Toe

I saw a podiatrist last Thursday because of an ingrown toenail. I've never had one in my life and I didn't even know what it was until I saw a doctor a few weeks ago. It was getting more and more painful and wasn't healing.

He cut away both sides of the toenail with surgical scissors and bandaged it up, and after some minor initial pain when the anaesthetic wore off, it feels much better now. My pain tolerance is much better now than it was a year ago. It was odd not feeling anything while he sheared away the nail, and seeing the blood when he was done (although there was very little blood). It also felt odd not feeling my big toe when I walked out and for another hour before the anaesthetic wore off.

When I was in the hospital last summer, my feet swelled a lot due the lack of circulation from lying in the hospital bed for so long. It got so bad that I couldn't even put my shoes on. They gave me anti-embolism TED stockings that compress the foot and leg to prevent swelling. The compression is supposedly what caused the ingrown toenail.

I'm glad I had a podiatrist do it, because the doctor I initially saw wanted to remove the entire toenail. That might cause complications, as it could dig into my skin as it grows back and, along with the discomfort, would require repeat visits back to the doctor to fix.

Almost wheelchair-free

Last week I started going to work with my crutch instead of the wheelchair. It's going well, and this morning I was able to get there on public transit while also carrying my laptop. Going to and from work was the only remaining recurring need I had for the wheelchair, so I'm hoping very soon to pack it up and store it away somewhere where I won't see it. I won't get rid of it, just in case of a recurrence or something ever happens to my parents as they grow older. Wheelchairs are not cheap to buy, and my insurance only covers the first one.

I'll probably cancel my HandyDART trips to work and back soon. It's a very expensive service to run, and one of the drivers quoted the average cost to taxpayers per trip being around $30. The 25-year old electric trolley buses are slowly being replaced with new accessible electric low-floor buses, and the route that connects my office and home has mostly been replaced with the new buses. Apparently there are about 40 of the new buses in service now, although the first pilot bus was numbered 2101, and I saw number 2168 go by on my way home today. Either way, nearly every trolley route goes down the street in front of my home and I'm seeing many more of the new buses.

High school reunion

I joined Facebook about two weeks ago. I was getting invitations so I decided to see what it was about. I have to say that the people who run this site have done an excellent job with their user interface design. It draws people in without really having any purpose or much to offer, other than virtual social validation.

I found a group for my ten year high school reunion. Someone suggested holding it in about five months on the Labour Day weekend. So far, I recognize most of the names in the 30-member group. I've been looking forward to the reunion to see what everyone has done in the last ten years, but now scanning through the names, there really isn't anyone on the list who I feel any desire or inclination to catch up with. I've moved on from high school and most of my friends now are from university or extra-curricular activities. I think I'll wait and see what the price for the night is.

Still improving

I'm still seeing strength gains. A little over a month ago, I bought four big containers of juice weighing roughly 20 lbs and carried it to my car from the store. It was a real challenge to get them to my car, leaning on my crutch on one side and carrying my purchase on the other. Last week, roughly one month later, I bought some more and it was noticeably easier to carry the same weight to my car.

Last Friday, I took the elevator down to the food court in my office tower and walked to Quizno's for lunch with one of my coworkers, without using my crutch. It felt good being able to walk around the office tower.

Yesterday, I did 25 minutes at 45 resistance and an incline of 7 (max 10) on the stairclimber. That's a noticeable improvement from even a few weeks ago. I'm running out of magazines to read.

I just tested my resting heartrate, and it's down to around 70 bpm. The last time I checked was about half a year ago when it was in the mid-eighties. I've also noticed that my waist is getting slimmer. I've had to tighten my belt a notch.

Network

I've always had an idea in my mind how I want my home network to work since I moved into my apartment, but never got around to drawing out a diagram. My goals are to move as much as possible into the closet where there is ample space, keeping the living space as clutter-free as possible, and serve multimedia content to the XBox from a file server in the closet so that the workstation doesn't have to be turned on and making noise. This is it.

Outcome

I received two voicemails from ICBC yesterday. In the first, on my cell phone, the agent said that the other driver had not accepted liability and they were contacting the witness to make a statement.

The second message was left about 30 minutes later on my office voicemail. I listened to it this morning when I got into the office. The agent stated that the witness' statement correlated with my statement and they had assigned 100% liability to the other driver. That was some good news to brighten up my day.

The agent also indicated that I can have the damage estimate performed at certain repair shops, so that I don't need to go into their claim centre. This must be something new. I've never seen them do that before.