Tue 03 Mar 26: Today's a pretty busy day, but thankfully all piled into one part of the day -- so they're all over with at one time. Not frequent, but blissful when it happens Am better... but still not 100% Have congestion lingering, as well as coughing fits that last only a few seconds, drat. Was going to chance doing laps today but thought better as my schedule's going to be rather draining on the whole. Knee thankfully is the least of my concerns (again, doing the post-meal walking in place 10 mins, has been super-effective at preventing the usual stiffness prior to injury). Well enough to work and am not contagious, main thing Starbies has gone to plastic cups again, will small miracles never cease Am pretty much over leaky, lid-ejecting paper cups that soften to fruit leather if an iced drink's brimmed in it >10 mins. Do like the environmental responsibility of paper... but if the plastic has enough organic, compostable content to offset its environmental impact, please greenlight that sh*t yesterday Hate having no say in leaky cups because it's too expensive to mfr ones that don't, for a multinational One improvement over the older no-conscience-plastic ones: the lids are of a breakaway design -- so you can hold a full Trenta drink with fingers around the rim, as myself and obvi many others do on a daily basis to lift out of a car's drink wells... and the lid perimeter's designed so it non-destructively breaks away, rather than 'un-lid' -- dropping your $8 Venti 24oz of Java Chip Frap onto your kicks, or your white carpet. For liquid drinks it's again a sippy-cup design, which unsurprisingly I hate but isn't going away, also a breakaway design. The tradeoff (because there's always some), is once snapped on, the lids are quite difficult to get off, ime needing a special tq (take both thumbs about an inch apart, and watch the top of the cup rim through the lid -- wedge thumbtips under the lid and push inward / upward with both thumbs until it clears a few mil; only then can be lifted off. Doing it w/o this method ime, usually results in destructive modification So make sure when you order, to give the barista every optional ingredient -- because taking it off because you're helium-blonde today, will take a while Weather's all over the place here -- have seen cloud formations in shapes and sizes and altitudes I've never seen all my years being raised and living here, multiple times in life. Mornings are almost always 'red sky in morning, sailors take warning'... supposedly due to a wonked-out La Niña... who knows. But a much more dynamic and rainy Spring than last year (to my car's filthy detriment). Oh -- for those who do lots of hard exertion with the hands on a daily basis (radio antenna techs, pro rock climbers, bakers, pottery throwers or sculptors, massage therapists, bodyworkers) -- pulling the fingers and twisting them, staves off the encroachment of osteoarthritis, esp in those who used them hardest. My own fingers are beginning to show the effects of all this dead-weight-lifting of 230-lb men atop my palm-up hands, feeling for and treating TrPs in the back and shoulder girdle. But steady use of this tq when they bother me, defo keeps me working. Works for toes too, for those who depend on proper function and strength in the toes (comm'l painters, arborists, masons, trail guides, martial artists / grapplers)
Wed 04 Mar 26: Yep -- still have a cold Like junk mail, it's hovering somewhere between 'have a coughing fit every few hours' and 'man, walking to the car's never winded me before'. No fever, no sputum other than completely clear, and sleep thru the night fine. WTFITBS Anyhow... clients today were strangely light, and of those, wham-bam-ty-damn jobs Which is fine, yesterday was a somewhat exhausting day, esp for hands / fingers. Remember if you're male and into geezer years in 50s, joint pain in the fingers can be dealt with over the long-term, but simply pulling and twisting them regularly, esp after exertion. This both forces the articular surfaces apart so synovial fluid (the protein-rich lubricant and food source for each joint capsule's living articular surface cells) can get between them to lube, nourish, and heal... and breaks up encroaching formation of Ca deposits in the joint so it can be reabsorbed, from when you didn't do the pull / twist however many years / decades. 50s is when males typically develop arthritic problems bad enough to cause pain / debility... but WMMV depending on 'git'erdun, don't-eat-rabbit-food diets Done this since hearing of the tq as a fresh apprentice... and 15+ yrs later, hasn't let me down yet. Won't override ingrained-since-teens habits of too much processed red meat / sugar / salt / fried food in cheap-a$$ seed oils, too little water / EVOO / unprocessed greens-beans-veg, nor a drive-thru diet (all of the above ). But if that part of your life's dialed and still have joint pain using hands hard for work / hobby... this can stave off at least hand arthritis for decades. Mentor's over 80 and still works bodies w/ no hand osteoarthritis, been a bodyworker since '92 Looking at glyNAC -- a supp that combines