Selfish Friday

Posted on June 24, 2011 by

A few weeks ago, I suddenly found myself motivated to return to the workforce (fortunately, the motivation is primarily internal) – I guess a year off was enough, somewhat to my surprise.

My first step was to join ProMatch; I was lucky enough to get on my first choice of teams there, the JumpStart team, and I’ve jumped right in; I co-facilitated a workshop on “Marketing Yourself” yesterday (which, by sheer coincidence, followed a presentation by Dilip Saraf on “Personal Branding” which set up our session very nicely, as well as being interesting and useful in its own right) and will be co-facilitating another workshop next week. I also got invited to the Facilitation Team, and have given a Brown Bag seminar on Improv. I even got called in for a short TV news piece about the improving unemployment numbers.

I also have gotten very involved in the local Toastmasters club, the Los Gatos Silver-Tongued Cats; I volunteered as Webmaster and am going to be the VP for Education for the next six months; I’ve also given 8 speeches as well as visiting other clubs and competing in the area Table Topics contest (I placed second).

I’ve even started looking for actual jobs. I went a long way through the process at one company but didn’t get an offer, at least not this round; I’m now casting my net wider.

In short, I’ve been busy.

But today has been a change of pace; I managed a long walk this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks, then went out and hit a bucket of golf balls for only the second time this year (I haven’t improved!). And then I came home, and did nothing in particular.

Ahhh!

Posted in Life | Comments Off

100 years

Posted on June 16, 2011 by

Today was IBM’s centennial celebration; you probably saw the coverage on TV, in the newspapers, and on the Web. There’s even a book.

Making it to 100 years is a big deal, whether for a person or a company – and in both cases, you should expect a lot of changes along the way. That’s certainly been the case for IBM; if it had stayed with its original products, it would have gone bankrupt decades ago.

I was with IBM for just over one-third of its history (so far!). At times, it was a great ride; of course, there were other times that I’d rather not remember too clearly. But throughout my association with the company, whether as an applicant, an employee, or an alumnus, the people have always been first-rate. And as long as that stays true, IBM will be able to continue onward – in fact, ever onward.

Posted in Life | Comments Off

Five years?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been five years since my Mom passed away.

The coming (and going) of Passover is probably the most obvious reminder that another year has passed, along with the inevitable note from the synagogue reminding me when Kaddish will be recited for her, but this year, I got a special and unexpected reminder — a comment on my Driving Shiva posting.

I close posts for comments after a few months to reduce spam, but William, the person who sent the comment, didn’t let that stop him — he commented to a post that still was open for comment, and I’ve moved his comment where it belongs.

Thank you, William; I appreciate your thoughtfulness and your persistence!

Posted in Life | 2 Comments

BYOW

Posted on April 14, 2011 by

I’m pretty sure the statue of limitations has expired, I was a juvenile then, and I’m not in Virginia any more, so I hope it’s safe to admit that back in 11th Grade Honors Chemistry, I knew about the class still and the making of Ol’ Innertube. Actually, pretty much everyone in the class was in on the secret (and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that the teacher knew, too). I didn’t drink the stuff, of course, but it was a fun, if illegal, project.

Tonight, Diane and I blended our own wines at Cinnabar Winery. It was fun, and completely legal – and this time, I absolutely plan to drink the product!

We had three reds to use in our blending:

  • 2008 Sonoma Syrah, aged 29 months in Hungarian Oak, 30% new
  • 2007 Solana Vineyards Paso Robles-San Miguel Petite Sirah, aged 40 months in French Oak, 30% new.
  • 2008 50/50 blend of Paso Robles-Templeton Gap Grenache-Mourvedre, aged 29 months in American Oak, 20% new.

I tried each wine separately and decided I preferred the Petite Sirah to the other two; then I tried a few combinations before settling on 80% Petite Sirah, 12% Syrah, and 8% Grenache-Mourvedre as the recipe for Traffic Calmer.

Traffic Calmer label

Diane went for more balance, ending up with 55.5% Petite Sirah, 40% Syrah, and 4.5% Grenache-Mourvedre in her After Work Red.

