I don't know how much taking a daily capsule of Korean red panax ginseng helped, but it doesn't seem like it hurt anything. I'm pretty sure that filtering my coffee and quitting the use of half & half made a substantial dent. As well as cutting back on cheese, and trying to eat more vegetable and fruit fiber.
None of this helps my sciatica though, and today it's as angry as it was last week. I'm back to dosing myself with 600 mg of ibuprofen twice daily and rubbing my aches with Penetrex cream or Voltaren. I got a notice in the mail for Federal jury duty down at the tip of Manhattan. If I was whole, I probably wouldn't mind. But the thought of having to limp my way to the train from the parking lot, then traverse GCT to find a subway down to Chinatown, up and down those ancient crowded narrow steps and hobble all the way to the Federal courthouse, makes me tell the system that I do not consider myself physically or mentally able to comply. I can even give them a doctor's note if they want. I can give them MRIs and X-rays as well. I hope it doesn't come to that.
I took the dogs to the park early this morning because it was slated to be closed for maintenance between 8:30 and 12:30. That just means they needed to weed whack and don't want to chance their people getting bitten, cuz that's actually happened. Plus, it's totally not safe for a dog to be around weed whackers. Because my day started much earlier, I actually got to the gym earlier. And of course, the elliptical machine I like to use was occupied.
I got on the step machine. It was really painful this time, even at a slower speed. The nerves were really unhappy with me and let me know with a searing pain that ran from my big toe across the top of my foot, up the outside of my calf, skipped my thigh, but reasserted itself in my glute. Quite the journey. When I was done, I saw that the elliptical #1 was free so instead of doing pull-ups, I did my 35-minute program.
The Precor elliptical is the one cardio machine that does not aggravate my sciatica pedaling forward or backward. I haven't touched the Life Fitness cross-trainer in weeks because it tends to give me shin splints or makes my toes go numb. Neither of those things is good, and it's all due to how my body fits into the machine and the aspect ratio of the glide motion. When I finally get to the Stretch Cage, I'm tired and my entire right lower quadrant is burning from the toes up. I get 15 reps but it was a struggle.
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| Nepenthes ampullaria |
Meanwhile, my kid's pitcher plant (nepenthes ampullaria) has been happily producing pitchers. I had assumed it was a carnivorous plant that supplemented with insects. Come to learn that this particular plant is not an insectivore but a detritivore, an organism that digests dead organic matter. Which means it can accept a dead insect, or fish food (what a lot of carnivorous plant owners do), but it's not necessary. I've smote insects that have had the misfortune to wind up inside my house. Only spiders are allowed to live here! The small errant carpenter ants, flies, and crickets all got smote and dropped into the gaping maws of various Venus flytraps...
