I was visiting my dad in the hospital (nothing major) and a nurse came into the room to see him. She asked if I was his brother!
Should I be insulted? But when I think of it, he looks younger than his age, so maybe it was a compliment to him. I’ll take it that way.
It reminds me of when people ask women if they are pregnant, or when are they due, and they aren’t even pregnant!
Category Archives: health
He’s being held prisoner
The Health Care system in our country is the worst – but that’s no secret.
Last Saturday, we brought my father to the hospital. He had hurt his leg. About three weeks before he fell and ignored the wound and after awhile, it got infected. So we, or I should say, one of my brothers drove him over to the hospital. And he is still there! They are keeping him captive, it’s like he is in prison.
When they arrived, they waited 12 hours for a bed, there’s a bed shortage in hospitals all over the US and today, over a week later, he is still taking up a much-needed bed, because of incompetence at the hospital and the insurance company.
I won’t name the hospital or insurance company, but the people there are idiots and the insurance company would rather pay for his over-a-week stay at a hospital than pay for a wound vac, which is what he is waiting for. He should have gone to a better hospital, one our family has used for years, but he said he wanted to go to somewhere closer to home. But this is maybe 10 minutes closer and he wasn’t in an ambulance, it wasn’t an emergency, he didn’t need to go to the closest place.
I went yesterday and tried to speak with his case worker at the hospital, who was in hiding and refused to come out of her office. All the nurses on that floor lied to me, to my face – telling me she was busy, she was on the phone, she was in a meeting – she wasn’t – she was just avoiding me and the situation. At one point I heard someone say, “Get security,” meaning, throw me out of the hospital!
I can get loud, but I wasn’t loud, I was just insistent and demanding. I had many legitimate questions.
Finally the case worker came and said the wound vac would arrive yesterday afternoon and he would go home, but that was the story for the past week. Nothing came, he is still there today. I don’t believe the case worker is working on the case or pushing to have him receive the wound vac and have him released. I know hospital workers are overworked these days, so maybe that’s her attitude – pure exhaustion.
It’s so frustrating thinking that he is perfectly healthy and could be at home while his leg heals. But he’s stuck in a bed. Every time I go visit, the bed next to him is taken by a different person – those people are in and out, but he lingers.
Bed are scarce during this time of pandemic, is it any wonder when they are giving beds to people who don’t need it?
He is in prison. It is literally as if he is jailed. He isn’t hooked up to any machinery, he is just there – in bed, taking up space. Waiting.
I won’t go there today, I get too upset, more than he apparently is; my brothers and other family members will visit. But it’s such a foolish thing – he is just captive. What really bothers me is that this it the hospital where my mother and brother died. I want Dad out – released today.
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Getting back to normal
I finally decided to get back into shape. For most of my life, I would say since high school, I’ve worked out with weights at the gym and at home, but mostly at the gym. But since the start of the pandemic, I have not been back to the gym and that’s been bothering me.
It closed and never reopened and I can’t find another gym that I like. So I’ve been putting it off.
I tried the workout bands, and those are great, but still, I can see the loss of muscle and weight gain.
My slap in the face, the turning point, happened when I needed to fit into a suit last week. The pants did not fit! I’ve been a 31 inch waist since high school, but I needed a larger size – 33-34, and that didn’t sit well with me. So I decided to get weights and workout at home.
I had put that off because I live in a condo and I wasn’t keen on having the weights drop on the floor, but I think I can manage not to do that. Also, I like going to the gym, I like the whole routine from getting up early in the morning, the socializing and the actual workout. But since my rude awaking last week, I realized I need to workout now.
I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods and looked around, but they didn’t have the sets I wanted, the things I had seen online. I did pick up the weights in the store and try them out and boy, did that feel good, but another rude awakening was that I could only lift half the usual weight!
Luckily muscle has memory and I plan on getting back into shape real fast.
I ended up purchasing adjustable dumb bells online. They have these sets where with the turn of a button, it changes the weights and you just life the bar up which will then consist of the weight you want to lift, so there’s no screwing on different plates to adjust the weights. I’m really looking forward to this.
I was concerned about the delivery driver having to life all that weight, but I guess since they sell it, they must be used to delivering it. So today, my new weight set arrives and I can maybe start to get back to normal!
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Kayaking (beaching and boarding)
One of my friends bought a new kayak. It’s a blow up one. I never saw one like that before. Seems like a rubber raft to me.
He is coming over this week and we are going kayaking. I live on the bay, so we’ll launch from out back.
