I hate being the bad guy.
Monthly Archives: September 2009
Mustard or Pickle Juice and Leg Cramps
Apparently, the solution to relieving leg cramps is mustard or pickle juice. No, you don’t rub it on the cramp. You eat it. I just found out recently that LA’s dad swears by it. Because of the high likelihood of leg cramps during mission bowl, I was interested in looking more into this. A google search resulted in finding this info at Health911:
“Mustard For years coaches have given mustard to their athletes with leg cramps. Cramps are sometimes caused by a deficiency in acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that stimulates your muscles to work. Mustard has acetic acid, which helps the body make more acetylcholine. Take a spoonful or two of mustard.
Pickle juice As with mustard coaches have given pickle juice to their athletes with leg cramps. Cramps are sometimes caused by a deficiency in acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that stimulates your muscles to work. Pickle juice has acetic acid, which helps the body make more acetylcholine. Take a few ounces of pickle juice.”
It’s unfortunate that mustard and pickles are two things I dislike. In fact, mustard and pickles (and occasionally onions) are things I specifically ask to be excluded from my burgers or sandwiches. I haven’t tried to see if it works and would be quite disappointed if it didn’t, especially if I forced myself to eat a whole pack of mustard. BUT, with the chance that it might work, I might actually store a few mustard packets in my bag for mission bowl.
And upon my google searches, I found out that getting leg cramps in the middle of the night while sleeping is not all that uncommon. That happens to me occasionally and sometimes more frequently and it sucks! You’re just sleeping fine and all of a sudden your leg cramps and you get this shot of intense pain but you’re still kind of half asleep, so you’re trying to fight the cramp while all woozy. And then in the morning, the leg is all stiff. Yeah, it sucks. But, I don’t think its bad enough to warrant keeping mustard packets by the bed.
Would you read this?
I am, once again, trying to find interesting things to write about. What things are interesting to you? What kind of things do you like to read?
The Shoulder
My right shoulder has been hurting for some time now, around 2 months maybe. It’s the part on my upper back by the shoulder blade. I think it is RSI (repetitive stress injury). It hurts the most when I use the mouse. The pain is dull but present. A few times it has started to cause this weird sensation down my arm – I want to say tingly but maybe numbing. At one point, I didn’t even want to use my right arm because it was bothering me so much. At the same time, I didn’t want to use my left arm because I didn’t want to hurt that shoulder either. The problem seems to be that my chair is either not high enough or that my keyboard/mouse is not low enough. At the old work I got a keyboard tray but I left not long after that. At the new place it took some time for them to get me a tray. Sometimes it’s annoying because the chair will be able to go high enough but then because of the arm rests, you can’t scoot your chair in. Sometimes you can remove the arm rests. Other times, if your chair can go high enough, then your feet stop touching the ground completely which is bad too.
Anyway, it has been bothering me for so long that it started to hurt even when I wasn’t at the computer. It would hurt when I would drive because my arm had to be extended to the steering wheel. It would hurt when I would eat for the same reason. Any type of motion that did not leave my shoulder blade in the relaxed position hurt. I started to apply icy hot on it at night before I went to sleep but didn’t want to do it during the day because I would stink. I didn’t even want to use the salon pas at night because those still make you stink in the morning – but I gave up because it was bothering me so much.
Why don’t you go to the doctor? Well, I want to but I don’t because football season is coming up. The last thing I want is the doctor to tell me I can’t use my arm or play football. And another reason is that I was pretty sure they wouldn’t be any help. They would just tell me to not use the computer, well I can’t because that is basically my job. So I haven’t gone. But since the pain still comes and it actually hurt for awhile in the beginning of Ultimate on Sunday, I decided to do it. Better to fix it now at the beginning of the season than in the middle or the end.
