Vague Wisdom

For those who don't know, loracs is in the hospital with cellulitis. We thought she would be home tomorrow, but her infection is being obstinate. They are trying other antibiotics and she will be getting a CT scan to see if there's some underlining cause for the infection. She is obviously worried as am I. I've had cellulitis on countless occasions, but my infections have always responded well to antibiotics. She is at the new Kaiser Hospital in San Leandro if you would like to visit.

Last night, almost 24 hours ago I passed out. loracs and I were coming back from a movie after having eaten Thanksgiving dinner. I had some gastric distress and felt pretty tired. So I asked loracs to put me to bed. I went to the bathroom, but still wasn't feeling so good. I had her put me to bed and roll me on my side half way onto my stomach. So I could try to squeeze out the Hindenburg of gas still in my intestines.

My head was on a pillow and my nose was a little stuffed, but I felt fine. She put the blanket on me to keep me warm and the sheet fell over my face. I knew it was there but it didn't seem to obstruct my breathing and I only planned to be laying on my side for a few minutes. I thought about asking her to remove the sheet, but I honestly felt fine about leaving it there.

loracs went to the study to give me some privacy, and I got to work. After a while, I started having trouble getting my breath. I wasn't scared, it wasn't a big deal. It was just uncomfortable. So I called loracs. No answer. I called louder and still no answer. I kept calling trying to get louder, but I started feeling like I couldn't breathe at all.

I tried to calm down. I tried to concentrate on breathing, but I didn't feel like I was getting much oxygen. Pippin, my dog, jumped on the bed and did what she usually does which is go get loracs. At least I think she went to loracs. I did hear her bark, but Pippin has been barking more lately because we are doing some home remodeling and she doesn't enjoy all the changes. I tried one more time to call loracs and still couldn't call out loud enough. Things started getting blurry and darker. I felt my throat completely close up. The last thing I remember thinking was: What a stupid way to die...

The next thing I knew, there were three big burly guys in my bedroom asking me questions. "Do you know who the president is?"

"Obama?" I answered.

"How old are you?"

"55"

"What year is it?"

I turned to loracs because the answer wouldn't come immediately. She shrugged waiting for my answer and then it came to me. "2013"

The answers seemed to satisfy them. I noticed every breath I took improved my mental state. Turns out they checked my O2 and it was at 92%. 95 to 100 is what I've been told is normal. I already felt like my O2 level was going up. After my bout with pneumonia years ago, I have some experience with these things. The paramedics wanted me to go to the hospital. They checked my heart and it seemed to be functioning normally. I tried to tell them that, because of my disability, I was unable to move my head when my airway got obstructed. I think they thought there was some other cause but I was pretty sure there wasn't.

So I'm fine now, but it was scary. loracs said when she came to check on me I was blue and unresponsive. She dialed 911 and tried to get me to react. She was just getting ready to try what she remembered of CPR when my eyes opened and I seemed to start breathing. I don't remember any of this. I really only came to after the paramedics got here.

I'll call my regular doctor after the holidays just to double check, but I'm feeling physically normal and only periodically freaked out for a minute or two.

loracs is blaming herself and I feel like if she is at fault, I'm at least 50% at fault as well. I thought about telling her to move the sheet, but it really didn't feel like it was obstructing my breathing, until it started obstructing my breathing. It was an accident. A scary accident. I'm certainly glad she was here to revive me.

loracs and I went to see a staged reading of The Drunken City by Adam Bock (some may know him from Shotgun Players). We started the evening by getting dinner at a new (to us) restaurant in Castro Valley called Genghix (or Genghis, there seemed to be a little confusion between their sign outside and how the name was spelled on their receipts). A really nice restaurant friendly, quick service amazingly fresh sushi. I enjoyed their tonkatsu, very tender and tasty, but I sort of wish I had ordered the lamb chop. I tasted some of loracs's and it was really good. We will be going back there.

After dinner we headed for the Morrison Theater (a part of the Hayward Recreation and Park District). To see The Drunken City which was light and funny. There were a few dialogue bobbles especially in the second half of the play. Some of the jokes depended on some fairly specific timing which they pulled off sometimes and other times really didn't. Of course that kind of thing is difficult in a staged reading, but the first half of the play was very tight. The second half just didn't live up to the polish of the first half. Neither of us liked the decision to keep the house lights up. The light on us was very distracting, but we had a very good time.

The theater itself was just barely accessible. The only place for a person in a wheelchair to park was at the back of the house and I can't imagine more than four wheelchair users attending a show there. Except for the entrance to the theater there seemed to be steps everywhere. Clearly a theater designed and built before that ADA. Still, we had a wonderful evening.