We have to wait a few months for the wines to marry and mature…maybe for Thanksgiving!

Posted in Food and Wine | Comments Off

From War to Shaft

Posted on April 8, 2011 by

Somehow, we missed The West Wing when it was first broadcast, but now we have it on DVD (actually, it’s Jeff’s), and we’re slowly working our way through the best Democratic Administration never to really inhabit the White House; tonight, we watched The War at Home from the second season.

We almost watched the next episode, too, but I wanted something lighter, so we turned to our brand new TiVo Premiere for Ovation’s Orange Blossom Special special.

It was entertaining and full of music, but it didn’t have any full performances of the song, so I let my fingers do the walking on YouTube in hopes of making my ears happy. We found (and played) a few conventional versions, and then stumbled across The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain’s version, which was distinctive, to say the least.

That wasn’t quite enough ukelele for the night, so we kept looking and finished the evening with the Ukelele Orchestra’s memorable performance of Shaft.

Can you dig it?

Posted in Life | Comments Off

An inchstone on the road to recovery

Posted on March 20, 2011 by

Today’s Groupon offer was for a half-price bucket of range balls at the Pruneridge Golf Club. I went for it.

I guess this shows two things:

  • I’m feeling better
  • Groupon’s Super Bowl ad fiasco didn’t drive me away

Now, if the rain would just stop for a while….

Posted in Aortic Stenosis | Tagged | 2 Comments

Rehab? I don’t need no stinkin’ rehab!

Posted on February 23, 2011 by

Before my operation, my cardiologist had said that she expected to send me to cardiac rehab after I’d healed somewhat. She told me that a stress test was the price of admission, so I showed up at her office yesterday, ready to do battle with the treadmill.

I made it through level 4 (16% grade, 4.2 mph); my heart rate was about 140 at that point. She must have been happy with the results, because she told me that I didn’t need to go to rehab. She also told me that I was free to exercise as hard as I want (subject to the surgeon’s weight constraints, anyway) and that I should keep walking a lot (which will be more difficult now that I’m cleared to drive!).

She’s keeping me on beta blockers because of my circumflex artery, but she doesn’t plan to do anything else unless it becomes symptomatic. And I will be doing another stress echocardiogram next year to see how the artery is doing.

My pain level is pretty low, so she wants me to start weaning myself from acetaminophen, since using it for a long time isn’t good for the liver.

Next steps: a fasting blood test to see how the pravastatin has affected my cholesterol levels, and another checkup in three months.

At this rate, I’m going to need to find something else to blog about soon!

Posted in Aortic Stenosis | 2 Comments

Discharged, with restrictions

Posted on February 16, 2011 by

I had my 30-day checkup at Dr. Gaudiani’s office today; they were happy with my progress and they don’t see any reason for me to return!

I’m not completely recovered yet, though, so my activities are still restricted for some time to come. Here’s what I have to look forward to.

I can start driving tomorrow, but I need to avoid heavy traffic until mid-March (I guess that translates to “stay off freeways”). And I should be especially careful about bad weather (at least I don’t have to worry about snow here).

I’m allowed to move my arms freely, as long as I don’t hyper-extend myself or reach backwards; in fact, they want me to stretch after my shower. Until today, I wasn’t supposed to raise my arms above my head except to wash my hair, and then I was only supposed to use one arm at a time.

I still can’t lift more than 5 pounds for the rest of this month; then I’ll be limited to 10 pounds till March 15th, and 20 pounds until April 15th. Once tax day comes, I’ll be allowed to bear as much of a burden as I want.

They want me to slowly cut down my pain relievers; I need to stop taking Tramadol before I start driving. As far as Tylenol goes, I should switch my nighttime dose to just before bed; I can stop taking the midday dose when I’m ready, and if that goes well, drop the morning dose. The bedtime dose may continue for quite a while.

They were happy with my walking (both distance and pace), but suggested I be better about bringing water with me.

