’s lunchtime hoops game, which was painful enough to overcome my deep antipathy toward the medical profession, and send me to the doctor. After a referral to an orthopedist Friday morning, the verdict was a contusion of one of the umpteen little bones in my wrist. Nothing is broken, but I’m going to be spending the next few weeks wearing the brace in the picture, and icing it regularly.

The brace in question makes typing rather inconvenient, and I’m not a good typist to begin with. This means I’m going to restrict my typing-related program activities to things that pay better than blogging– namely, my day job, and book revisions when the reader comments come in (hint, hint). So, no lengthy new blogging here for a while.

In a way, this is well timed, as a lot of my regular bloggy reading has started to seem indescribably tedious, so it’s probably time for me to take a break for a while. It’s not good when your hobby starts to feel like work.

There will probably continue to be Links Dump postings, because those don’t require much typing, and I’ll still be doing some poking around on the Internet, as that’s become an indispensable part of my wake-up routine. I’m not going to be writing lengthy new posts for a while, though, unless something irritates me enough to make typing with the brace on seem like a good idea.

Until later, then.

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Comments

  1. #1 Dave Munger
    January 26, 2008

    Dang! That really sucks. Hope you get better soon.

  2. #2 David Phillips
    January 26, 2008

    Another Dave saying “That sucks!” I’ve hated icing, but it does really seem to help. We’re looking forward to having you back.

    Good luck on the book, too.

  3. #3 Jonathan Vos Post
    January 26, 2008

    Hope you’re feeling better, soon!

    Orthogonoally thinking, injuries are nature’s way of telling us to cut back on blogging.

    Yestderday (Fri 25 Jan 2008) was the first time since 9 Jan 2008 that I’d left home under my own steam, walking and driving. I felt good enough to fight through the major Southern California rainstorm (snow starting not far abovr my foothill altitude) to my surgeon’s clinic. He removed the titanium staples from my skin, from the 29-staple longer incision and the 11-staple shorter incision remaining from the emergency addominal surgery of 9 Jan 2008.

    He’s saved my life with that surgery, removing 4 inches of gangrenous small intestine, and sewing the intestine back together, and doing some other stuff. I was in hospital 9 days because of postsurgical complications.

    Going 8 days without any oral nutrition (just an IV drip) was no big deal. People voluntarily take 1 week fasts (through should not without medical advice).

    But going 9 days with no Internet — that was torture which narcotics could not relieve.

    I pretty much promised my wife that I’d do WAY less blogging when I recovered.

    You know what? It’s a good thing that emergency happened. I’m stronger for the experience, more focussed, more genuinely accepting each new day on Earth as an infinitely valuable gift, and less addicted to making long and sometimes irritatingly tedious or self-referential or name-dropping blog comments.

    And, as part of my recovery, I stuck to shorter forms. I wrote 2 good sonnets.

    Now, as I rehabilitate further I will this week by working from my 57 pages of notes to send a very crude partial first draft to the surgeon of the paper he happily agreed to coauthor with me on the Complex Systems, biophysical, and computational aspects of the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of the complication I experienced and (as part of the team) fought to overcome: “postsurgical ileus” (i.e. paralysis of the traumatized small intestine).

    Longer blog post than I meant, but I felt SO empathetic with the picture of Chad’s injured wrist and reasonable re-prioritizing.

    Remember not to pump your fist in the air each time the Patriots score in the Superbowl, Chad!

  5. #5 Caledonian
    January 26, 2008

    I’m sorry to hear of this. I hope your recovery is quick and uneventful.

  6. #6 Robert McNees
    January 26, 2008

    In college I had a “basketball injury” that required two wrist splints. I added the quotes because it wasn’t during a game – it was after an unsuccessful attempt at a two-handed dunk. As I landed, my feet went out from under me and I fell backwards. Being a very smart person I immediately put my hands back to try and stop the fall. That was, of course, the worst thing I could have done. I broke my left wrist and sprained my right one.

    It is amazing how many things you simply cannot do with both wrists immobilized. It took a half hour to dress myself, and I couldn’t turn doorknobs. For the first few days after the injury the hardest part was sleeping. I had to keep my arms at my sides all night, because any other position put stress on the areas I’d injured.

    The sprain took longer to heal than the break. It really, really sucked.

  7. #7 Uncle Al
    January 26, 2008

    One could combine an NSAID (e.g., 12 hrs/dose for sodium naproxen) plus acetoaminophen (4 hrs/dose) to potentiate analgesic effects – but it would be wrong. Bad idea for more than a few days, too, and tough on an irritated tummy or bothersome liver.

    Have the doc write a presciption for Jacuzzi time, then have your insurer fill it in your backyard. Also have the doc go for a DMV handicrapped sticker. Official cripples ride upon the Golden Palanquin of the safety net. (If Bill Clinton were President that disabled wrist qualifies you for loss-of-self-cosortium physical therapy. With President Hitlery Ramrod Clinton, NFW.)

  8. #8 CCPhysicist
    January 26, 2008

    That is tough, but

    (1) I was not surprised that it was due to basketball rather than a freak laser-related incident.

    (b) I was seriously disappointed that it was not inflicted by Stephen Colbert or Barack Obama.

    (III) Someone beat me to the Wriststrong comment.

    Suggestion: Switch to left-handed mousing. When you reverse the button functions, it is surprisingly easy to learn. Must be for the same reason that you tend to mirror write when you write left handed. Your brain seems to know that the index finger on both hands is the same, and it might even help your basketball game …

  9. #9 Mike Haubrich, FCD
    January 26, 2008

    More proof that drugs are better for you than athletics. I never got an injury like that from smoking pot and throwing Frisbees.

  10. #10 Brad Holden
    January 27, 2008

    Get well soon. I hope you can still pet the queen with your good hand, else you will be really in trouble.

  11. #11 Tom Renbarger
    January 27, 2008

    Heal quickly, and here’s to the Terps picking off Duke tonight.

    ((At the reader’s option, they may insert a one-handed typing joke here.))

  12. #12 Hohn
    January 28, 2008

    Ouch, sorry to hear it! Best wishes on a fast recovery.

    BTW, you are one hairy white boy, my friend. ;-)