Stress Fracture – Laugh or Cry?

 Health Updates  2 Responses »
Oct 282009
 

Over the past two months I’ve had some pain in my left foot, toward the front, bottom, outside half.  At first I thought it was just some muscle pain.  You know, after putting on 2,500 miles bicycling and then figure skating once or twice a week, it seemed logical that I could have pulled something.

But it just didn’t get better.  When I visited my doctor he thought I might have a stress fracture.  I had an x-ray, but it was negative.  So, then I had to endure a bone scan.

For a bone scan, I had to be injected with some radioactive substance, then return three hours later for a more detailed picture of the foot bones.  Still negative.  It looked like no stress fracture.  That’s good news.

The next step is physical therapy.  So today I had my first physical therapy appointment.  After Tammy, the therapist, poked and prodded my foot for a while looking for the point of pain, she concluded one of two things.  Either I do have stress fracture, too early to see on xray or bone scan, or an inflamed nerve.

Then she went in pursuit of the definitive stress fracture evalution tool — drum roll — a tuning fork!  So here’s the deal; whack a precisely tuned fork, and when at a good vibration, place on the bottom of the foot.  If the pain intensifies it’s a stress fracture, if not, something else.

This is what makes me laugh or cry.  If a stress fracture can be determined with something as simple as a tuning fork, why did I have to be radiated by xrays and endure an injection of some radioactive isotope and try to hold still for extended periods of high tech photography? 

OK, so a tuning fork is not a glamorous billion dollar diagnostic imaging contraption, but if it gets the job done, you’d think the insurance companies would rather go for the tuning fork!  I’m sure that’s the bill I’d rather pay.  (Oh yeah, I’ll end up paying for all of it anyway since my deductible is about a gazillion dollars.)

Twitter Update: week ending 2009-10-26

 Twitter Updates  No Responses »
Oct 252009
 

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Twitter Update: week ending 2009-10-19

 Twitter Updates  No Responses »
Oct 182009
 
  • Going to watch my son's cross country race this morning. His goals: beat his personal best, finish before a certain boy, and not puke! #fb #
  • from my blogs: Will I Follow You On Twitter? http://bit.ly/1Uobxm #
  • Good news! No stress fracture. I guess the pain in my foot is all in my head. 🙂 Maybe I will be on the bike and on the ice again soon. #fb #
  • Had a bone scan on my foot today. Waiting to see if my bicycling season came to an early end. Will I have to give up ice skating too? #fb #
  • From blog: Resettlement Project Coming to a Close http://bit.ly/cgoC6 #
  • From blog: The Astana Jersey Story: Funny story actually…
    A little over a year ago I walked int.. http://bit.ly/1nsBQB #

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Will I Follow You On Twitter?

 Online Activities  No Responses »
Oct 162009
 

I think Twitter is a useful tool.  It forces me to express a thought in 140 characters or less. 

For a while all of my tweets made it over to FaceBook, but now it’s Twitterset up that only those I want to move over, actually do – automatically.  You’ll also find that my tweets during the week are all summed up on this blog.  So, if you only check here you’re sure to keep up with me. 🙂

I’ve been using Twitter for nearly 10 months now.  When I started out I only followed the tweets of those people who I knew quite well.  Strangely I discovered that other people followed my messages.  Eventually I figured out that many of them did so in the hopes that I would follow them back.

Well, their tactic worked.  I started following those who followed me, and Twitter became a lot more interesting.  In fact, my philosophy now is that LinkedIn is great for business contacts, FaceBook is great for people you know (whether close or not), and Twitter is for everyone.

Through Twitter I have been able to make contact with people I would have otherwise never met.  It’s not a deep relationship by any means, but there’s something fun about getting a glimpse into the distilled fragments of someone else’s experience.

Anyway, this brings me to the point of this post.  If you follow me on Twitter will I follow you back?  Certainly odds are in your favor.  I follow many more than I don’t follow.  But I do have some standards that I have started to develop…

If you’re reading my blog, odds are pretty good that I would follow you on Twitter.  If you’re here you’re probably a real person with a real life and you’d make real posts on Twitter.  Ultimately that’s what I’m looking for among Twitter users: real posts.  No problem if you want to advertise your business from time to time, or repost news that appeals to you.  Those are great things.

But here’s the deal…  If every post is basically the same message promoting your business opportunity, forget it.  I won’t follow you.  If every post is telling me how you can get thousands of twitter followers, I’m gone (especially if your own account disproves it).  If nearly every post is “don’t pay for white teeth,” get real.  If you have 0 or 1 post and 2000 followers, I wonder what the appeal is, but I won’t add myself to your follower list.  I will not follow any of these cases.  You simply don’t get the value of Twitter and have never contributed to it.

One more thought… If you followed me, and your photo is not suitable for my kids looking over my shoulder, or your link takes me to some porn site, then not only will I not follow you, I will also block you from following me.  There, you’ve been warned.

