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5 minute read

September 29, 2008, 10:22 PM

So I found an ophthalmologist, and I had my appointment today. I went to Rodman & Engelstein, and I’ll just say this – this was definitely a different procedure from when I went to Dr. Patel in Fishersville.

First of all, I took a half day off from work, and took Metro up to Silver Spring. First of all, one has to wonder who peed in the train operator’s cornflakes this morning. The train was a Silver Spring train, which meant that it ended its run at Silver Spring rather than going all the way to Glenmont. I usually hate those kinds of trains because they don’t go where I need to go, but this time, I was going to downtown Silver Spring, so I didn’t particularly care. It was there, and I caught it. This guy came down REALLY hard about the whole going-out-of-service thing. “ATTENTION CUSTOMERS ON THE PLATFORM, THIS TRAIN IS OUT OF SERVICE! DO NOT BOARD THIS TRAIN!” And he repeated this a few times before the train was completely berthed. And of course, despite being all like that, he didn’t even bother to change the sign to the “NO PASSENGERS” sign. He kept it on Red to Silver Spring.

Then getting there, I filled out the customary mound of paperwork for when you’re a new patient. After that, it was time to get started. First they checked the pressure in my eyes. Then they looked at my eyes with a microscope, checked my existing prescription, and tested my vision with glasses on. Then they dilated my pupils. This is where things changed. After this, they take you out of the exam room, and have you wait in another waiting room while the drops work. I played Tetris on my phone, and that certainly became a challenge as my pupils dilated. I ended up having to close one eye and hold the phone way far away to play. And the technicians would occasionally come by to check on how well the drops had worked. First time, they said I was almost ready but needed to ripen (my term) a little more. The second time, I was ripe, and was taken into a second exam room. There, they looked at my eyes with the microscope again, tested my vision without glasses, and then figured out what the new prescription would be using the phoropter.

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Categories: Glasses, Personal health

< 1 minute read

June 28, 2008, 10:52 AM

Does anyone know a good ophthalmologist in the DC area? It’s that time again, as it’s been three years since the last time my glasses were updated. And I’m not about to go to Augusta Eye Associates again, for reasons of distance. However, if you are in the Staunton/Waynesboro/Augusta County area, I highly recommend these folks. I would always see Dr. Patel.

So now I’m wondering what people think. I live in the Silver Spring/Wheaton area in Maryland, and I work in Dupont Circle. And I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations. I’ve found a few names while doing some research, and I’m wondering if any of the names you all hopefully will give me match what I found and turn up good recommendations, or absolutely-positively-hell-no recommendations. And no, I’m not giving out my list in order to not box myself in, in case I missed anyone.

And lastly, I am only referring to ophthalmologists – doctors with MDs. I am not looking to go to an optometrist (doctors with ODs). So what do people think? Let me know…

Categories: Personal health

< 1 minute read

February 23, 2008, 8:56 AM

Yeah, I wish I was in Stuarts Draft today. The reason is that up until yesterday, this weekend was going to be spent in Stuarts Draft. Then on Friday, I started coming down with something. It started Friday morning, when I had a very painful sore throat and a bit of a cough, but otherwise, no problem. By the end of the day at the office, I was pretty much feeling like I was sick. I notified all concerned that unless I felt really good come Saturday morning, that I was not going to make the trip down. And just as well. Yes, my mother would probably take good care of me if I made the trip sick, but I figure that if I’m going to be miserable all weekend, I’d at least rather be miserable in my own bed.

I figure I probably caught this one at the MVA on Tuesday when I got my Maryland license plates. That was about the only major deviation from my usual routine where I would be sitting in relatively close company with people I normally didn’t spend any time around. Realize it’s mostly the same people every day on the bus and the Metro. Then it’s definitely the same folks at work. So yeah, MVA seems the likely culprit.

And meanwhile, I now need to figure out another weekend to go to Stuarts Draft.

Categories: Personal health

< 1 minute read

September 4, 2007, 6:13 AM

There’s still a little bit of residual congestion going on, but otherwise, I feel good, and I once again express my gratitude that this happened over a long weekend, because it means I won’t miss any work over this.

Of course, it means that I am so behind on some of the stuff that I wanted to do for this weekend. What I did accomplish was at home – I cleaned the bathroom, and I did the laundry. I didn’t get to go grocery shopping, which means there’s still not much food in the house. Methinks I’ll hit up Shoppers tonight.