I told him that we have a few kayaks in the backyard that belong to neighbors, and anyone can use them, but he insisted on buying his own. He didn’t actually buy it, he won a gift certificate from a sporting goods store and decided to get the kayak with the certificate.
I haven’t been kayaking in years. For so many years I was in the ocean or bay almost daily. I kayaked, paddle boarded, swam and just hung out at the beach. Even when I was younger and was supposed to be working, I would get home and my mother would say, “Why do you have a tan? I thought you were at work all day!”
Some days I would just go out to the beach, have lunch, and then get back to work, other days I would spend all day out there. But it was almost a daily thing for most of my life. I need to get back to that.
I took this picture today, it’s a still shot from a video I took of a guy paddling by early this morning.
I’m working on getting back in shape for the summer. Actually for the rest of my life. Hopefully this and all pandemics will be a thing of the past. This kayaking and eventually paddle boarding and swimming should get me back in shape. Time to lose the pandemic weight I gained.
Stay tuned!
This is one of my favorite comics I did in February.
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Frank
I tend to use certain characters over and over again. One of them is Frankenstein, or should I say Frankenstein’s monster. I used him and his wife the other day in this health care cartoon.
Whenever I use him in a gag, I call him “Frank,” and there is always someone who has to correct me and tell me he is Frankenstein’s monster – Frankenstein is the doctor. I know that.
But what would I call him? If he is Frankenstein’s monster, do I call him “Monster?” I think it’s nicer to call him “Frank,” which is short for Frankenstein’s monster.
But I have to always crack up that people always seem to have the need to correct the name. But of course, having people engage with the comic and discuss it is always a good thing.
One lady called him “Lurch,” getting her “monsters” mixed up.
A good exhaustion
So my friend who visited from NY is on a plane on his way home as we speak. I miss him. But I’ll see him in a couple of months when I go to NY so that will be fun.
But let me tell you something. If you haven’t gotten back to your after-pandemic routine, you know – back to normal, you may be in for a rude awakening.
I like to think I am in good shape, but after not doing much for the past year and not going to the gym, let me tell you – I am beat after everything we’ve done. It’s almost as if I need a day off in between our outings.
He said to me yesterday that I seemed very low-key, not down, but very quiet, “low energy” are the words he used. He said I wasn’t like my usual lively self. He was right. I was exhausted from all the walking and site seeing and other things we did. We had a cool/cold winter here and now the heat and humidity is starting to kick in so that takes a lot out of you. And not having done much exercise or walking in the past year makes a difference when you walk nine miles a day in the heat and humidity!
But it feels good. It’s a good exhaustion, like when you do a hard day’s work and you feel you’ve accomplished something. That’s how I feel.
The after effects of the vaccine
So I got the side effects from the Moderna vaccine, which sort of makes me happy I didn’t go up north for the funeral. But I am also surprised, as I never seem to feel pain. What I mean is that I have a high tolerance for pain, a high threshold.
I’ve had a tooth pulled and gotten pain killers, but never needed the pain killers. I have had other things where I got pain killers but never needed them. So I didn’t think I would feel the side effects.
I didn’t get chills, but I did feel cold all day and I wore a sweater. I didn’t feel feverish, but I did feel drained. I was weak and every muscle in my body hurt. I was totally out of it. I didn’t leave the house and tried to sleep a lot of the day.
The good part is that this is an indication that the vaccine is working.
I have a friend in town from New York. Luckily he is at a hotel and not staying with me so he is off doing his own thing today and did yesterday. We hung out the other days before that. But at least I’m not putting a drain on his vacation and he’s finding his way around to the beach, Everglades, etc. He tells me he is like a kid in a candy story while visiting Miami for his first time.
Tomorrow we are going to do some touristy things together.
Traveling in the time of covid vaccines
My aunt passed away in New York the other day and I am unable to attend her wake and funeral, and ironically it’s because of her! She is a second mother to me and my cousins are brothers and sisters to me, so it really hurts not to go.
But I got my second vaccine shot yesterday and the nurse suggested I don’t travel in case of side effects. My aunt insisted, she called it nagging, that I get the shots. I said I was not old enough yet, but she insisted and I managed to go. She kept checking up on me – “Did you go yet?” “Which shot did you get?” When is your follow-up shot?” She was so instant.
She just couldn’t deal with being cooped up in the house for a year, so she was so looking forward to normalcy.
So when I mentioned at the vaccine site that I was trying to get a flight to NY, the nurse suggested I don’t. She said, “There may be side effects with the second shot and I don’t think you want to be up in the air or away from home if this should happen.”
