I have emerged victorious from my cocoon of debility. Yay!

No details, but suffice it to say that a week that includes a visit to a Qatari emergency room on the evening of 'Eid and an American emergency room on the evening of Christmas is probably not a very fun week.

Before my dad had his appendix removed in August, I don't even remember the last occurrence of appendicitis among my loved ones. Then, this Monday, one of my close friends and my young goddaughter both had emergency appendectomies!

Be good to your appendices, people! Apparently it's appendicitis season!

The other day I went to a medical lab to get a blood test the rheumatologist requested. I walked into the waiting room, went up to the receptionist's window, and waited for her to look up from her computer. When she finally did, she seemed kind of annoyed, and told me to write my name on the list and go sit down. I felt annoyed in turn that she ( Read more... )

Healing my Achilles tendon -- which you may recall I injured while hiking over spring break -- has become quite a comedy of errors ( Read more... )

As I was just pulling a tissue out of the tissue box on my desk -- which is newly swaddled in a red silk tissue-box cosy given me by a Chinese coworker -- I started thinking about the decorations in my cube, almost all of which were gifts: the Chinese tissue-box cosy, an Egyptian painting (on papyrus) of a tree and birds, a Jordanian pointilist ( Read more... )

For the record, I didn't even want to go to the hospital in the first place ( Read more... )