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And any poor bugger that wants it can draw me fourpence a day
I have just gotten out of Mount Auburn Hospital after admission to their emergency room two nights ago, for reasons ultimately nonfatal and foreseeably annoying: I had gone for a routine procedure earlier that afternoon and there were complications. Seriously, I have spent many better days than the last few. I got more needles stuck in me than hours of sleep.
On the bright side, the night nurse at the emergency room was one of the most awesome people I have ever met in the medical profession. He had pins on the lapel of his lab coat for piracy and Miskatonic University, and a well-read paperback of Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! shoved into the pocket. He quoted The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. He looked not unlike Dave Davenport. And I had arrived at the emergency room with only Peter S. Beagle's Salt Wine, under the delusion that I would be there only a few hours, and inevitably ran out of book before they ran out of tests to run on me; so he lent me his Pratchett when I was transferred upstairs to the hospital proper and he went off-shift. I cannot describe the extent to which this improved the following day. (My mother presently showed up with four novels by Diana Wynne Jones that I had not yet managed to read, but that wasn't until nine o'clock.) I left it at the desk for him this afternoon when I was discharged, along with the only card I could find in the gift shop that did not feature either kittens or flowers, and should I ever have the misfortune to wind up at that emergency room again in the near future, I will make sure to grab a book to bring him in return.
But between this and last week's two traffic accidents, there's got to be someone I can sue for better karma.
On the bright side, the night nurse at the emergency room was one of the most awesome people I have ever met in the medical profession. He had pins on the lapel of his lab coat for piracy and Miskatonic University, and a well-read paperback of Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! shoved into the pocket. He quoted The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. He looked not unlike Dave Davenport. And I had arrived at the emergency room with only Peter S. Beagle's Salt Wine, under the delusion that I would be there only a few hours, and inevitably ran out of book before they ran out of tests to run on me; so he lent me his Pratchett when I was transferred upstairs to the hospital proper and he went off-shift. I cannot describe the extent to which this improved the following day. (My mother presently showed up with four novels by Diana Wynne Jones that I had not yet managed to read, but that wasn't until nine o'clock.) I left it at the desk for him this afternoon when I was discharged, along with the only card I could find in the gift shop that did not feature either kittens or flowers, and should I ever have the misfortune to wind up at that emergency room again in the near future, I will make sure to grab a book to bring him in return.
But between this and last week's two traffic accidents, there's got to be someone I can sue for better karma.
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I'm working on changing this!
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Hee. Thanks; both of you.
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Well. You haven't started to reek in the heat yet. I believe this suggests you are alive.
Ork.
*shuffles off, satisfied*
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That's about the way it works out!
*hugs* gladly accepted; thank you. And likewise.
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I am not in fact bothered by needles, but they are not usually so prominent in my life.
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We would ordinarily have gone to Mass General, I think, as my father used to work there, but Mount Auburn was the closest; and I had no real complaints about them. (Unlike, say, Deaconess Waltham or certain aspects of the Yale Health Plan . . . I cannot really hold Mount Auburn responsible for admitting a roommate who talked twenty out of twenty-four hours on her cellphone and fell asleep with the TV tuned to a car chase.) But all in all, I would have preferred to avoid the emergency rooms altogether.
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I'm so relieved for you. Bless his geek soul.
I was stuck once in an ER for fifteen hours with nothing to read. I worked out some cosmology on the back of an ATM slip.
Nine
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The actual doctor was also fairly awesome: Dr. Robert Shaffer, no idea if he was any relation. The night staff totally won for style. Also, for me not dying.
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Thank you. From your mouth to Asklepios' ears.
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After I told you to stay away from cars, you go and find yourself a bunch of needles. Jeeze. You're as bad as my friends down here.
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Next week, falling airplane parts . . .
(Points for your icon.)
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I wondered where you were... What a sucky couple of days. But how fortunate that you got the good geeky nurse.
We've found amazing places in Second Life. Steampunk loveliness. Free Victorian clothing...
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Yeah; I didn't fall off the planet intentionally. I didn't have internet access until this afternoon when I discovered a wireless network could, if I sat at the right angle on the windowsill, be pirated from the apartment building across the parking lot. But then I came home.
But how fortunate that you got the good geeky nurse.
He really, really helped.
We've found amazing places in Second Life. Steampunk loveliness. Free Victorian clothing...
Hmm. If my computer is up to it, I may have to spend some time convalescing in your company . . .
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I mean, I'm glad you're better and I hope you stay that way.
He looked not unlike Dave Davenport.
Yet another web comic I'm completely unfamiliar with. I am ashamed. Nice looking fellow, though, and I'm glad you had a good person for you there. He may one day be replaced (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17A3wD6Vx7g).
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I've been putting in petitions for years now; I'm starting to think they moved and left no forwarding address.
Yet another web comic I'm completely unfamiliar with.
It and Girl Genius are, I think, are the definitive mad science comics. And both very much worth reading.
and I'm glad you had a good person for you there. He may one day be replaced.
Don't forget the Automatic Hospital Visitor, Lonely Patients, For The Use Of.
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It's evasion of responsibility. Any god that signs a document for the care of your body tacitly admits to being responsible for failing to sign sooner. Politics are everywhere. Jeez, I'm blathery to-day . . .
It and Girl Genius are, I think, are the definitive mad science comics. And both very much worth reading.
One of these days, I'll actually finish reading a webcomic beside my own. I'm probably very self-absorbed. Well, no, I did finish reading several of Scott McCloud's comics, come to think of it . . .
Don't forget the Automatic Hospital Visitor, Lonely Patients, For The Use Of.
Heh. I'd never seen that show before.
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Thanks. Me, too!
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So very sorry to hear you had to go through all that, and even more glad you're better.
Glad the night nurse was awesome, at least.
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Thanks. I'm hoping to avoid any more medical weirdness this month . . .
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Adding my fervent hopes to your own for this.
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"I STILL ATE'NT DEAD."
—Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum (1998)
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Call--I'd love to chat with you this weekend, if you're feeling up to it. I dreamed this morning of meeting you and some others for a poetry reading by the sea, which slowly washed all of the chairs into the ocean.
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Thanks! I may well do so; I think my plan for today is to move as little as possible, and branch out from there.
I dreamed this morning of meeting you and some others for a poetry reading by the sea, which slowly washed all of the chairs into the ocean.
I think we should see what can be done about making your dream retroactively prophetic.
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They really don't bother me, but I don't need quite so many of them all in one day!
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Thank you! I'm doing what I can!
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You're awesome. Thank you.
Is this something manageable?
Yes. Antibiotics are my friend.
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Yeah. I am seriously owed some fantastic news in the next few weeks!
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Well, "Upon the Land, On the Sea" was just accepted by Flytrap.
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Very much appreciated!