Sick Days

I've had more "sick" days in the first few months of 2019 than in the first half of 2018. I put sick in quotes because those days off are unrelated to viral or bacterial infection. Some of these sick days are related to recovering from an injured foot due to hiking or walking. I injured my right foot in February while on a two-hour photo walk through the Griggstown Native Grassland Preserve. I hurt my left foot two weeks ago on a two-hour hike through the St. Michaels Farm Preserve in Hopewell. In January, I was out of the office for a few days due to food poisoning. In those situations, I had suffered an injury to my body.

Today, I feel the effects of whatever tests were done at my visit to the orbital surgeon at Wills Eye Surgery Center to determine the severity of my Graves Eye Disease. Some of the tests— look as far up as you can see for the next 30 seconds— were painful. The sensitivity to light that I felt yesterday after dilating drops was to be expected. But the feeling continued into the evening and is no less severe this morning. We have a wet, overcast day here in New Jersey. The light from the window is causing some minor pain. I can't imagine driving in this. I adjusted the brightness of the iMac's display. I increased the font size in Safari to make it easier on my eyes.

I am sitting in the dark of my home office workspace with just the light from a second-floor window. But even that feels uncomfortable. I called in sick because I couldn't drive to work and work in a fully-lit office while looking at two displays all day. Typing up this blog post took longer than I expected. I took numerous breaks to rest my eyes in between typing sentences. A day of rest will help.

I'm terrible at being sick, though. When I can't go hiking or walking because of an injury, I like to read on my iPad. Or I may spend some time in Adobe Lightroom, editing some of the back catalogues of images on my iMac. Or I may binge-watch a series on Netflix or watch a movie on Apple, But I can't do any of that today. Can I?

America’s Oldest Theatre

I was at Wills Surgery Center today for what I thought would be a quick morning of tests. But the optical surgeon had a lot of questions, so they performed a series of test. We were here until lunchtime. If you don't know, I have Grave's Eye Disease which has progressed to the point where I may need surgery. I'll know in a few weeks when I return for more tests. The doctors are concerned about pressure behind the eyes. If the pressure becomes too high, the muscles of the yes could squeeze the optic nerve and cause blindness. I have a follow up in three weeks for more tests.

I am looking out at the Walnut Street Theatre through the windows of the waiting room at Wills Eye.

Apple Watch data and Health Insurance.

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What if the only way to lower your health premium to an affordable rate was to allow your health insurer access to your Apple Watch data?

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I don't think this would provide any benefit to me. I have Type 1 diabetes. It's a chronic progressive illness. Food and insulin are one of the over two-dozen variables that affect blood glucose control. The majority of these variables not under my control. Insulin dosing is an art. Even if I eat the same thing for every meal, I will get a different blood glucose reading throughout the day, and it would also be different each day.

Given that the Apple Watch is not a medical device capable of accurately measuring blood glucose and operating an insulin pump, wearing.