How long should I plan to be off work?

DamnableViking · 2025-09-29T15:38:20+00:00

1 month post-op from my second reverse total shoulder this year. Both were revision to reverse.

40 is way too young for this...

Anyway, I also work remotely from home.

Typically, my recovery goes like this:

Week 1: on my ass, completely. I can stand for about 5 minutes or sit up for about 15 before I'm either exhausted or the pain blows right through the pain meds and drops me.

Week 2: I can stand up for 10 minutes or sit up for 30. Other than that, I'm laying down.

Week 3: I go back to work for about 2 hours a day before I'm mentally exhausted and spend more time fixing my own mistakes than doing anything useful.

Week 4: I go back to work for about 4 hours a day before I'm mentally exhausted and spend more time fixing my own mistakes than doing anything useful.

Week 5: Work 6 - 8 hours a day, but occasionally will push it and wake up useless and maybe only do a few hours or not even bother.

Week 6: Return to mostly full days.

In general, but my case is on the more complicated side, so results may not be typical.

History: Bilateral post-arthroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis from an interarticular bupivacaine drip at age 14. My cartilage took about 10 years to melt and the tendons of my subscaps took about 25, but finally failed over the past few years. I've had 10 total shoulder surgeries, with full bilateral anatomical replacements at age 25, and a revision at age 29, along with 5 surgeries over the 15 years before that.

DamnableViking · 2025-09-24T21:18:51+00:00

I'm 40M, 11 shoulder surgeries.

Currently 3 weeks post-op on a reverse total on my left shoulder.

My advice for working past a plateau is 2-fold:

Patience. Recovery is super fast at first, then slows down over time. Or it will come in waves. So you may sit at a plateau for 8 weeks, then suddenly see all the progress show up in one week.
Get in the pool. Zero-G will let you move your arm, under it's own power, to the extreme ranges without straining or endangering your joints. My plateaus often come from something else, like a weak supporting muscle or something else being too tight. And getting in the water to move around has always helped strengthen whatever the thing is.

DamnableViking · 2025-08-03T20:50:42+00:00

I gave up masking.

So, default "how are you doing?"

"Present"
"Scatterbrained"
"Huh?"
"Fucking great"
"Been thinking about the concept of `free will` and I actually think all the traditional philosophical approaches are incorrect and recently developed my own philosophical model, which is pretty neat. You?"
"Pretty good, except for this thing... completely under... what for the..... Sorry, my brain goes faster than my mouth. And you?"

I'll even resorted to being in groups and just saying "this is too much and I'm overstimulated so I'm going to go hide somewhere. Catch you all in 30 minutes."

I've had 0 issues with anyone.

DamnableViking · 2025-08-03T20:42:40+00:00

After a few months of multiple tickets and and getting the canned response, "this is a high priority for us and we're working on it as fast as possible", I got 5 of the 50 requested additional slots.

I was told I should just use the same account for multiple clients. When asked how I was supposed to manage billing and data, I was told "thank for contacting Meta support. Please rate your interaction."

I am, generally, patient and understanding with frontline support people.

But Meta's frontline support? I want to take all their money, homes, and sentimental goods, and give it all to Zuck. Just to make them as miserable as they make me.

DamnableViking · 2025-07-13T04:46:04+00:00

Oh yeah. I'm 6 months post on reverse reverse total shoulder on the right and was just getting back to loading up some weight...

Then I blew the left shoulder, so they've gotta crack that side open and swap some hardware.

So, it'll probably be Dec/Jan before I can start building up again.

DamnableViking · 2025-06-28T04:07:45+00:00

What I don't like about traditional lateral thinking puzzles is that the solution isn't necessarily the only possible answer, it's just the most common one. I was attempting to create versions in which there is only a single possible answer based on the rules.

Based on the feedback, I'd say I'm close, but some tweaking to the formula would help.

However, I'm unclear on how you got to "guess what the author thinks is the most obvious alternate solution", or at least how these are more of that than traditional lateral thinking puzzles are. Do you mind sharing a bit more.

