Ok, now where was I? And is this all that interesting? Not sure. But again, I blog more for my own "remembrance of the things past". Heh. When we checked out on Sunday, we took an Allstate drive to Queens again. The elderly couple had not yet returned when we arrived at 4ish, but we were allowed in because naturally there are other guests living in that house. The older gentleman that opened the door was a tall, Anglo man who started speaking to me in Mandarin! Yeah gather my surprise. But I've come to find out- there are a lot of people who speak more than one language there, and conversationally too! Apparently he also spoke some Creole. I sat in the living room, slumped over, and unbelievably drained for some reason. More hours in waiting, while my mother scurried about to the nearest pharmacy for my necessary pill pick ups. Seriously, this mother of mine did way too much work these past weeks. I am not about to take advantage of it either, I know, I know, I was recovering so I shouldn't be so harsh on myself, 'sides she's my mother right?
By the time the couple arrived back at the house it was nearly 7. Then we get the news that Sister Yeoh is unwell and that she had started to feel unwell since the previous Wed. Uh oh. We need to move again. So after a bout of calls and haranguing we were sent to Harlem. With yet another older Chinese woman. There was hassling with the travel arrangements-we couldn't very well take the subway with me just having gotten out of the hospital and all the darn luggage to boot, so one of the brothers (who's lived in NYC all his life) was (and pretty much more coerced I think) set to take us in his compact car to the city, yet again. By this time it was 9:30. It took us another hr and a half to actually get there. All the streets were closed off. The place was located in this weird off street. But we had the scenic route of 5th ave, Central Park, the Metropolitan Opera House (where the brother worked), some crew filming late night (some mention of Sex and the City perhaps)... The place where we stayed was right next to the Harlem Hospital. It was a nursing home, but for a nursing home it was quite nice. She lived on the 6th floor and paid a fixed rate of $168 a month.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
It was Saturday estimated time 5pm on flight 1485 nonstop to Ft. Laud
The summary of these past 2 weeks have been frenetic, harried, and downright bizarre in some sense. I feel as if I have been floating really. It could also be all the drugs I had intravenously coursing through my veins just as well though. (Not to mention- other pills to be taken orally-incl. more antibiotics, steroids, nexsium -can't spell-but helps with the stomaching of steroids, some pain killers too-they prescribed Vicodin and now acetaminophen with codeine... seriously I say all this, but I hate pills.) Anyways, onwards ... But I've come to realize that being in another city (and now blogging about it, yawn - bored, cliche, i know) thousands of miles away from the familiar-is well, not altogether unfamiliar actually ( maybe i need to go to somewhere like Istanbul or something, yea that might be it, anyways, i detract). Some points to mention. I've had the most minimal interaction with technology in these past 2 weeks. No internet connection. No television. No newspaper. Hell the last day I was leaving , I didn't even know the Pope himself was in town. Only later riding in the cartel and seeing all of east side being barricaded did we find out. Oops!
I spent most of Monday, April 7th taking the AirTrain from JFK to Queens and awaiting the arrival of supposed brother X . I spent three nights with a 92 year old Chinese grandmother and her husband in their grand estate of a home in the Jamaica Estates ( I kept seeing a stream of people coming in that lived there, I never did find out how many floors there were in that house, sheesh!) It was conveniently located next to the church in Queens. I ate mostly leftover Chinese food those first days. My main point of venture was on Tuesday, the 8th. I boarded the F subway train from 179th Hillside inbound to Manhattan. Along the way of walking to the subway station I had a woman yell at me for passing her on the street. These kind of things happened quite frequently. Once I boarded the subway - it was pretty smooth sailing. That day I ended up walking mostly. Passing by the south side of Central Park through Time Warner and Columbus Circle. I met Dr. Levithin again, paid my $350 chump change and walked down the block to my next appointment at Roosevelt Hospital on 10th Ave with Dr. B. There I sat in the amassed waiting area for nearly 4 hrs (they usually saw the kids first) Quite a bit of yamaicas that day too. When I saw Dr. B I had the reassurance of my embo/angio treatment on that upcoming Thurs. I met the whole staff - Susie, Michelle, Emma, Trevor, Millie... Wonderful caring people. I left the hospital around 5:45. I went down the street to a bento box type restaurant and ate like a ravished dog. $10! However, my outing for that day was not over as I had promised Abs a Kinokuniya visit. I ended up walking extra miles parallel to the street I meant to be on. I retraced my steps and by the time I rerouted and found the place (right next to Bryant Park) it was like 7:15. Oh yeah and in the midst of all of this, I accidentally turned on 42nd only to land smack in the rush hour traffic mayhem of Times Square. smart. Continuing... I stayed at the store until almost 8 PM -closing time. I managed to scare the bejeebus out of sister Yeoh (and she missed the meeting). I ended up on her doorstep like almost 9 PM and because of this misadventure I decided not to venture out at all on Wed. I opted to sit and wait on my mother's arrival to NYC. When she arrived I set the alarm early on Thurs. I kept waking up every other hour that night. We woke up, got dressed and got to the hospital on time. I was kept in the holding area until almost noon because there was a baby in the Radiology room having a double procedure. But 'twas okay. I was wheeled in and sedated. I woke up in recovery with the worst abdominal cramps of life (probably because I didn't have a proper poop session earlier). But the nurses attended and gave me something for it. After a bit of time I was sent upstairs to the patient room. Drifting in and out of consciousness with the hum of the machines and IV.
