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I was up before 7am this morning, which isn't unusual for when I'm out in a strange place. I felt like I'd slept wonderfully last night, which is more unusual; this shockingly cheap apartment is apparently very quiet too and has comfortable beds. I decided to use my time to walk down to the beach and walk around a bit. I did, and it was pretty, except for all of the homeless camped out on the beach. It seems almost redundant to say nowadays, because it's true almost everywhere I go in North America, but Santa Barbara has a notable homeless problem.
Still, I was pretty surprised that "The America Riveria" allows illegal camping on its beaches. I guess that's the "America" part.
One of my big concerns with my current kidney stones was that this trip would cause delays in my treatment. I was afraid of thoughtlessly putting work in front of health, as that's the American way too. So I was pleased when the next step for my kidney treatment involved a phone appointment with a urologist today.
Unfortunately, that caused stress. I missed the call at 8.57 (27 minutes late) because my phone was on Do Not Disturb until 9am. Still, I managed to call her back. I can't say that she was that helpful in anything but a pragmatic way. She said things that I'd already heard (7mmx4mm; 50% chance of passage; if it doesn't pass in 30 days, it probably won't). She was able to tell me one thing I hadn't been able to extract from my primary care doctor: that the stone is about halfway down my urether. She also was able to tell me that it hadn't moved in the five days between the X-ray and the CT scan, which are the first five days in which I'd been taking the alpha blocker that is supposed to move things along.
She explained lots of stuff to me about the lithotripsy (ESWL) that they use to break-up kidney stones and it soon became obvious to me that she was trying to convince me that it was a safe treatment that I should do. I was totally onboard with that, as long as it looked like the stone wouldn't pass on her own. But she really wasn't helpful in actually giving a recommendation. I don't understand why so many doctors refuse to give recommendations.
I finally asserted that I'd like to do the ESWL as long as it was more than 30 days after my pain had started, which is to say after March 15. She agreed and put in a call for an EKG (to make sure my heart won't be a problem during the process), a blood test (to make sure my kidney won't be a problem), some better pain pills (to make sure agony won't be a problem after the procedure), and the ESWL itself.
I then spent a couple of hours playing tag to schedule the ESWL. Which stressed me out throughout the day. I missed that initial call too, I dunno how, other than the fact that our workspace was loud. Then I called and left a message, and when the ESWL scheduler didn't call back within two hours, I called again, got the scheduler immediately (which means she was sitting there not returning calls), and scheduled.
Their first available slot was ... March 16th.
Kismet.
(I'm sure she found it odd when I said that was the precise date I wanted.)
Also, for those keeping track at home, two days after when I originally had an ultrasound scheduled, as the first step of dealing with this. Before my doctor discovered that wasn't even the right thing to do.
Then I had to figure out someone to give me a ride, since that's a requirement. (I never understand how that can be a requirement.)
So my week after I get back from Santa Barbara will be a mess. On Monday or Tuesday I need to get those tests and drugs. Barring any problems (oh god, that would be awful), I do the procedure next Friday. And then we'll see how many days I'm in pain from the bruising and bleeding of the ESWL and the passing of kidney stone shrapnel.
But I'll have narcotics.
So the reason for stress from all of that, which encompassed my day from about 8.30 (when I started waiting for the first call that never came) to 4.40 (when a friend very kindly agreed to spend about three hours of his Friday at the hospital), was in part trying to get everything under control. But it was also that I was doing my best to participate and note-take at our sixth Rebooting the Web of Trust.
It looks like things are off to a good start. Joe A. has largely been moderating this one, and he's been doing a good job of keeping things moving, along with some nice extensions of our standard procedures (like using music to get everyone back to their seats, though it looks like that might be having diminishing returns).
I also feel like at every workshop we polish our procedure for finding what people want to work on. I think we translated more topic papers than ever before to potential collaborative white papers. And I think perhaps we figured out how to ensure more people were happily working on what they really wanted to. We've currently got somewhere around a dozen papers (and specs) in process. Of them, six and a half are multiperson papers, which is what we've traditionally pushed, and several more are two-person papers, which we had good success with at RWOT5. It looks like a good mix.
For the first few RWOTs, I angsted about whether I'd be able to find something to do, but several conferences later, I have no question that I'll be able to add value to some paper. I usually try to pick several different papers that I think I could add something too, then go to the one with the least participants. This time that settled me at a paper on biometrics, which had just two members, and which I thought would do better with a third.
Biometrics has long been a third rail at these RWOT events. There's serious concern about it, because the idea of putting biometrics out there is so dangerous. The point of our paper is: they're going to be used, so how do we do it right?
Another excellent addition this time around was that the final goal of the first day is that each group prepare a title and abstract for their paper. I felt like this really helped guide our initial discussion: giving us a focus, and making that focus something that will benefit the overall creation of the paper.
Unless I have any pain issues, I'm pretty sure the rest of the week will be much more mellow (and less stressful and therefore less exhausting). Tomorrow will mostly be writing our paper. I think we have a good outline and a good process for how to develop it. I love being at that point in these conferences, even when we've barely set pen to paper Then, we finish up on Thursday and it's back on the train Friday.