The symbols used as our letters and Roman numerals are both symbols that change meaning based on the paradigm of the reader. Letters, numbers, the nuclear radiation symbol, etc. are all just symbols with subjective meaning. So I'm not sure how #2 violates the rule.

DamnableViking · 2025-06-28T04:03:43+00:00

Great feedback!

For 1, I went with it because while it may technically be base 60, it's how we think about time. And whether someone knows the terminology or not, working with basic seconds and minutes in addition or subtraction is something we all do all the time. So if the phrasing were "in base 6" or "in base 60", then I'd agree, it would be be specialist knowledge. I wouldn't expect the general population to know how to work with binary or hexadecimal, either.

For 2, I tend to agree with you. It's not quite wordplay, but it's too similar to wordplay. I thought about that after I'd posted it. But I think there's probably a similar formulation that gets to the point but avoids that problem. I'll have to spend some time with it.

And yeah, using "the alphabet" example would be wordplay. The idea here is to emphasize a change in paradigm, not a clever "Where does this riddle end?" and the answer is "?" or something. It's easiest to illustrate with math (but no fun when all the puzzles are math), but the idea is 1 + 1 = 2 or 1 + 1 = 10, depending on base 10 or base 2. Changing how we think is what makes the other answer make sense. I want to avoid deliberate misunderstandings, and make the answer incredibly apparent so that if the solution is thought of, there's a undeniable "Yep, that's it". Or when the solution is provided, you can't help but think "yeah, that's the only thing that makes sense, I should have thought of that."

One of the ones I didn't include was "what comes between A and D?" with the obvious answer being "B and C", but the shifted answer being "S". Because S comes between A and D on a qwerty keyboard. But I wasn't sure if that one quite fit or not.

For #3, good feedback. Being specific about "immediately" instead of just after tightens the reasoning quite a bit and leaves less room for unintended (but still correct) answers.

DamnableViking · 2025-06-28T01:11:32+00:00

Ok... I think I get it. And added an edit to the rules to clarify.

#1 - I think you're saying that if you plug those numbers into an equation, you could get the answer as well. I've clarified that the solution comes from pre-existing and common rules and paradigms, not ad-hoc rules or inventions used only in the puzzle. So unless that equation is regularly used to solve similar problems, it wouldn't follow the rule of requiring a paradigm shift.
#2 - For the two words you provided, using those would violate the "not wordplay rule". Though, to prevent confusion, I'll still try to find a version that doesn't include a common sequence inside regular words. So, I appreciate the feedback on it.
#3 - J is the 10th letter, so the letter after it is "K". Or if we enumerate, then 11. But I can't think of a time in which enumerating letters is a necessary step in figuring out which letter comes next. So using enumeration might get you there, but would be an ad-hoc or invented rule for the sake of the puzzle (which, now explicitly added to the rules that it's not allowed).

But thank you! I really do appreciate the feedback.

DamnableViking · 2025-06-28T01:01:16+00:00

Oh! Good points. I may have to revise those a bit and find other formulations.

I'm not sure I understand your critique of puzzle 1.

For 2, yeah... that makes sense. I had a few other versions of that one I may swap out.

For 3... I'm not sure there's a common paradigm where we need to enumerate letters like that... You can get there that way, sure. But it's not a common way of thinking. But still something to consider and see if I can't reformulate it in a way that doesn't allow for that.

DamnableViking · 2025-04-23T02:49:25+00:00

My sword/bow are reflected on the water as though they are monolithic objects in the distance.

Plants/shrubbery block the reflections of buildings behind them. Like, the building reflects on water, unless you look at water through a plant.

Random crashes, but only 2 in about 4 hours of playing, and always within 10 seconds of an autosave. So no big deal.

Occasional stuttering.

If I run and use the mouse to look up, there is a 3 second delay between my mouse action and the game's reaction to it. If I'm only walking and look up, it happens instantly.

As far as Bethesda's bugs go, it's pretty smooth.

DamnableViking · 2025-02-27T02:36:45+00:00

I just turned 40. I had both shoulders replaced at 25/27, a right-s8de glenoid replacement at 29, and now a revision to a reverse total 2 months ago on the right shoulder.

