zen.org Communal Weblog

This morning I had a followup eye exam; instead of being pushed, one of the nurses walked me to the other ward (same floor), which was a nice chance for a little further exercise.  The eye doctor said they’re healing well, and that she definitely sees improvements over last week.  Hours later I still hase massively dialated pupils, reminding us of the Simpsons episode with Mr Burns looking stoned.  I’m tying this with still-blurry vision, but I can see it *just* enough to say most of the words intended.

As a change, this time I wore a face mask over my mouth and nose down to the eye doctor.  (Apparently I really should be wearing these any time I go off the ward for other stuff.)  It wasn’t the most pleasant experience; breathing in got nice clean air, but then exhaling filled the mask with warm air.  Since it took a while to do the examination—after dialation drops, had to wait a full half hour to have them really do their job, apparently—I ended up going for about an hour and a half with the mask.  It made my tummy a little upset; not serious nausea, but enough to make it unpleasant.

Hearing that the eyes are healing was really gratifying, but it didn’t take away from the satisfaction when I was able to go back to my room (this time they had a porter come to offer to walk with me, but I was totally fine being pushed).  As soon as I got back to my bed, off came the mask, and I lay down and rested for a little while, probably doing a bit of a nap: the whole experience took a lot more energy out of me that I’d expected, in contrast to the energy level I’ve felt for the last few days.  Knowing I feel better now, I think my initial experience with wearing a mask, and having it be for so long, really took it out of me.

Warrior Needs Food Badly

Relatively late in the afternoon, I managed to eat my lunch (actually really good, on contrast to most hospital food).  Lots of apple juice helped, too.  That was a bit past 2; ironically, dinner at around 4:30-4:45 means I’m probably not going to be particularly hungry for dinner (“tea”, the “dinner” comes at 12:30pm, Ireland is confusing sometimes, even if you’ve lived here for more than ten years).  I managed to eat my full dinner (tea) too, implying my appetite was still there.  Since this hunger for dinner was a bit of a surprise, I’m noting that I’ve still got two great oranges which E brougcht in from the Punnet in Glasthule.  Even out of season, their fruit & veggies are spectacular.

Numb3rs Still Holding

The white cell count numbers haven’t gone up yet.  It’s no big deal; after another day or two, if they’re not doing it, the doctors will use the growth stimulation (mentioned a few days ago) to encourage while cell development.  They’re confident with either approach; we’re just looking for how the numbers play out tomorrow and probably Wednesday.

On the plus side, my red cell count is staying at a good level.  This means the cells are humming along, and that any small discrepancies are, according to the doctor, being replenished even a little bit.

No more blurry typing. 🙂  The nurses say I still look stoned.

Each morning and evening, I get little plastic cups with a variety of medicines in them.  One has a horrid-tasting liquid (same as the reaction of children to most cough medicines).  Another cup has a few pills in it.  They also give a small sleeping pill to help settle the night’s rest.

Last night, all I got was the sleeping pill—the doctors decided I no longer need the others.  And this morning, where there would normally be 4 or 5 different pills, they only gave me two. Good sign!  Yesterday, they want to start reducing the number of antibiotics I’m receiving.  I think they have confidence in my body’s defense systems so far—I hope it proves itself strong and up to the task.

Made it through all 90 minutes of the game last night; stayed up until 9:45pm or so to watch Ireland win.  Then crashed. Well, after the ritualistic check of my blood pressure, oxygen level (which they read with a little thing that harmlessly clips onto your finger), pulse (same clip), and temperature.  The do the same again at about 2am.

Listening with Gadgets

Elana sync’d my old iPhone to load up a bunch of podcasts (some suggested by friends).  I’m enjoying “No Agenda” with Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak, along with some other bits like NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.

A friend Nic loaned me a tiny iPod Touch with a wild mix of music loaded up, most of which I’ve not heard before.  I’m enjoying most of it, and find myself puzzled by some. 🙂  The iPod Touch is clipped onto the back of the old-fashioned Sony Walkman for listening to the radio.

Irish Tradition

We’re given the opportcunity to have tea multiple times during the day.  I’ve started asking for apple juice instead at the mid-morning and mid-day offers.  It just seems like a better idea for my system to be empowered by vitamins from fruit juice, as oppposed to tea.  (Even with its caffeine benefits, since caffeine would reportedly help increase my natural cell production.)

