Of Monitors And Ankles

Yesterday was another eventful day. I got monitors moved around and pulled a video card from my mate's comp. We now have only one monitor each, but they work well with good resolution, and a bonus of freeing up deskspace. My mate also now has a monitor stand to give him even more space, as CRTs take a lot. I'm glad I managed to get that accomplished before what happened later.

I still haven't figured out how to get two Ubuntu 8.10 computers to communicate across a network. We can connect online just fine (otherwise I wouldn't even be able to post this), and can even ping each other just fine. Something I've done has even made it so we can't even view Places -> Network, which we had been able to do before I started messing around with things. I had even unfortunately managed to make it so I couldn't even update my computer, even though I could still get online, but I've luckily fixed that.

I plan to post a request for help on UbuntuForums in the hopes of getting somewhere. As it is I'm debating installing Ubuntu 8.04, as there are guides for how to get that configured, but 8.10 has new tools for it and I've had no luck finding anything that actually helps. I'm otherwise about ready to just start transferring things via USB flash drive, but that would be a long and annoying process that I'd rather avoid, as I would like a working file share to more easily transfer things in the future as well.

Anyway, the thing that happened later was stupid, and really I should have known better to avoid it. I had been sitting with my legs crossed, as I often do, and so naturally the one starts to fall asleep as soon as I try to go anywhere. I was wearing heels, cause I want to get more adjusted to them so I can go out shopping for a few hours in them without problem, and I'm sure anyone with experience will have a pretty good idea what happened next. I got a few steps towards the bathroom when my leg decided it was going to fall asleep, right at one of the spots where there isn't anything to grab hold of to stop a fall (like a wall, door frame, or counter). By time I realized it was happening it was too late, and I could only make a semi-controlled fall to lessen the damage. The pain from twisting it was pretty severe too. Luckily my mate was able to immediately get an ace-bandage for me to put on it (at my request), as it applied pressure back onto the leg to stop the pins and needles pain of my leg waking up, and to restrain the ankle to make sure it could start healing properly.

Still, this was the second closest I've come to blacking out. My vision went all wonky, fading and tunneling, I was light-headed, really nauseous, and felt like I was completely overheating. The only time I was closer to blacking out, loosing vision entirely for a little while, was when I had a penicillin shot in Basic Training. I also kept cursing, but it was to maintain focus so as to stay conscious as much as it was about the pain. Once I was done in the bathroom I went immediately to my bed and elevated it on pillows. I've realized since that I should have put ice on it as well, but I'm not sure I could have taken the weight/pressure on it. I later took two ibuprofen when I was sure I'd be able to keep it down, and was able to then get the pain to more manageable levels.

I slept with it un-bandaged, so that if it swelled it wouldn't be a problem, and wrapped it as soon as I got up. It does hurt a bit less than it did yesterday, which is very good, and I haven't taken any ibuprofen since getting up either. I like to avoid pain medication if I can avoid it, so I can make sure it will be effective when I really need it.