Al's Blog-o-Sphere

One thing about being in an unfamiliar place is there is a lot of anxiety associated with it. We do it to ourselves. We get worked into a tizzy over imagined things when there is no reason.

You hear things and see things in TV about “the big city” in general and New York specifically. But they play on our fears and are mostly unfounded. A couple of people get mugged and a city of eight million gets a bad rap because we focus on that.

One of the things that comes up as an insecurity of mine is finding things – places, services, stuff I need. Just because I don’t know off the top of my head, I get nervous when I need to locate something, anything here. And it’s all unfounded.

For instance, I needed to ship something home. Where do I do that? Anxiety. Relax. Research it. Got online, I found not one, but two UPS stores on a street that I had gone down on the bus that very day. Problem solved. How to choose which one? One of them is at an intersection where I can get off the bus, go to the store, walk around the corner and get on a subway line and ride it one stop the the hospital. It was actually easier than continuing on with the bus to the end and transferring to a second bus.

I’ve just got to learn to go with it. Let it go. Que, sera, sera. Continue Reading…

If you remember me complaining about the packaging of the food in the cafeteria, then this is a followup. I figured out how to deal with multiple items, you just put a food cover over the plate, then you can set another item on top.

Here’s my salad today, on top of the entree. I even laid a bottle of soda on it’s side and had room for Oreos too.

It seems the solution to the ultra-green box is a piece of plastic. Eco-freaks, you win some, you lose some.

Things continue to progress and improve. I just spent some time in Frank’s room and he’s in very good spirits, eating a second breakfast and reported that he had “pooped” Sounds silly, but after surgery, it’s a major milestone.

Frank says hello to everyone. I’ve been telling him a little about everyones well-wishes and all the work going on behind the scenes on his behalf. He has his phone and his computer, but I don’t know if he will be allowed to use it in the ICU.

Continue Reading…

Today was much the same, travel being a large preoccupation, with visits to Frank in betwen.

Maybe it’s because it’s all new to me, or maybe it just really is a big deal, but getting to and from the hospital is a large part of my day.I don’t think I’ve gone the same way twice, but at least I’m learning bits and pieces about getting around.

I got a little late start and didn’t get to the hospital until almost 10am. Frank was still eating breakfast. I remember oatmeal and apple juice. There were other things, all pretty normal food. Several doctors stopped by and spoke with us. They seem pretty happy. There have been som adjustments to medications – one pain med was switched for another because there was some sort of reaction, and something made him itchy, so he got Banadryl. But nothing serious. They are continuing to monitor his breathing and monitor the improvements. Every day shows more evidence of progress and the miracle this is.

About noon or a little after, I went to the lounge and sat there catching up on email, and Facebook. It really has been busy with all the people following what is going on.

For lunch, I decided not to fight the box lunch challenge in the cafeteria and went out to the Tasty Deli, one of our favorite places. I had my favorite, a Reuben Sandwich and enjoyed it.