As I suspected, the doctor wasn’t much help. First off, I was late. My appointment was at 3:10 and they told me to check in at 3 which was fine. I had planned to leave the office at 2:45. Except, I didn’t get to leave the office until 2:50 and I underestimated the amount of time it took to get there, after all, the office is a bit farther from the doc’s office now. Plus with all the cars and such, I didn’t get there until like 3:12. I checked in and before I even sat down they called me in. The nurse scolded me. (Did you just make your appointment?) Well, they made it for me this morning. (You know you are supposed to get here 10-15 minutes before to check in.) I know, sorry, I had to leave work. Because I was late and was a squeezed in appointment (they had told me the earliest one was next week and I asked them to check for one sooner), they seemed to rush through my appointment. I had to put on a gown so the doctor could check my shoulder. I hate gowns. Anyway, he came in, I don’t think he even touched the shoulder to identify the pain. He asked me to rotate my arm a few times. Asked me to rotate my neck side to side. Listened to my heart once in the front and once in the back. And that was that. Physical therapy he said. Sounds like bursitis. We’ll shoot some xrays. Ok, and that was that. He didn’t really give any solutions or treatment to anything. Just told me to go get xrays and call physical therapy in 2 days.
Since my insurance is different before, I was kind of scared about getting the xray and how much it would cost. I was almost going to decline it but decided would probably be better to just check it. With the old insurance it would be free, but I thought that this one might cost me $50. Luckily it was only 10. So I went to radiology and had to put on another gown. Ew. The lady told me to stand back against this one xray machine and then she had positioned this other piece of machine with a light in front of my left shoulder. I didn’t really know what was in the back, but I thought it was slightly odd that the thing in the front was in front of my left shoulder when my right shoulder was the one that needed to be xrayed. But I didn’t want to be a smart ass plus I assumed that she knew what she was doing – after all, she is the one in charge. Then for the 2nd xray she told me to lift up my arm and I lifted up my right arm. She’s like, no the other arm. I’m like, it’s my right shoulder. She’s like, oh. Confirmed, she fails. She super fails. Good thing this wasn’t surgery!!! So then, instead of saying anything else, she was like, oh I have to take the first one over because your necklace was in the way. Really? My necklace was in the way? Is it true that it can get in the way or did she just want to retake the first one because she messed up and didn’t want to admit it?! This lady wasn’t very friendly to begin with. I ended up taking a total of 4 xrays with 1 repeat. They said they would have the results in 5 days. FIVE DAYS?! What if something was wrong??? I highly doubt it, but that seemed kind of odd. Anyway, I’m not sure what they were looking for in the shoulder anyway to warrant an xray. Could sometihng really be broken?? Hmm, don’t know, but I doubt it.
So, I’m left with a print out on my doctor’s visit summary on what bursitis is and how to treat it but the doctor didn’t even tell me anything. I was wondering if they just want my money. Doctor’s visit here, xray here, physical therapy there. Really? There has been no solution to the problem. You fail. Or rather, I’m the one that fails because my shoulder still hurts!
Practice
I’m beginning to see that practicing things does make things seem easier. Or maybe I’m fooling myself by crediting practice. Perhaps it’s not even that I am finding things easier, I’m just finding things to not be as bad as they used to be. Then again, that does not mean it’s still not scary or that it doesn’t phase me. Or maybe it is really just that I am scared but I don’t have enough time to react. It’s also somewhat amusing that from the past few sentences, I seemingly am scared to just say it.
Anyway, what is this all about? Public speaking, talking to people, small group praying… I was having a conversation the other day with someone and I realized that there are other people out there like me – those who don’t particularly like social events, talking in groups, meeting with random people, etc. And as I talked to this person and listened to them, I totally could relate. The weird thing was that I realized I’m no longer in that super duper scared stage. While I am still uncomfortable and scared a lot of the times, it’s really not as bad as it used to be. I mean, I still don’t like it, but I haven’t had the crazy side effects that I normally do.