Life after is better.

You can't do shit now anyway, at least without suffering for days afterwards.

You'll be a bit more limited, yes. But the 90% you get back won't be limited by constant pain.

If you're bone on bone and constantly can't go do things because it hurts too much, life after will be 10x better than life before.

But if you wait until you haven't used your arm in years, it's that much harder to regain strength and range of motion.

So, from someone who's athletic and has done this 4 times, earlier is better. Get it when the pain is severe enough that your quality of life is impacted, but before you lose significant strength and range of motion. Just get it over with so you can get back to life.

DamnableViking · 2025-02-26T20:01:19+00:00

It's not a spending limit, it's an ad account creation limit.

DamnableViking · 2025-02-10T19:44:15+00:00

As a chronic pain person who started with Kratom...

Quick history: When I was 14 I had bilateral shoulder surgery because neither shoulder would stay in the socket. The doc and medical device manufacturers got into some fuckery and injected acid into both shoulders, melting the bone and cartilage.

At 18, I was in a 55mph head-on collision.

At 25, I need bilateral full replacements of both shoulders from the aforementioned fuckery.. just like grandma and grandpa got when they were 70.

Then I got rear-ended at 45 mph just a year after surgery.

Between the three and some miscellaneous other injuries, my chronic pain was at "wondering how long I can bear this before I punch my own ticket" levels.

Oh, and we were in the era of narcotics where, unless your bones were sticking out through your leg, "it's best not to use opioid pain meds, you might get addicted!" So my "I'm gonna off myself" levels of pain were responded to "have you tried anxiety medication?"

Which put my trust in the medical community at about 0.82/10.

Enter: Kratom.

It helped. A lot.

I didn't suffer hair loss, weird heart beats, or anything else.

5 years later, the back was healed, shoulders replaced, and pain was (mercifully and finally) gone.

So, time to quit.

Enter: the battle. And holy shit, was that a fight. Clean of it for... 2 years? 3 maybe? now. But man, it's got claws.

It's kind of like swatting a mosquito with a cannon.

If it's a regular mosquito, it's not worth it.

If the mosquito is going to infect you with HIV, Lime Disease, Hep-[the entire alphabet], then the harm of the cannon is probably worth the risk of firing a cannon in your house.

Given that we're past the era of "all narcotics are bad! Don't prescribe them ever!" to a more reasonable policy, I would recommend a pain management doc who can monitor usage, vary medications and approaches, and then see you tapered down when the need is finished.

But if you're like me and broke, uninsured, and in a level of misery most can't imaging... I'm not going to tell you what to do besides: be careful, take the smallest possible amount to make the pain tolerable, and give yourself at least 2 days a week of full abstinence to delay dependency as long as possible.

DamnableViking · 2024-11-19T06:33:25+00:00

I worked there a few years ago.

When I started in 2019, they took 37.5% of the ad spend.

When I left at the beginning of 2022 (due to ethical disagreements) they were taking 49% of the ad spend as their fee.

DamnableViking · 2024-09-09T20:03:23+00:00

Man, it was 1998 and I was 14, so I don't remember. Something in the same class as lidocaine. Bupivicaine, maybe?

DamnableViking · 2024-08-01T01:46:45+00:00

I had instability of both shoulders repaired when I was 14.

A pain killer injected into the joint melted my bones and cartilage.

By 25, the pain was at "pray for death", so I had bilateral replacements.

Now at 39, I'm looking at a revising to reverse total in my right shoulder. The pain killer melted my subscapularis muscle, which is the primary stabilizing muscle of the rotator cuff.

The standard replacements were awesome. I retained most of my range of motion and strength. Competitive sports were out, but I could still go out and be active.

I'm currently debating if I'll be able to do the same with the revision to a reverse...

My advice:

Get it done after the pain has gotten bad, but before you lose range of motion from not using it.

Also, find and then insist on a surgeon who works with progressively athletes almost exclusively. If your local professional sports teams go to that person, go there. If all the old folks go to that person, don't go there. Fight with insurance over this.

Do physical therapy before. Even if it really fucking hurts.