Still, I’m so glad to be feeling better again. Being sick just plain old sucks.

Categories: Personal health

2 minute read

September 3, 2007, 5:44 PM

Following my day at Potomac Mills on Saturday, I was sick as a dog on Sunday. Of course, I guess there’s no better time to get sick than on a long weekend, where there is no work to miss. Goodness knows there’s no way I would have been able to go to work today if it were a regular day.

Meanwhile, everything’s going back to normal now, as the fever I’d been running has been burning off, and the sore throat has been going away, and the headache-inducing cough has been getting less and less frequent. And the lymph nodes on the right side of my neck have gone back to normal.

In all the times I’ve been sick, though, I’ve never had “swollen glands”. It was weird. Thursday it started higher up, like it was some kind of food debris that I’d failed to brush out in my lower right molars. Then the next morning, the teeth were fine, but it had gone further down into the neck, and was slightly tender to the touch, and definitely a different feel – harder than usual. Then Saturday, the throat started to kick in, being scratchy and sensitive, and then Sunday, it was full blast – fatigue, throat, glands, fever, cough, headache, congestion… you name it. No fun. About all I did all day was sleep. Sleep, get up, feel bad, go back to sleep, get up, feel bad, go back to sleep… it was a never-ending cycle.

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Categories: Personal health

< 1 minute read

December 22, 2006, 10:28 PM

I have a feeling that I must have eaten something that was not quite right today, because around 3:00, I started feeling really bad, and became somewhat feverish. I felt really bad driving home, but still went right back out after work to take care of some stuff.

At least I’m not going to miss any work on account of this little bout of food poisoning, unlike what happened last time, when I took my first and only sick day from work. While I was out, the fever broke, I cooled right down, and life was once again good.

Of course, the thing that always gets me when it comes to eating something that ends up attacking back is not knowing exactly what the culprit was. Everything I ate today was just wonderful, at least from my point of view at the time. So who knows.

Categories: Food and drink, Personal health

< 1 minute read

July 30, 2006, 12:58 AM

Let me tell you, being sick straight-up sucks. I don’t know how I got it, but I was out of commission on Saturday. This marks the first time I have called out sick to work since 1999 when I dislocated a shoulder, and the first time ever with Wal-Mart.

This that I had would be your typical “sick”, too. I had a fever, I had a headache, I was wobbly, and I felt like I had weights on both feet. I spent much of the day in bed.

Now, though, I think we’re on the road to recovery. I’ve been sweating, which means that the fever’s going away, and I’m just feeling better overall. I don’t like missing work, and so I’m glad to be feeling better again.

Categories: Personal health

< 1 minute read

April 2, 2006, 5:23 PM

It’s April 2, and you know what that means – “day two” of allergy season. I generally consider April 1 to be the first day of the season (and I make sure to have allergy medication in my possession before that date), and I consider June 30 to be the last day.

And this year, my allergy medication has changed once again. Last year, I used Equate Allergy Relief D, which was Loratadine with Pseudoephedrine. This is the “Brand X” version of Claritin-D. Generic is cheaper. This year, I’m using Equate Allergy Relief without the D, which is not only cheaper, but does not contain Pseudoephedrine, which is the decongestant that the meth junkies use to make their own kind of wowie sauce.

As a result of Pseudoephedrine being the drug of choice for the junkies, it’s now behind the pharmacy counter, where legitimate users must now fill out miles of paperwork in order to feel good again. So I was just like, the heck with it, since the last thing I need is more paperwork.

Still, regarding the junkies, it’s like I always say – someone who is determined enough to do something will find a way to do it no matter what.

And the next three months are going to be just a real barrel of laughs with allergy season upon us.

Categories: Personal health

< 1 minute read

March 1, 2006, 11:15 PM

First of all, I can’t get over that it’s been a year since I had that pilonidal cyst removed. A year. On my way up to DC yesterday, I was thinking about the operation. Recalling from this Journal entry, “…I arrived at AMC at 6:30 and was out before noon.”

How interesting, though, that on the anniversary of the operation, I went to Washington. And went ice skating.

