My “Ingrown Toenail” ordeal
Ξ May 29th, 2008 | → 5 Comments | ∇ My thoughts on... |
As I sit here writing this I have my left big toe soaking in a pan of insanely hot water, trying my best to get it to heal after “minor toenail surgery”. If you’re at all interested in how it all went down, read on. If not, I’ll “see” you back here next time with what will (hopefully) be a much lighter topic.
Well, since you’re still reading I suppose you’re interested, so here goes…
A few weeks ago I began to notice a slight discomfort in my left big toe - nothing major, just a little pain when I walked. As time went on this slight discomfort gradually escalated into a constant searing pain. Before long the toe had swelled up and turned red with pus oozing out around the nail. It was official - I had an ingrown toenail that had become infected.
Just another warning - this is going to get a bit graphic…
In typical fashion, I waited until I could wait no longer, then finally I agreed with Cheria that it was time to head for the VA Hospital emergency room to have it looked at. When we got there, we checked in and took a seat in the waiting room. Well, we waited, and we waited, and we waited some more, all the while watching one person after another get called back to see a doctor.
Now I fully understand that the purpose of triage is to see that the most serious afflictions are attended to first, but the pain in my toe was screaming SERIOUS! SERIOUS! SERIOUS! with every beat of my heart. Never mind all those folks suffering from the flu, pneumonia, broken limbs and such, I was in desperate need of medical attention for my big toe!
I finally heard them call my name, so I got up and hobbled back to the examination room, expecting a long and thorough…well, examination. Instead, the busy ER doctor simply took a quick glance at my toe, ordered a round of antibiotics for me, and then said “the antibiotics will knock out the infection, then we’ll schedule an appointment with podiatry and they’ll “take care of the nail”. If only I had known what he actually meant by “take care of the nail”!
I took the antibiotics as prescribed for 10 days, which appeared to knock out the infection. But a couple of days into the wait for my podiatry appointment the toe began to swell up and hurt again - apparently the infection hadn’t been completely eradicated. By the time my appointment rolled around the toe was in just about as bad a shape as it had been in before I began taking the medicine!
When the big day arrived, I had convinced myself that they would order another round of antibiotics and make sure the infection was completely cleared up before “taking care of the nail”. I walked into the office and made myself comfortable, thinking that it would be another quick look and order some medicine. I was wrong…
Instead, in walked a guy in a white outfit who looked so young that he made Doogie Howser look like he was about ready for retirement. Turns out he was a med student at nearby East Tennessee State University, and he would be “taking care of the nail” under the direction of a “real doctor”. Somehow I was beginning to feel a bit uneasy about this appointment, and it became even worse when Doogie, Jr. informed me that the nurse would be in shortly to have me “sign a consent form”. Consent to what, I thought? Little did I know…
Well, like an idiot, consent I did, after which Mr. Doctor Wannabe pulled out a needle about the diameter of a #2 pencil and filled it with some kind of liquid, saying “I’ll numb the toe, then take care of the nail”. But just about the time I was about to get a “numbing shot” from that steel pipe that vaguely resembled a syringe, in walked the distinguished looking, middle-age doctor who would be “directing the procedure”. What a relief - until he informed his youthful apprentice that no numbing would be required. After all, the “freezing spray” would keep the procedure from hurting just as much as the shot from that 105mm howitzer would. I suddenly began to feel a little light-headed and pale.
Well, what had to be had to be I supposed, so I dutifully took my place in the operating chair and offered my left foot to Doogie, Jr., who immediately picked up a tool that resembled a cross between needle-nose pliers and diagonal cutters. At the same time the “real doctor” picked up a can that looked a lot like a can of spray paint, then he began spraying my big toe until it was cold enough to cause another ice age. That’s when Jr. got to work “taking care of the nail”…
He pushed and prodded and clipped, then pushed and prodded and clipped some more, and with each push, prod and clip I could feel my pain level going up to a new record height. After what seemed like about a month of ever-increasing pain and discomfort ( it was actually about 90 seconds or so), the pushing, prodding and clipping ceased. I looked down, and there on a small towel sat the remains of about 1/4 of my big toenail.