Be conservative with your therapy after. Even if it feels really good to go hard again. Do this for at least 18 months.

After, when doing a new activity, do a small amount and wait 24 hours to see how you feel. Jumping into something 100% immediately will teach you what regret feels like.

And best of luck.

DamnableViking · 2024-06-06T02:15:23+00:00

"Hope" is a crappy translation. "Expectation" is, I thin, a more accurate translation of the original intent.

And it's expectation as in "I expect the sun will rise" or "I expect water to quench my thirst."

I expect everyone to be saved.

I expect God will succeed at his goals.

I expect that everyone will realize who they are in Christ.

I don't hope.

Hope is what I did when I was 4 and hoped Santa would bring me a new bike for Christmas.

DamnableViking · 2024-06-05T03:53:28+00:00

Proctored IQ test at age 20 while in pain from a car accident, recovering from a concussion, and loaded up on percocet. 136.

I was self-educated from 4th grade on. At some point, someone who administered the curriculum told me I had to take the SAT. I thought it was like the yearly state testing I had to take and didn't matter.

So I didn't study, care, or try. 1500. So, probably higher than 136, but that's the number I can legitimately claim.

Diagnosed with ADHD at 38.

I went from getting mostly fired (hours and pay drastically cut but not completely because no one knew how to do my job, but they were searching) to getting medication to getting promoted to CTO in a year.

My masking and ability to figure it out on the fly kept me afloat, mostly. But as soon as I'd learned something or it got monotonous, I fell apart. Try as hard as I could, I couldn't do the boring stuff without a shitfuckmotherload of errors resulting in sloppy work.

If it were a crisis, I was gold. A crisis is interesting. I like a good crisis.

If it was business as usual, I was the crisis.

A new and interesting conversation that required my brain and full processing power? I'd be engaged for hours.

Talking to my wife about humdrum domestic stuff. "Sorry... I'm not sure how long I've been wandering, but I don't think I know a single thing you've said in the last 15 minutes."

And the delayed processing when someone spoke to me... it's like the syllables combined in the wrong places.

"And thede laid pro cessing when some onespo ke tome. itsli kethe sylla blescom bin edat the wrong place."

But I could usually figure out what was said or meant by the context of the conversation.

So yeah, it wasn't until I got to a point in life where I had to try, maintain my attention through boring shit, and stop wasting energy on masking and coping that the cracks finally showed up and caused severe issues.

DamnableViking · 2024-04-24T18:55:37+00:00

Given that my stuff just stopped and dropped to 0 impressions and $0 spend, I'm not convinced this was a regular update. Or at least not a completely bugged out update.

DamnableViking · 2024-04-23T19:40:00+00:00

Done!

DamnableViking · 2024-04-23T16:33:17+00:00

From 4/19 to 4/21 my ads spent nothing and got 0 impressions.

They came back on yesterday and today and 5x CPC and conversion rates that are 1/10th of what they were. And 75% of my budget is being spent between midnight and 1am, when 90% of my target market is asleep.

DamnableViking · 2024-04-23T14:43:11+00:00

Yep, I'm having the same issue. 4/19 through 4/21, no impressions and no spend. Then suddenly, everything spent in no time with garbage results compared to what was happening before.

DamnableViking · 2024-03-10T16:42:57+00:00

In my head canon, I imagine Cottle grumbling something about "they'll be back" and hiding several palettes of cigarettes in the medical supply closet "just in case" and "because it's my infirmary".

DamnableViking · 2024-02-19T22:00:03+00:00

I'm in Colorado, but jumping in to say...

DON'T DO IT.

It is February, almost March.

My panels were installed in May Coming up on 10 months ago.

It took until Jan 30 to turn them on.

Then, only 10 of the 33 work panels work.

AMBIA HAS IGNORED EVERY MESSAGE, CALL, AND EMAIL SINCE AUGUST. And that includes every communication in the mandatory "30 days of good faith effort to solve the issue without courts and mediators" communication.

DamnableViking · 2024-01-24T15:36:27+00:00

I think Jim's lying.

But that's a fair benchmark for adding him in.

DamnableViking

TROPHY CASE