Feeling better

Wasn't going to put out a last word tonight but decided I better not go to bed in a brooding mood. Plus there is some information I received yesterday that made me feel better and felt I needed to put in here. Add to the fact that my family showed up for dinner and I'm feeling a tad better I thought a few final comments for the day will help the mood. Normally this woudn't be the close of the day for me but as I said earlier I worked my butt off and I'm feeling it so instead of playing poker for a few hours I think I'm gonna lay back, turn on the tube, find a game and if I fade out for the night I fade.

Had to do this because I am proud of my daughter. She and her mother moved to upstate NY this summer so she started a new school. Seems the school has 3 tracks, hi, medium and lo and they started her in the medium one, probably because they had no history on her. Got an email from the ex last night saying that she got a call from the school yesterday asking if she minded if they moved the daughter to the hi track based on her grades so far and the fact her teachers think she is bored with the current curriculum. They also informed her that she has the highest grade average in science for her whole grade, a 99.7. Considering my daughter keeps saying she wants to be an animal biologist seems like an auspicious situation. Go Maya, your father is proud of you. Keep up the good work.

Have said what I needed to say. New vistors so I'm going to sign off. Hopefully will be my old sarcastic and cynical self in the morning light.

Just went downhill

Life just took a nose dive off the cliffs. Have 4 sessions today, just got back from the third and have an hour wait for the final one. Things weren't going too bad, good even, except for the fact the occupational therapist saying something about a 3 week stay and trying to convince me to at least make it 2 as she thought I would get more intensive therapy there then as an outpatient. Told her I would consider her opinion. Sessions went well, worked my ass off and neurologist stopped by and seemed to have a good opinion. However as I got back from last session I found them moving a new roomie in. Forget it, I'm definitely outta here, no matter what the reevaluation committee thinks on Monday.

New guy in the room is one of the fragile ones. Can barely talk, looks about 100 and they got him in a hospital gown, which in here means big problems because even most of the bad rehab cases are wearing sweats of some sort. No way I am spending any more time than necessary here under these conditions. Any physical progress will be defeated by mental depression and I will so state when we dicuss things. Now I know there has to be problems along the way but you are going to tell me there aren't people like me or my former roomie they could have stuck in here. This guy was moved from somehere along the hall so it's not like he's a new admittee being put in the only available bed. Doesn't anyone think about putting similar people together? I know it's a hospital but there has to at least be some more like me in here. Probably another guy like me sitting in a room with another one of the fragile ones somewhere cursing his fate too. Well time for therapyagain. More of my misadventures later.

stomache rumblings

A few prebreakfast words from here at Happy Acres since I have nothing else better to do while waiting for them to feed me. You people are going to get as tired of my ass as the wardens here but at least you will be able to shut me off. Waiting for breakfast and the stomache is growling. Food here, at least the menu items, is crap and for a place so worried about whether you take a healthy dump they don't even give you enough to take one. Considering the quality I don't know whether to consider that a good thing or not. have heard that if you do a write in ballot they will try to accomodate you out of the snack bar but as I'm on some kind of restricted diet don't know if that will work for me. i did get them to find me some raw onion for sandwich yesterday and got a second bowl of soup for dinner that I asked for but don't know if they'll bring up the pizza if I write it in. One of my visitors had a slice and said it was pretty good. At least the coffee is Wawa. Surviving mainly on a Wawa Italian foot long with hot peppers a co worker smuggled in the other day and a piece of shoo fly pie my father brought by. Don't think the dietician would have approved but what the hell, been behaving for the most part and eating their gunk for a week now. Don't think much of the dietician anyway. You think it would be impossible to screw up something as simple as cold cereal but they have found a way to do it. I keep ordering some whole grain cereal for breakfast, something I normally eat anyway and, until recently, they kept sending up some kind of flaccid eggbeater crap with a biscuit or bagel, not even a onion one with a schmeer. Now I'm sure the eggs are those laboratory concocted healthy slop but since when is something made with white flour better for you than whole grains. Sheesh, do I have to teach these people their jobs. Keep thinking that when I get out of here tho I need to make a trip to Pumpernick's in Montgomeryville for a pastrami reuben with a big onion slice and some carrot cake . So much for healthy.