Lookie what my sweetheart did! loracs's Cool Picture! How neat is that?

Late last month loracs took me on a wonderful surprise date. The Riverview Lounge was a funky little place that catered to seafood. I'm sure I would have enjoyed the food there more if I had ordered seafood, but I was in the mood for steak. I ordered a steak sandwich. Which wasn't my best move. It tasted alright, but was very chewy. I ended up not finishing it but had a lot of fun looking at the restaurant decor and out their huge windows to the San Joaquin River. After dinner loracs wanted to take pictures. The light was beautiful and the weather was surprisingly warm even toward the evening. I had a really nice time there. Now that would have been a wonderful day all by itself. I certainly didn't need to do anymore, but then loracs took me to see Paula Poundstone! She's been a favorite of mine for years. She's one of those performers that seems completely natural on stage. Her demeanor is casual and conversational. It always feels to me like we're just sitting at a table over dinner and she's just talking.

The theater we went to had great seats. The wheelchair seating put us maybe six or seven row from the stage. However it's not a big theater. I feel like just about any seat would be acceptable. I don't think there was any really bad seats. The theater is a refurbished vaudeville theater. It is a pretty, but not beautiful place. It felt comfy to me.

I think loracs enjoyed herself too. I haven't seen her laugh quite so much in a while. It was such a thoughtful gift and great day.

My house has a pretty large backyard, especially by SF Bay Area standards. We were also bequeathed lots of trees back there. Most of which we ended up getting rid of, but we did keep several fruit trees. Our plum tree has been going crazy this year. loracs brought in several plums to show off and serene lit up with the idea of canning some. So it was off to Longs for canning stuff. We didn't find all we needed at Longs, but eventually we got it all. For awhile our kitchen was transformed into a canning factory extraordinaire with all four of our stove burners going. I think we bit off a little more than we could chew, but serene did manage to fill 23 half pint jars of golden yellow plum preserves.

I didn't do any of the heavy lifting, but I am a fine cheerleader and fire watcher (got to make sure all the flammable items are far away from the burners don't you know). I'm indecently pleased at eating things that have grown from my own backyard. Even though I did nothing to deserve it. I managed to grab my new favorite Jamba juice drink; a chocolate, peanut butter and banana concoction that I can't seem to get enough of lately, while out buying equipment. If that wasn't enough, serene also made some kind of Spanish fretata (sp?) thing (or perhaps you would call it a potato eggs and cheese omelette) that I got to have for dinner. I really liked it. I started the day with bacon and coffee made by loracs. Watched plum preserves being made from my very own tree. Watched a little Battlestar Galactica and Buffy on DVD. Slipped in and a little long-overdue TMI. It is good to be me today.

There's nothing like a few dozen dishes falling out of the kitchen cabinet to get the old heart a pumpin'

I guess a shelf gave way. I was reading the slush pile for 42 Magazing and it sounded like the house was coming down around my ears. Everthing is fine except loracs she lost some of her Xmas dishes. :( Fortunately none of the dishes of her mother's were lost.

I came down with cellulitis yesterday (actually Sunday evening). I'm on antibiotics already, thank you on-call doctor, 24-hour pharmacy and especially my sweet, sweet loracs. I was disappointed because I had been feeling so physically strong earlier that week. Anyway, as often happens in my life along with the truly sucky stuff, there is a little good. I had managed to horn in on serenejournal and leback's lunch date yesterday. We were originally going to go out to eat, but as is often the case with cellulitis and antibiotics for me, the first few days make me very weak. So I wasn't up for going out to eat. I tried to "un-horn in" on the lunch, but they both decided to come over to my place. serenejournal made what I was told was a very tasty polenta. I tend to shut down when I'm sick and only really felt like drinking coffee and having a peanut butter and butter sandwich. We spent a truly lovely afternoon together. leback even brought me some peanut brittle (a favorite of mine). My joke for the afternoon was, "boy do I know how to show a woman a good time". Since the last time I saw leback she visited me in the hospital during my attack of pneumonia. The next time she sees me I'm down with cellulitis. I am a party animal!

It's hard to believe I've done anything for 25 years, but today it appears that I have. For 25 years I've lived with a truly talented, beautiful, brilliant, amazing person. loracs and I signed our first lease. She's seen me at my worst and hopefully at my best. We have built a life that I'm very proud of. For all these years, the good and the bad. I love you so very much. I'm very lucky. Thank you so!

For those who don't already know, loracs gave birth to a bouncing baby gall bladder yesterday (or was it the day before yesterday?). I think she's in a little bit more pain than yesterday, but she's home. Thanks to serenejournal we have both eaten well, slept and it almost feels like we're back to normal.