I am Milton Waddams from Office Space. Take the test and find out who you were.

Hey - anyone out there: Any hints about where I can look to secure money for either law school or graduate school? (e.g. scholorships and fellowships, not parents or the lotto). So far, I've applied to the Amherst Fellowships, and am applying to each individual school's financial aid. Where else can I look? email me.
btw, ack ack ack, I'm still sick. But mostly better!
At least now I have certainty.

I am having my back surgery on Friday Feb. 15th at 7am in the morning. I'll go through pre-op on tuesday afternoon.

General
I have what is called sciatica . Basically, at some point back (no pun intended), my L5-S1 disk in my back ruptured, and now has protruded (i.e. herniated out) far enough to compress my sciatic nerve against the nerve canal. The sciatic nerve is the nerve that runs down the back of your leg. These days, I cannot stand or walk around for more than 5 minutes at a time before my leg goes numb and aches in pain, so you can see what kind of problem that causes.

During a surgical procedure called a lumbar micro-something, the doctor will make a 1 1/2 inch incision into my back. He'll drill away a small bit of my L5 vertabre to get to the herniated disk. Then he'll simply remove the herniated part of the disk, relieving pressure on the sciatic nerve, and then sew me back up. It's a realitvely common and minor surgery, as back surgeries go.

Risks
General risks of surgery
- Infection : should be about 1% or so
- Blood Clotting : < 1%
- Bleeding : < 1% - "I've never needed to do a blood transfusion during this type of procedure"

Specific risks
- Nerve Damage (paralysis, weakness, numbness) : ~ 0%
- Puncture of the Spinal Sac : < 1%
- worst case result - immobilization for 4-5 days
- Tissue Scarring causing pain : ~ 0% (although the neurosurgeon seemed to think this was non-trivial risk)
- Increased propensity for future back problems : ~ 0%
- Weakened back ~0%

Recovery
Day of Surgery
- If I have it done in the morning (which I will), I'll be able to return home by evening.
1 - 10 days
- I'll be mostly immobile - I'll be able to walk a small bit, sit a small bit, but for the most part, nothing else.
10 days - 2 months
- I'll be going to physical therapy to strengthen my back
- Little by little, I'll be able to increase my activities (e.g. lift more weight, sit longer, walk around longer, bend over more, etc)
- At 1 month, I'll be able to start returning to normal activities.
- At 6 weeks, I'll be able to return to most normal activities, staying careful

Full recovery is sometime between 2 to 3 months.

The Doctor
The surgeon operating on me is Dr. Abbass Sekhavat. He's one of the best back surgeons in the area, and he specilizes only on neck and back surgery. The procedure he'll be performing on me he does 2-3 times a week. I'm in very good hands.

...........
That pretty much exhausts the information that I have on this whole thing. I'm really not that nervous ... not nervous at all - I usually wait till the last minute before I flip. I'm just happy that I will be able to get on with my life after this. The recovery time was significantly longer than I anticipated (perhaps I was deluding myself previously). In any case, my short-term plans have to be rethought as a result. Moving out to SF to find short-term work may not be a viable option anymore. My family is planning a 2 week vacation in China at the end of March / beginning of April. I'm slated to tag along. Mid-April will be quite late to do a short-term move to SF.

Anyways, the word of the day is "Funk Hole". What do you think Funk Hole means? Probably not what you think, you dirty bastard!

From Webster.com:
Main Entry: funk hole
Function: noun
Date: 1900
1 : DUGOUT 2
2 : a place of safe retreat

(p.s. I looked up "funk hole" not because my mind was in the gutter, but rather because I was looking up the proper usage of the word "funk" which I had originally planned on using elsewhere)

Leaping lizards! It's snowing in Dallas. Like a madman! Here's pictures of my front yard...


The only other time it snowed like this in Dallas was when I was 8. At 3pm, I heard kids get dropped off the school bus and giggle in delight. I, on the other hand, was not able to enjoy, as I am still sick (ack ack) - although not as much as yesterday. That - and I think i'm a bit jaded anyways from living the past 6 years in the north-east.

Back news: Went to the neurosurgeon this morning. Back surgery it is! It's a relatively minor procedure, will cure me of all the ails that I have now, and I should be back up and running (or rock climbing as the case may be) in as little as 10 days! Going to go in to schedule, and get more details tomorrow....

Ack ack.

I'm sick. I'm stuffy and have a fever - and not the kind Peggy Lee sang about. I've been popping pills all day.

Anyways, I haven't had an update recently because I really haven't been doing much. My life is pretty much on hold until I get my back straightened out (no pun intended). My followup appt w/ the neurosurgeon is tomorrow, so I'll find out deatils about the surgery soon.

Meanwhile, I've been doing some studying for the Java Certification exam, some rock climbing, and some other assorted tasks.

Anyways, here's the test of the day - These things are frighteningly accurate given how arbitrary they seem. Shostakovich has long been one of my favorite composers:

If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Dmitri Shostakovich! I am a shy, nervous, unassuming, fidgety, and stuttery little person who began composing the same year I started music lessons of any sort. I wrote the first of my fifteen symphonies at age 18, and my second opera, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District," when I was only 26. Unfortunately, Stalin hated the opera, and put me on the Enemy Of The People List for life. I nevertheless kept composing the works I wanted to write in private; some of my vocal cycles and 15 string quartets mock the Soviet System in notes. And I somehow was NOT killed in the process! And Harry Potter(c) stole my glasses and broke them! Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test