I normally would ignore this, but a few years back I had kidney problems, which ended up being kidney failure, only I didn’t know a the time. And the night before I was to leave New York and head home, I really got sick. The next morning, I don’t know how I made it to the airport and onto that plane. I remember waking up and not knowing how I was going to get out of bed, I still don’t remember getting to the airport, but I remember feeling like death on the plane, wishing we were home already. So that thought creeped into my head when the nurse mentioned the issue and I decided I don’t want a repeat, even though they would only be side effects.
I ended up in the hospital for eight days with kidney failure, but that was a few years back and I’m perfect now – that’s another story.
But back to that trip. When I got to the airport, I ran into a friend Jerry, who was on my flight. So we sat together at the terminal waiting for the plane and as he was talking, it was going right through me. Everything bothered me – voices, the light, etc. There were two or three nuns sitting nearby who were talking and their voices were driving me crazy, too. I always remember that – and they were nuns – how loud could they be chatting?
A couple of years later, I told Jerry about it. I don’t think he knew I was sick at the time. I said, “Jerry, remember that time we were at the airport together?” And I went on to tell him how everything he did and said went right through me.
He laughed and said, “Well, I thought you were in trouble. You looked so bad and you smelled awful! I could barely be around you.” He went on, “I thought you had gone to NY for a week or two to do drugs or something! That’s how bad you looked and smelled!”
I said, “That’s funny, because why would I leave Miami, the drug capital, to go to NY to do drugs?”
Then when I read up on it, I saw that if you have kidney failure or problems, your urine and other toxins excrete from your pores. So I really must have smelled awful at the time! I was too out of it to notice others on the plane, but they must have been shunning me. Which reminds me of another story.
Years ago, when you could actually move around the plane, I was sitting next to a guy who smelled so awful, I couldn’t stay next to him. I got up and moved my seat back some rows. I left my carry-on bag under the seat but I just picked myself up and moved. He kept looking back, wondering where I had gotten off to, but I just couldn’t stay near him. I was young and nervy then and had the gumption to move, I don’t think I would do that now, or even be allowed to do that now.
But anyway, I won’t be going to NY for the funeral. I am sure my aunt would understand. I did send a big thing of flowers and I sent sympathy cards to everyone separately, rather than just one for the family and I’ve been in touch with my cousins and uncle via phone, text and email. It is going to be a tough thing when I visit in the summer, though.
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Shots are coming
This is yesterday’s cartoon. I wasn’t sure how it would be received, would people like it? And lo and behold, people seemed to like it.
I overheard someone say this the other day and thought it was funny, and for some reason, whenever I read it or hear it, it makes me laugh.
But perhaps this is a good idea for those who are hesitant to get the vaccine – a jello shot in exchange for an arm shot. In this case, many people may opt for the two shots, rather than the single Johnson & Johnson shot.
It is an exciting time, just the thought of travel has me excited.
The new normal?
Today’s cartoon reflects something that may be happening in the country; maybe the world. I haven’t seen it personally, but they started talking about it on tv. People who have been vaccinated have an air of arrogance and superiority. And maybe they should.
I got vaccinated yesterday! I hadn’t planned it, I’m not of age yet and I’m not a front line worker, but I got a note from my doctor and I made an appointment at Publix. I tried other places; hospitals and such, but I ended up at Publix. Ironically, I ended up at my family’s Publix. What I mean is the one where I grew up and went to as a kid and where my parents still go. It’s only four blocks from their house! The appointment just popped up and I grabbed it when I had the chance.
I got there early and there only ended up being three of us there – a lady and a man and me. We were in and out fast and it went well. We joked about seeing each other in a month for our next shot. “See you, same place, same time.”
Publix didn’t ask for ID or the doctor’s note or insurance card or anything, which seemed strange, but I guess it’s all about getting people vaccinated more than the paperwork and other stuff. I heard they are opening it to almost everyone now and it’s really going well. When President Biden said there would be 100 million vaccines in 100 days, I doubted that, but it’s happening, we are almost there!
I stopped at my parents’ house for breakfast after my first shot and I’ll do it again after my second shot. Happy that I am on my way to normalcy.
A good friend of mine is against vaccines, I don’t think she has ever been vaccinated in her life. I mentioned that I had seen articles that said in the future if you don’t have a vaccine, you may not be able to fly. I think some airlines in Europe started that rule already. My friend is not happy about this, but that could be the new normal. There is talk of digital “travel passports” now, for domestic and international travel.
I didn’t mind last year, I am glad I experienced it – all the changes in the world, etc. But I think it’s time to get back to normal now. The new normal. Whatever that is.
Tomversation 