Ok, breakfast arrived so we took a break, Mostly got it right this moning tho they forgot the coffee. The orderly even found me some extra cereal. She's a queen. Now I have to sit here for another half hour or so until they bring in the schedule. They say weekends are slow but I know at least two of the therapists are in today and I'm scheduled for at least one of them so the day won't be a total waste. I know, I'm repeating myself, Live with it.

Just got my schedule. Good news and bad news. Good news, they must want me out of here. Instead of slow my schedule is busier than yesterdahy. Bad news, they got me in the 3-3:30 slot this afternoon and my poker game on Tilt is set for 3. Timing still sux. Should have known. Ah well, I'll take it, better the busier schedule.

Time to head out for therapy so I'll say adios for now. See how I feel after all the work.

Speaking of shit

Before I start on anything else I would like to thank Kat and Bam for their kind encouragement at the start of this thing and hope they see these words since it's been a few weeks between the flop and the C-bet.

Back to the subject. Running joke around this place has to do with shit, literally. Main question on the nurses and doctors' lips seems to be, " did you move your bowels" or "when did you move your bowels"? I have never seen any group of people so preoccupied with shit. Not the only one that notices this either as, in therapy today, the therapist made a remark about grabbing a stool and I wise crack about she better watch how she uses that term around here and the lady next to me on the mats starts laughing and says "yea, they really do worry about poop around here"? It's become a scream. They hand out laxatives and stuff like they are giving out Halloween candy. Even the techs and orderlies are getting a kick out of the jokes flying around. Decided that you better say yes when they ask because they might get too worried and bend you over and stick a hose up your ass if you tell them no. On a related note, when they ain't worried about shit they wander over to the other side and think about piss. You can spend 5 minutes draining the snake and they go, "we have to check your bladder to make sure it's emptying". Cripes man, do you have any frikkin doubt? Avoid rehab, there is no dignity.

On a more serious, and upbeat, note it looks like the therapy session went well today. Arm and leg are tired but seem to be gaining on it. Lucked out and have two of my therapists in tomorrow so it looks like I'm not going to be wasting a day the way I thought I would. Wasted time means more time in here and that no sane person would want. Things seemed to go well today, work tomorrow and reevaluation on Monday. Maybe out by Wed. Poker on Friday?

Just discovered Eagles off this week. My timing really sucks. One Sunday I'm cooped up and no frikkin game. All the gods now conspiring against me, not just the poker ones. Don't know what I did to piss them off so thoroughly. Am really working off some bad karma here. Even poker is screwed up. The network here sucks so bad that I can't get into AP, the only site I had cash on. Had same problem in the regular hospital earlier this week, same network, but there I could use the aircard from work. Here, it's a cell phone dead zone and the air card doesn't work so I'm SOL. Luckily I switched a few bucks to Ultimate Bet when I had AP access, just in case, so I'm playing some micro games to keep from being bored. The$20 win at the .01-.02 NL table the other night did a lot to improve the spirits tho about $5 has been returned. Hate this site but it's my only option. 10 freaking sites on the computer and the one I can't get into is the one that has my cash. Belong to an online league and we have a FR on Tilt tomorrow. Need to cash and get some bucks on there to give me another option. Oh well, time to close up shop for the night. Maybe I'll take a dump.

Same Day, different shit

The doctors have now been in, I have been "evaluated" and starting tomorow they give me a schedule of workouts. Snuck a head doctor in the mix. Hope I didn't screw up my chances of leaving when I answered her question about drug and/or alcohol use with "only to excess" or when asked if I suffered delusions with "only of granduer". Sorry, after being cooped up for 5 days and being asked tons of questions, many of them repititious I had to let it out. She did seem to have a sense of humour so I'm hoping they don't bring out the guy with the butterfly net.