This morning, a lady came by asking every patient, “Good morning, would you like to receive holy communion?”  I hadn’t noticed the small cross on her blouse.  Not necessarily a multidenominational hospital; I imagine the vast majority of the people in the hospital are practicing Catholics.  (Well, except for the guys in the beds around me, at least.)  She was very nice, and took my, “No thank you” with courtesy and moved on.

It’s Nearly All Star Wars Legos

The boys were able to come in for a little bit today.  Fun conversation, and fun to watch them.  They brought a Star Wars Lego Encyclopedia (I think) with them, and they each went back and forth pointing out what they’ve got or what they want.  We finally put the book away to encourage them to tell me about what they’d done over the week. 🙂  At one point, Patrick asked out of the blue, “How do you get leukemia?”  I said I don’t know, and we don’t know how I came to have it.  That seemed sufficient for him, but it’s interesting to wonder how his 9 year-old’s mind is processing all of this.

Written Word

E brought in a book for me, and a copy of Discover magazine.  I’m interested in seeing how different it’ll be to read printed words versus those appearing on the computer screen.  I also wonder if my eyes will be less tired trying to read, or if it’ll end up feeling the same.

Between the book, magazine, and my efforts to play Sudoku, I’m covered on the non-gadget front too.

Closely Knit

Today Elana gave me my first lesson learning how to knit.  This is big, since I’ve never even considered touching it before.  I cast on, sorta, and managed to knit a few rows, sorta.  We’re going to try again tomorrow; I think I need to understand it a little bit more, but I know from today that I can do it—I just need to try more. 🙂

My hair’s begun to fall out.  Well, some falls out, but more to the point I found it’s simple to pinch a bunch and it just comes out.  (Cuz of the Chemo.)  Today Elana borrowed a great hair trimmer from a friend, and also brought in our beard trimmer.

With the help of the nurses finding big green plastic bags to collect the hair on the floor, Elana did a great job trimming my head down with the #2 setting on the trimmer.  Apparently I look like an Army recruit, sans the uniform or gear.  The hair on my head is greatly reduced, so t least the volume of what’s still coming out will be less dramatic.  Same for trimming the beard.

Had a nice shower after that, in which some more hair opted to go swimming, but overall it wasn’t quite the dramatic experience I was expecting.  It just looks like I went to the barber and said I wanted to have a summer buzz-cut to make it more comfortable.

Keep Healin’

Another positive visit with the doctor this morning.  They (consultant doctor + team of like 3 or 4 other doctors) are happy with how things are going well.  Since I’ve now gone a number of days without a fever, they’re going to start taking me off the antibiotics and see how that goes.  She said the absence of a fever suggests my chest infection is going away, if not yet fully gone.  Next week the’re going to be watching my numbers looking for them to go up.

I don’t know how long it’ll be until I actually get out, but she said once I was, I’d be out for a week or more (depending on the delay of getting me in on a bed—apparently they’ve got a waiting list going).  Then I’d come in for a 7-day chemo treatment cycle, in contrast to the 10-day chemo I received at the start of this month.

No Gym at the Hospital

I’ve lost some weight recently, down to about 82kg (approx 179lb) from 85.5kg (189lb) when I started.  I’m trying to make sure I eat more for each meal to see if I can counter that.  e.g., I asked for a yogurt to have after dinner tonight (aka 4:30-5:00pm).  One theory the nurse has for my changes is that I’ve been retaining water over the last week or so, and having expeled a decent amount, the weight difference appeared.  I’ll probably meet with a dietitian next week about how to fix it up a bit.

They track everything; I keep a running list of what I’ve had to drink.  Since I was last asked (every few hours), I’ve had a glass of water, one box (189ml) of milk, and a cup of tea.  They use these numbers to try to match the volume of output—in the bathroom we each have the equivalent of a big plastic measuring cup which we’re to use for pee instead of the toilet.  I’m curious how they resolve discrepancies—e.g., they found I was outputting more than I was taking in, but I’m not sure how easy it is to do that.  (Aside from messing up my list-keeping.  And most of you know how I thrive on that. 🙂 )

Yesterday a physiotherapist came by to check my chest (fine) and also answer some questions I had about what sort of exercises I can do.  They’ve given me a sheet with a Physiotherapy Exercise Programme (Irish spelling), with six specific things to do—ideally all of them each day, but only if I feel up to it.  Things like raising and lowering legs, standing up on the tip of one foot, etc.  A lot of it is similar to the physio I got as part of recovering from the twisted ankle/strained ligament I got over the summer in Maine when I stepped into an invisible hole in the ground in the woods.  Anyway, this morning I did a few of the exercises, which felt really good.  Movement seems so much better that staying stationary all the time.

