Keeping myself nourished is already proving to be something of a challenge. I’ve been taking in two kinds of liquid food: canned soups pureed in my blender and smoothies. I like soups, but they aren’t that filling. Having more than one can of soup raises concerns about excessive sodium intake. I may have to find some low sodium soups. As for smoothies, I’ve been making them with soymilk, soy yogurt, soy protein powder, bananas, and sometimes frozen fruit. Here my concern is taking in too much soy. I certainly don’t buy the anti-soy propaganda that’s out there, but I do tend to try to avoid consuming too much of anything. With the yogurt, protein powder and milk, one of these smoothies could easily have three or four servings of soy in it. Even with all that soy protein, I seem to need more than three meals a day, so it could come out to quite a few servings of soy each day. I did buy a few individual serving packets of rice and hemp protein powders, so I’ll have to try those out. I also have a little bit of rice milk in the refrigerator, so I can use that instead of soy milk in a smoothie or two, but I always find rice milk to be less filling than soy, so that won’t necessarily help the problem at all.
My insurance situation
7 AprWhen it comes to insurance, I happen to be very lucky. I have dual coverage for both medical and dental insurance. I get one set of coverage through the university. The fee is waived because of my job as a Graduate Student Instructor, but the plan is the student plan, which is most likely not as good as the plan that faculty and other employees have. I also have coverage through my father’s health and dental insurance plans, thanks to the Massachusetts healthcare reform law. While the main effect of this law was to expand coverage to almost all Massachusetts residents, it also contained a provision that required healthcare plans in the state to cover children for two years after loss of dependency (or until a certain age, which I think is 25). Since my parents are insured in Massachusetts through my father’s work, I’m covered under their plan. If I get through this situation in decent financial shape, I may just have to send Mitt Romney (who signed the healthcare reform law as governor) a letter of appreciation.
Getting around
7 AprI decided in the hospital the other day that I would stay off the bike while I’m recovering from my injuries. I might be walking some shorter distances, but for the most part, I’ll be taking buses. Most trips I take will require longer than they would take on a bike. My commute, for example, has taken almost three times as long since the accident. The nearest bus stops to my home are just under a third of a mile away, so my walk to the bust stop will be almost as long as my usual commute by bike (about 10 minutes). Many of the bus lines run infrequently (some every half hour on weekdays and every hour on weekends), so arriving just a little bit too late can cause major delays. Furthermore, when I get to a bus stop (with a few exceptions), I have no way of knowing whether the bus I’m looking for has already come. Sometimes buses come a few minutes early, but more frequently the run late. On some occasions, a bus doesn’t come at all. When the line runs only every hour or every half hour, that’s a pretty big deal.
So, yeah, I’m certainly not looking forward to being dependent on buses, but I’ll deal with it.
A failed experiment
7 AprI had some kale and about a third of a block of tofu in my refrigerator, so I tried steaming the kale and adding it and the tofu to a smoothie last night. The result was pretty unpalatable, so I ended up dumping it and making a more conventional smoothie.
Shock and Jaw 