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten comments from three different people that I look like I’ve lost weight. One was Mom, and two were coworkers. So these are people who see me all the time and have noticed these things. It’s gotten me thinking. I’ve been heavy for most of my life, but I like to think I’ve always carried it fairly well. Still, if one modifies one’s eating habits, who knows how far we can go.

Now before you think crash diets or anything like that, let me say this. For some time now, I’ve admired vegetarians. These are the people who have managed to eliminate meat from their diets. Meat, particularly red meat, is kind of fatty, and not exactly the most healthy thing on earth. I’ve contemplated making a changeover to vegetarianism, but I’ve also realized that if I were to make a change all at once, I’d break it the next day. Too radical. Too much at once.

Bowever, lately, in thinking about this, I’ve been wondering how difficult it would be if I worked out certain classes of meat one at a time, while exploring around a bit food-wise. I’m thinking it just might work. I’m still contemplating it, though.

Categories: Food and drink, Personal health

< 1 minute read

August 14, 2005, 11:51 PM

After my day on Thursday running around in flip-flops, my feet were VERY dry. I presume, since I was in the heat for much of the day that it was caused mostly due to perspiration evaporating off of my feet. This didn’t happen when I did that Hagerstown/Martinsburg/Winchester trip, though.

Still, Friday morning when it was time to go to work, I realized that my feet were so dry that they’d cracked, and that the left foot was so much so that it was painful. So much so, in fact, that I was actually walking with a noticeable limp at work on Friday. Needless to say, I broke out my “Extra Strength” lotion in an effort to improve the conditions. It seems to have improved things some, as I was walking with less of a limp on Saturday, but it was still noticeable, and I was moving really slowly. Then Sunday, I was walking normally again, thank goodness.

So now I’m concerned. I go to the beach in a little more than a week (I leave August 23), and I’m so hoping that I don’t have a repeat of this at the beach, since this could so put a damper on the excitement like that. Speaking of my vacation, though, it’s funny… with my vacation falling during the first week of school around here, I don’t know when I’ve ever been so excited for school to start. Selling the back-to-school crap at work makes me even more excited, since every notebook scanned is like one step closer to the beach. I’m sure those coworkers who are still in school just love me for it, too, since I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ll be lounging on the beach during the first week of school.

Categories: Personal health, Shoes

3 minute read

May 8, 2005, 10:25 PM

Note the “as far as I know” part of that. I went through Sis’s room tonight and grabbed up everything that was mine that I put in there in January for my botched clean-out project that I didn’t get on Friday. I did, however, stash most of it in the corner of my room here, which hopefully will give me enough space to clean out the closet. If I forgot something, I’m sure Sis will let me know. But I’m pretty sure I got it all.

Otherwise, here’s a tip for all of you when handling fresh flowers, particularly roses. Watch for thorns. A customer today brought a bouquet of fresh roses to my register. I, without giving it a second thought, grabbed them to scan just like I do for most flowers – by the stem end, so as not to mess up the flowered end. And I got a handful of thorns, with a particularly sharp one poking my right middle fingertip. No blood, thankfully. But that was enough for me to quickly drop the arrangement back onto the counter and reassess how to pick up those flowers. That hurt.

Also, have you ever thought about the real scents that companies name their products for? My favorite is the fabric softeners, specifically the “Fresh Rain” scents. I remember the commercial where they say, “Snuggle’s nose knows that the best scent to be found is after the rain falls down.” Have you ever smelled the air right after the rain falls down? It is not a particularly pleasant smell, and it’s certainly not what’s in that bottle of fabric softener. If they made it really smell like the smell of fresh rain, I’m certain it would be a real stinker, both literally and figuratively.

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Categories: Advertising, Myself, Personal health

2 minute read

March 30, 2005, 2:58 AM

This is like the moment that my coworkers can’t wait for… I’m losing my voice. Of course, they all say that in a joking manner, since I have a bit of a big mouth (and will be the first to say so, too!).

Still, I think I got it while I was out on Friday. Remember how I said I went up to the star, and the weather “let loose”? Well, the rain actually soaked right through my coat, and I also got my hair wet, and I think that contributed to how I caught something that’s causing me to lose my voice.

Still, though, just because I’m losing it doesn’t deter me from using it. If I need to make a page, I’ll still page it myself. I sound a little rough on there, but you know what? If I can get the words out, I can broadcast it over the squawk box. So there.

