We’re dans la maison, in the basement watching X-Files with no lights on, and Paul is making mad films, wired up on nineties music, particularly the micro-genre of post-grunge upbeat patter songs – what even is this called? – with lyrics that are too clever by half. I hope the Smoking Man’s in this one! Grace recalls the sad fate of Alex the Seal. Paul’s brain is being short circuited by synchronicities. Why are Vincent Price’s character Doctor Phibes, and Vincent Price himself, suddenly breaking containment and exiting their glass coffins and appearing in our reality? Paul talks about the very last Laundry Files novel by Charles Stross – OR IS IT??? What fiction will one day emege from our current years of chaos? Grace explores how JFK changed politicking forever because he had a face for television, and Nixon… did not, and ever since then, the American public has treated elections like Hollywood screen tests, instead of discussing policy. After a digression into the alleged assassination attempts on the President, we discuss the pre-code Depression-era musical film Footlight Parade, starring James Cagney, two shorts by Laurel and Hardy, and how some humor will never grow old. Afer a seemingly endless series of digressions including an update on our mortgage and health insurance situation, we just barely start touch on the topic of invisible disability, and get a health update from Grace, describing the road to getting her suprapubic catheter placed, and some of the constant urinary tract infections she has been experiencing, which led to weekly trips to the ER, while her urologists (plural) stubbornly maintained a posture of complete indifference. We also wistfully discuss an anecdotal report of a woman with a similar herniated disc who did receive adequate intervention in time to avoid needing a machine to poop. Paul tries to squeeze in some recent papers on long COVID and connect this to the topic of invisible disability. Meanwhile, medical staff are still mocking us for wearing masks into clinical settings, even to the point of bullying our minor children. The precautionary principle is fun for the whole family!
Note that during our conversation, I was confused about the literal meaning of the idiomatic French phrase dans la maison. It means “in the house,” not outdoors. That’s al fresco. I think it may have been a literal adoption of the English idiom “in the house,” used to introduce a performer, here used more literally. Language is complicated.
Here is an article from The Lancet about long COVID and SARS-CoV-2 viral persistence in the body. Here is another, about viral persistence in children.
Here is a review of Charles Stross’s novel The Regicide Report.
Here is an article about The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971). The sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, seems less worthy of a review, and is probably best left for completists only. Wikipedia claims that no further sequels were produced, at least not in this timeline, but I expect to hear from Dr. Phibes again, when the stars come right.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
This episode is also on YouTube here. It is audio-only. Note that because I often use brief clips of copyrighted music, YouTube may insert ads or block viewing in some locations (for example, some episodes can’t be viewed in Cuba). Even if a video can be played now, there is no guarantee YouTube won’t change these permissions in the future.
The Podcast episodes playlist on YouTube, which should show all available episodes, is here.
The Grace and Paul Pottscast Archive Index
It’s National Women’s Day and we’re back at the fire pit. It’s a little warmer this time. Grace and I pick up where we left off with a conversation about everything that has happened since her surgery – a mess of unhelpful referrals, useless appointments, practitioners that can’t be bothered to do the reading, and above all, a lot of frustration and wasted time. Along the way we discuss the conventional and unconventional wisdom on self-catheterization and urinary tract infections. What practitioners don’t know about cauda equina syndrome could fill many books. We also touch on unsweetened cranberry juice, eating baking chocolate as a kid, getting a suprapubic catheter, the ‘impatient’ surgery center, neuropathic pain, epidurals, lidocaine patches, the decision made months ago that she did not need spinal rehab, and being an uncooperative patient. We also talk about being gaslit and stonewalled while trying to negotiate for a mortgage loan modification with Rocket Mortgage, Paul’s long-term unemployment, forming an LLC, and dealing with everything that has to be done to run a small embedded firmware development business from a home office. Finally, we talk about how impossible it would have been for us to manage Grace’s medical expenses without Medicaid, and how we might find ourselves in that very situation in the near future.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
This episode is also on YouTube here. It is audio-only. Note that because I often use brief clips of copyrighted music, YouTube may insert ads or block viewing in some locations (for example, some episodes can’t be viewed in Cuba). Even if a video can be played now, there is no guarantee YouTube won’t change these permissions in the future.
The Podcast episodes playlist on YouTube, which should show all available episodes, is here.
The Grace and Paul Pottscast Archive Index
Last October, we were facing many challenges including my long-term unemployment and concerns about being able to stay in our home. Grace’s condition took a turn for the worse and she needed emergency surgery on her spine. The next couple of months, which included Halloween, children’s birthdays, Christmas, and New Year’s, were very difficult. Grace has healed from surgery, but still suffers from cauda equina syndrome, with nerve damage that may be permanent. On January 11th, we had a conversation about her condition, surgery, and recovery, at our outdoor burn pit. Unfortunately I had not brought the furry filter to reduce wind noise, so occasional gusts of wind partially drowned out our voices. I have used Izotope RX to reduce the wind noise. It can’t completely bring back the damaged audio, so there are parts where it is hard to hear us. I apologize for that, but we have to take the opportunities we get to record a conversation without the kids. They did not want to come out in the cold! After our main conversation outdoors, we had a further chat inside to talk in a bit more detail about her surgery and the results.
For more information about cauda equina syndrome, consult the Cleveland Clinic and Wikipedia.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
This episode is also on YouTube here. It is audio-only. Note that because I often use brief clips of copyrighted music, YouTube may insert ads or block viewing in some locations (for example, some episodes can’t be viewed in Cuba). Even if a video can be played now, there is no guarantee YouTube won’t change these permissions in the future.
The Podcast episodes playlist on YouTube, which should show all available episodes, is here.