Sunday, March 20, 2011

Well it makes for a good story

In case you haven't heard I like telling stories. Some years ago an internet friend gave me a plow, as in a land plow, as in one of those things that you pull behind a tractor to break up the soil for planting.
Plows are cool but they leave the land all lumpy, then you really need a harrow to bust that up so you can plant. The same friend had a harrow he wasn't using and which I ended up trading him a computer for.

Thats right, a computer for farming equipment. It makes for a good story afterall.

Friday, March 11, 2011

AGM 3705

I just realized I haven't posted the video of the AGM 3705, in fact I don't think I've ever talked about the 3705 before...

Its an odd little lantern from the '30s from the company that was famous for odd lanterns. If you look carefully at the picture you can see that the knob tilts down. Thats normal, it makes space for air to go into the air tube. Why they just didn't put the air tube on the other side I have no idea...
Anyway you can see my 3705 in action on YouTube

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The continuing saga of a foot gone to the gout

So I did get to my doctor, she gave me a big prescription of the magic pills, she also gave me a prescription for Allopurinol which is an anti-uric acid drug. Two weeks later my uric acid levels are normal and my foot only barely hurts. I've also made an interesting discovery, if I ingest some alcohol my foot hurts less.
Thats crazy, for most people alcohol is a major gout trigger. Everybody says its crazy, I KNOW its crazy but its true. I have a couple drinks and the next day my foot hurts less.
Anyway I've been taking hydrochlorothiazide to lower my blood pressure. Apparently a common side effect is gout. So end that, now what do we want me on for blood pressure? Enter Carvedilol which is a non-specific beta blocker. Unfortunately its not doing the job, my blood pressure is still relatively high.
Finally yesterday I met with my cardiologist. He's a great guy and I really like him, if more doctors were like him people would hate going to the doctor less. He's got me on a specific beta blocker, I can't remember the name right now but its apparently a beta blocker just for blood pressure problems, we'll see how that goes. At the very least what I've learned is that for blood pressure problems you want to deal with a cardiologist. He consulted with me, came up with a plan WITH me, and gave me 4 weeks of pills to try. Then we'll decide what to do.

I've been on 3 other blood pressure pills without ANYBODY asking me what I wanted to do...