Day 1822

I finally went to the doctor today. I apparently don't have a high enough fever to have the flu, so the nurse told me I just had a nasty cold. I always feel slightly embarrassed when I go to the doctor with cold symptoms. Many of the nurses I deal with have young children and they are around sick people all day. It's not surprising that many of them seem to have perpetual colds themselves. When I come to them complaining about feeling lousy, I'm sure they just think I'm being a big baby. I still think people should stay out of circulation when they have a cold however. It would sure help keep me from getting one.

I asked the nurse if I could spread my cold to others when I do Santa photos this weekend.  Apparently not. I am already out of the infectious phase, although the feeling miserable phase could last for over a week. They said a steroid shot would make me feel better, but the cold itself would last just as long. I didn't take them up on their offer. There's no reason to take steroids unless it is absolutely necessary. I feel the same way about the dogs. Steroids are a powerful anti-inflammatory, but they are still basically bad news. I stay away from them.

Since I have my initial consultation with my new physical therapist tomorrow morning, I decided to go out for breakfast today. For the rest of the day, it seemed like Friday. I almost forgot about Dot's Thursday therapy session, but Dot seemed to remember. At the appointed time, she was standing by the door. Both dogs seem to have remarkably good biological clocks. They always seem to know when it's time to do something that involves them. They are especially accurate around dinner time. If I'm even five minutes late with their dinner, I never hear the end of it.

Dot did really well on the treadmill today. Hopefully, I will do equally well with my own therapy tomorrow. I've had physical therapy for my bad shoulder before. The therapy definitely helped, but it was quite uncomfortable. Basically, the whole idea is to slowly stretch the shoulder muscles until you eventually have a full range of motion again. It takes a long time, but I still prefer this option to rotator cuff surgery.

I had to re-write an instruction manual for one of my client's products today. They thought the manual was poorly written. I thought the product itself was poorly designed. I did the best I could to clarify things, but I don't think anybody is going to find this product easy to use. That's the way it goes in my business. You really don't get to pick your battles. Sometimes I wished that I did something genuinely useful like my veterinarian friends. Veterinarians have a lot of stress in their lives though. They deal with life and death issues almost every single day. My life is almost exactly the opposite. I just do silly, useless shit, but at least it isn't stressful. Wondering when this cold is going to end is about as stressful as it gets around here.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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