As he was applying some antiseptic and a bandage to my wounded appendage, Doogie, Jr. peered up at me over his Harry Potter glasses and said “That wasn’t so bad was it?” Lucky for him, we were already in an emergency room. But somehow I managed to control my sudden urge to “take care of his neck”, and I meekly listened as he proceeded to instruct me on the how’s and why’s of caring for the wound, nervously glancing at Dr. Evil every few seconds as if seeking confirmation that what he was telling me was correct…
So now I find myself sitting here with my toe soaking in a solution of mystery water, relaying to you how all of this went down. Moral of the story: If anyone ever tells you they’re going to “take care of the nail”, calmly tell them to give you a hammer and a blowtorch and you’ll take care of it yourself! It’ll probably be less painful that way!
My new Visiontek Radeon HD 2400 Pro video card
Ξ May 22nd, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Technology |
A stand-alone video card will make a PC run faster than the “integrated video” circuitry built into most modern motherboards for two reasons:
1 - The memory used by the integrated video circuitry is “stolen” from the available system RAM, reducing the amount of memory available for applications and data.
2 - The video processing is done by the system’s primary CPU, “stealing” processor time from the programs you’re running in the process.
That being said, I have never really felt the need to install a video card in any of my PC’s because I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference. Besides, most of them seemed to require that the computer’s power supply be replaced with a beefier model, a proposition that just didn’t make sense to me given the minor difference that I thought I would realize by adding a stand-alone video card.
Well, while I was out shopping the other day I ran across a deal on a Visiontek Radeon HD 2400 Pro video card that was just too good to pass up (and my existing power supply was plenty hefty enough to handle it), so I bought it and took it home with me. Now this isn’t a top-of-the-line video card by any stretch of the imagination with its 520 MHZ GPU and meager 256 Megs of onboard DDR2 video memory, so I wasn’t expecting a dramatic increase in system speed.
Except for one little glitch (the USB ports stopped working because of a resource conflict which was quickly resolved by disabling the PS2 mouse port in the BIOS), installation was a breeze. I immediately noticed a dramatic increase in system speed with programs opening much faster and the various “windows” popping into view in a flash as I switched among them by clicking their icons in the task bar. Better yet, the image and video quality on my 22″ Gateway high definition LCD monitor is now simply incredible!
I must say that this one upgrade is hands-down the best one I have ever made in terms of performance gain vs. cost. While hard-core “gamers” would probably hold their noses and sniff at it, I believe the Visiontek Radeon HD 2400 Pro is a very capable video card for the average user - and the price makes it an even better deal.
“The Homeless”
Ξ May 15th, 2008 | → 1 Comments | ∇ My thoughts on... |
Matthew 8:20 - And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
Visit any city and you’re sure to see a “homeless” person or two. They’re usually not all that hard to spot because of the way they dress and the way they tend to carry all their belongings with them. Like many others, perhaps you feel a certain uneasiness and disdain when you approach one of them on a sidewalk or in a park. And I’ll have to admit that I’m just as guilty as the next person when it comes to feeling most homeless people probably “brought it upon themselves”.
In many cases, that’s true. Poor lifestyle choices certainly play a major role in putting many people “out on the street”. But there are others who end up there due to one or more circumstances over which they have little or no control. Each and every one of us has ups and downs in our lives, and for some the lows are low enough to cause them to lose their homes for whatever reasons, especially when they have no family members or friends who are able and willing to help them out of a tough spot.
I believe that most of us have gone through times what would have put us out on the streets had it not been for the kindness of others, so whenever I see a homeless person I try not to automatically assume that he/she “deserves” to be in that situation. We were all created by God, and Jesus died for the sins of every man, woman and child, even those who live a life that the rest of us find horrible and disturbing. His love knows no bounds, and it certainly isn’t up to us to judge how or why someone might have ended up in dire straits.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those folks whose heart bleeds for every homeless person I encounter or who goes about on a crusade to “end homelessness”. Human nature being what it is, there will always be people living on the street, and many of them will indeed end up there as a result of their own poor choices. All I’m saying is we should leave the judging to God and not automatically assume that every homeless person is a bad person.
Bad things really do happen to good people, and it’s only by the grace of God that I’m not homeless myself. Besides, it might be wise to remember that Jesus Himself was “homeless” when He walked upon the earth.
