Once in awhile, life does you a favor, and you are never sure why. Today they moved Tom to a new hospital room. He’s off all the monitors, and they needed the bed with monitors for someone with more urgent needs. The new room is in the non-acute part of the neuro floor. When I … read more Room with a view
Tag: Tom
Type Tom
Tom’s blood sugar has had the doctors scratching their heads. For him, this is a typical medical experience. He’s always outside the norm, and they don’t know quite what to do with him. Since his stroke Thursday, Tom’s glucose levels have been high – 200s, even high 200s, where normal is 80 to 100 and … read more Type Tom
Simple pleasures
This little piggy went to rehab. This little piggy went home. This little piggy had salmon, this little piggy had none … And THIS little piggy went “wheeee wheeee wheee wheeee wheeeeee!” All the way home. Since the stroke, Tom can’t flex the toes or upper part of his right foot. So I manipulate his … read more Simple pleasures
Lucky twins
Tom and I are dissimilar in many ways. He’s calm, I’m hyper; he’s a math guy, I’m a word girl. In the past couple years, though, we’ve had medical procedures in common. Two years ago, we both had surgery for early-onset cataracts. He had his done first, which gave me the courage to get mine … read more Lucky twins
Not quite the birthday I expected
Today started out just like I expected. My birthday morning coffee was spectacularly special, because I shared it with the love of my life, Tom; my precious oldest sister, Ann; and my oldest friend, Dan; and all of us around the same table. I grinned at birthday greetings from my friends all over the world … read more Not quite the birthday I expected
Enabled passengers
We were so pleased to have gotten seats in Row 2 on our flight to Ohio. You get served first, you get off the plane first. Tom wanted to put his bag in the overhead bin right above our seats so that he could grab it quickly when we deplaned, but the people seated in … read more Enabled passengers
A thousand fears
Saturday’s supposed to be the easy, fun day. The one where you just relax and do whatever you feel like. I spent most of the day nearly paralyzed with anxiety. Every thought leads to a fear. In the shower, I move very slowly, afraid of falling. I watch Tom warily, because I’m afraid he will up … read more A thousand fears
This is a DATE, right?
We had already gone out twice. We met for drinks at 7 in our neighborhood bar. The first time I looked at my watch, it was midnight. What a novelty, to spend that much time just talking with a man and not feel even a little bit bored. The next week, we had lunch at the neighborhood Mexican restaurant, and went … read more This is a DATE, right?
Heavy metal
When we first went to Afghanistan, we stayed in a guesthouse called Chez Ana on Passport Lane. It was a quiet street that began at the passport office on Salang Wat, and Ana’s was at a little crook in the dirt road. Ana was from Croatia, and she did what she could to deal with the hodge … read more Heavy metal
The secret to happiness and health
For 75 years, Harvard has been tracking a group of ordinary American men and their families. From the thousands of pages of research that this study entailed, they found out the secret of happiness and health. You can hear all the details in a TED talk, below, or … … you can read my summary here. … read more The secret to happiness and health