June 12, 2014

"From the time I lost most of my left arm in February..."

"... I was living in that parallel universe, one where I’d power through, barely acknowledging the amputation — until I went for a run on the sunny afternoon of April 6."
It was nothing more than a slightly uneven sidewalk that took me down. No problem for a runner with two arms. In fact, this particular sidewalk is right behind my home, and I had negotiated it uneventfully for years. But here are two things you need to know about life after an arm amputation: First, your center of gravity changes dramatically when you are suddenly eight pounds lighter on one side of your body. Second, while my arm may be missing physically, it is there, just as it always has been, in my mind’s eye. I can feel every digit. I can even feel the watch that was always strapped to my left wrist. When I tripped, I reached reflexively to break my very real fall with my completely imaginary left hand. My fall was instead broken by my nose, and my nose was broken by my fall....

The woman I was passing on the sidewalk when I fell took one look at me and cried out in panic to her husband: “My God, what’s happened to his arm?” “It’s gone,” I said. “But don’t worry, that didn’t happen today.”

14 comments:

The Crack Emcee said...

There you go. Now we're talkin',...

The Elder said...

Much of that story is very, very familiar. Amputees are an amazingly supportive group.

When he is ready to learn to play golf one-handed, I hope he gives me a call.

Titus said...

I interviewed a "baysien" statisticain phd candidate from Harvard (Masters from Kennedy School) today and didn't understand a word she said. Her post doc was from some Goldman Institute/UCSF thing. I wanted to talk about how fab SF was but she wanted to talk about molecules and measurements and quantitative/qualitative data and R programming.

she was like you know us "baysiens" and I was like oh i know...not

She did the largest scale measurement/evaluation with 500 phd/econs/stats/survey freaks (via Bill and Melinda Gates foundation) on disease and death in the world....do you know what number 1 is?

It has changed incredibly from 1990 to 2010.

It 1990 it was childhood malnutrition/which has now fallen to 8th

Now it is....high blood pressure.

Her seminar was about algorithims and bayesian shit and everyone was enamored and i had a huge question mark over my all knowing head.

After the seminar the other phd/econs came to my office to tell me to hire her and how impressed they were with her baysein skillset and I was like totally-

Titus said...

Oh and in between that the rare clumber had his physical and lost 15 pounds in a year-that is like a human losing 50 pounds the dyke vet told me.

no heart worm, ears were great, no bad teeth, no heart murmur, joints are much stronger, clean bill of health-at the age of 12!

tough love really does make a difference.

heading to nyc for the weekend and working from the princeton office m-w. and this weekend 500,000 fags hit the streets of Boston for pride-which would be the last place i would ever be.

Make it a super weekend!

Phil 314 said...

Titus pinches a loaf on another thread.

"Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author."

Emil Blatz said...

Even I would spell it Bayesian.

Jaske said...

Waves Pacific and waves Atlantic, London and a atoll.

Jaske said...

Titus coasts.
Tits.

William said...

As it turns out, Napoleon's one enduring military achievement was the development of canned food by his quartermaster. Perhaps, when all is said and done, our one achievement in the Afghan and Iraqi wars will be he advances we made in prosthetics.

The Crack Emcee said...

“It’s gone, but don’t worry, that didn’t happen today.”

Unknown said...

these are weird comments. reminiscent of when I ran with the dopers.

Big Mike said...

I love that writing! "My fall was instead broken by my nose, and my nose was broken by my fall."

Will said...

I think this explains a lot about Obama right now.

With his credibility completely blown off, he is suffering face plant after face plant as he attempts to navigate a rocky terrain of his own creation.

But in his mind's eye there is still the Audacity and the fainting crowds and the fake Greek columns and the "fired up ready to go". He thinks that will catch him as he sees the pavement approaching, but….

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

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