October 21, 2002

More Fonts I Want

October 20, 2002

Fonts I Want

October 7, 2002

I See Right Thru You

In January of 1998, I played my last game of ice hockey.

I came off the ice in considerable pain, thinking I had pulled a muscle or two, but since that last play on the ice, I have been in constant pain 24 hours a day. Mostly the pain is in my right leg and foot, although I sometimes feel it in my lower back and butt.

There are days when it is so painful that it incapacitates me and I'm forced to stay at home clouded in a codeine haze.

The problem clearly indicates some pressure on my sciatic nerve, but the argument is the origin of the distress.

I have been to my doctor a number of times, a back specialist (twice), a sports doctor, 2 massage therapists, 2 physio therapists, a chiropractor and a few other assorted medical professionals. There have been a few theories as to the origin of the pain, the two main ones being:
  1. Herniated Disc (compression of my lower spine)
  2. Sacroiliac problems (my tailbone and hip are not functioning properly)
There have been other ideas (like tight muscles in the leg and axially rotated lower leg) but everyone eventually returns to shades of the first two.

Over the years, I have been given exercises and suggestions for respite, including: stretching, swimming, yoga, pilates and isometric exercises. None of them worked.

So, back in March 2000, I sat in my back specialists office (for the second time) discussing my progress. He decided that a referral for an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging - provides cross-sectional images of the body) would be an appropriate course of action, to determine what was causing my sciatic nerve to be signalling pain up to my brain.

Since that day, I have heard nothing from his office, BC Medical or my own doctor.

After some coaching from some friends, I returned to my doctor's office with new resoleve: I was not going to leave until I got a guarantee that I would be scheduled for an MRI. He agreed that 30 months is an inordinate timescale (the usual wait is 6 months -- at the longest), so he would see what he could do to expedite the process.

Let's hope I get under the electronic eye soon. The pain is keeping me up at night and I think I've developed a permanent resistance to Advil, Tylenol and Bufferin.

October 4, 2002

Rush Hour on the Net

The newest version of RedHat Linux (8.0) was released a few days ago (September 30) and it seems like the entire world is trying to download a copy.

Every FTP server I have tried so far is busy or way too slow to be practical.

So I'm bored while I troll through the world mirror list. I'm down to Norway.