Monday, June 06, 2016

Life in the bumpy lane

No one expects their time in the world to be entirely smooth and I've just found a bit of a bump:  my incision has what we hope is a slight infection.  We went to the local quack where they demonstrated their unfamiliarity with wound care.  Hmmm, note to self:  if this crap ever happens again go to the hospital ER where they will have some grasp on this kind of thing!  They did give me a prescription for an antibiotic, which seems to be helping.  I also moved up my visit with my surgeon (to later today); we'll see if they can be worse than the locals but I'm hopeful they will do better.  If we are really lucky we might get some idea of what kind of infection this is!

Of course I'm driving my poor wife nuts since 'good patient' isn't really in my DNA.  We vary between me asking for something every 5 minutes and then having to beat her off me to keep her from 'fixing' something.  It's been working for about 35 years but sometimes you wonder how!  I'm sure that when she is ill I do things to drive her crazy as well. 

Speaking of DNA, we did DNA testing on ourselves as a sort of Christmas present that takes 3 months to arrive.  We used 23andMe because it sounded as though you got more information than other services.  I guess you do but lots of the information is in the 'ho hum' category.  I mean they suggest that I am likely to move more during sleep.  Really?  Or I'm likely to have lighter skin and not many freckles.  Bummed is the word.  Here is a quote:  "You have more Neanderthal variants than 85% of 23andMe customers.
However, your Neanderthal ancestry accounts for less than 4% of your overall DNA."   Well, it made my wife laugh but I'm still holding out for some  information of value.  There were reports on rare genetic disorders like Sickle Cell Anemia or Niemann-Pick or Cystic Fibrosis.  I imagine if we were to want children and have concern about some of these diseases the information would be extremely helpful.  For the rest of us, not so much.  Am I glad we did it?  Yes.  I feel that the more information we have about the human race the better we can look towards the future.  But I have to say if money were tight I wouldn't have spent the $400!

My wife is enjoying her new job as driver of the car.  I could do it, of course, but having your neck in a collar does reduce the amount of looking around in traffic a guy can do.  It would be silly to try to drive since it's not necessary.  We are gradually getting used to all the new features.  The car has voice commands for many functions and that leads to interesting and frustrating situations.  For example if you want do get the GPS to take you somewhere there is a very precise order for giving the information and God help you if you give the street name before the number!  Hell, sometimes it takes three times to get to the Navigation panel!

Gotta go get ready for the trip across the 'hump'.  Thanks for stopping by and have a good one.

1 comment:

Croft said...

"You have more Neanderthal variants than 85%.." Sorry Don, that just drives me to giggles! I keep envisioning the "Even a caveman could do it" commercial! ROTFL!!!!

Seriously though Don, deal with that wound healing problem quickly!