I Love Reuters

They have the best stories: the thieves who tried to rob a bar hosting a biker club meeting and the baby born into and through a toilet on a train to be picked after Mom stopped the train and went back for her baby are just the two I saw today. They're always reporting stuff like that.

I recognize the value of a public forum for the announcement of public events like marriages, births, land sales, and bankruptcies, and I get that there are thing we need to know for pragmatic reasons: Baghdad is not a great tourist trap right now, etc.

What I don't understand is the type of alarmist reporting that often preoccupies American reporting.

Whee! It my birthday!

So, I was going to blog this morning about syntax and a recent NEA message indicating that some public school district somewhere will soon begin separating students by gender despite parent protest - I'm interested not by the issue or the pedagogical implications or even the controversy as I am by use of the word "gender" when the word intended, "sex," is too laden with naughty overtones. Nathan Lane, Charlton Heston, Rock Hudson, Brett Michaels, The-artist-again-known-as-Prince, Carson Daily, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Woody Allen and I all perform very different genders, but are all of the same sex.

I didn't, though, because I had to go to Woodland to visit the head shrinker. As expected, Cymbalta discontinuation was the root of my dysphoric vertigo/nausea/tinnitus. I got a scrip for a taper-down dose of the Cymbalta and other cool scrips, too, but the cool thing is that I feel human again. I even helped a little with demolitions today in the bathroom.

I'll post some "during" pictures later since I was too late to capture a "before" shot, but the long and short version is that we tore the cabinets out of the bathroom today, took down the mirror and the vanity ligh, pulled out the toilet and scraped and washed the crud off the walls in preparation to repaint, lay down tile, possibly re-plumb the sink, and put in new cabinets. When we're done, it will be much improved.

Finally, as we were working (okay, Shel was working. I was watching), FedEx showed up with the coolest birthday present EVAH! Trixie is a total BADASS and this gift is so cool that I'm in doubt as to whether it's even appropriate for me to explicate here what I got. I am so fully stoked! While the market value is of tertiary importance at best to me, it does give you a clue, so I will say that I estimate the retail value of this gift at about $520!

Shel and I just got back from the grocer and she's making her awesome spaghetti (okay, cellantani ragu) and her awesomer garlic bread, and I'm going to install the full version of WoW on my computer and begin spending some time geeking out.

Withdrawals

I'm suffering from withdrawals, or "discontinuation syndrome."

I switched anti-depressant meds. I was taking Cymbalta, a combination seratonin- and norepinephrine-reuptake inhibitor. Because it wasn't cutting it, I've recently switched to Wellbutrin, which is a norepinephrine- and dopamine-reuptake inhibitor. The timing is fairly unscientific, as I just started taking the med for the periodic limb movement disorder, so it's hard to sort out various impacts of various pharmaceuticals, but I need to get all of this sorted out before my coverage expires at the end of March.

Anyway, as I'm learning is characteristic of discontinuing a seratonin-reuptake inhibitor, I have this nearly perpetual lightheadedness, low-grade nausea, and a throbbing vertigo similar to the severe dehydration one might associate with acute inebriation. It's fine as long as I'm lying down and not moving, but it sucks while I'm upright and moving about.

Basically, it only sucks while I'm awake.

That's not what this post is really about though.

I've recently started playing the MMORPG World of Warcraft with a ten-day trial account. The game is lot of fun and helps pacify my long-aching desire to play D&D again. Shel even tried it and enjoys it.

That trial account has expired. I really can't justify buying a video game, especially one which requires a monthly subscription, while I'm unemployed, but a dear friend (the chief influence in getting me to try the game in the first place) has sent me a copy of the game via snail mail for my upcoming birthday. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of this package.

I know it's Sunday, but maybe USPS will make an exception and deliver today. I suppose it's worth the swimming, pulsing nausea to go out and check the mail to see if there has been a total breech of normal policy and the letter carrier will find a way to wedge the software and manuals in the little mailbox.

or not

Sleep

My wife has a sleep disorder: me.

As I wrote about recently, I don't sleep well at night and my primary care physician referred me to a sleep specialist who conducted an overnight sleep study to analyze my sleep patterns. I had a follow-up visit with this sleep specialist yesterday and learned that I in fact have two sleep disorders: like many people, I have sleep apnea, an intermittent interruption of breathing while I sleep. While I'm not consciously aware of it, this cessation of breathing causes me to wake up, keeping me from entering into, and staying in, the dreaming, restful period of sleep.

We've all heard people snore, and the fact is that most people can get used to someone else's snoring and sleep through the noise. My snoring isn't what keeps Shel up at night. I toss and turn throughout the night, flopping my limbs, twitching and flailing. Anyone who has ever had a "falling dream," one in which they experience a sudden and unexpected sensation of falling, knows that the normal response is to jerk all of ones limbs upward as though to catch themself. Shel says that this is the best comparison for the movement that I exhibit all night long, every night. This is called periodic limb movement disorder. Imagine for a moment what it's like to try to sleep while somebody bounces on the bed.

The doctor, when reviewing the results of my sleep study, said "This is the fun part: how many times do you think you woke up during the night?"

Before I tell you what my answer to him was, I'll ask you, my readers, to ask yourself how many times you wake up during the average night.

Knowing that my estimate would be low, I said "Three," since I remember waking up three times during the study. It turns out that while I slept on my back, I woke up an average of 55 times per hour. When I wasn't on my back, I only woke up an average of 7.5 times per hour.

I'm going back for another sleep study next week, this time wearing a cpap machine while I sleep to address the snoring

In the meantime, the doctor started me on a drug which is basically a proto-dopamine which my body needs to produce the dopamine that will keep me from twitching. I never expect any drug to perfectly effective, and certainly not right away, but last night was the first time I took this stuff and Shel reports that I didn't twitch at all last night, moving only in the way that people normally do when they sleep, and that my snoring was even reduced dramatically.

The real bonus in all this for me (other than not keeping Shel awake all night) is that I think I feel more rested today than I normally do. I haven't had a nap today and I don't feel like I need one, and that's unusual.

A great start to a new future? Maybe. I'll keep you posted.

Cloche de Beurre

This is neither the first nor, I am sure, the last time I will reference Interesting thing of the Day, a cool site I visit regularly. Joe Kissel has discovered and written about yet another elegant solution to a common problem. He and his wife also write about cool stuff that I don't take enough time considering.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

For those of you who have not stopped to consider the beauty and romance of this special day, please check out this link. Thanks, Trixie.

Old Glory Insurance