Stirring feebly in my sick bed » « What politics can do, other than enriching the rich

Still alive

I’m back from my knee surgery, and I only look half-dead.

All went well, I’m on hydrocodone for a couple of days, but the doctor did minimal hacking and my knee can bear my weight even now. We’ll have to see how I feel once the drugs wear off, but I anticipate a rapid recovery.

Wow, it’s hard to type while on narcotics…

Stirring feebly in my sick bed » « What politics can do, other than enriching the rich

Comments

  2. Reginald Selkirk says

    Wow, it’s hard to type while on narcotics…

    Oh, it’s easy to type. It’s hard to type well.

  3. dennyk says

    Given you just had surgery you look pretty good! Last time I was looped on narcos after an operation, I found episodes of Batman Beyond to be philosophically deep and wondrous.

  5. birgerjohansson says

    Thank Zod you are well and there are no complications.

    I found something that may get you angry enough to wake up from the hydrocodone fog.
    .
    A different bias:
    “Why Aren’t Americans Furious At This Theft of Their Money?”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=z88g4LkqSvo
    The $ 1,8 billion heist.

  8. Tethys says

    Hoorah for minimal repairs, and correspondingly shorter recovery time. It’s ok to get painkillers when you’ve had surgery. I’m sure hydrocodone for a few days post-op is not going to turn anyone into an opioid addict.

    Rest well, the PT will start soon enough.

  10. submoron says

    I hope that it is less painful than my piles op many years ago. I wished that I’d never been conceived, BTW do you have an Amazon Wishlist? Please post a link if possible.

  11. nomdeplume says

    I’d say three quarters….
    And oh hydrocodone is magic stuff – after I did my back in it saved me!

  14. says

    I am really glad to hear it went well. Enjoy the ‘numbitall’ as long as you can. Be careful to not overwork that knee prematurely.

  15. otzi says

    Actually, you don’t look too bad, P.Z.!
    I’ve been there – ACL in 1983, meniscus in 2025. My knees feel/work great.
    PT is a priority and very effective.

    Once you’re up and getting around, please consider returning to Pacific Science Center in Seattle!

  17. John Morales says

    If drugs are bad, surely it is bad to drink tea or coffee. Or eat chocolate.

  18. Jazzlet says

    There are people who avoid all caffeinated drinks. The only person I know who avoids chocolate does do because they are allergic to it, which makes buying special sweet treats for them surprisingly difficult.

  20. John Morales says

    Well, we know that with drugs, intent is magic.

    (Use X for medically-indicated therapeutic use, fine. Use X for recreational purposes, BAD!)

  21. stuffin says

    Narcotics are good in your situation. Do not be afraid to take them. For the first few days, try to take them when you feel the pain returning. If you wait until the pain reaches its maximum they take longer to work and may not as effective. Also, take them 30 to 60 minutes prior to sleeping or planned physical activity (PT).

    I was on narcotics for over a month after I had part of my lung removed for cancer. Experienced a little withdrawal when the time came but it was better then the post op pain.

    I do not need narcotics to type badly.

  23. Hemidactylus says

    You look zonked PZ. Hope you can now be mobile and functional as the therapy gets you down the right path.

  24. Hemidactylus says

    John Morales @17
    Comparing those to opiates…

    Seriously? My 100% chocolate squares in the morning are just like pain killers.

  25. John Morales says

    Seriously? My 100% chocolate squares in the morning are just like pain killers.

    But it was not about painkillers. It was about drugs.
    “re drdrdrdrdralhazeneuler@1: Drugs are bad, mkay?”
    “@catman mbsolutely.”

    So. That is the referent for my little bit of drollery.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobromine

    A drug.

  26. Larry says

    You’re a boomer. You lived through the 70’s. It’s not like it’s something you’ve never done before😏

  27. WhiteHatLurker says

    Best wishes for a speedy recovery, PZ. Soon you will feel alive again. Keep “your head high and your standards low.”

    fwiw The food of the gods (theobromine) is my favorite drug. Though my most used one is caffeine.

  28. antaresrichard says

    I wish you a speedy recovery, PZ.

