Six months ago today I had my back operation (a microdiscectomy and laminectomy of L5, if you don’t remember). While the initial recovery had its ups and downs, overall I am reasonably pleased with my progress. I saw my surgeon a few weeks ago and he told me that I should feel free…
On Thursday, October 4, 2012 I was the guest speaker at the kickoff to a film discussion series hosted by Penn State Wilkes-Barre at Movies 14 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The overall theme of the series is movies that have to do with the end of the world. The first film chosen was Stanley…
So tonight is the first night of the quadrennial multi-day event known as the Laff-A-Lympics Democratic National Convention. In typical fashion, the mistakes began well before the convention ever started—by scheduling the convention of the party of labor in a “right to work” state, with the lowest labor union membership in the nation. …
I have been planning this series of occasional blog posts for some time now. My local newspaper, the Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre, PA often features very silly letters to the editors. In fact, I had planned that they would provide the source material for the inaugural post in this series until I read…
As I write this (almost 1:00 PM on July 23), the NCAA penalties to Penn State’s football program have been blowing up the Twitterverse and the rest of the interwebs. A Google search turns up over 200,000 hits for “Penn State” and NCAA in just the past 24 hours. Three of the top…
As you may have seen from my previous posts, I have been a fan of pro wrestling for most of my life. I have already written about the art and artistry of cage matches, but today I want to write about tag teams. In wrestling, a “tag team” involves teams of two or…
Well, I had my “1-month” checkup today following my microdiscectomy operation. The surgeon wants to see me for follow-ups at intervals of 1 month, 3 months, six months and 12 months post-surgery. In addition to checking on me, part of the routine involves filling out forms where I assess my current pain status…
For the most part, things have been going very well since my back operation. I haven’t had to take any pain medication beyond some over the counter Aleve and I feel like a brand new person. Until suddenly on the 15th day after the surgery, I broke out in hives all over my…
10 days post surgery I am feeling pretty good. The bandage was taken off yesterday, and now all I have are some butterfly bandages which should slough off on their own in the next few days. Still have to be deliberate with my movements to avoid bending, twisting and lifting, but there is…
So right now it is five days since I had my operation and I am feeling pretty good. Yesterday I only took the pain medication twice (12 hours apart), and so far today I have not taken any. I find myself able to sit and lie down in one position for hours on…