Both of Us .org

There are festivities planed for tonight in Northeast Minneapolis, as our neck of the woods continues to become a more popular nightspot for people in Minneapolis and the surrounding metro area. NorthEast Night, a function of the North East Business Association runs tonight from 5:00 - 7:00 PM with live music, cooking demos and other things aimed at drawing more people to this thriving part of town.

City Pages has more in their "A-list" article on NorthEast Night.

You might consider heading over there after work for happy hour.

Labels: Northeast Minneapolis

Today is the 4th of July, a free day for both of us. I am doing even better going on a week after I was released from the hospital. I continue to take antibiotics for the next week and eat a soft diet. Both Monday and Tuesday I tested the waters going back to work. The experience was decent, I paced myself and slowly started catching up on what got left behind the eight days I missed.

My memory of the time I was in pain and uncomfortable in the hospital is slowly fading. I am glad to not have those feelings in my stomach and frustrations in my mind. I have a story to finish about my hospital roommates.

I wrapped up my last posting telling you all of my first roommate, James. After two days of that anguish, I was thankfully transferred to another room. The person in my second room was much more tolerable, and was spending his last day in the hospital. No trouble I thought, perhaps at the end of the afternoon I would have a room to myself. Indeed, my second roommate was gone before I could even remember his name.

For a short period of perhaps three hours I had a room to myself. That lasted until my last roommate was admitted to the hospital. Let's call this fellow Bart. Bart came into the room in much the same condition I had, severe pain, abdominal cramps and waiting for the results of his CT scan. Bart looked uncomfortable, unable to relax or admit to the health situation he was in. You see, Bart turned out to be a hyper alpha-male type. He was resistant to the advice of the nurses and assistants. Bart would not even disrobe and put on the hospital gowns, fearing loosing some form of control.

I of course was disappointed with the thought of having another disruptive roommate. Bart's first hours in the room were spent making fuss, watching ultimate fighting on TV and bossing his wife around getting the room in order to his liking. Bart complained about not being able to eat or drink, similar to my situation, it was possible he could go into surgery at any time and therefore was forbidden to take eat or drink until his diagnosis was complete. Bart refused to obey the nurses orders and proceeded to drink and even offer me some of his candy. On top of that, Bart would leave the building every 30 minutes or so to satisfy his cigarette addition.

Bart's wife left quietly. Shortly afterwards, a friend or associate of his arrived to have a rather loud conversation regarding the last few days. It sounded like Bart was quite a troubled person. Only 40 years old, Bart has been through a lot. Through their conversation, I learned that Bart was a US Army Ranger, and had broken or hurt almost any part of his body you could point to. He suffers from severe Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), his marriage is on the rocks, he recently lost his driving license and further was co-opted by the police to try to capture a wanted crack addict/dealer in the North Metro Area.

Bart's friend left, and he soon noticed that he had a roommate. He appeared friendly enough and started to tell me his stories directly, apparently without concern of the condition I was in. I was retold the stories I already heard with a more explicit detail of the problems in his marriage. His pain medication was working, and Bart became deeply annoyed with the concept of having to stay in the hospital. Bart mentioned to me that he would likely walk out of the hospital because he could not tolerate being cooped up.

Thankfully the nurse was aware of the stress Bart was beginning to cause me as well as the rest of the staff. The threat of him walking off or being unmanageable was enough to make them move him closer to the central nurses station on the floor. The move itself was uncomfortable as well, but I was very happy to have him out of my immediate surroundings. Bart remained in the hospital as long as me. He was still there when I left, last week Wednesday.

The story of both my roommates does not end quite yet. I soon found out that Bart was indeed moved closer to the nurses station, and in fact moved into the room I was first placed in...with James. I would never wish a bad situation on to anyone, but I thought it was somewhat poetic justice that both of my irritating roommates ended up sharing a room together.

As I was leaving the hospital last week, a "Code Blue" was declared. A patient had gone missing; Bart decided he could not handle his stay any longer and disappeared from the hospital ward without saying a word.

Labels: hospital