    In the meanwhile, for your comfort and cheer, may I interest you in a four hour, nature documentary on Kangaroos? No? Jumping spiders?
    How about a paid subscription to the National Pogo Stick Channel?
    Hmmm.

    Just kidding of course.

    Do get well and soon.

    ;-)

  30. fentex says

    A few years ago I spent months in hospital dealing with a Staph infection that had me completely septic. In the first month I was on a on-demand fentanyl system. Wouldn’t have contemplated trying to up keep a blog or any other service’.

  31. StevoR says

    Very glad to hear this and wishing you the fastest and smoothest possible recovery.

    Also you type better on narcotics than I do normally!

  33. John Morales says

    [OT + personal + here not elsewhere]

    chigau, Sagan was a bit like Shepherd. Believer in belief.
    Movie is inspired by the book, but not it: from the actual book:

    The Argus computer was so persistent and inventive in its attempts to contact Eleanor Arroway that it almost conveyed an urgent personal need to share the discovery.

    The anomaly showed up most starkly in Base 11 arithmetic, where it could be written out entirely as zeros and ones. Compared with what had been received from Vega, this could be at best a simple message, but its statistical significance was high. The program reassembled the digits into a square raster, an equal number across and down. The first line was an uninterrupted file of zeros, left to right. The second line showed a single numeral one, exactly in the middle, with zeros to the borders, left and right. After a few more lines, an unmistakable arc had formed, composed of ones. The simple geometrical figure had been quickly constructed, line by line, self-reflexive, rich with promise. The last line of the figure emerged, all zeros except for a single centered one. The subsequent line would be zeros only, part of the frame.

    Hiding in the alternating patterns of digits, deep inside the transcendental number, was a perfect circle, its form traced out by unities in afield of noughts.

    The universe was made on purpose, the circle said. In whatever galaxy you happen to find yourself, you take the circumference of a circle, divide it by its diameter, measure closelyenough, and uncover a miracle–another circle, drawn kilometers downstream of the decimal point. There would be richer messages farther in. It doesn’t matter what you look like, or what you’re made of, or where you come from. As long as you live in this universe, and have a modest talent for mathematics, sooner or later you’ll find it. It’s already here. It’s inside everything. You don’t have to leave your planet to find it. In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist’s signature. Standing over humans, gods, and demons, subsuming Caretakers and Tunnel builders, there is an intelligence that antedates the universe. The circle had closed. She found what she had been searching for.

    …

    “I still don’t understand,” he confessed. “We know there’s a mathematical order to the universe. The law of gravity and all that. How is this different? So there’s order inside the digits of pi. So what?”

    “No, don’t you see? This would be different. This isn’t just starting the universe out with some precise mathematical laws that determine physics and chemistry. This is a message. Whoever makes the universe hides messages in transcendental numbers so they’ll be read fifteen billion years later when intelligent life finally evolves. I criticized you and Rankin the time we first met for not understanding this. If God wanted us to know that he existed, why didn’t he send us an unambiguous message?’ I asked. Remember?”

    “I remember very well. You think God is a mathematician.”

    “Something like that. If what we’re told is true. If this isn’t a wild-goose chase. If there’s a message hiding in pi and not one of the infinity of other transcendental numbers. That’s a lot of ifs.”

    “You’re looking for Revelation in arithmetic. I know a better way.”

    “Palmer, this is the only way. This is the only thing that would convince a skeptic. Imagine we find something. It doesn’t have to be tremendously complicated. Just something more orderly than could accumulate by chance that many digits into pi That’s all we need. Then mathematicians all over the world can find exactly the same pattern or message or whatever it proves to be. Then there are no sectarian divisions. Everybody begins reading the same Scripture. No one could then argue that the key miracle in the religion was some conjurer’s trick, or that later historians had falsified the record, or that it’s just hysteria or delusion or a substitute parent for when we grow up. Everyone could be a believer.”

  34. seversky says

    Painkillers are good. But didn’t Dr House get hooked on hydrocodone? Or was it oxycontin? I also find cats are good as an adjunct therapy nut YMMV. Anyway, get well soon,

  35. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Great to see you got your knee fixed. My wishes for a speedy recovery.

  37. submoron says

    Are you taking Lactulose PZ? Strong analgesics can cause severe constipation.

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