Volunteering

I finally heard back from Ethos about volunteering with old people. They suggested Ruth from Roxbury as their most in need client but again, once I accepted the offer she was  uncontactable. This could  mean that everything is well with Ruth but could also have more negative implications as she could have been waiting for up to six months for urgent financial assistance.

Anyway, next on the list is Richard from Blue Hill Avenue. Interesting I was reading an article on this area in the excellent local free listings paper The Boston Phoenix which described the problems festering in this neighbourhood. Regular readers will remember the Mattapan murders in which four people including a 2 year old were shot dead recently but this is just the headline grabbing incident among many shootings in the area.

In fact a look at the Boston Murder Map illustrates the cluster of shootings that blight the area. For those of you unfamiliar with Boston's geography then just find the centre of the area with the greatest density of red dots and you'll find Blue Hill Avenue.

So next week I'll be off to visit Richard who's blind and lives in a sheltered housing development. I'll be sure to take along my BlackBerry and will be uploading the best shots just as soon as I make good my escape.

Happiness

I think by the time you're grown you're as happy as you're goin to be. You'll have good times and bad times but in the end you'll be about as happy as you was before. Or as unhappy. I've knowed people that just never got the hang of it.

Ellis - Cormac McCarthy - No Country For Old Men

Global Culture

Our flat is really very small so when Peta is having a little difficulty with her work I like to afford her some time for contemplative reflection by getting away from the accompanying huffing and puffing. Were I a native of these parts I would probably make my way to Dunkin' Donuts and enjoy a watery coffee with my chubby pals, go bowling or shooting elk but as it is I have no recourse to such conviviality as I have no friends within a 5000km radius.

As it is I go to the library which I think I've already mentioned is the nicest place Peta has been to in the US (mind you that was before we went to see the baseball at Fenway Park). I was looking through the shelves of recently returned DVD's when a skittish woman with long dreadlocks approached the information counter to my left. 'Do you have...I'm looking for...can I order...I'm sorry. Hetty Wainthrop Investigates? Do you have it? Season 2. I watched season 1 but I've been waiting for all time for season 2.'

The librarian explained that the DVD was on order but there were fourteen people on the wait-list in front of her. Fourteen! Can you believe it? Recent release movies like last year's Oscar winner, The Hurt Locker, are just sitting there but Hetty Wainthrop Investigates is in high demand.

Having given up on Hetty the woman asked whether they had Doc Martin, series 4. I didn't even know they'd made four series of Doc Martin let alone that anyone would want to watch it. It was also out and was overdue by about three weeks which either means that the borrower cares not about the dime a day late fees or has laughed themselves to death at Doc Martin's hilarious post wedding scrapes.

All clear

I had an appointment at the Oral Surgery department at the MGH this afternoon and they report that the swelling has gone down and things in my mouth are looking pretty good.

They also removed the wick which means that I no longer have blood and pus draining into my mouth which will come as something of a relief to Peta I imagine.

Dr Ok phoned me on my way back so all I need to do now is schedule an appointment for him to either finish off my root canal or whip the bugger out and we should be able to get back to non-dental topics.

Oral Health Update

Not quite the holiday snap I was expecting to be uploading as we approach the end of the first quarter of our stay in the US. This was taken last Wednesday in the fast track emergency department  at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. I don't really know whether 'fast track' really means that they thought I needed treatment faster than the average emergency patient or whether it's just a label they use to make the patient feel that they're being taken seriously. I wondered whether it's the Premium Economy of hospital care.

Anyway, after feeling much better on Tuesday night after the first operation I was rather disappointed to wake up on Wednesday morning feeling unbelievably awful. I phoned Dr Ok and outlined my symptoms; feverish, cold sweat, shaky, nauseous, run down and he suggested that I come down to see him at the Harvard Dental School. I explained that there was no way I was going to get there on my own. I was finding it difficult to get out of bed and even on the previous day when I thought I was quite well I had missed my stop twice on the subway. He then consulted with his colleague and recommended that I should go straight to emergency at MGH.

I waited for Peta to come home, she called a cab and we started the extensive triage process that they have to assess the extent of the problem. The last man I saw wanted me to choose a number between 1 and 10 to describe the level of pain I was in. This was the closest I came to breaking down as I tried to explain that I wasn't in any specific pain, I just felt awful. Understandably he wanted me to evaluate the level of this awfulness for his form but eventually saw my distress and gave up muttering, Fast Track, to one of his colleagues.

Dr Merrl saw me next and recommended a cat scan and blood test to see what was happening with the pockets of pus in my face. When the nurse came to see me I was quite surprised when rather than just taking a blood sample she inserted a cannula into my arm and left it there for the saline drip she attached soon after.

This set alarm bells ringing. This was the opposite of the delight I felt on the previous day when the doctor used the words, 'life threatening', 'acute' and 'immediate emergency operation' in one sentence. I felt validated, I was sick, I'm not a malingerer. To see a saline drip being utilised made me think that I wasn't ill at all, that I'd just not been eating and drinking properly which was true. I felt the pendulum of public opinion swing away from one of  pity to one of disgust and I wished again for some more visceral outward sign of the pain and discomfort I had been feeling over the past week or so, more blood, a gaping wound, bandages, just something more than the Don Corleone type swelling under my chin and on the left side of my face.

And worse was to come. I started to feel great, the saline drip had worked and I was now being wheeled on a trolley down to the CAT scan room. 1. I never needed a CAT scan I needed a drink of water and a banana. 2. How much does a bloody CAT scan cost?

But once you're on a hospital trolley it's hard to get off both literally and otherwise so I decided that I'd stick it out and try to learn something from the experience. Luckily the porter was not waiting for me when the scan had finished and the machine operator was very happy to educate me. Computerised Tomography apparently, 'tomos' being the Greek for cut, it takes pictures of you in slices. It also whirs and clunks just like in the movies.

The porter turned up and took me back to emergency where my bed had been taken by someone who had been in a car accident and who claimed on the phone to her employer that her foot was as big as her head. It wasn't, it was a big as her other foot but she didn't want to go to work after writing off her (boyfriends) car and that was fair enough.

Eventually nice Dr Tagoni and his yarmulke wearing assistant came to prepare me for my operation which mostly consisted of explaining the dangers (temporary or permanent loss of tongue sensation was the most interesting one) and getting me to sign waiver after waiver. What he didn't explain was that it would hurt quite a bit but I suppose that's the doctors prerogative and, to be fair, he did give inject quite a bit of local anaesthetic with that horrible big silver plunger thing they have.

So, 100ml of pus later we saying our thank-you's and goodbyes and Peta and I returned home at about 10.00pm, roughly seven hours after we were fast tracked.

Heartfelt Thanks

Dear Readers

Thank you for your thoughts, the flowers, the cards. I feel most humbled.

Apologies for the lack of health updates which I know many of you have found most distressing, the responsibility of maintaining this blog could be a burden upon my shoulders were it not for the loving kindness of this community which sustains me through me these dark days.

Wednesday night at the MGH

Peta and Chris' pus out on a Wednesday in the ER at Massachusetts General Hospital. It appears they didn't quite get it all yesterday after all. He was a student, I imagine I misplaced 100 mls of something or other when I was a student too.

Back again tomorrow to check up on the drain (charming), it seems to drain into my mouth which seems a little vile but a colostomy bag hanging from my ear would perhaps be worse.
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