On a more seriuos note, I suprised myself today. I might be closer to getting out of here than I think as the leg and hand showed more strength than I anticipated. Just hope I'm not getting my hopes up only to get dashed later. Was able to do some walking and hit the stairs and the balance issues were minor compared to the previous few days. Ain't gonna be doing any squatting 0f 700 lbs soon but at least was able to do my body weight as long as I could hang on to a rail for balance Hand and arm have a lot farther to go but it's the leg that is important to getting sprung. The hand and arm can be done on an outpatient basis if they feel I can navigate well enough to get around the house.

Speaking of the hand, I actually saw a finger wiggle today. Of such small advances are dreams made of. Hey, it's better than yesterday. On the whole I was able to do some arm exercises with a modicum of help against gravity. You know, kind of like the bench press, that last lift that doesn't seem makeable until someone sticks their forefingers under the bar and lifts with you. Don't look like much but somehow it lets you accomplish something you didn't think possible. Same with the arm, just trying to lift and it seems nothing is getting done yet with that little assist I can actually feel that the muscles are indeed still working. It's looking like a long road to dealing cards again however. I have warned the therapist that she is in for trouble however. Told her that she better not slack or let me do so because I'm going to make myself such a major pain in the ass she's gonna want to toss my ass out on the front lawn.

Therapy room was a bit depressing. Sorry, but have to speak my mind. Place was filled with people that looked anywhere from 25 years older than I am and up and most look like they would shatter in a stiff wind. I understand that I am still young for what happened to me but this was scary. Roomie isn't too bad , maybe a few years older, but nice guy. Plus he's only rehabbing from a double knee replacement so three are no major issues there, only his need to do major work to get himself back in action. He leaves on Sat however and after looking at the crowd this afternoon it fills me with dread as to what I might draw for my remaining days here. Yes I know this sounds terrible and self indulgent and that some day I too may be one of that crowd but right now understanding is taking a back seat to my ego.

Hokay, enough for now, time for a bit of poker before I call it a night. Might as well keep me occupied. Go Phils.

Another day

OK, to get on with this thing. Sitting here in rehab waiting for the nice doctors to come in and evaluate me and playing a bit of micro NL on UB. After all what else is there to do when you can't get around?

You start getting very philisophical when you find out your body has failed you and has put you at the mercy of .others. Like WTF am I doing here. You take delight in the simplest things, like the $20 win at the micro tables last night, the bottle of hot sauce a therapist smuggled into the hospital for you for this crap they call food or the fact that you can rest your hand on the edge of the table without gravity pulling it off. Even when you are fairly solitary by nature it's a lot different when you are that way by choice as to when you are forced into it. It's a complete different mindset. Alone, just me in the compter, I've spent dozens of evenings this way, yet now it feels totally different because I have no option to do anything different.

Enough of the maudlin crap. Time for the doctors to come in. Have to get theses suckers off their duffs to get working on getting me out of here. Frikkin wasted a whole day so far on BS and ain't accomplishing a damn thing sitting around. Enough tests and crap, lets get down to work. I got things to do and they ain't gonna happen with me sitting in this chair. (Tho at least it's an improvement over being stuck in bed)

Not auspicious beginngs

So I'm finally finding time to post something here after a very slow start. Work got hectic and not much time for this. Now I have all the time I don't want as I lie here in the rehab center.waiting find out how soon they are going to let me out. That's physical rehab, not abuse type for all you peckerwoods ready to believe the worst of me. The poker hasn't gotten that far out of hand yet tho I'm sitting here playing as I type this. What else is there to do when they have pinned your butt to a bedsheet and tell you to stay there until they evalute you as to what you can do on your own?

For those who might be interested, tho I can't see why, it seems I have suffered a minor stroke a week ago and it took them awhile to actually pin it down. In the meantime my left arm has decided to imitate a boat anchor and my left leg, originally a bit weak has really gone to hell after being kept unused for 4 days. For those who might care, tho that that puzzles me more than the previous might, the prognosis is good, should be hitting poker games in couple of weeks when I can find rides, tho dealing the RPT and home games may take a bit longer. Also means my shuffleboard rematch gets pushed back but I still want it.

Ok, have slipped down in this bed which makes typing difficult so have to leave it here for now. Thanks for the well wishes, both for the start of the blog and from those who knew about the illness. I hope to be writing again soon, if they don't wear my nasty ass out.