What’s the DIY?

PORL @ 21/10/2023 22:18

We're planning to get a cat imminently, but it requires me to do some DIY, so it's been imminently for quite some time.

We never plan that far ahead and are usually holding the new kitten while we figure out how to make it work with the current pet population.

Ew cats. Get a couple dogs instead.

:)


Just kidding. Animals are awesome. I'm just highly allergic to cats so I'm anti feline

Curtis @ 22/10/2023 2:53

What’s the DIY?

i believe it means "Do it Yourself"

TheNavneet @ 22/10/2023 18:35

Curtis @ 22/10/2023 2:53 What’s the DIY? i believe it means "Do it Yourself"

But what must Paul DO himself!

I'm getting a second cat at the new house and my DIY is a catdoor through the basement door. And eventually a Catio outside

Mostly painting, easier to paint walls when kitten won't rub up against them. A few doors need replacing but I'm not planning to do that myself, it wouldn't go well.

This house has been a project.

Just attended A&E after sudden onset sharp chest pain. Quite a wait, but the result is that my lung hasn't collapsed.

Sounds like a very strange thing to be happy about (well, I'm sure that most people spend every day subconsciously happy that their lungs work), but I can't quite express the sense of relief.

Last year I was diagnosed with a spontaneous pneumothorax (collapsed lung) following a nasty bout of covid. They got the air out, let it heal and it proceeded to collapse again a month later. After two collapses they put you forward for surgery, which I had done in February.

Since then it's pretty much been a non-event. I've had weird nerve pains here and there but nothing quite like this. I think I just pulled a muscle from slouching in my desk, because I'm a software guy and have awful posture. I assumed it was just a muscle thing, the probability of another collapse after surgery is next to nothing (went from about a 60% chance of recurrence to <1%)

But the health anxiety gets you every single time. There's nothing I've experienced quite like the wait to getting another x-ray and the "has it collapsed again". I think I remember what it felt like, but I'm never quite certain.

It's a weirdly specific problem that the vast majority of the population will never experience thankfully. But for those who've had pneumothorax (there are at least dozens of us) it's the most relatable thing in the world. There's a whole subreddit devoted to the condition just full of people freaking out that they've had another episode because once it happens once, it's just so ridiculously likely to keep on happening.

All good, still healthy as of now. Really drives home what's important (heirarchy of needs, health > all the things).

Incidentally I have a standing desk to help with all the problems you get from being sat at a keyboard all day (at home mostly now, so barely even leave the house unless I force myself to)

Like hell do I use it. I like to believe one day I'll stand.

PORL @ 24/10/2023 15:32

Incidentally I have a standing desk to help with all the problems you get from being sat at a keyboard all day (at home mostly now, so barely even leave the house unless I force myself to) Like hell do I use it. I like to believe one day I'll stand.

going at it iteratively helped for me. When I first got mine I'd just stand for an hour or two after lunch, then I'd do the whole afternoon, and now I stand throughout pretty much the whole work day. At a certain point it actually started feeling BETTER than sitting

I have every intention of doing that, and I get to about 1 iteration and it falls flat.

I'm not totally convinced it helps anyway, but I do suffer from lower back pain already and I'm definitely not helping things.

the best thing about pneumos is when you put the needle in and the air goes whoosh out

so fun, i miss that

I'm conflicted but this is still happy news.

My boss called me yesterday and said that she's going to be formally recommending for me for a Store Lead position at a metro store in Southern Utah if I'm interested. Store Lead is basically one step below being a Store Manager and when you get that position, it's main purpose is to get you ready to be a Store Manager within a few years. It's a pretty enormous promotion from where I'm at now which is still a solid leadership position with a good salary. This store is in the St. George area, which is our second most populous city behind Salt Lake. Metro stores have a bit of a higher pay structure for everything too, which I definitely do not have now in dinky little Price. It's a big raise and would definitely be a life changing experience, but I'd have to uproot everything to move four hours away which is really scary to me. And it's obviously a lot more stress than what I'm doing now, which I honestly think is pretty easy for the most part.

Never saw myself actually running my own store in my Wally World career but I'm very touched to have a SM, and I've had 7 over the years, tell me that I'm ready to have her job. But I got a lot of thinking to do.

Double whammy now, went for a follow up from the other day's appointment. I've been labouring under the assumption that I had a rare genetic condition that meant early onset lung deteriation. It would make the fact I got a pneumothorax in the first instance make more sense, and it's well known to carry down genetically. My dad had it and he ultimately died from lung disease brought about by it.

Prior to my surgery I got tested for it. Tests come with a phenotype code and had a doctor tell me I was a "carrier" based on the code (although she admitted she didn't understand what it meant and essentially just Googled it. Can't begrudge that too much, since it's 90% of my own job)

Carrier in these circumstances also means a small degree of illness. My dad was a carrier. I've spent the months since confident that ultimately I've got a life long disease that will probably mean a decent life-span (my dad was early 70s) but ultimately lead to an unpleasant death.

As part of my follow-up today I asked to see the phenotype results. Nobody had ever showed me the actual conclusion until today. Turns out I have the normal phenotype, e.g. I have absolutely no condition whatsoever. I have normal lungs.

This does raise more questions than it solves. Spontaneous pneumo can be just random bad luck. But although my brain is frantically trying to play catch-up, I think I can write this off as happy news.

I thought I knew my own mortality, and I no longer do. Again, not something I've ever had to think about before a year ago but it puts your head in strange places. I've now got to unpick my brain from said places.

But there's a definite underlying relief washing over me. It doesn't help that I've been told conflicting info. I can probably at some point get a second opinion on all this just to be sure. For now I'm treating this as a win.

Celebrated by buying a bunch of Japanese snacks. Diet currently in stasis. Milk mochi going down a treat.

my manager took me and the rest of his team (3 guys) for an impromptu team lunch today at a pizza place. i also had some lemonade. without ice, obviously.

Congrats Nav! You too Paul, but particularly impressed by Nav's update