The Secrets to Happiness: Secret #17

Do you like chocolate? Cheese? Go get a piece of your favorite. Put it in your mouth. Chew. Don't swallow. Let it coat your tongue. Taste it. Enjoy it. Experience it.

Do you like baked goods? Go to a bakery. Before ordering anything, take a deep breath. Experience the smells of the bakery. The dough, yeast, wheat. Let it fill your nostrils. Buy something warm. Tear it open and inhale. Smell it. Enjoy it. Experience it.

Do the same thing with a favorite song or piece of music. Don't go to the next song or work. Listen and then keep quiet. Enjoy the sound and the memory of the sound. Feel the tingle caused by the voice or the music. (I loved listening to my maternal grandmother talk to my father in the morning over coffee while I laid in bed in another room.)

Pet an animal or hold a loved one. Feel the skin or fur and the warmth, the heartbeat, the respiration. Hold it gently and think about how lucky we are to have another in our life that allows for this intimacy.

Look at something that you find beautiful. Another person, a building, a plant, a view. Take it all in, the color, the lighting, the angles, details. Take pleasure in each aspect.

Or combine two or more senses as you live the not-so-secret secret to happiness:

Savor something (at least once a day)

Slow down and enjoy something each day. Make it a habit.

It's supposed to rain here tomorrow. I'm going to spend 20 minutes savoring the rain.

Oddly, the recorded voice of Lyndon Johnson, former President of the United States, sends me into extreme relaxation, no matter what the topic or his mood. It has a similar effect that Bob Ross has on me.

Tell me about something that you like to savor (I understand that sex or expensive alcohols can fall into this category, and that's fine, but you don't need to share, we'll assume those...) or something that you plan on savoring soon.

Fibrocartilaginous embolism (FCE) and Ralph

I promise that this is not becoming a medical or hypchondriacal blog. The diagram is helpful in explaining the past few days here at our home in Virginia.

A few months ago, I introduced our dog, Ralph (Rafe), who loves to play fetch with any sort of ball.

Tuesday evening, I arrived home from work to see Gabe and Ralph playing fetch in the yard. This is a heartwarming sight. All is right when you come home to this. Or Gabe is avoiding his homework. Just as I exited the car, Ralph lets out a painful yelp. We run to him. He is unable to move his rear legs.

We take him to the pet emergency room. We're told that Ralph has either a slipped disc, an FCE, damage from trauma, or an infection or tumor. He suffered no trauma. He was running and turning when it happened. He spent the night at the emergency center.

Jocelyn and I transferred him to a hospital early the next morning. After another evaluation and the same set of possibilities, we agreed to a myelogram to see if he had a bulging disc and would need surgery. The results came back around six pm on Wednesday. No slipped disc. It was probably FCE, but his spinal fluid was cloudy and yellow. They wanted to test for cancer.

We took the kids to see Ralph that evening. He was still recovering from the general anesthesia and look awful. Much crying ensued.

The next morning, I went to work. As I arrived, we received another call. Ralph looked to have a FCE. This was good news. If he had cancer, we did not intend on putting him through surgery and chemotherapy. His paralysis was suffering enough.

Ralph was discharged from the hospital yesterday. He is at home now. He has, they say, and FCE. This means that some of the pulpy substance in the center of one of his discs has penetrated the blood vessels surrounding his spine. That blocks the blood supply to the spine and leads to the paralysis.

Now that he is home, we're continuing to give him steroids to reduce the swelling around the injury. We're also performing physical therapy on him for ten minutes a session, six times per day. We move his legs through their full range of motion. The steroids and the stimulation should help the body build capillaries to bypass the blockage. When that happens, we'll see some signs of recovery.

We also have to feed him, make sure he drinks water, and I carry him outside for elimination. We have to keep him clean and groomed throughout this. I also turn him periodically so that he doesn't develop any bedsores.

It will be a couple of weeks before we see real improvement. If he fully recovers, it could take months.

Not that it is so important anymore, but Spring Break 2008 has been canceled for us. We'll be staying home and taking care of Ralph. Should he recover some mobility, we might take a day trip here or there.

Anyone been through this? I'd like to hear some uplifting stories. Thanks.

March, 2008: 101 in 1,001 update

Click on the newspaper to get a better look at the official March update.

030 - See a doctor about my wrist

There are times when I just have to admit that I'm stupid. I'm not talking about willful stupidity. Rather I mean true idiocy. I'm 44 years old and wisdom is still beyond my horizon.

Let's go back 12 or so years. I lived in Seattle at the time. I don't remember if Monica was born yet. Jocelyn might have been pregnant. For some forgotten reason, I was terribly frustrated, so I did what any stupid man would do in that situation. I took out my frustration on an inanimate object.

A smart person would have slugged a pillow or gone for a run. A wise person would have shrugged off the annoyance and gotten on with what is important in life. I punched a piece of furniture. The top of drawer of our chest of drawers to be exact. I hit it hard. The pain shocked some wisdom into me. (Though I have struck one more inanimate object since that time. Over the dog's behavior no less. But this post isn't about anger issues. Though that punch, about four years ago, certainly didn't help the present situation.)

After a few weeks of dull pain, I went to the doctor. From there I saw a hand specialist. By now I had a ganglion cyst on the back of my wrist. They're fairly common and mostly harmless. The hand specialist dismissed it as a simple cyst and said it would go away with time. A lot of money was spent for nothing. I had one x-ray and no MRI. To confirm my stupidity, though, I failed to mention that I punched a thick piece of wooden furniture.

Since that time, I have had a series of ganglion cysts that come and go. My wrist has been getting weaker, too. I'm right handed and I have trouble opening things with that hand. I have to open jars with the left. My wrist is losing flexibility. It cannot support my weight for push ups. I fear it will fail me when I do bench presses. I have to hold it at a certain angle to prevent sharp pain. It's also a very noisy joint (crepitation it's called when the joint pops or grinds when moved.)

So, of course, being supremely stupid, I've done what most guys do. I've lived with it.

But, as we shall see on this list of 101 things in 1,001 days, I want to return to a weightlifting routine. I'd like to do that without pain.

So, I've made an appointment in March to see my doctor, who I last saw at a checkup last year (where I stupidly failed to mention my wrist.)

Looking at the diagram, I believe that my injury is on the radioscaphoidcapitate ligament and the capitate and possibly the lunate bones are affected. The injury also causes problems (pain) all way across the wrist away from the thumb. This is why I think the lunate is involved. Things are either being pushed around by excess fluids, thus the cysts when I actively use my wrist for exercising or sports. Or things aren't in decent formation due to a weakened or injured ligament or a roughed up bone, which would explain the noise and the pain.

I'll post an update when I know. I'm just hoping that I don't have arthritis.

Anyone out there have a ganglion cyst that causing them trouble? What did you do about it?