Staying Amused

Tonight Ireland’s football team is playing at 7:45pm against Macedonia.  I’m hoping I’ll have the energy to stay up and watch it. 🙂

In the interim, E brought in a Sudoku book we have.  I’m going to try doing some of those on paper, and see if there’s a difference in how my eyes feel compared to spending long periods of time reading email or writing.  (I’ve got a Sudoku game on my Aldroid mobile phone, but my eyes get tired after playing for about 15-20 minutes.)  I have a hunch regular paper will prove much more accommodating.  (Now if only I felt as comfortable writing on paper as I do typing…)

Stayed up til past 11pm last night, as an experiment.  Was woken as normal at 6am for my blood draws, which means I probably won’t try to stay up that late again. 😉  Kinda tired this morning cuz of doing it.

Good visit by my doctor this morning…my fever has been holding off for a decent bit.  There’s a system called growth stimulation of white cells which they were considering for me, but since my numbers have been behaving properly and the fever has held off, they don’t think it’ll be necessary.  She believes I’m doing really well.  She did say the stable absence of fever may only go for 4-5 days and then could return, but we’ll see how things progress.

I had a chest X-ray at 8pm last night, but they’ve not yet had a chance to compare it against the one I had a week or two ago.  Based on what I’m feeling, I expect them to see the infection has reduced itself.

No IV next to my bed right now, and no tubes.  I expect it to return for doing platelets and then regular blood transfusion, but for the moment I’m free. 🙂

Eyes still improving, ever so slowly.  I know they’re much better than a couple of weeks ago, that’s for sure.  I’m just waiting patiently for them to be able to focus together.

Can’t believe how much water I drank yesterday.  I’m usually putting still water into my cup  from a set of 500ml bottles.  In contrast, yesterday what they found for me was a full 2L bottle.  When I saw it, I was skeptical about the sheer size of it.  But, somehow, I finished it off and moved on to another 500ml bottle.  Needless to say, I had a few wakeups to go to the bathroom during the night.

My IV isn’t doing fluids as much, in part because of the amount of water I’m drinking.  I’m also getting two potassium tablets which I put into a cup with about a 1/2-cup of water to make it dissolve.  (Like the Vitamin C ones we use at home.)  Potassium’s the other thing the IV usually did.

There’s a television mounted in the ceiling just past the end of each bed.   They have it set up so you can plug headphones into the wall next to to your bed to have it on without the others around you listening to your show.  BUT, the 3mm headphone jack next to my bed appears to have been pushed into the wall, so no such luck.  (S’ok, if I turn on the news or something I just keep the volume down at a reasonable level.)  I asked male Nurse B to  submit a request for it to be fixed, which he said went in fine.  (That was around Monday, I think.)  Hope they fix it before the weekend.

Not a big appetite for lunch, though I’m saving the two oranges for later.  Did a little nap his afternoon, which I think helped a bit.  Also ate an orange, at E’s encouragement, which had come with the lunch and that apparently made a big difference in how I was behaving and how I looked.

Had a headache this morning which wore off a bit, but didn’t go away.  They have me some meds which have really helped.  Yesterday, I had a stronger headache I believe happened because of looking out the doors at one end of the hall at the bright light in the sky.  The afternoon was another, which could have been the same, or may have been a side-effect of a bottle of cola and chocolate bar which I tried.  (Reportedly the caffeine can contribute to bone marrow growth.)

The head’s improved now, with only a small echo of a headache.  I’m being careful and limiting my laptop screen time since that’s making my eyes work really hard.

Have a chest xray at about 8pm tonight, which will hopefully show further improvement to the chest infection which was seen there last week or the week before.  It would’ve been now, but I’ve got a blood transfusion going which has about 2 hours yet to finish.  Glad I’m not too eager to sleep. 🙂

I had a great visit by *both* boys this morning; Thanfully, Elana was able to get them in (despite horrid traffic) for a little while before having to get them to school a little late.

Like any 9 and 4 year old boys, they’re not always sure what to talk about, but they’re able to share information when prompted and volunteer random unsolicited information, too. 🙂  But the best part is just seeing them being themselves, interacting, talking, et al.  We’re unsure how often I’ll be able to see them (maybe not again for couple of weeks or more), so I’ll relish the visit for a while.  I’m wearing a “Happy St Patrick’s Day” pin badge given to me by Patrick, which I’ll keep on for the day.

