PERSONAL NEWS #192

On Monday, January 3rd, I joined other “NYC Friends of Tolkien” members at Entwine in Greenwich Village to celebrate Tolkien’s 119th birthday. The 12 of us pretty much took over the back room of this charming establishment, which I came across by accident back in December. There isn’t much of a menu, but the wine and liquor menus were quite impressive. Plus, on Monday’s, one can get a bottle of wine for ½ price. We all had a good time from 6pm to 10pm. Timdalf brought LotR items [photo below] to dress up the space, and even a few other Entwine patrons joined us at 9pm to toast the “professor”.

Tuesday, January 4th, I participated in the Peace Alliance monthly conference call.

On Wednesday, January 5th, Kevin and I chaired the NYdoPeace board member conference call, and the main topic of discussion was on NY City Council R14. We were pleased to announce during the call that there are 3 new co-sponsors of the resolution.

On Thursday evening, January 6th, I volunteered with WCW at a panel discussion, which was held at the Brecht Forum. Richie and I tabled for WCW at the panel discussion and the main topics of discussion were on WikiLeaks, US state secrets, Guantanamo and torture. The guest speakers at the Brecht Forum [located at 451 West Street] were Andy Worthington [The Guardian], Leili Kashani, Pardiss Kebriaei, and Katie Gallagher [Center for Constitutional Rights].

On Friday, January 7th, I wanted to attend a panel discussion at All Souls Church on upper Eastside of Manhattan, but unfortunately had to work OT. Damn! The Peace and Justice Task Force presented … BACK FROM AFGHANISTAN: Report From Just-Returned Peace Activists … “We will hear from two members of a group of American civilians who have visited with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in Kabul and Bamiyan, the youngsters' mountain village 100 miles NW of the capitol.” The speakers were Kathy Kelly [American peace activist] and Eric Stoner [NY based freelance journalist].

Saturday, January 8th, I purchased some DVDs at half price from my local rental place. I picked up “Angels & Demons”, “Eat Pray Love” and “Wolverine”.

Sunday afternoon, January 9th, I attended the WCW holiday party at their office in Manhattan, and Andy Worthington was guest speaker. Afterwards, I headed back to Brooklyn to see “The King’s Speech” at Cobble Hill cinema. Brilliant film, stellar cast and I highly recommend it.

Tuesday evening, January 11th, I attended a panel discussion with my friend Stephanie on the topic of torture and the effects on the mind. How the US is seriously involved in psychological torture, not only in the US, but abroad. Questions posed were “what is the impact of psychological torture”, and “how has the use of torture impacted the standing of the US in the international community”? This panel discussion was held at the All Souls Church on upper eastside of Manhattan. Those on the panel were Pardiss Kebriaei, Bruce Knotts, and Dr Katherine Porterfield. Another snowstorm hit NYC area and started around 7pm that evening.

Thursday, January 13th, I attended, and participated, in the Brooklyn for Peace “Peace Fair Committee” meeting at Charlotte’s home in Carroll Gardens.

Saturday evening, January 15th, I went out to dinner with my friend Jackie down near Union Square. During a leisurely meal at a diner we caught up on news. Afterwards we did some shopping at B&N, Forever 21 and Max Brenner chocolates. The latter is part restaurant and shop with a delicious variety of chocolate confections, as well as quite popular with the younger NYC generation and even some tourists.

On Sunday, January 16th, I went out to a delicious brunch [Enid’s decor below] with my good friend Gail in our neighborhood. We exchanged gifts, and did some shopping along the avenue.

Tuesday evening, January 18th, I volunteered with WCW at their national office, and assisted with assorted data entry.

Friday evening, January 21st, I joined other ladies at the weekly Friday Nite Knits group in Kensington.

Jan 24 to 25, stayed home from work on Monday and Tuesday, as I was feeling very unwell. Thought I may have had a low grade fever and bronchitis. While home I watched the whole LotR extended film trilogy on DVD, plus was on the internet a lot.

