Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Christmas comes early. Thanks me!

The morning started, once again, at around 4:30 a.m. I was awoken by the screams of my roommate Danny, who was having his catheter pulled out of his penis by Hanoi Jane and a Jamaican nurse named Evelyn, who kept saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. This must be painful." Having been there myself I can say, "Yes! It is! You sadistic bitch!" But when it happened to me, I was lucky. When mine was pulled out, I had anesthetic. Danny wasn't so lucky. What was even worse was when they tried to stick a new one in. They tried to force it as Danny screamed and screamed. Finally, after a half an hour, they finally gave up and decided to send him to the Emergency Room. The medics showed up about three hours later, and Danny was gone for most of the day.

Today was the first day that I got to really use my arms in therapy since getting off sternum precautions yesterday. It has been seven weeks since my heart surgery and I haven't been allowed to lift more than five pounds with my arms this whole time. I practiced using the sliding board getting to/from my chair and onto one of the padded tables in P.T. It came surprisingly easy. While on the table I did various leg exercises until I was absolutely beat.

After lunch I received my Christmas presents to myself. I got the Doors' "Live At The Matrix" on CD, deluxe editions of Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, and Notorious, and The Who: Live In Kilburn 1977 on DVD. Call Of Duty: World At War for the XBOX 360 and three NY Times Crossword Puzzle books (1, 2, 3). NHL09 (Another video game) and a deluxe version of Pavement's "Brighten The Corners" will arrive separately. I played the first level of Call of Duty and it looks like hours of fun (killing German and Japanese soldiers). The game doe not skimp on blood.

I think my friend Paul will be receiving his Christmas presents from me any day now, and perhaps, visa versa. Paul and I have been exchanging Christmas presents for more than fifteen years. Except when I worked in the UW Physics department, and had a boss who was most generous a Christmas time and my birthday, Paul is the only one I exchange presents with. We spend a pretty healthy amount of money on each other. Usually around $50. We both have "Wish Lists" at Amazon, so we know that we are buying presents for each other that we would buy for ourselves. At least this makes me feel I am participating during the holidays.

I am pretty tired right now. Therapy was exhausting today but I feel good about it. I might not walk soon but I should be able to get in and out of the chair soon. There really isn't anything on TV tonight unless I watch NCIS or House. Dinner should be here soon, but I am not going to eat it. They say it's "Beef Pot Pie" but it's not. I've had half a Burger King Chicken Sandwhich and half a bag of Mini Chips Ahoy.

Before I sign off I want to thanks my friends "The Cello Girls", Rachel and Ruth, for reading my blog. Peace.

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