My fevers have been improving a little … last night I got a small one, and started to feel a little cool, but in contrast to say a few days earlier, I didn’t have the shaking shivers and chills.  I’m hoping this trend continues.

Had blood samples taken at 6am this morning, like normal.  Amazing how much blood they’ve taken out of me over the last few weeks!

My radio routine in the hospital is starting to take shape, mirroring the habit I use while working at home.  Morning Ireland on RTE Radio1 starts the day til 9am, then I switch over to Radio Nova 100.3 for awesome music for an hour or so.  Then I switch to listen to Tom Dunne on NewsTalk 106 from 10-12.  When Tom’s done (ha ha, apologies to Tom), switch back to Radio Nova for the rest of the day.  This doesn’t mean I actually listen to the radio this much here—it’s just the pattern of time and station choice.

Just head that Michael Stipe of REM composes songs on his mobile phone.  Some time ago Bono lost (?) a laptop with lots of lyrics and such on it; I wonfer if Michael S had any sort of encryption on his phone?  A decent password?  (The intelligent thief would open the phone up and get the memory card out of it to put into a stronger reader.)  I’m sure he’s well aware of the risks and has some way to protect his work.

Looks like a beautiful day outside; I’ve got the window blind up just enough to be able to see the bay (sitting up in bed), but keeping the bright sunlight from straining my eyes.  I like the diea of the boys being able to play outside and a) have lots of fun being outside, and b) expel tons of energy so they go sleep early and for a long time. 😉

Listening to “Morning Ireland” on Radio One using the Sony Walkman.  Easier than trying to “watch” the news on the TV, and I came to the realization that I’m getting all of the information in audio form.  With the TV version, they use the display for part of the content, which means I’m only seeing part of what they’re putting up there.  How funny, the innovative nature of the Walkman when it was first introduced and yet it still functions well as a product decades later.

They did a blood transfusion at around 6:30am this morning cuz I didn’t have a fever, and still don’t.  Woo hoo!  It’s seemingly random when I do or don’t end up with one.  This morning made the better choice. 🙂

Got another eye exam  this morning.  The doctor said there are two things which can cause my conditiion, either the leukemia or the chemo combined with the white cells.  He said mine was the latter, which was good because that case will heal itself.  (Confirmed again!  Yahoo!)

While waiting for the eye exam, I had an interesting chat with a 60-something guy sitting next to me.  He had very strong opinions about how hospitals and doctors’ offices still can’t seem to schedule anything properly (his words), yet they still call you in/bring you in for a particular time.  He’s got a plan on how to analyze the performance of patient visits to come up with a predictible model which could be used to mre accurately schedule appointments.  He could make a fortune creating a business service specializing in this, particularly if he could make it within 10 minutes’ accuracy consistently.

The test results of the Friday probe were fine, with some further followup tests due to double-check their findings, but they expect them to come out okay too.

It’s hard to catch, but I’m finding my eyes are slowly—slowly—improving.  I can see some things a little bit better than I could like a week ago.  Didn’t really start comparing until today.   If I cover my right eye, my left I can see the LG brand name on the bottom of the TV suspended from the ceiling.  I wasn’t able to do that last week.  I don’t know how long it’ll take, and still have issues with the eyes being able to focus, but that’s reportedly part of the process.  I can see Obama on the news, at least intermittently.

Had a long wait for an MRI (they want to be able to have a specialist further verify that things are/will heal up properly relatively on their own as part of th natural process).  I forced myself to walk around so I wouldn’t conk out, but boy did that drain me.  I may go to sleep relatively early and let them wake me up when it’s time to do the blood transfusions (two of them tonight).

While inside the MRI unit, they put big headphones over my ears—playing Radio Nova, the Dublin rock station which I would play all day long while working at home.  Woo hoo!  I have a hunch they tailor that particular thing to each patient. 😉

I’ve been given the challenge to drink eight ups of water in a day. If I can maintain that, they don’t need to hook me up to the IV for fluids.  I’m going to give it my best shot.

Tonight I’m going to try playing Pyramid, a game E and I alternated playing recently.  Better than listening to much more news, I think.  The goal is to get rid of pairs of cards which sum up to 13; no card card be sitting on top of one to remove it.  An alternative to Solitaire (or could even be a variant of it, actually).  All of this from an awesome book E gave me for my birthday a couple of years ago: Ultimate book of Card Games by by Scott McNeely.

