22 Comments
Aug 14, 2021Liked by Freddie deBoer

Am also 40, fell three feet off a scissor lift in January, caught myself badly and fucked up my right wrist such that I only have about 45 degrees of vertical range of motion with it even now, 7 months later. In other words, I can’t flatten my right palm against anything, for example doing push-ups I have to do then on my fists like a dumbass. Getting old is weird.

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Is it nerve damage? Nerve injuries are super weird at any age.

I had a bad slip on ice and initially thought I broke my elbow, but turns out it was just nerve damage. I couldn't sweep or rake leaves for about three years because the motion was agonizing. Then one day the pain just went away.

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Could be, I’m very stupid about medical stuff and that hadn’t even occurred to me! I went to an urgent care and they made me take a week off work and take like ibuprofen or whatever but I can’t afford missing work like that sooo maybe in a couple years I’ll get it checked out.

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Aug 14, 2021Liked by Freddie deBoer

i have used glucosamine for years to repair torn rotator cuffs, it works well. Chrondroiton sulfate is pretty useless. just a suggestion, the journal studies on it are pretty good and it does often avoid MD visits.

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Any chance that works on plantar fasciitis? I effed up my foot playing some light tennis a few weeks ago. And I turned 38 on Monday, since we are sharing ages and joints-based maladies.

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Take a tennis ball and put it under the arch of each foot and roll it around.

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Hi Erin, as kathleen mcCook notes, stretching does help the condition. (I suspect you have read about what is usually suggested for treating it.) That being said, the cause is collagen degeneration in the foot at that location. So, a more direct treatment approach is restoring collagen at the origin point of the plantar fascia. There are a number of ways to go about this. 1) the use of a collagen supplement; i use Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides Powder Supplement (Type I, III) for Skin Hair Nail Joint from amazon. You'll notice if you look at the ingredients that it also contains hyaluronic acid. Injections of HA have been found to have very good effects on PF, however. . . 2) Echinacea angustifolia (NOT E. purpurea) is a very potent hyaluronidase inhibitor. That is a compound that breaks down HA. Interfering with breakdown will increase HA levels in the body, oddly enough regular intake of very large doses of E. angustifolia often results in an increase in shoe size. you don't need to take that much to have an effect; i would suggest 1 tsp 3x daily of the tincture. and, finally 3) glucosamine sulfate can help a bit, it does not hurt to add it in to this protocol. Use this for 30 days or so and it should help the condition. (I am dealing with a flare up myself and it does work.) hope this helps, stephen

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You’re a gem! Thanks for this (and FYI several of your books are on my TBR list).

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Where is John Donne?

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author

In my battered heart.

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I didn't comment on it, but I love your anti-Zionist posts. Keep it up! I'm also in favor of Palestinian rights and skeptical about aspects of identity politics; that's why I'm here.

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Tree of Smoke was great. It's been a while, but I remember it for its Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now vibe and Faulkner-like prose. Unfortunately it's a pretty polarizing book; people either hate it or love it. I imagine the distinction has a lot to do with patience.

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founding

> If I ever feel organically moved to write about Israel but decide it’s not worth it, I’ll know it’s time to hang it up.

If that day comes, ask the rest of us to pay more! I'll cover 2 departed Zionists.

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I didn't realize we could "like" your posts. I'll hit like now, but it won't be very useful feedback, since I like all of them.

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Thanks for sharing the link to that trades post!

The status of this is very speculative, but it seems to me like in the UK at least, STEM is the new trade school - lots of former polytechnics that are now universities-in-name, not near the top of the league table (and so definitely not attracting "the brightest and the best", whatever that means) are still turning out people with passable on-the-job skills, especially in areas with "Engineering" in the name - sometimes including Software Engineering. We even have an odd beast called a Degree Apprenticeship which tries to emulate the German apprenticeship model, except that we give you a Bachelor's degree at the end for credentialism's sake.

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I'm going to recommend today's post by Heather Cox Richardson on what it took historically to improve conditions for workers, as a model for what it will take today. Let's get more people into positions of power like those she discusses, because nothing will happen without that prequisite: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-14-2021

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Uh oh, sad song. Are you and your girlfriend breaking up?

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author

Nope, we're doing great. Trying to peer into this bizarre brain of mine is never a good idea....

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I was delighted, in an avuncular way, to hear (a year ago maybe?) you were part of a couple.

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Aug 15, 2021Liked by Freddie deBoer

I find the whole getting a referral to a specialist thing really odd and extremely inefficient. Who is it designed to benefit? The GP or the specialist? Cuz it’s not the patient, and insurance has to pay for an extra visit.

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Insurance pays only if the referal is given, which it may not be. And specialists tend to bill more, and may do unnecessayr procedures; see e.g.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/08/health-care-sherman-sorensen-pfo-closures/619649/

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Lots of doctors do video appointments these days. That might be an efficient way to get a referral?

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