I checked the response headers:

Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0 Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:17:45 GMT X-Powered-By: ASP.NET Content-Length: 34207 Content-Type: text/html Cache-Control: private

Are you surprised? I sure wasn’t.

• Intel Core 2 Q6600 (4 processors)
• MSI P35 Neo2-FR motherboard
• COOLER MASTER GeminII CPU fan
• 2 Antec 75003 120mm and 1 Amtec 80mm case fans
• COOLER MASTER Elite 330 case
• Thermaltake W0093RU ATX 12V 2.0 Version 500W Power Supply
• Acer AL2223Wd Black-Silver 22″ 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s hard drives
• Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse
• SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5″ Internal Floppy Drive
• 2 LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW drives
• G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
• EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SL video card

Should be a decent machine.

Mikie did a 10 x 10 foot square and it came out just beautiful. Click on the picture below to see a Flickr slide-show of a few images from this event.

My cable bill went up by $10.23 per month. As a point of reference, here is the bill from September 2007:

And here is the bill from October 2007:

They are such assholes. Way to go folks. Now we know what “Comcastic” really means!

Then did a bunch of reps on the leg press machine, first with both legs, then with just the left leg. Then we iced down the left knee for a while. Throughout the whole session I chatted with Craig and Terry about triathlon-related stuff. Terry told me he got his wet-suit from a place in Kingwood on Northpark drive. I just looked up the company:

Lane 4 Swim & Run 3068 Northpark Dr Kingwood, TX 77339 (281) 360-1368 http://lanefour.com

He said they have an endless pool there and they let you try out the wet-suit so you know it fits and is comfortable to swim in before you buy it.

EDIT: I was mistaken about the Lane 4 place. They don’t have the endless pool. It’s the Trivantage place on Richmond that has it.

I ended up spending most of the day at the doctors. It’s not that they were particularly slow or anything, it’s just that they ran a bunch of tests. Let me say right up front that I was treated very well by both doctor and staff. They are a lovely bunch of folks.

First thing I was taken to a room where a nurse recorded my weight, interviewed me, administered an EKG (which is a pretty fast deal), and recorded my blood pressure in both arms. Then Dr. Revana saw me and after that I had a slew of tests. The first one was a nuclear stress test. There is another (fancy) name for it which I do not recall. It is a two-part test and involves two separate machines.

First thing is they put an I/V in your arm and inject you with something nuclear. Then you run on a treadmill until your heart rate reaches some calculated limit. In my case that was 153 b/m. It took a while because I run quite a bit and the treadmill was not very taxing. Heck, I have ran for an hour this morning before the doctor visit. After the treadmill you go lay on a table and for 20 minutes your chest area is scanned.

Then I went to another back office and a different nurse (again very nice) took some blood samples and made me pee in a cup. Then I got to leave with instructions to be back in a couple of hours.

Well back I came. This time I had an echo cardiogram. It’s like a sonogram for your heart. Very interesting as I got to watch the “pictures.” Then back to the stress test room. They injected more radioactive stuff and made me sit out in the hall for a while. Then back on the bed where I was scanned again for 20 minutes.

After that they wrote me a script to take over to River Oaks imaging for a chest x-ray. That took a while, just due to a loooong wait. The actual x-ray took less than 5 minutes.

I’m supposed to see Dr. Revana next Monday to get the results from all of today’s fun!

So today was my first visit to the physical therapy folks. I did not know what to expect, having never been to one of these places before. Dr. Kerr’s office gave me a list of places to choose from. I asked them if they had any preference and they pointed out a couple of places they liked because they were good about sending prompt feedback to the prescribing physician.

I went to TheraWorks on 605 Rockmead Drive in Kingwood, Texas. They have a nice looking office. When I arrived, the receptionist, Melody, handed me the usual mound of paperwork to fill out. When I finished with that and turned it in, my P.T. (physical therapist), Craig Perilloux, came and fetched me back to the treatment area. We chatted for a while first and the took notes.

Then he had me warm up by pedaling an exercise bike for 15 minutes. I did mention to him that I had already been out running for an hour this morning before the appointment, but whatever. Then he showed me two stretches that he wanted me to add to my normal (extensive) stretching routine. Both stretches use a belt that is looped around the end of one foot or the other.

So, first stretch: Lay on your back. Loop the belt around your left foot. Starting with both legs extended straight out, pull on the other end of the belt and raise the left leg, keeping your left knee straight and keeping your right leg straight. Hold the stretch for 15 seconds. Then relax and do the same thing with the other leg. Repeat for a total of 5 stretches with each leg. Craig also said that I could, if I wanted to, do five stretches with one leg then switch and do 5 stretches with the other leg. This is to avoid the hassle of having to repeated switch the belt or strap from one foot to the other.

Here is the second stretch: Lay on your back, the same as before, with the belt looped around the end of your left foot. This time raise your left leg and move it across your right leg. Keep both legs strait and use the belt to help increase the stretch. Again hold it for 15 seconds. Do a total of 5 stretches with each leg.

After the stretches he had me just lay down and he applied some kind of ultra-sound machine to the injured knee area. He said it may feel warm, but I didn’t notice anything in particular.

Then he introduced me to Terry Wallace, one of the O.T.’s in the office who will be working on my left elbow. He didn’t work on me today but we set up scheduling for the upcoming visits.

My out of pocket expense for today’s visit was $102.96, which seems quite high. Apparently this doesn’t get charged to insurance the same way as a regular doctor’s visit would be charged so it falls under the yearly deductible, followed by the 20% payment stuff.

Since I have not had any medical expenses during this calendar year — I tend to stay away from doctors as much as possible — I had not met any of my $300 deductible. The sucky part of this is that beginning on October 1, we start all over with a new insurance company, this time with a $500 deductible, and I will have to be paying out of pocket for that all over again!

On the plus side, Craig is into triathlons and is totally sympathetic to my training schedule.