September 2007 Archives

errrRRRRR...CRASH!

This is what I heard about 30 minutes ago, right outside my apartment. Click the picture to view the set of pictures I just took from the crash. They were taken with the camera's night snapshot feature. They aren't the greatest, but they at least show something.

Somehow a cab hit a car with a family of four in it. The baby seemed completely unharmed, uninterested even, but the older girl (about 10 years old) was completely shaken up. What's more, she seemed to only speak Spanish and her father was too busy with cops and such to help his traumatized kid out. People rushed around to help as best they could, though. Even I pitched in by getting the father to get off his cell phone long enough to talk to his daughter.

It was a strange turn of events. I was impressed that the firefighters were there within five minutes, and the cops and ambulance within ten. I've heard some stories of people not getting aid for serious incidents for one hour or more.

There is now a "reply" option for comments, so if you want to reply directly to a particular comment, just click that comment and hit the reply link.

Well, it's been a while since I have said anything. A few things have happened since I last blogged. One, I went to a retreat for cancer patients and survivors last weekend where I ended up being the only guy. Two, I since have pretty much lost my voice to a very bad cough caused by something that has to do with the operation. But last things last. Last night I was in more pain than I have ever been in my life.

As you know, I am supposed to be eating small portions about six times a day. But sometimes when you eat and it causes pain, you shy away from food. I think it's normal, even though it isn't good. This is what happened yesterday morning when I decided to eat some Quaker oats (apple and cinnamon). As a rule, I have this with milk and not water, but since milk and I haven't been getting along that well, I decided to use half milk and half water as some sort of compromise. We're talking half a CUP of milk. I might as well have had a litre. It was painful, but not that bad. I lay down for an hour or so, and then I was fine. But I didn't eat again until 9 pm.

1 greenback = 1 loonie (Click image)

North American currency coming soon?

This is an email I received from a good friend about yesterday's ride to work in Ottawa. An interesting commute? You could put it that way. Here is the description word for word. NB: He and the SHIFT key had a falling out many years back. SHIFT just seems to rub some people the wrong way, I guess.

get comfy.

so i am driving to work today, 9am. nearing the end of my daily commute, there's a point where i need to get from the right lane to the left lane in order to hop into a left turning lane at an upcoming intersection.

it is a 'procedure' i've executed without incident every work day for the last 6.5 years; signal left, merge left with traffic, signal left again and hop into the turning lane wait for the turn signal and bingo bango bongo you're through the intersection. yes, it is a complicated procedure, but i'm quite a good driver.

historically, most drivers understand that sometimes, at intersections, people need to turn left. also, this is a particularly busy strip with heavy traffic in both directions, two lanes each. so it's not trivial at time but since 51% of all turns are left turns, drivers are generally pretty respectful.

generally, but not today.

cruising along at a whopping 25km/h, i initiate 'the procedure' in moderate traffic volume. signal. check the requisite blind spots, see an opening thrice my car length and merge.

almost.

i was about halfway across the lane and this pontiac mini sedan (we'll call it PMS) in the left lane didn't take kindly to the fact that i wanted to merge into an available space in front of them, so they accelerate... and lean on the horn. more horn. more horn... sitting right on my tail pipe. more horn.

i am now fully in the left lane thinking that by leaning on the horn as such, PMS was merely requesting that i acknowledge their kindness for not rear ending my car, so i did the respectful thing and wave (yes, mockingly and probably much longer than i should have, but f@!k i really do hate honking).

the honking then stops and I proceed to jump (now travelling a mind boggling 10km/h) left into the turning lane as we approach the intersection, where the light is red. *sigh* this has been the most interesting commute to work, to date.

game over, right? wrong.

This picture was taken last night around 8:30 pm (Click to enlarge. Warning: popup.) You can try to describe how I look in this picture. No matter what you describe, I'm sure it won't include words like "happy" or "healthy". In fact, I am neither in this picture. I am miserable these days, and this morning I figured out more precisely why. I am 173.5 pounds. I am not been this light since high school; not even my last year, but maybe my second-to-last year. (By the way, does anyone reading this have any familiarity with OACs, or Grade 13? 80s and 90s young Ontario, represent!)

As I type this, I feel nauseous. I really feel in danger of vomiting. I am trying to eat two packets of Quaker Oats. It's good, a little too sweet, though. I've eaten half of it so far. It doesn't look as though it will get finished, as much as I want to finish it. I feel weak and a little dizzy. I really need to keep this food down, not just because I need the nutrients, but because puking is very very bad for someone with innards like mine.

This morning I woke up at 5 am with major back pain. You see, I cannot lie all the way down because the bile and stomach acid will travel to places where they shouldn't. I don't have a valve to prevent this anymore, you see. I need lots and lots of pillows propping me up. I can't lie on my sides, either, because I am still sore. I actually did try to lie all the way down, which resulted in severe, groaning pain for several long minutes. Bad idea jeans.

Last Tuesday:

Since then I have gained about six pounds. I am coming back. By the way, these should be considered "before" pics. Give me a year and we'll see what I can do.

Feel like hell today. That is all. For the moment.

UPDATE: I have uploaded more photos from the hospital stay. Check them out here.

Actually, I've been back at home since late Thursday afternoon, but a problem with the Internet has prevented me from being online until now.

It is hard to express how much I appreciate how all of you have been during my hospital stay (which was harder than the pictures would suggest), but I will try.

Rose: I left you in charge in communications and I must say, that's one of the better decisions I have made lately. I won't forget how you deftly managed the email list and the blog during those ten days, and how you kept everyone in the loop.

But far more importantly, you kept my head above water. On those days and nights where I wasn't sure how I was going to make it to the next (with my mind intact, at least). You provided the right touch when I needed it, you said the right things, you encouraged me and loved me. Everything you did and continue to do had a love element to it that you don't find just anywhere. I hope that I can have half the strength you did when you face a similar hardship. I couldn't have done this without you.

You see a changed man, who not only has a new, now working stomach but a new face, devoid of the tubing that gave him the look of an elephant. As of today, he also had his precious epidural line removed. He can still get shots of morphine, mind you and he will but, the line that was threatening to get infected had to go. That means his level of pain has changed and Jonas has to adapt to feeling what was previously numbed, especially on his side where he had a thoracotomy (opening of the rib cage) that is stapled all the way from the front to the back.

Friends have started to come in and this is the best thing for Jonas. Alone, he is not very motivated in doing things like exercising and can be in a somber mood. As soon as I appear, we do some chest physio which involves clapping with cupped hands on his back. I have never been so happy to see large blobs of mucus noisily come out of someone ' s mouth. That is what clapping sessions are supposed to bring out and it works.

He is just so amazing. Yesterday, it looked like Jonas ' recovery would be slowed down for at least a few days when the left lung crumpled. During the couple of hours in surgery last night, a big plug of mucus was taken out and the lung returned to normal while the thorax was still being drained. The digestive tract is perfectly sewn up, no air leak. The doctor does not know where that air came from but, Jonas slept while in the recovery room and, in a complete turnaround, look at him today afternoon: