Friday, October 28, 2011

Catching up

So sorry to anyone who is trying to learn more about SCRAM units from this blog, I know it's been nearly three months! Sorry. Anyway, I still don't care too much about this thing. In retrospect, the first couple weeks are the hardest. I felt claustrophobic at first having something on my body that I absolutely cannot take off without fear of significant reprisal. After getting used to it being physically there all the time, my greatest concern was of accidentally setting it off by inadvertently using some product with alcohol in it. After a couple months without any problems this fear has subsided some too. Finally, the social stigma of this thing is harsh. I wear pants everyday to conceal it but the problem has become that it gets water in it from showers and buzzes louder than any cell phone every time it takes a measurement (twice an hour). The alternative would be to wrap my leg up as if wearing a cast but I'm against that too for hygiene reasons. The buzz is so loud that it can be heard in an entire class or at work. If you have to wear one and work in a quiet environment then I suggest you take efforts to always keep it dry otherwise it WILL get loud. Other developments in three months? It stopped working about two months ago. I noticed that it hadn't buzzed all morning so I went in to the office and they said it was probably the battery. They changed the battery twice and it still didn't work but it wasn't any problem. They did not accuse me of tampering with it or anything like that. Instead they just called in to the reporting company and told them they were changing it out for another unit, which they did right there in the office without any hastles. I hope the softens any anxiety anyone might have about it malfunctioning and screwing you over. Another development? About six weeks ago I began to develop a rash where the main box of the bracelet sat on my ankle. This turned into an ulcer. I felt pretty frustrated that every brand of cortisone cream or hydrocortisone or anything else that might help had alcohol in it and of course I certainly could not apply that right next to my bracelet or anywhere else for that matter. I eventually asked them to switch the bracelet to my right ankle, which I didn't want to do because I thought it would be like starting over again as far as getting used to it being there. It wasn't so bad. I also thought it would interfere with riding my mountain bike being on my right ankle but it hasn't. The sore healed up and wasn't anything to write home about but it was a minor aggravation. Sorry I don't have a picture to post about that. In anycase, it's approaching my Dec. 8 court date which will be the six months mark for wearing this thing. If you remember I was assigned to wear it for a year and to complete 250 hours of community service. I'm hoping that with some character references from professors and a letter from the PO stating that I haven't violated the scram rules at all, plus also having completed roughly 190 hours of service as of now that they might take it off. At $300 a month, I really hope they will commute the sentence and take it off. I'll try to post more as I think of things but generally speaking I still feel the scram is bullsh*t although it is bearable and only temporary.