Hump-Day already. A short week. So, I’ve been thinking. Is there anyone out there who understands statistics? If I buy a ticket and have a one in one million chance of winning something, do I have twice as good a chance of winning if I buy two tickets? The apparent answer is yes, of course. Two chances are twice as good as one. But is that really true? If my first one in a million ticket doesn’t win, my second ticket also only has a one in a million chance of winning…. Does that mean my odds, my chance of winning, didn’t increase by buying the second ticket? Or can my chances be interpreted and explained either way by a talented statistician?
Day Five
The bandaging came off. Not much going on with the front of the neck; just an incision slightly off to one side, held together by steri-strips. The back of the neck is considerably more impressive, with metal staples all down the back of it like some reptilian Star Wars creature. The weight is falling off, same as last time. Before surgery I was at 165 pounds. I’m down to 158 so far, all the while eating anything I want. I’m writing the weight-loss infomercial in my head. “7 pounds in 7 days. Guaranteed.” (I’m actually losing a little faster than that, so I’ve got room to promise, then over-deliver.) This program is inconvenient and a little expensive, but if you’ve got good health insurance, they’ll cover it all. The weight loss will taper off soon and after another week or so, I’ll be able to guarantee that the weight will also come right back.
Football was a game
It was for the players and the fans in the stands. Then it became an industry. It got television. The officials became a league of their own with their own bios and stats; a game within a game. Commercials. Announcers. The announcers called what happened during the game. Then they became analysts. Now they’re part of the game; we need them for context. Then another industry sprung up to talk about football even when it wasn’t being played; football shows talking about football every day of the week; entire careers devoted to explaining what we’ll see when we see it; specialists within the specialists to be the first to tell us who is injured, who is going to play, who will be signed for another season and who will be out of a job. Fantasy football that isn’t even football but it has allotted slots on the weekly football news shows. I have some time on my hands right now; watching all the people on television talking about watching football, and I think wouldn’t it be ironic if football was actually just random; if all the results; all the winning streaks, losing streaks, records set, magnificent coaching, incompetence, hirings, firings, superstars, and duds were just statistical aberrations manifesting as apparent patterns; all these talking heads, owners, scouts, coaches, and players fully engaged in explaining what can never be explained; chasing random fluctuations?
So,
What should we talk about now? Anything but spinal surgery? Got to sleep at home last night. That was a welcome change. No machines beeping and nobody had to wake me up to ask if I was sleeping okay. Henry on my lap in the recliner today as I pretended to watch college football. He seems protective; watching over the big dog. We’re not likely to have very many new adventures to report the next few weeks, but no worries. I’ve got plenty of bird pictures I haven’t sent out yet. Here is a great egret.
We were up
Bright and early waiting for the Doctor to arrive. Steve had another great night, only taking one 5mg Oxycodone to keep comfortable through the night. Other than that, he was only getting Tylenol via IV a couple of times a day. He really does look good. He convinced me, and after I had seen him awake and well, I convinced myself he was ready to go. The doctor agreed and gave us his blessing said he would see us in two weeks, and was gone to see his next victim. By the way, the Dr. did say Steve was remarkable, and he had not had a patient who had undergone an 8 hour very complicated procedure recover so quickly. That was 7:30 AM. Just had to get the discharge papers from our favorite nurse Pearl. Shouldn’t take long, give us a paper to sign, make sure we understand our discharge instructions, and off we go. Back to the Valley with a Blizzard stop along the way. Just one paper, two or three instructions, and off we go …… Pearl was nowhere to be found. WE were ready to go. WE were packed. WE (steve) couldn’t wait to get to DQ in Riveria. What could be the hold up? Wait, you say Pearl has 5 other patients? Hey they weren’t going anywhere. Just because they may need some medications this morning, they weren’t waiting for a Blizzard. We spotted her in the hall, she said be right there………..I’m sure Steve standing at the nurses station, clothes on, staring at her didn’t make a lot of difference, but at 11:30 we were on our way. Had a great drive home. Puppies glad to see us, chicken soup delivered to the door by our friends Barb and Henry, We are happy to continue the healing process. We want to thank everyone for all of the kind words, and good wishes sent our way. Judy