---- >>
I remained in the hospital -not entirely bed-ridden, but practically, for the next 3 days. I had a great view of luxury lofts outside my 8th floor window. The patient next to me in block A had a tumor removed from her spine. She had this crazy situation where she had to use a straight catheter to make herself pee, because her nerves had not yet "woken up" around that area. What a bummer. Her husband and her were artists. She of the designer corporate type and her husband the sensitive painter. The nicest people ever! She even offered us a place to stay -since she lived like 20 blocks uptown. My goodness. Days spent in the hospital were not altogether too bad. Hospital food was the same ol' bland-ol'. Nurses came and changed shifts - some were more attentive than others. My mother opted to stay by my bedside for all the days I was in the hospital. Poor thing! Such an uncomfortable place to be for days I tell you. I was to be discharged on Saturday, but because of our hospitality situation (they were out of town until Sunday) I wasn't released until Sunday afternoon-much to the dismay of the day shift PA. ... to be continued
I spent most of Monday, April 7th taking the AirTrain from JFK to Queens and awaiting the arrival of supposed brother X . I spent three nights with a 92 year old Chinese grandmother and her husband in their grand estate of a home in the Jamaica Estates ( I kept seeing a stream of people coming in that lived there, I never did find out how many floors there were in that house, sheesh!) It was conveniently located next to the church in Queens. I ate mostly leftover Chinese food those first days. My main point of venture was on Tuesday, the 8th. I boarded the F subway train from 179th Hillside inbound to Manhattan. Along the way of walking to the subway station I had a woman yell at me for passing her on the street. These kind of things happened quite frequently. Once I boarded the subway - it was pretty smooth sailing. That day I ended up walking mostly. Passing by the south side of Central Park through Time Warner and Columbus Circle. I met Dr. Levithin again, paid my $350 chump change and walked down the block to my next appointment at Roosevelt Hospital on 10th Ave with Dr. B. There I sat in the amassed waiting area for nearly 4 hrs (they usually saw the kids first) Quite a bit of yamaicas that day too. When I saw Dr. B I had the reassurance of my embo/angio treatment on that upcoming Thurs. I met the whole staff - Susie, Michelle, Emma, Trevor, Millie... Wonderful caring people. I left the hospital around 5:45. I went down the street to a bento box type restaurant and ate like a ravished dog. $10! However, my outing for that day was not over as I had promised Abs a Kinokuniya visit. I ended up walking extra miles parallel to the street I meant to be on. I retraced my steps and by the time I rerouted and found the place (right next to Bryant Park) it was like 7:15. Oh yeah and in the midst of all of this, I accidentally turned on 42nd only to land smack in the rush hour traffic mayhem of Times Square. smart. Continuing... I stayed at the store until almost 8 PM -closing time. I managed to scare the bejeebus out of sister Yeoh (and she missed the meeting). I ended up on her doorstep like almost 9 PM and because of this misadventure I decided not to venture out at all on Wed. I opted to sit and wait on my mother's arrival to NYC. When she arrived I set the alarm early on Thurs. I kept waking up every other hour that night. We woke up, got dressed and got to the hospital on time. I was kept in the holding area until almost noon because there was a baby in the Radiology room having a double procedure. But 'twas okay. I was wheeled in and sedated. I woke up in recovery with the worst abdominal cramps of life (probably because I didn't have a proper poop session earlier). But the nurses attended and gave me something for it. After a bit of time I was sent upstairs to the patient room. Drifting in and out of consciousness with the hum of the machines and IV.
---- >>
I remained in the hospital -not entirely bed-ridden, but practically, for the next 3 days. I had a great view of luxury lofts outside my 8th floor window. The patient next to me in block A had a tumor removed from her spine. She had this crazy situation where she had to use a straight catheter to make herself pee, because her nerves had not yet "woken up" around that area. What a bummer. Her husband and her were artists. She of the designer corporate type and her husband the sensitive painter. The nicest people ever! She even offered us a place to stay -since she lived like 20 blocks uptown. My goodness. Days spent in the hospital were not altogether too bad. Hospital food was the same ol' bland-ol'. Nurses came and changed shifts - some were more attentive than others. My mother opted to stay by my bedside for all the days I was in the hospital. Poor thing! Such an uncomfortable place to be for days I tell you. I was to be discharged on Saturday, but because of our hospitality situation (they were out of town until Sunday) I wasn't released until Sunday afternoon-much to the dismay of the day shift PA. ... to be continued
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