Famous Dave's stomacheache

So from late 2 days ago to yesterday can only be described as having a Famous Dave's stomacheache.  Not that they don't taste good if you order the right stuff, and not that they're irresponsible enough to not pay the insurance bill when their catering driver hits your car, but you have to know where to draw the line.  I.e., don't go back for that third helping of brisket.  You'll regret it.

RSA token patterns

So, my work requires that if you log into the network from home to use one of those RSA token cards with 6 digits that change every 30 seconds.

However, it seems that almost every number that comes up, there's a pattern.  Like repeated digits, or even multiple repeated digits, or the first 3 numbers being very close to the last 3 numbers.

So, I bring to you the probability of there being at least 2 duplicate digits for an n-digit number.

1- 0%
2 - 10%
3 - 30%
n - n!/(n-2)!2! * 10%

... okay I'm too lazy.  And I'm wrong too.  This formula counts a bunch of permutations repeated times, and I'm too lazy to figure out the right answer.  I first figured out it was wrong when 5 digits came out at 100%.  Oh well.

Brief update

Okay, so I lied.

Yesterday, I went to work full-ish time.  But I got exhausted come around 1pm, so I took a 2-hour nap on a nice thick mattress left by a coworker from when he was recovering from his cancer treatment (that other coworkers have used when they stayed too late or didn't go home).  Finished the rest of the day, and was exhausted when I got home, but I managed to get another hour a few hours later.

New personal record: yesterday I did 1/4 mile in 8:45.  Woohoo!

Today I did a full day of work without needing a nap.  Thank heaven my flu is wearing down.  I didn't do any exercise today, because I figured I'd be back and forth across the office all day, and I was right.

Going to work

Hey all, I'll see you at work for a complete 'normal' day. 

It's good, because I got tired of working via VPN where the VPN has a hard time competing with 3 distinct Netflix sessions running.

Last post on recovery

This will probably be my last post on the actual recovery of the surgery and stuff.  So if you happen to be following this blog, don't be surprised if there aren't any useful posts here on out.

My back feels very good.  I can do most anything.  I can roll into bed rotating around weird axes, I can squat and pick things up from the floor (I haven't dared to try straight-knee touching the floor yet), I danced with my wife, went to the store by myself to buy an accurate thermometer, I sat on the floor just to see if I could, and yesterday I worked a full 8 hour day.  Yes, it took until 11:45pm (I needed a two-hour nap to help settle my fever, and needed to spend a bit of time helping everybody else with theirs, and to beat a few levels on "Super Mario Galaxy"), but I did it.

So to be honest, for the recovery to be complete, there are only a few things left:

1. for my quads to quit feeling like they're solid stone (which is as a result of laying in surgery).
2. to heal enough to lift and do actual exercise.  I'm on a 1 month "don't lift or exercise no matter what" thing.
3. to pee on my own.  I'm certainly not going to give you a day by day on this, but I will mention it once I can do it.

And maybe to finish recovering the flu, which is mostly managed.  So there's not much else to say for recovery. 

I do need to say though that I feel strongly that the Lord has helped us get through all of this.  There were moments that were close to being really bad, but we made it through, and it looks like everything's going to be just fine.

I should also take a moment to thank my doctor, too.  My urologist said the other day, "You know, lesser surgeons wouldn't have bothered to spend 9 hours in surgery trying to save all those nerve roots; they would have just chopped them off", which made me happy to have the doctor we have, and made me a little sad for the other ones.

Big flu

So, this week, my wife has been flattened with the flu for about 3 days, and might be close to being over it, I've been flattened with the flu for 3 days, and I think I'm close to getting over it, and now one of my kids has it pretty bad and two of the others have low grade fevers.

Which leaves one person, the 7yo, who isn't sick.  Poor kid.  "Hey, can you get me this?  Hey can you do that?"  He's been very helpful.  We'll have to give him a raise.

Travels

Today has taken me everywhere.  We went to a followup with the neurosurgeon and got the stitches removed.

Then, we made a cameo appearance at work and said hello to a few people.

Later, we had an appointment with the urologist (the circle is complete Ba da da).  For some reason he was concerned with me having a 102 fever, and gave me some pretty psychadelic antibiotics.  Fever seems to be reduced a little now.  At this precise moment, I actually feel better than I have in the last few days, and what I said was overdoing it might have simply been me being sick.

Also, at the urologist, with the catheter removed, I haven't been able to pee yet.  He said that with the original problem being with the nerves being aggravated by the tumor, and them being aggravated with the surgery, it can take time, even months, if at all, for full bladder functionality to be restored.