On Sunday, I went to the canto service with K who brought 3 freshies from UCSD. As usual when there are new people at church, they like to introduce them or have them introduce themselves to everyone. I always always dreaded that at church and luckily I have gotten away with never having to do that at the English congregation. However, this canto service was a different story. Before service, they had taken down the names of the 3 freshies and so they had asked them to stand up and introduce themselves on the mic. Then the pastor asked if someone brought them there today and they pointed to K. K got up to introduce herself on the mic. AND THEN…the pastor goes, “and who’s that sitting next to you?” Shoot. That’s me. Crap. Now I have to stand up and introduce myself on a MICROPHONE IN CANTO. =O As I stood up, I immediately felt this rush of heat go to my head/face. I introduced myself quickly. Aside from the crazy heat, I didn’t experience any other craziness. I think its because it happened so quickly. I didn’t have time to dwell on it and wait in anticipation for it to happen.
Then that night we went to dinner at souplantation. I always fear the moment that we are sitting around in silence, not eating, waiting for someone to pray. It makes me soo uncomfortable. I’m always scared that someone will ask me to pray and no I don’t want to. But sure enough, as we sat around and stared at each other, one person put their finger on their nose. I was confused at first since this was probably the first or second time I’ve seen people do that. Then, I realized that it was a way of saying “not it”, so I did it too. I don’t think I was the last person because I clearly saw others do it after me, but they were saying I was last. So I guess I was “it”. I hesitated for a moment, but decided not to try to pass it off or reveal my fear or discomfort, I was thinking in my head, “here we go”. So I said, “ok, ok, let’s pray.” And so I did it, I always feel kind of weird because I think that I won’t have a good prayer, or it’ll be too short or whatever. But, I’m starting to realize that most people’s meal prayers are pretty similar anyway.
So another two accomplishments (hey, I think they’re accomplishments). But still, its uncomfortable, but its getting slightly better.
The Optician Lady
Today I went to get my glasses adjusted – they’ve been way too tight behind the ears causing pain and indentations in my head. This lady helped me pick out my glasses when I first went there and I had gone back 2 weeks later to pick them up. It’s been another 2 almost 3 weeks now since then. I really wanted to pick up my glasses before my trip so I kind of asked the optometrist to ask about them. I was able to get them before my trip. :) So today, as I asked the lady to fix my glasses, she was like, how was your trip? I was like..what the..you remember me? Hahaha, why are all these people so crazy good at memorizing their customers/clients.
These people see tons of people each day that they do not know and some where they will never see more than once or twice ever…and they remember the people? and their names? So cool. It’s easy for me to remember who they are because to me, they are just one person. But to them, I am one of many. Crazy. I like it!
She Remembered…
The deli lady remembered my name today!!!! Today was my third day there..in a row…hahah…
Nice…
Deli Lady
There are probably a handful of of deli’s near the office. I’ve been to two so far. Previously, I had kept going to this one because it was the closest and cheap. But I decided to explore the other ones, so yesterday I tried this other deli just slightly farther. I had read on Yelp that the people that worked there were super nice and knew everyone’s name. I like places like that, where the owners know their customer’s names.
Yesterday, right when I walked in, I was greeted loudly (HELLO!) by this small Korean (I think) lady. She had a big fat smile on her face and was so cute. I ordered and she asked for my name for the order. Then she used my name twice before the transaction was over. As I sat there and ate, I noticed that sure enough, as people came through the door, she greeted them happily and loudly by their names. “Hello Robert!” “Hi Joan!” And as people left, “Bye John!” “Bye Jennifer!” So awesome.
So I went back again today, the food wasn’t that good, but I liked the atmosphere. The lady didn’t remember my name from yesterday, and I didn’t expect her to, but when she asked for it, she proceeded to use it 3 times before I was done ordering and paying.
I’m going there again tomorrow. I’ll probably go there almost every day. Maybe one day she’ll remember my name. Haha. Nice little lady.