TuttleTree.com

This is pretty awesome. If you're a dork. I don't use Twitter – I barely update my status on Facebook – but if you're the type of person who constantly feels the need to write "I'm icing cupcakes, but I have to pee…" then Twitter is the place for you. What it does for me, though, is give me inspiration to think outside of the box. What other kinds of cool stuff could be scraped and sent to twitter (or elsewhere)? I bet someone could import data from the World of Warcraft Armory and tweet all about it. Or I'm sure there's interesting data to be had from the Flickr API. (Auto-tweet when you're uploading photos? Who knows?) I know it makes me a giant robonerd, but god… software is awesome. I'm off to CFUnited today – I leave straight from work. I decided that leaving from work would be a crappy idea because traffic on 95 is notoriously sucky. I can only assume that there will be internet access while we're there (there will be many unhappy geeks if not). Hopefully free wireless. And I have no idea whether or not I'll have internet access where I'm staying. To be honest, I don't even know if I'll have a bed – I'm staying with friends. But I'll do my best to keep blogging every day. I know how you get without your morning cup of boring. If nothing else, keep an eye on the Sideblog for notes and quips… I may decide that 5 posts on the Sideblog is enough to make up for not posting anything over here.

I think Dr. K has been reading the blog. It was as if he knew I thought he was a rude jerk and this time he was the epitome of politeness. Whatever. I know you're still a jerkhead. So I saw Dr. K today. I have an appointment with a Dr. R – same specialty – in August, but would rather not wait until then to make a decision on Spondylitis and treatment thereof. He says that my MRI confirms that I have bilateral inflammation of the sacroiliacs – in a way that indicates Ankylosing Spondylitis, and that in combination with testing positive for the HLA-B27 gene means that (and why don't doctors ever say, "you have X" – it's always "it looks like you have X") I most likely have it. My mom had raised some concern because she heard from her Chiropractor that Fosomax – which I'm taking for my Osteoperosis – sometimes caused problems for A.S. patients, and he totally dismissed the idea, which was comforting. I also asked if the disease was hereditary – it is – and whether or not we should have our kids (one day) tested for the gene. He said that only 6% of the population has the gene, and of those with it, only 28% develop the disease. Obviously, since I have it, our children have a 50/50 chance of getting it, so my thought was that there is about a 14% chance that they could develop A.S. He said that he doesn't exactly agree – it's more that either they will have a 28% chance, or a 0% chance, based on the gene. I'm not sure which perspective I like more – but his point was clear: It's not something to worry about, just something to keep in the back of my mind in case the kids do ever develop back problems. We're going to go ahead and start Remicade treatment. Dr. K says that it's cumbersome and sometimes cost prohibitive to have it done at the hospital, and my other choices are basically at his office or at my GI's office. I like Dr. L enough that I will probably continue to see him – at least to have the Remicade treatment done through his office. Of course it has to be pre-certified by my health insurance, and I have to be screened for TB, before I can start. I had Dr. K give me the PPD (TB test) and I should be able to read it on Wednesday or Thursday – while I'm at CFUnited. Let's hope it doesn't come up positive. Dr. K said I should also continue to take the Azasan that Dr. L prescribed, as it helps prevent my body from building up antibodies to the Remicade and lowers the chances of allergic reaction. Guess I'll have to call and get a refill on that prescription after all. I'm kind of glad that he has (more or less) said it's A.S. and we can finally begin treatment. I'm tired of not knowing what the problem is and trying different treatments with limited or no success. And one thing is for sure, it will be nice to be able to stand, sit, walk, lay down, run, and generally just horse-around (where did that expression even come from?) without pain.

Last night we watched a bit of 1 vs. 100, which is a pretty decent trivia show. My one complaint is that when you get a question wrong, they don't tell you what the right answer is; or, when you get a question like, "Which one of these animals is NOT indigenous to Africa? (a) the mascot for Toys R Us, (b) the mascot for MGM, or (c) the mascot for Kellogs Frosted Flakes?" – and get it correct (C – Tiger… Giraffes and Lions are indigenous to Africa) – they don't tell you where Tigers are indigenous to. (I suspect Asia…) Aside from the fact that the questions were too easy last night, I did end up learning something. One question was something like, "If you're at zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude, are you at (a) the north pole, (b) the equator, or (c) the south pole?" I knew the answer was the equator, but that doesn't necessarily involve longitude at all. So where is zero degrees longitude? WHERE, BOB? Turns out, (as I suspected) it's out in the middle of an ocean somewhere. The South Atlantic, to be specific. Right under Africa's chin.