Hello again, death fans!

I've GOT to get better about weekly updates.  You all will think the game is over!
Apologies.  I hope you'll stick around despite my slipshod maintenance of my blog.

So when I went to the doc to splint my finger, I doubled up with a cholesterol test.  As of now I got the results back and I have found that my elimination of sodas and juice, while curing the impotence I suffered did absolutely DIDDLY SQUAT about my out-of-balance HDL-LDL cholesterol!  If atherosclerosis was responsible for my romantic symptoms, the HDL-LDL ratio apparently had nothing to do with it.  This makes me wonder whether the diabetic angle was more important than I thought. 

As you'll recall, I got a Hemoglobin A1-C test that indicated i well within normal range and I had eliminated nerve damage as the cause of my bedroom troubles.  Perhaps this was not teh case and nerve damage can occur at lower levels than current medical documentation would suggest.  Pre-diabetics and those in the higher end of non-diabetics who are suffering a lack of gusto below the equator may want to try eliminating juice, soda and flour products to see if they can allow the nerves to recover from the sugar assault.  As a background reminder, excessive blood sugar can be converted to sorbitol which sticks to nerve cells causing damage.  By keeping blood sugar levels moderate, one can avoid the chemical conditions by which sorbitol is formed and escape this problem.  When nerves get damaged, the fingers and toes can tingle due to neuropathy (nerve damage) but it's not impossible that a third appendage (as far as males are concerned) may show symptoms first.

With sugar elimination having borne no fruit when it comes to restructuring my lipid blood chemistry ("lipid profile" to use the medical jargon), I am taking the desperate measures I;'ve relayed the past few entries.  I have taken up that most awful of promised panaceas: exercise.

Joe, my "workout wingman" got off his lazy butt and started logging in with stairmaster tallies, putting me on the spot to have to report some level of activity to him or be thoroughly embarrassed.  So far, we're proceeding and I imagine a little one-upsmanship should get us both fit in due course.  If my HDL-LDL is still crummy, I have a few other things to try but pharmaceutical intervention may be in my future sooner than I'd planned.  Dr Coolidge's nurse also took my pulse and I was told it was 60 beats per minute.  I'd reached my first fitness goal without trying!  I'd sooner wager the nurse miscounted. (Or maybe I bungled the initial baseline and I should shoot for 56 beats per minute)

My pinkie finger is out of the splint and more flexible than before (about 70% full function) and my middle finger turned up a bit stiff once the pinkie wasn't so obvious.  The middle digit is at 80% flexibility, so I may have stretched IT too far too.  It got no splint, so maybe we'll see an interesting experiment in the future.  Splint versus no splint?  Any difference?
Yellow bruises showed up against my arms where I received abrasions when I fell against teh rock.  A matching bruise landed near my shoulder.  They didn't hurt, but it's awfully funny how LITTLE they hurt when one's body provides signals that you beat yourself up pretty badly.  I'm under the impression things hurt far more when you were young.  Nerves functioning at their peak, I suppose.

While wearing the splint, I found it helpful to wash my hands by rubbing the fingers of my good hand into my bad hand's palm and around my bad hand's good fingers.  I would then point my bad hand's good fingers UP to rinse off and point my bad fingers away from the stream.  This kept the gauze reasonably dry.  Then I could rinse the bad hand's palm holding my hand down in the stream.  If you get a splint, maybe this will help you stay comfortable and sanitary.

The pinkie had been bruised on both sides so it clearly needed attention.  This leaves out the multiple cuts my pinkie got that were made to ooze blood and lymph over the course of a week.  The pressure from the swelling forcing liquid out past the fibrinogen's capability of sealing the wound.   Interestingly, the swelling also made bending the finger all but impossible.  This is a remarkably smart idea, forcing a primitive human's finger to spint itself using the hydraulic pressure of one's circulatory system.  Amazing.

As for the middle finger?  There were no obvious signs.  Thus, teh neglect.  When I fell, I forgot to mention that I'd felt faint after I'd slipped.  We were pretty far from medical attention so this was not good.  After sitting down with my head between my knees I was fine.  I knew I was fine.  My foolish body thought I'd suffered mortal damage.  What a clumsy clunky thing a body is.  Just so much meat and chemicals with a consciousness somehow floating around in it.  It can give a person faith that such a clunky thing could never produce a soul on its own, or it might tell an atheist that a consciousness so easily overruled by said bag of bones to the point of forcing me to sit down proves that the soul is nothing more than a VERY complex chemical reaction rendered moot by the most fleeting imbalance.

Once I got up, I had to sit down once again about twenty feet later.  I was fine after that, but it was very irritating because my friends had to wait for me to recover.  It was most unmanly.  Play through the pain as we say but having my friends carry me out struck me as rude enough to justify swallowing a little pride.  Passing out would have caused substantial panic and perhaps worse injury and a TRUE medical emergency.  We finished teh hike without incident.

A Dr. Mirkin article informs me that exercise prevents sugar spikes regardless of whether you do it before or after meals.  THIS is a huge relief because the only way to do less exercise than I do now is require me to SCHEDULE it!




Fitness Goals:
60 beats per minute resting pulse.
One mile jog in ten minutes or less.
100 lbs. benchpressing 15 times - two cycles.

Current Fitness Record:
Pulse: 60 beats per minute (unconfirmed)
Mile:  Not attempted
Weights: 70 lbs. x 2 cycle of lifts (some pulls added without hurting fingers)

RECENT SYMPTOMS : Inflexible pinkie and middle finger of right hand.
ONGOING SYMPTOMS:  Clicking knee. (left patella).  Pain between 1st and 2nd toes of right foot.
DIAGNOSIS: Recovering stress fracture of secondary phalange of right hand.  Possible joint damage.  Unknown, respectively.
ONGOING TREATMENT:  Exercise, increase consumption of leafy greens.  
PROGNOSIS FOR FOLLOWING WEEK:     Increased flexibility of fingers.  General good health.



Next:  Hot on the trails of the sore foot