And this isn’t stopping me from going to Washington DC today as planned. I plan to drive up to Vienna, catch the Metro, and do my DC thing as always. In fact, I’m going to be shooting photos for what I call my “In the Face of Danger” photo set. So we’ll see how that goes.

Plus I’ve gone to DC before with no voice. I even have a recording of myself dictating a car number into the camera for reference purposes (read: Transit Center). Rohr 1273 on the Green Line to Greenbelt. Rohr cars on Green are rare, so it was worth noting.

And this is also my last DC trip before A16. So that means it will likely be a month or so before I can get any more “leisure trip” photo shoots in, since April 16 will be filled with World Bank protest fun… with my sister!

Categories: DC trips, Personal health

2 minute read

March 25, 2005, 12:05 AM

Today I worked what I recently dubbed the “Cinderella shift” at work. That would be the 3 PM to 12 midnight shift. At the stroke of midnight, I’m outta there, because at that time, my car turns into a pumpkin, my Wal-Mart vest turns into rags, and I am required by the guidelines set forth in the story to leave one shoe in the breakroom. The assumption is that CSM Charming must then go to all the associates in the land with the shoe and see who it fits so that I can work happily ever after. The “boiling popsicle” comment came from the Today’s Special interpretation of Cinderella, which had Cinderella and the Prince dancing something like rock and roll before doing something a little more romantic.

Okay, all joking aside, I did really work the 3-12 shift, and ask my coworkers – I really did call it the Cinderella shift due to its ending at midnight.

Speaking of work, it’s funny what people will assume when you leave a few pieces of the puzzle missing. With the exception of my friend Katie, I gave none of my coworkers any details about the operation I had on February 28 beforehand. So people knew I was going to be out for two weeks for an operation, but not for what. So when I came back to work, I found out that people were speculating, and trying to fill that gap in their knowledge that I left.

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Categories: Personal health, Walmart

< 1 minute read

March 14, 2005, 5:31 PM

Tomorrow begins that transition back into real life again. I have a follow-up appointment with the doctor, I have to swing by Wal-Mart to pick up and drop off some stuff, and lastly, I have to go to the bank.

What I can’t believe is that it’s officially been two weeks now that I’ve been at home. And with one short exception when Katie came to visit and I stepped outside, the whole time has been spent inside the house. Scary? Yeah. So it will definitely be nice to get out for a bit.

I also can’t believe that this time off of work is nearly over. Believe it or not, I have, overall, enjoyed my time off of work because of the operation. I got a lot accomplished in these last two weeks. I did a big Transit Center update, I put up a new photography set, and discontinued the quote, which necessitated a redesign of the main page. Plus I’ve finally gotten a chance to work on the total redesign and overhaul of the Today’s Special site that I have, and it’s getting close to being finished.

Of course, there were the unpleasant moments, like in changing the dressing on the wound, since it was still quite tender (and therefore painful) during the first week. After that, though, as things continued to heal, that dressing change got a lot easier.

Still, I’m just glad to be getting out of the house again. But at least things will be getting somewhat back to normal, which will be nice. I’m even thinking about going to Washington DC again later on this month. Hopefully that will be a go.

All in all, things are looking up!

Categories: Personal health, Schumin Web meta

2 minute read

March 5, 2005, 6:34 PM

Yes, this is day #6… Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and now Saturday. I have been at home recovering from this procedure. And according to Mom, it’s slowly but surely healing up. I have to ask, because the wound is not somewhere that I can see myself.

Meanwhile, it’s Spring Break at Virginia Tech, and my sister is in Europe! Her boyfriend Chris is doing a study abroad program this semester, and so Sis is going to visit him. Of course, the trip nearly didn’t happen, as there was a small snafu with the passport, as we didn’t realize that since she was under a certain age that it expired sooner than the rest of ours did. But with some scrambling, a phone call to the office of our Congressman, Bob Goodlatte, and an unexpected trip to Washington DC (vs. just Dulles Airport, where the flight was), my father managed to get the whole situation straightened out, and she’s over in Europe now. So I hope she has fun.

Meanwhile, the TV is showing nothing but wall-to-wall Martha Stewart. My exact thought is, who cares? She just happens to be a celebrity that went to jail, instead of someone less-known.

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Categories: CFW, Dreams, Family, Personal health, Walmart