At which point I'm exactly a week from having my kidney stone destroyed with extreme prejudice.
And thus hopefully in line for life returning to normal (well, other than K's broken foot).
Still, I was pretty surprised that "The America Riveria" allows illegal camping on its beaches. I guess that's the "America" part.
One of my big concerns with my current kidney stones was that this trip would cause delays in my treatment. I was afraid of thoughtlessly putting work in front of health, as that's the American way too. So I was pleased when the next step for my kidney treatment involved a phone appointment with a urologist today.
Unfortunately, that caused stress. I missed the call at 8.57 (27 minutes late) because my phone was on Do Not Disturb until 9am. Still, I managed to call her back. I can't say that she was that helpful in anything but a pragmatic way. She said things that I'd already heard (7mmx4mm; 50% chance of passage; if it doesn't pass in 30 days, it probably won't). She was able to tell me one thing I hadn't been able to extract from my primary care doctor: that the stone is about halfway down my urether. She also was able to tell me that it hadn't moved in the five days between the X-ray and the CT scan, which are the first five days in which I'd been taking the alpha blocker that is supposed to move things along.
She explained lots of stuff to me about the lithotripsy (ESWL) that they use to break-up kidney stones and it soon became obvious to me that she was trying to convince me that it was a safe treatment that I should do. I was totally onboard with that, as long as it looked like the stone wouldn't pass on her own. But she really wasn't helpful in actually giving a recommendation. I don't understand why so many doctors refuse to give recommendations.
I finally asserted that I'd like to do the ESWL as long as it was more than 30 days after my pain had started, which is to say after March 15. She agreed and put in a call for an EKG (to make sure my heart won't be a problem during the process), a blood test (to make sure my kidney won't be a problem), some better pain pills (to make sure agony won't be a problem after the procedure), and the ESWL itself.
I then spent a couple of hours playing tag to schedule the ESWL. Which stressed me out throughout the day. I missed that initial call too, I dunno how, other than the fact that our workspace was loud. Then I called and left a message, and when the ESWL scheduler didn't call back within two hours, I called again, got the scheduler immediately (which means she was sitting there not returning calls), and scheduled.
Their first available slot was ... March 16th.
Kismet.
(I'm sure she found it odd when I said that was the precise date I wanted.)
Also, for those keeping track at home, two days after when I originally had an ultrasound scheduled, as the first step of dealing with this. Before my doctor discovered that wasn't even the right thing to do.
Then I had to figure out someone to give me a ride, since that's a requirement. (I never understand how that can be a requirement.)
So my week after I get back from Santa Barbara will be a mess. On Monday or Tuesday I need to get those tests and drugs. Barring any problems (oh god, that would be awful), I do the procedure next Friday. And then we'll see how many days I'm in pain from the bruising and bleeding of the ESWL and the passing of kidney stone shrapnel.
But I'll have narcotics.
So the reason for stress from all of that, which encompassed my day from about 8.30 (when I started waiting for the first call that never came) to 4.40 (when a friend very kindly agreed to spend about three hours of his Friday at the hospital), was in part trying to get everything under control. But it was also that I was doing my best to participate and note-take at our sixth Rebooting the Web of Trust.
It looks like things are off to a good start. Joe A. has largely been moderating this one, and he's been doing a good job of keeping things moving, along with some nice extensions of our standard procedures (like using music to get everyone back to their seats, though it looks like that might be having diminishing returns).
I also feel like at every workshop we polish our procedure for finding what people want to work on. I think we translated more topic papers than ever before to potential collaborative white papers. And I think perhaps we figured out how to ensure more people were happily working on what they really wanted to. We've currently got somewhere around a dozen papers (and specs) in process. Of them, six and a half are multiperson papers, which is what we've traditionally pushed, and several more are two-person papers, which we had good success with at RWOT5. It looks like a good mix.
For the first few RWOTs, I angsted about whether I'd be able to find something to do, but several conferences later, I have no question that I'll be able to add value to some paper. I usually try to pick several different papers that I think I could add something too, then go to the one with the least participants. This time that settled me at a paper on biometrics, which had just two members, and which I thought would do better with a third.
Biometrics has long been a third rail at these RWOT events. There's serious concern about it, because the idea of putting biometrics out there is so dangerous. The point of our paper is: they're going to be used, so how do we do it right?
Another excellent addition this time around was that the final goal of the first day is that each group prepare a title and abstract for their paper. I felt like this really helped guide our initial discussion: giving us a focus, and making that focus something that will benefit the overall creation of the paper.
Unless I have any pain issues, I'm pretty sure the rest of the week will be much more mellow (and less stressful and therefore less exhausting). Tomorrow will mostly be writing our paper. I think we have a good outline and a good process for how to develop it. I love being at that point in these conferences, even when we've barely set pen to paper Then, we finish up on Thursday and it's back on the train Friday.
At which point I'm exactly a week from having my kidney stone destroyed with extreme prejudice.
And thus hopefully in line for life returning to normal (well, other than K's broken foot).