P.S. As ever, apologies for any typos, grammar errors, or misspellings; it’s difficult to copy-edit beyond a certain level with the WordPress interface.  At E’s suggestion, I’m going to try to composing in an actual word processor next time and see if it has a better interface.

Nini.

Got a sleep-in til 6:30am this morning.  Woo ho!  Night went pretty well.  Was up til nearly 10 waiting for my temp to go down enough so they could hook up the further blood transfusion.  (So much for my sleep-by-9 plan)  But I didn’t have to stay up—could’ve gone to sleep and they’d wake me up when it was time, but I wanted to challenge myself having already gone longer than I could’ve imagined.

Breakfast each morning presents you with these choices: porridge (a frequent for me), corn flakes, rice krispies, or a couple of single-boxed cereals whose-. names I forget.  You’ve the option to get a piece of rbead (white or brown) with butter and a package of jam.  If you’re interested, you can ask for a cup or two of orange juice.  That’s about the extent of it.  And the ever-present cup of tea.  (Though coffee co an option, I have little confidence in the quality of the coffee I’d be receiving. 😉 )

(As an aside, I’m typing this into GNU Notepad++, the best Windows text editor on the planet [if you’re stuck using that OS cuz that’s what’s on the laptop you’re using and will stick with til after all of this, at least).  I tried to add the spell-checker support, but after a few contortions I’m giving up.  The integration with GNU Aspell is found lacking—it needs to be fully automated, and not rely on the user do something independently and then restart the editor.)

A little less pleasant

One of the many inelegant side-effects of Chemo is the diarrhea.  Sometimes seveere, other times just “more solid”, shall ne say, it’s still frequent enough to make your lower half get a bit unhappy.  They’re given me two products to try to help with this: one is called Clini San Emollient, which is a gentle soap-free foam to try to clean and sooth the skin which is feeling burned by the frequency and strength of each episode.  The other is Zinc & Castor Oil Ointment, similar to the nappydiaper-rash cream we used with the boys when they were tiny.  Combined, these two things sure make a difference.  This experience is odd … they can and have given me Immodium in the past, but I get the impression that it’s in my best interest to let my body do its own thing rather than suppress it (for later).

A little more plesant

It’s early enough still, with clouds in place, that I’m able to raise the blind over the window by my bed and look out at the Dublin Bay.  Usually the signlight is too bright and harsh on my eyes.  This time, I could at least see the waves (with some effort, Mr Blurry Eyes) and across to Howth.  The buildings for the hospital don’t make it the most aesthetic view in the world, but given that I don’t realy have a selection, I’ll take what I can get.

Gear-head

On the tiny little box of a table next to my bed, I’ve got my HTC Desire mobile phone (for texts and often checking email), an iPhone (no SIMM but loaded with great podcasts), and this laptop.  There’s a small power strip plugged into the wall on one side of my bed where all the plugs are; it travels under my bed to the other side by the little table, where I can plug in these things.  I’ve also got an old-school battery-powered Sony Walkman which lets me listen to the radio (usually Radio1 or Radio Nova 100) with really good sound. 🙂  GIven my blurry eyes at the moment, it’s much easier than trying to get the same going on my HTC Desire at the moment.  (There was a good HTC app for the radio, but having rooted my phone I’ve lost the ability to get at that particular gem.  S’ok, still worth roting. 🙂 )

Our wireless society still hasn’t quite defeated the need to have a bunch of wires coming out of things in order to charge them.  Wouldn’t it be cool if your mobile or your laptop had a battery which, on atual use, re-charged itself?  A Prius Laptop?

What’s the magic number?

I’m suddenly curious what the actual number of pills and meds hppens to be what I’m taking each day.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll start the morning with a running tally and see where it ends up at bed time.

Post-meal routines

In the real world: “make sure to clear your place!”

In the leukemia chemo-loaded vulnerable-immune system world: “When you’re done,

1) rinse your mouth for about 30 seconds using a sodium chrloride irrigation liquid, which is basically salty water, then spit it out;

2) squirt some stuff called Mycostatin into your mouth and slush that around for 20-30 seconds.  It tastes a little sweet, and is meant to prevent fungal infection (thrush) in your mouth, throat, and gut.  Anyway, you swallow this one, and I try to then not sip water for a little bit to let the medicine to its job. and

3) finally, I’m supposed to be using eyedrops about every 4 hours to prevent conjunctivitis.  The Pred Mild tiny bottle I use does the trick, which I try to group with the after-meal routines since that makes it easy to rememember and usually gets it close to target.  The exception is at night … I always have to do another dose of drops before I go to sleep.