Golf is not going to happen soon – I can try putting at the beginning of March. A week later, I can chip – if that’s successful (which would be a pleasant change from before the operation), I can hit some balls at the driving range a week later. And if I feel no pain from that, I can try a 9-hole round at the start of April. Bowling and bocce are out for a while, too.

I also need to be very careful and keep the scar from my incision from getting sunburned; if it sees the light of day, I need to cover it with SPF 72 sunscreen.

And the best news: I can stop wearing my HeartHugger and I don’t have to use my incentive spirometer any more, either.

Posted in Aortic Stenosis | 5 Comments

The answer is “yes”

Posted on February 4, 2011 by

The question, for a frightening amount, is in the “Exercise” category: “Is it possible to overdo exercise during post-surgery recovery?”

I walked something over 8 miles yesterday; the last walk was fairly late and I felt a little achy towards the end, but it was nothing that acetaminophen couldn’t cure. Or so I thought.

I slept pretty well, too – until I woke up at 5:30 with a very sore back. No matter how I moved, I could’t make it feel better, so I finally got up along with Diane at 6am. A hot shower and breakfast helped a lot, too – enough so that I made a pie for the Oneg Shabbat tomorrow. I even remembered to take care of some reimbursement paperwork from IBM, too (we’ll see if they consider golf classes to be “retraining”).

But around 11:30, my back started hurting again. I had to go pick up lunch, but that was a short walk to Safeway (very slow, though). I took a Tramedol with lunch, and felt a little better. But it didn’t last, and the back pains were soon accompanied by an achy chest.

All of my doctors’ offices were closed for lunch, so I couldn’t call right away. When the cardiologist opened, they said it soundled like musculo-skeletal problems and to call my family doctor or visit the ER. I didn’t want to visit the ER, but I had no way to get to the family doctor, so I decided to wait.

But it kept hurting more and more. I had been planning to go out for a long walk with a doctor friend, so I called him – when I described my problem, he suggested calling 9-1-1!

In the meantime, Diane had come back to her office – she said she’d come home and take me where ever I thought would help. And by the time she got home, I was convinced that I needed a trip to the ER.

Off we went. As soon as I got to the triage window, I used those magic words: “chest pains”. Someone was helping me in a minute, and I was given a bed in ER right away.

They strapped me to an EKG – normal. They took X-rays – normal. They gave me pain killers (morphene for sure, possibly other things), which made a big difference – my pain level dropped from 6 (higher than it had been at Sequoia, even right after the operation) to 3. And they took a CT scan – also normal. By this time, I was dozing off, and my pain level was down to a 1 or so.

When all was said and done, the doctor decided that the problems were almost certainly from overdoing my exercise earlier this week. He increased my aspirin prescription to a 325mg pill (up from 81mg) for the next few days, and urged me to take Tramodol if I hurt. And if I don’t feel good on Monday, I need to visit my cardiologist.

This turns out to be a good weekend for doing less, anyway – we’ve got Shabbat services, a play, and the Superbowl. I see lots of sitting-down time – just what the doctor ordered!

Posted in Aortic Stenosis, Life | 1 Comment

Two Week Update

Posted on February 3, 2011 by

It’s been just over two weeks since I came home after my valve job, and my recovery seems to be moving along fairly well. I did have an episode of atrial fibrillation over the weekend, but my cardiologist adjusted one of my prescriptions, and all seems to be well on that front again.

I’ve been doing a lot of walking; most days, I take three or four long walks which add up to somewhere around six miles, though I walked a bit over 12 miles on Tuesday. Since I still can’t drive, most of the walks have to start and end at my house – that limits the variety substantially.

I’ve been lucky so far, and haven’t had any coughing or sneezing spells – when I do cough or sneeze, it’s an unpleasant experience! And I’ve been slowly reducing my use of pain medication – I’m down to two or three doses of acetaminophen daily.

Sleeping is still a bit of a challenge; it would be nice if I could sleep through the night, because getting in and out of bed is a hassle (I have to be sure not to use my arms).

And I’m bored. I’m beginning to think that it might be time to get serious about my résumé, even though I am officially not allowed to work for another month or so.

Posted in Aortic Stenosis, Life | 3 Comments