Twitter Update: week ending 2009-10-12

 Twitter Updates  No Responses »
Oct 112009
 
  • Having an interesting discussion with colleagues: is the failure his own PEBKAC error or just a Mac issue? Either way, not my problem. 🙂 #
  • Have you seen the website traffic and conversion tips I put together? http://tinyurl.com/21tctips – Enjoy! #
  • What's your favorite chocolate bar? Share your opinion: http://bit.ly/2P1V2v #
  • Moon impact? No NASA TV on our cable. Watched online, but not much to see. Hoping some good video makes it around later today. #fb #
  • Have you gotten your free shares of stock yet? Seriously they're giving away a web 2.0 company… see it at http://tinyurl.com/c9c26f #fb #
  • Still pulling for the Packers with 5 minutes left in the game, down 30 to 14. #

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The Astana Jersey Story

 Bicycling Adventures  No Responses »
Oct 092009
 
Jeff's ready to ride in Astana jersey

Jeff's ready to ride in Astana jersey

Funny story actually…

A little over a year ago I walked into a Wheel & Sprocket.  They had an Astana jersey on their rack.  I had no idea there was a team called Astana.  What I recognized was the color and emblem of Kazakhstan along with the name of their capital city, Astana.

For years, Waukesha had a sister city in Kazakhstan just a few hours away from Astana.  Actually most of the time during the sister city relationship the capital was still Almaty (aka Alma Ata), but then it was moved to Astana.

I had traveled to our sister city of Kokshetau (aka Kokchetav) on seven occassions in the 1990’s.  I’ve got a friends there, great memories, a Kazakhstan flag and other national souvenirs, but I never made it to Astana.

When I saw the jersey I knew I had to get it.  It was only later, when I mentioned it to another cycling friend of mine, that he told me about the team and that Lance Armstrong was part of it and that they hoped to participate in the Tour de France in 2009, etc.

Well, then I thought the jersey was even cooler!  So of course throughout the race this summer I proudly wore the shirt.  It drew a lot more nods, hellos, and conversation than I ever expected it would.  In fact one time, early on, riding the Glacial Drumlin trail one of the DNR employees stopped me to see my trail pass and asked how my team was doing.  I thought, “my team, what team?” while my mind raced. After a pause, that I hope wasn’t too noticeable, I realized he was referring to my jersey and therefore Astana. 🙂

Of course I think with all the time I’ve spent in Kazakhstan I could be an honorary member of the Astana team.  Then it really would be my team.

Where in the World Have I Been?

 Jeff's Travels  No Responses »
Oct 072009
 

I have a number of travel goals including visiting more than 100 different countries.  While I have a good start, there is obviously a long way to go (and a long way to travel).

Below is a map of the world.  The countries shown in red are those that I have visited.  There are a few observations that one can take from looking at this map.

  1. There’s no red showing in the southern hemisphere.  Clearly I need to rectify this problem.  The equator currently serves as a barrier.
     
  2. The countries I have visited cover most of the landmass of the northern hemisphere.  Of course, North America and Russia will do that!

There are several things you cannot tell simply by looking the map.

  1. My visit to Poland and Japan did not involve ever getting out of the airport.  So, these two countries need future attention!
     
  2. I have not visited Alaska.  It is colored ref simply because it is part of the United States.
     
  3. The software that created the map marked England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland simply by checking United Kingdom.  Indeed, I have visited England and Scotland, but not Wales or Northern Ireland.
     
  4. The map detail is too small to represent several islands in the Caribbean that I have visited.

map of the world with visited countries in red
visited 26 countries (11.5%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Refugee Resettlement

 Refugee Resettlement  No Responses »
Oct 052009
 

I’ve been involved in refugee resettlement work since 2001 when we resettled our first refugees, a family from Bosnia.  Since then we’ve sponsored a number of other families from such countries as Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and Burma.

The goal of this activity is to help these wonderful people start new lives and become functional contributing members of our society.  We’ve been quite successful in our efforts. 

For more information about refugee resettlement, our specific projects, and help for your efforts, see the refugee resettlement support blog.  While there be sure to sign up to be among the first to learn about the release of the new refugee resettlement “how-to” guide that I am writing.

Now, with that background information presented, I have to point out that refugee resettlement is a lot of work.  It takes a team to handle all the details.  Typically with each family there comes a day that is truly remarkable.

Yesterday we had such a day.  This was with one of our Burmese families who arrived a couple years ago.  Two children in the family decided that they wanted to be baptised.  The effort was combined with three children from other families in a grand outdoor immersion experience.

For details you can see the blog article called Karen Refugee Baptism.

Twitter Update: week ending 2009-10-05

 Twitter Updates  No Responses »
Oct 052009
 
  • Posted blog article about refugee baptism at http://bit.ly/3MzTUW #fb #
  • Attended an outdoor immersion baptism of five Karen refugees this morning. Cold and cloudy, but dry for those of us watching! #fb #
  • Ever hear of a molinillo? I’ll give you a hint – it has something to do with chocolate… http://tinyurl.com/ya28ku9 #fb #
  • At Comstar (http://www.comstar.info). About to head into our 90-day planning session. Getting ready to rock the 4th quarter! #
  • Here’s my review of the ListBuilding Club –> http://bit.ly/HA62c #
  • I just updated my Squidoo page: primal chocolate exploration / http://tinyurl.com/6azhhj #
  • Biking report for the month of September – 458.74 miles, 2nd best month this year. Total YTD = 2,541.04. #
  • First you could follow me on twitter, then facebook. Now you’ve got even more options… http://jeffreybkirk.com/ #

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