The drops themselves actually burn, ever so briefly, when they’re applied.  A surprise the first time it happened, the feeling is now less of a shock and I just take it in stride.  (Like everything else?)

More information coming

Hopefully today, or realistically tomorrow, the doctors will get the results of the probe (alien probe? no) into my chest on Friday where they did a biopsy and some samples.  Elana filled me in on just how stoned out of my gourd I was after the anaesthetic they used on Friday—the afternoon and evening of which I really don’t remember a thing.  Anyway, I’m hoping they’ve figured out whatever infection is causing me to get brief coughing fits, since the x-ray itself showed an infection.

More later.

P.S. Current body temp 36.7, woo hoo!  37 is perfect, it’s when my fever goes up to 97.8-38.2 that it causes havoc because then I have to be given paracetamol (Tyloneol) to bring it back down in order to receive the platelets or blood transfusion.  I don’t know that I’m due any of those things this morning, but the absence of a fever is wonderful.

While I’m feeling fairly tired now, I’m amazed I was able to stay up all day and not crash out on Elana at some point.  Lots of chatting and hacking trying to get my laptop working and card-playing.  Bonus Good Day points.

I got to enjoy one of the treats sent by our friend Oona, based on the stuff her dad (?) used when he was undergoing Chemo.  Today’s choice ws a Hershey’s Cookies & CReam (?) cookie.  Oh yum.  I snacked on it a two different times during the day, trying to drag it out for as long as ossible.

The laptop is up and working again, this time more directly instead of trying to do a clever link through home.  (In part because if something happened with that link, it’d take too much effort for me to try to focus on the logs and config files and such here to try to fix it.)

Made it through all of that without getting drowsy (I think?).

Health Level OK

Body feels good, the current bag o’ blood is going to be done soon, with a second to follow hopefully.  My earl feel a tittle warm,matcbi me worry a bout a  fever, but it’ll all matter only when the nurse comes in and actually measures my temp.

Points for Burt’s Bees Honey Lip Balm, which must have had some small role in the remarkable improvement of the condition of my lips.  They were so try that finall parts of the dry skin were separating, making it awkward to eat.  But now, a day or os later, thy feel relatively soft and much more comfortable.

Same goes for a product I’ve never heard of before nowe: bioXtra moisturizing oral gel.  It makes your insanetly-dry mouth remousturuzie and feel much better using just their gel, not water.  Inner cheeks, gums, and the rest of the inside of the mouth feels betetewr within 5 minutes of appplying this stuff.  You guys out theree will particularly love the rectangular pink sponges on sticks which you use to roll around inside your mouth to appply the stuff.  It’s only in pink.  Makes me think I’m supposed to try to fix my facial makeup before going into the studio or something.  (Which itself tells you how little I know about such things.)

How’s the human bladder able to retain the volume of liquid which ends up coming out of us?!  I’ts amazing—even in a 4 year-old, muchless a 40 year-old.  It’s like the ultimate-expandable storage unit of some kind.  We need this model for our shopping bags.

I’ve verified that the Sony Walkman gets a nice clear signal for Radio Nova (@radionova100 / nova.ie, which will stream to anywhere in the world).  That’s so awesome, since it means in times when listening to music of any kind wouldn’t zone me out into a nap, I get to listen to and enjoy great tunes.  Hmm….of course, using the same as a way to help me into a nap sounds like a reasonable approach, too.

“Which Way Do You Turn It Off?”

Washing my hands this eve at a sign in where the hallway, as is goes by, opens up no the three beds where mine’s located, I managed to forget which direction to push the tap and whoooosh soaked my shirt.  D’oh.  I got one of the clean dry ones E had brought today, and it was only while putting it on that I heard the nurnse come up the hallway and say, “whay happened?”  I’ve no idea why, but my mind believeed I’d caught all of the spattereed water involved.  No, silly, there’s water on the floor, too.  THe tyellow “Caution Wet Floor” hazard will make sure others don’t get slippped up by my own ineptitude.  D’oh.  I know accidents happen, but as anyone who knows me, I’m the last person willing to accept that it’s to have made one. 😉

Ciao

My target is 9pm to finally give in and go to sleep.  Pity I can’t lay bets on myself. 🙂