Both of Us .org

It's been two days since I left North Memorial Hospital and my recovery is going smoothly. I sleep better and my appetite gradually returns. My stamina is also improving. I might go to work on Monday to see how I feel. Eleven days of antibiotics remain to be taken, and I have already scheduled my follow up visit to the specialist for the end of July. In my free time I've thought more about my experience at the hospital.

The overall level of care given to me by the doctors, nurses and assistants was very high quality. My main complaint was a few roommates that I had to endure.

I arrived at the hospital last Thursday and after a CT scan, I was taken to a room I would share with an older gentleman. The stories I have about this man are all from his mouth, as he loudly and willingly told everyone in earshot. It is a sad story and perhaps indicative of how health care in America is oriented.

We will call him James. He was born in December of 1944 making him a young 62 years old. He was a prosecutor in the Minneapolis justice system until ten years ago when he had an accident and went into a coma for five months. Since then, James has been living opulently on his accumulated wealth or disability pay (or both), as he has not qualms about telling all his attendants how well traveled he is.

I do not believe James was healthy before his accident induced coma. The man must be over 300 lbs today and appears over 75 years old. His conversations disclosed he was taking at least twenty pills, not twenty total, but 20 different medications. James also has diabetes, with no feeling below his calves. He lost his skin on his abdomen which was replaced by grafts from his legs. He also has sleep apnea. This man snores louder than any human ever!

This man is clearly not a model of health. As I alluded to above, he is exactly the type of person the American health care system is designed for. No preventive measures needed, no exercise or moderation...only medication and treatment after the fact. I should have more sympathy for my fellow human being... but on top of this man's physical problems, he is also a complete asshole, so I don't have much sympathy for him.

One might expect if you are sharing a room where two people are trying to recover and heal, you would do your best to be considerate. Not James, he was loud, demanding, impatient and in every way a pig. His TV played loudly and remained on after he fell asleep. He made phone calls at all hours and talked loudly so everyone could hear his important conversation. His visitors were also loud and inconsiderate. In addition to his ample hospital meals, which he made short work of, he ordered several fast food meals to be delivered, including milk shakes, chili and lots of fried food.

Although I was trying my best to heal, James was in my way from the start. After a very uncomfortable first night in the hospital with him, I was comforted by the news he thought he would be released on Friday. It turned out that he broke his ankle sometime between Wednesday and Friday and could not walk; the doctor would not release him that day. I endured Friday with him. His piggishness and another night of freight train snoring were getting to me. Saturday was miserable for me, my pain increased, my comfort reached an all time low. My wonderful partner helped me to get my room changed and I was transferred out of this personal living hell of a room.

That moment was a turning point towards my recovery. Healing requires a calm and peaceful atmosphere. I understand that in our medical system it is not always possible to obtain a private room. This makes it more important to realize your own position in the world and not be so damn selfish. I left the hospital Wednesday afternoon and walked by my original room. James was still laying in his bed, nearly one full week after he had mistakenly predicted his release.

There will be some payback in this story as you will soon read in Part 2 of my hospital tale.

Labels: hospital

If we do not defend our rights, we will lose them.

Have you heard about network neutrality?

If you use the internet, you should know what is happening in the US Congress right now. The long and the short of it is that corporations want to change the basic principles of the internet to give preference to big business interests.

Watch this video to learn more.

Labels: computers, politics

Thanks to everyone sending thoughts of healing and well wishes. I am happy to say that I am no longer in the hospital. At about 4 PM today, I was released since the major problems associated with my illness subsided. I kept my temperature in a safe range (98.6-99.3 F) for the last 24 hours, my food stayed down, and I am digesting again. For the next two weeks I will be taking two antibiotics and consuming a low impact diet to ensure my inner workings heal well.

Special love and thanks goes out to my wonderful partner, JB, through all of this. My experience was more comfortable because of his love and support. I don't want him to go through anything similar to my ordeal, but if he ever does, I hope I do as well with him as he did with me.

Diverticulitis is not something I would wish on anyone. It was very painful. It started casually enough with simple lower abdominalal cramps, brought on by what I thought was simply ingestion of steak (which I eat infrequently). The pain intensified, even thought I went to work on the next day. I did leave a few hours early noting a feverish feeling on top of the cramping feeling. Wednesday and Thursday were more of the same, with long periods of intense pain. Keep in mind, this is the longest lasting intense pain that I can ever remember experiencing.

Thursday I resigned to the fact this was not something I would be able to take care of on my own. JB took me to a hospital and the process of my healing started. After diagnosis, the next five days I consumed no food nor fluids besides the saline and antibiotics that the IV needle pumped into my arm. Monday things finally were looking up as the intensity of my pain reduced in intensity, and the amount of pain medication I was taking also went down. I drank my first fluids and ate then my first solids shortly later. The fever went away too.

I enjoy the sounds and smells of life outside of the hospital. There as several stories I have to tell of my experience in the hospital, but for now I will need to take care of myself and not overburden my system as I recover. I am checking my e-mail and reading postal mail.

Thanks again everyone for your healing thoughts.