glycine, an amino acid involved in cellular repair and liver function... and NAC (N-acetyl-cysteine) for cysteine, another amino known to boost immune response against viral infection -- to see if it does more than NAC alone. NAC works like a charm for certain viral infections (ime, viral styes which I used to get about every other winter since 40s, until finding NAC), but doesn't seem to do much against whatever viral squatter I currently have. This is what I've learnt about glycine, cysteine, and glutamine: all are conditionally-vital but not essential, amino acids all are needed to form glutathione, a tri-peptide used by the body to boost metabolism prevent oxidative damage detox metabolites of such damage (including xenobiotics) keeping vit C and E in their active states immune defense (esp viral infection) If you take NAC (cysteine) alone, you raise glutathione slightly. If you take glycine alone, same. Glutamine of the 3 is abundant in the human body w/o supplementation. Glycine is most rare of the 3 -- so makes logical sense to supplement glycine & NAC together, to raise glutathione highest. Cysteine is also a trigger and checksum on the other two to make glutathione... so supplementing glycine alone, despite the body initially making glutathione... will lead to rapid slowing of its formation, w/o cysteine (glycine's half-life in the body's already short, at half - 4 hrs -- if free glycine's instead used to make glutathione instead of being metabolised for excretion, more robust immune response and other glutathione functions towards vitality, seems logical). If my suspicions about this med I'm taking and its deleterious effect on immune response via liver stress are true (the podiatrist's canny evasion of questions about it, raised my hackles a bit)... then at least glyNAC will help improve liver function despite the med. But if it helps rid me of this goddamned cold too... can stop bitching about it on this journal
Thu 05 Mar 26: Nope, not a cold -- apparently, NoCA PCPs and DOH at public water waste facilities, have noted exploding levels of a virus implicated in a developing epidemic called HMPV, or human metapneumovirus. Exactly the same symptoms as I've endured 2wks, and the same reduced ability for the body to rid itself of the infection, settling in the lungs. Persistent cough and other slight cold-like symptoms dominate. Spread via both aerosol and fomite methods, so everyone will have it. Thank goodness both clients and myself are required to wear masks for my work, otherwise would've been much, much more a vector. Will default to the same methods that reduced spread during covid: myself dbl-masking, clients normally-masking, and strict hand and touch-point sanitation and sterilisation. Wonder if this'll become a thing: new viral epidemics evolving out of previous viral ones about every 5 - 6 yrs, given how extensive air travel is in 2020s. My case hasn't gotten any better past a certain point, so wonder when the hell this HMPV virus will let go. Time will tell... just started a regimen of glyNAC, so we'll see if that pushes my immune defense over the critical break point of recovery
Add'm, Thu 05 Mar 26: Worked on a few clients today -- strange pattern of feast and famine this week. Luckily were a combo of easy and challenging, and felt pretty good on the backend of it all. Think the glyNAC's leveling me up a touch; two days ago a similar workload took a hour-long nap to recharge from -- today feel just fine. Past client to talk about, related to this week's... hmm. --- probably 5 yrs ago. Prior to studying nerve-adhesion tqs, but felt competent w/ tissue-to-tissue adhesion release. Was an older client, reasonably athletic in their 70s. Had to stop running due to an intractable pain their long-time doc had advised spinal surgery for (!!). Having a limited income and arguably overloaded healthcare resources in 2021... found their options led to me. Elderly people (defined at least to me, as GenX-era retirement age (65+). Your middle age energy, healing factor, resistance to muscle atrophy, and lack of developing chronic conditions in major organs, are now fading in the distance behind you. Grit and healthy self-BSing is what keeps you going; conditioned repetitive entrainment of good habits prevents the sort of complacency young people take for granted, that five years of your humbling 60s and stern-talking-tos by an array of PCPs, have aligned by force This client, I wanted to help. They'd obviously had made an array of not-insignificant, grownup moves properly many FAFO to their peril: vigorously exercised, kept a good but not overwhelming schedule of social engagement (which they made clear this session was to return them to), and coached an outrigger canoe team -- all good things. But was clear their feet, trusted under them thru decades of hard work as a mason and later general contractor... were past the point of diminishing returns ignoring their woes. Standing full days on ladder rungs and squatting on scaffolding planks building schools and warehouses, had taken their toll. Running was a good wrench in this necessary machine ruining their