Day 2760

I continue to be amazed at the human body's ability to repair itself. Medical advances have made a huge impact on our lives, but the body is still there in the background, doing the lion's share of the work itself. Cuts heal. Bones fuse back together. White cells surround bacteria and viruses. And our liver and kidneys work tirelessly to filter out all the bad stuff we ingest. Wouldn't it be amazing if everything else worked the same way? We would have cars that repair themselves and computers that get smarter as you use them and never crash. As my own body continues to heal, I am reminded how important it is to take care of it.

I've always been reasonably healthy, but I could do a lot better. If I had eliminated sugar from my diet years ago, I would probably never have to worry about diabetes. If I hadn't been so fond of cheeseburgers and bacon, I probably wouldn't have to be taking statins to manage my cholesterol. It's not that it is terribly hard to do the right thing, it's that we receive very little encouragement for making the effort.

Hey, why have a plate of beans and rice when you can go to the Cheesecake Factory and eat enough to feed a family of four in a single sitting. I spent a lifetime in advertising encouraging people to drink Pepsi and eat cheeseburgers. It was my job to glorify all the wrong things. Now, I wonder if it is even possible to reverse all this. When you go to the supermarket, most of the things on the shelves aren't even real food. When you go to a hospital, you still see nurses and technicians standing outside smoking cigarettes. I don't even understand why substance abuse is a problem. Why would you want to punish your body like that?

When my body has finally finished repairing the dog bite damage, I need to resolve to take better care of it. Fewer prepared foods and restaurant meals would be a good place to start. Even the best restaurant chefs are in love with sugar and salt. Admittedly, salt does make food taste better, but there's got to be a better way. It wouldn't kill me to give up red meat entirely. Some of my favorite dishes don't have any meat in them at all. I think I eat a lot of meat just out of habit.

I need to be careful about falling and I should quit climbing up on the roof entirely. One fall off the roof would probably do a lot more damage than a dog bite. I shouldn't become fearful of living though. Too many people my age have become fearful of the world around them. They probably should just turn off the television.

I'm full of good intentions, but we'll see how much of this turns into reality. I still had bacon with my breakfast this morning and spent way too much time looking at Facebook. I'll start walking again as soon as I can because I love to walk. It will take a little longer to give up cheeseburgers and go to the gym three times a week.

I take my last antibiotic pill tonight. Hopefully, that will be enough to eliminate the risk of infection. The hematoma has subsided enough on my swollen leg that I can start to see veins again. I even wrote tonight's blog post without using the splint on my wrist. These are all good signs.

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2753

Janet and I have to do all our errands together now. She can drive, but her doctors don't want her to lift things. I've got one good hand for lifting things, but I can't drive. Together, we make a pretty decent team, although I still don't understand why we are doing our shopping on busy weekends. When we were out today, I saw a couple of old people who had personal assistants. "We need one of those," I said.

I'll be glad when I don't have to wear the splint on my wrist anymore. I wish I had the forethought to fall on my right wrist instead of my left. I am so totally left handed that it's hard to even write my name or hold a fork these days. I am getting better though. The swelling is starting to subside on my left leg and I find it easier to sleep now. I'm going to have to revise my position on pain pills a bit. They do have their uses. When I took a Tylenol-Codeine pill before I went to sleep last night, it really helped dull the pain in my wrist. I may not even need a pill tonight. The pain is not as bad today.

Dash is a lazy dog and loves to nap, but I think even he is becoming bored with us. Janet and I both get tired so easily now. After we finished our shopping today, we both went back to bed and went to sleep for two hours. Although it is becoming easier to walk, I still can't be on my feet for too long. Moving around a bit is good for circulation, but moving around too much is bad. You really have to stay focused on healing. You can't pretend that everything is fine when it isn't.

This whole incident has made me realize that you have to start taking falls seriously as you get older. I've fallen many times before. I've even landed on my wrists before. It's kind of natural to try to break a fall with your hands. Although I've fallen hundreds of times for dozens of reasons, I've never put myself out of commission like this before. I'm going to have to be real careful when I go up on the roof. Old, brittle bones aren't very forgiving.

The animal control people were back in the neighborhood today. They were still looking for the owners of the dog who bit me. Janet and I have told them several times that the owners are out of town, but that doesn't seem to make any difference. When the guy knocked on my door again this morning, I gave him the owners cell phone numbers and asked him to please call them directly. Just knocking randomly on neighbor's doors and asking people if they'd seen the owners isn't going to prove anything. It's weird that animal control is ruthlessly efficient, but I can't get the sanitation people to empty my trash. When I look at how city government functions, it's no surprise that our national government doesn't work very well either.

My newly upgraded computer seems to be working well. Even though the cloned hard drive was supposed to be absolutely identical to the old drive, I'm noticing all sorts of little differences. The computer seems to know that there's been an organ transplant. Some icons look different now and the computer seems to want to go into hibernation and disconnect from WiFi when it has been sitting idle for more than thirty minutes. Maybe this is a good thing. The computer is idle quite a bit. Lord knows how much electricity I've wasted over the years.

I'll be glad when I can get back to walking Dash again. I miss our early morning walks. One of the best signs that I've been totally out of it lately is that the battery on my fitness tracker has been dead for three days and I only noticed this morning. I'll try to keep the battery charged, but it's going to take a while to get back to taking 10,000 steps a day.

Trevor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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