Labels: hospital

JSP called me from the hospital this morning in very a chipper mood. He was able to eat some soft food this morning and was not experiencing much pain. He was sitting in the hospital atrium enjoying being out of bed. His digestive system seems to be calming down and his Diverticulitis (inflamed acute Diverticulosis) seems to be responding to the antibiotics and rest.

He hopes that the doctors will begin considering the possibility of discharging him in the next few days. I hope that this forward momentum continues and that it is not a matter of "2 steps forward, 1 step back."

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and positive energy sent our way.

Labels: hospital

JSP started experiencing abdominal pain on Monday of last week. We thought it was due to the fact that he ate steak the night before, which is a substantial change from his normal pseudo-vegetarian diet. After a few days, when the pain did not subside, he decided that he should go in to the hospital. That was this past Thursday.

Since he was admitted to the emergency room on Thursday afternoon, not much has changed. He is still experiencing pain in his belly (although the pain medicine mitigates this) and his fever comes and goes even though he is on a regiment of IV antibiotics. Today he has nausea, which is new and things do not appear to be improving. He has not eaten since Thursday.

It is a disturbing time for the both of us, we are uncertain about the short term and concerned about the long term implications of this.

The doctors diagnosed his medical issue as Diverticulosis (links to really graphic and ishy Wikipedia article if you want to know more) which is about the least glamorous disease ever. The hospital staff have been excellent, but none the less, JSP and I are really hoping he can come home soon. The possibility of surgery looms large, and we are continuing with a "wait and see" policy.

Labels: hospital

I finally broke down and bought this website a domain name. We are now hosted at www.bothofus.org so when you get a chance, please update your link. I went through www. godaddy.com and purchased www.bothofus.org for about $9.00 per year.

Summer feels like it is full swing in the Twin Cities, although it technically does not start for two more days. Summer plans are slowly materializing, and I am looking forward to spending ten days in Kansas at the Midwest Men's Festival.

Labels: bothofus.org

It seems like there are always interesting things happening all over Minneapolis, but no where more so than in Northeast Minneapolis.

This weekend marks the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts, which is an arts fair and more. I understand that there will be 250 artist booths. The river front at St. Anthony Main is a beautiful and natural area filled with historic buildings, lush greenery, and fantastic views of downtown.

One of the things that I am looking forward to seeing there, besides the artists, is the Smart Car display. When JSP and I were living in Europe, we saw these cars around and were wowed by them. They are small sporty and very fuel efficient. Additionally, in the tight confines of European cities, they offer the ability to park in very limited spaces. When we returned to the USA in 2004, we were disappointed to learn that these cars were only available in Europe. That fact changes in 2008 as they become available in the United States. Wikipedia says:

In June 2006, Daimler-Chrysler confirmed that smart will be officially launched in the United States in 2008. The cars will be offered through dealership holding company UnitedAuto Group, which is to create a new U.S. dealership network for the brand under the name smart USA. Initially, only an updated Fortwo will be offered, starting around $15000. The new model made its debut in at European auto shows in November 2006.

Aren't they cute!

Labels: Northeast Minneapolis

Yard work demands that we be outside to tend to our gardens. Our cat also demands attention. Put the two together and we have a cat who comes outdoors to share our green space while we are working in it.

Tegan is a wonderful cat, but she always used to be deathly afraid of the outdoors. She would howl and scream anytime I tried to take her outside. In the Netherlands we had a lovely balcony porch that we often would use to enjoy the nice weather, however Tegan would rarely venture there.

Strangely, in our new home in Northeast Minneapolis, Tegan's fears of the outdoors seem gone. Now when we open our back door, she has run outside and is in the grass enjoying munching on a tasty blade. It is sometimes difficult to persuade her to return indoors; she gets a look in her eye communicating that she is going to be chased playfully but will not obey the order to come inside.

Even the rain this afternoon and the wet grass in the garden did not keep Tegan indoors. As you can see from the photos, our kitty was very happy to be outside again today.

Labels: cat, garden

Sunday night and we have done another full weekends worth of work on getting the backyard garden up and running. I can happily say that our work is really starting to show through. Tomatoes, peppers and basil started from seed in late March have made their way into the rich ground of our new garden.

Yesterday we arranged for a truck to deliver 5 cubic yards of compost to our house. The big truck came about 2 PM and unceremoniously plopped the whole lot in our garage driveway. By the way, if you were wondering, 5 cubic yards of compost is quite a lot. The compost did not contain any animal product (i.e. cow poop) and was mostly leaf and plant debris. I thought it smelled very similar to tobacco.

We worked for about 3 hours moving the pile of compost into the garden, and then into the gardens around the rest of our house. The amount was nearly perfect for us, and by the time it started raining heavily yesterday afternoon, we 0nly had a small pile remaining. JayBee and I both commented that it would have only required another 10 minutes of work to remove the last bits of compost from the driveway, but instead the pouring rain came down.

Today we smoothed out the compost and dirt in the garden bed and plotted out where we would be planting what we had growing from seed. JayBee drew up a map and we went ahead and started digging holes and putting in the plants. We got them all in before more rain arrived this afternoon. There is about 1/3 of the garden left for planting seeds and other plants.

Labels: garden