Sponsorship changes continue to be discussed

Today's Peninsula has government officials suggesting that changing the sponsorship system would reduce the abuse of maids and thus bring Qatar more into alignment with international law on human trafficking.

I'd never heard discussion of changing the sponsorship system or exit visa system before this summer, but now it seems to be open for debate.

Yay!

Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληιάδεω Ἀχιλῆος

Healing my Achilles tendon -- which you may recall I injured while hiking over spring break -- has become quite a comedy of errors.

First, the doctors tried a Voltaren shot. But I was allergic to that, which resulted in anaphylactic goodness and a groovy overnight stay in ER while tripping on a mind-altering dosage of Benadryl.

So my rheumatologist put me on a different NSAID, and my ankle got worse.

Now I'm on an NSAID that works -- a COX-2 inhibitor, which is to say, a drug that was invented in order to be easier on the stomach than other NSAIDs. Needless to say, it alone of any NSAID I've taken gives me heartburn and abdominal pain!

In addition to the NSAID, I am also giving my ankle plenty of rest, even though it's just killing me not to go to the gym. And this morning I suddenly remembered one of many reasons I like to exercise regularly: it's what keeps the arthritis in my hips at bay. So, yup. Ankle doing a bit better; hips doing a lot worse.

For an encore, I'm fully expecting to lose a limb to hypothermia while applying an ice pack. I'm starting to regard my foot as having a malevolent will of its own, sort of like Ash's hand in Evil Dead II. If I am found kicked to death in my sleep, you'll know who to blame.