Jan 25 to 28, after seeing my lung specialist on Tuesday afternoon, and getting a chest X-ray, he informed me that I had Pneumonia and Bronchitis in both lungs. He sent me home in car service, so that I could pack a few things, and then had an ambulance pick me up to take me to NY Methodist hospital in Park Slope. Before the ambulance showed up; I made phone calls to my friend Gail, my parents and the office, plus left a message on FB. Midway ambulance showed up after 6pm. Darin and Brian took good care of me on way to hospital, plus I had to be put on oxygen, as my breathing wasn’t so good. We arrived at the hospital’s ER around 6:50pm. Was in ER for about 3 ½ hours; during that time I registered, had my vitals taken, gave them the X-rays, drank juice/water, talk with doctors, bathroom break, plus IV of meds was started. At this time I lost my voice and could only speak in a whisper. This continued for the remainder of my stay in the hospital.

At 10:30pm I was brought up to the 7th floor in the south wing of the hospital and my bed was next to the window. My view was of the intersection of 8th Avenue and 7th Street; as well as a school and two apartment buildings. I shared the room with an elderly woman who talked to herself, and snored loudly when she slept, which was a lot. Across the hall was an elderly Russian woman who talked to herself and imaginary people a lot. All of this very loudly. Plus, she always gave the RNs and other staff a hard time. Not sure what ailed her physically, but it was obvious she had issues mentally. Needless to say, with these two forces against me, and utilizing earplugs, I wasn’t going to get much sleep.

I begged my RN [Olga] to find me something to eat, as I was sooo hungry at this point, and hadn’t eaten since 1pm. She did find me some goodies, which I ate slowly, so as not to over tax my stomach. The RNs work in 12 hour shifts; usually 8pm to 8am, and then next shift from 8am to 8pm. Dang, that makes for a long day! The other issue was dietary and working with the nutritional rep on my needs. I clearly stated no meat, no salt and no dairy. Juggled with different takes on Vegetarian and Kosher, plus what I couldn’t eat, well, I just left it on the tray. When I was in the hospital back in August 2008, I remember the food being quite nice. Not this time around as I could tell right away that it wasn’t that good. The nutritional rep said due to the economy that the hospital had to downgrade to a less expensive service.

On Wednesday I watched the snowstorm develop throughout the day into the night. No doctor showed up, and I inquired about it, plus I was put on a Nebulizer 3 times that day, as well as some meds at night. I also put on my bathrobe and walked the halls for some exercise and see what else was happening on the 7th floor. South 7 was definitely jumpin with activity. Back at my room I would occupy my time with knitting, needlepoint, read my book or just look out the window while the storm raged on. Kathleen replaced Olga during the day shift and she was a terrific RN. That evening Meleka took over and she was another nice RN. I tried to sleep that night, I really did try, but with the snoring and whaling, well, at 1am I just gave up as my nerves were too frayed.

I took to wandering the halls and watching the snowstorm out of different windows. Around 3am I begged Meleka to please find me another room, and she got right on it as she saw how upset I was. Lack of sleep, nerves on edge, plus being unwell made me a weepy individual. Not good! By 8am Kathleen was back and she managed to find my doctor. He claimed he couldn’t find me in the hospital. Whatever! Was put on more meds and told around 1pm that another room was found for me. Hurray! Around 3pm I was moved to another room on the same floor. My bed was near the window looking down on 7th Street, and my roommate was a much quieter, nice older lady. Amen! The RN in this area wasn’t that good, seemed more into socializing then tending patients, and I was glad she went off duty at 8pm. Throughout Thursday I continued to do needlepoint, knitting or read to take my mind off things.

For the remainder of my stay in the hospital; my RNs were Beruka and Vilma. Both were very good RNs and attentive to their patients needs. I was able to sleep abit Thursday night into Friday morning. I was so thankful for that. The good news on Friday was that, my condition was stable and I wasn’t contagious anymore. As of Thursday morning I no longer needed to be on oxygen and my breathing was improving. Had two more discussions with the doctor, he called in my meds to my pharmacy [which Gail picked up on Saturday], and said I could go home that Friday evening. Hurray! He also called and made an appt with my lung specialist for Feb 1st and stated clearly no going back to work. The hospital arranged, and paid for, car service to take me home and I arrived at my humble abode around 8:15pm. I spent the rest of the weekend recovering, taking meds, eating my Vegan food, being on the Internet, etc, etc.