feet... but given how old and how aberrated the bones and joints of the feet had become... how they ran with these feet, was boggling to imagine. The bones of the feet have two arches: the familiar longitudinal arch which runs ball to front of heel, and the transverse arch, which forms across the toe knuckles (MCPs, or metatarsophalangeal joints). Each is not self-sustaining, and must be formed by a balanced tone in muscles w/ tendon attachments in a variety of places on / among the 26 bones and 33 joints of the foot. The arch is a strong load-bearing structure in architecture for a reason -- a minimal amt of material can bear many times the weight of the human above. But most tend to ignore or abuse the role of the transverse arch, but stuffing them into ill-fitting shoes / boots and forcing the foot to stop spreading the load of ambulating in the forefoot. By smashing together the MCPs and metatarsals they serve, the transverse arch cannot bear repeated and / or extended periods of constant load, and defers the job to the muscles crossing the ankle joint. I have a particular familiarity w/ the folly of pointy dress shoes, being forced to wear low quarters as Class-Bs (garrison) uniform in the military. My feet frequently ached to the point of needing NSAIDs to get thru the day, after needing to walk to and from work in them... which due to shared exp, a bowl of Advil were available on the filing cabinets outside our civvie director's office, taken by my bosses and their bosses. Oxfords look sharp in patent leather... but I frequently risked slipping them off my wide Asian feet at my desk, just to not wear them any longer than I had to (had very comfy jump boots when serving overseas in BDUs). Human beings for tens of thousands of millennia, didn't even need shoes. My father were raised in the camp era of Lahaina's sugar plantation past in '50s - '60s... and didn't wear shoes until freshman year in HS -- his feet are still healthy into his 80s and have never given him a problem, even thru jungle boots in Vietnam. Speaking of Vietnam, the Viet Cong wore sandals cut from the rubber of worn-out tires, fastened with twine straps -- the very definition of minimal footwear. The Tarahumara natives of Central Mexico are famous for running literally hundreds of miles at a time, also in not much more than a thin sole of tire rubber with cord straps. Your toes need room to spread out laterally, in order to work as evolved. Female fashion footwear, as a close inspection of any major runway exhibition will reveal (runway models themselves accept the pain of wearing these pompous, anti-ergonomic trinkets on their feet as a rite of passage) are a leading cause of permanent debility for women, later in life. Client's feet were narrow, tight as a drum... and barely functional. Even light pressure in the long'l arch would cause severe jump sign, nearly kicking me in the face. Tissues above the ankle, a glob of tight, shiny and long-glued toe extensors. The main fast-twitch large muscles of the calf, were cruelly-tight, full of TrPs, or both. Would not be pretty, and not be one session, I told them. They'd been thru worse, they said... and we proceeded. Fair to say this was one of the most unpleasant sessions I'd done up to that point. Not due to any inconvenience on my part -- was eager to dig into this fringe case to learn what I could from it. What bothered me, was knew each part of the lower leg -- arch, forefoot, ankle, toes, anterior lower leg, posterior lower leg -- just one of these would require an hour of slow, methodical, and eye-wateringly painful work. Which meant not one, not two... but at least three investments and three confrontations of some of the most painful procs I were competent doing. It's tough knowing you're going to be exp'g pain past 99.9% of your life's exp, again and again, and again. Breaking apart mature adhesions gluing the four muscles in the lateral anterior lower leg above the ankle -- tibiialis anterior, extensor hallucis, extensor digitorum, and peroneus tertius -- requires a lot of pressure using the blade of the forearm (ulna) in a shearing direction. When old, thick and dry connective tissue gloms these muscles together, the pain getting them to pull apart can be enormous; certainly true for Client. Took several passes, each beading sweat on their forehead. Lots of breaks to just pull together enough to endure it again. In the end... this Client gave a valid and worthy college try, but could not endure the pain... despite early indications the tqs were working. It's hard to put your trust in someone you've just met, who's putting you thru more pain than you've endured in decades. I didn't argue with them -- it's their decision to make, no judgement. But the work required to turn them around, ultimately required more commitment than they had to spare. Left after ~50 mins, with a partially-worked L foot, and comp'd them the cost of treatment. Pretty sure I wouldn't have done any better. Some, you can't help... and a bodyworker's career demands you accept this part of the job as normal, and expected. Doesn't make it feel any better in the moment, tho
