Poem of the Day, number eight. Mr. Finney’s Turnip, by Anonymous (that means we don’t know who wrote it).
Coming to you from the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit at UCSF, where I had skull surgery yesterday to relieve pressure on my brain caused by a subdural hematoma. Google it! :)
Hello this is Future Kara checking in from 2023 (still alive and living in Portland Oregon with wonderful Dave!). I was just looking at some of these old posts and noticed that I didn’t mention my SECOND trip to the ER with my subdural hematoma. On April 1, 2020 my scary symptoms got worse so Marcos drove me to the UCSF emergency room, where they rushed me in for emergency brain surgery. April 1st is easy to remember!
The surgery went fine and I stayed in the ICU for about a week while crud drained out of my skull. Had a partly-shaved head and a honking big scar for a while. Good times. Meanwhile the world was enduring the first of many Covid lockdowns…
Poem of the Day number seven: The Field Mouse by William Sharp
Poem of the Day number six: Holding Hands, by Lenore M. Link
I love this one! Stay safe out there. Wash your hands (and tails)!
Poem of the Day, number five: Mary’s Lamb, by Sarah Josepha Hale
Stay home, wash your hands, be safe! <3
Poem of the Day number four: I Love Little Pussy by Jane Taylor. Awwwwww <3
Poem of the Day, number three. The Cat of Cats, by William Brighty Rands.
Poem of the Day number 2: Hurt No Living Thing, by Christina Rossetti
Take care of yourselves! Stay at home, wash your hands
Inspired by Sir Patrick Stewart reading a Sonnet a Day, and Yo-Yo Ma sending out Songs of Comfort on twitter, I’ve decided to record a Poem a Day from a book of children’s poems. I hope this will give my young (and older) fans something to look forward to!
I don’t know if you’d prefer to see my face while I read, or to read along with the text. I did the first one both ways. Let me know what you think!
I have survived yet another sudden frightenjng health crisis!
Now I need to sleep for 12 hours
Update: skull surgery cancelled! Unnecessary!
Scan on Sunday showed brain was 11mm off-center. Two days later, 8mm. Scan today shows I’m stable. Had long talk with brain specialist and we agreed that the least risky course would be to watch and wait, with repeat scan in a week.
I’m still in the intensive cardiac care unit for two reasons. One: I have developed a little sniffle and a slight chesty cough so we’re watching me to make sure it’s not the flu. I don’t have a fever and I haven’t been exposed to anybody with COVID-19 so we don’t think it’s that but we’re keeping an eye on it anyway. I’d rather have the flu here than at home!
Also the lunatics down at Washington Hospital skipped my pulmonary hypertension meds for a few days which caused the blood vessels in my lungs to clamp down and I was needing 30 L per minute of supplemental oxygen which is more than they can supply in the regular rooms of the hospital and more than I can get at home so we had to wait until I was on my correct drugs for long enough so that I could get my oxygen requirements down again. Right now I believe I am either at 10 or 15 L per minute so I’m almost there. I’m usually on 6 lpm at home.
Still in hospital. Transferred from keystone cops-esque local hospital to kickass take no prisoners well-oiled machine UCSF hospital yesterday I think. The days are running together somewhat. Anyway UCSF hospital is AWESOME. I am treated with respect and kindness, and, while not actually comfortable, I’m no longer miserable.
I’m not here for Coronavirus. I had a bad unusual headache (not migraine) for a week, then sudden sweats and nausea and not-ok-ness. Marcos and Kirsten and Steve scooped me up and rushed me to ER.
Catscans show a bleed between skull and brain. Surgery tomorrow to scoop about the offending material. Dan will update this blog and tell you if I don’t make it, but I should be ok. It’s a relatively low-risk procedure. Local anesthesia, quick operation.
Then a few more days of hospital observation fun and then home next week I hope!
Have fun being in Social Isolation. Thank you! Please help yourself to my free audiobooks (links at top of page). Good time to teach the kids to play Settlers of Catan or Magic the Gathering.
Still in hospital, minus glasses so this will be illegible.
So tired
Blood in skull is shoving my brain around. Waithing to be transferred to university hospital where they are wllingbto do neurosurgery on a fragile onevlike me.
Everything in my room goes BEEPHEEPBEEP constantly
Theyvwomt let mebtake my usual tiny nightly Dose of remerom so my brain is awake while my eyes are trying to sleepy
Thank you, everyone. I am grateful. Your Social Distancing and cancellation of everything is keeping me and countless other vulnerable people safe. If you young strong people catch it, you’ll probably be fine. If I, or my mom, or the nice elderly couple down the street, catch it, we will probably die. Thank you for taking these extreme measures to keep us safe.
I am doing my part — staying home (as usual), washing hands (more than usual), and I will not be attending my son’s wedding today.
Oops. I disappeared again, huh? I love all the messages you guys send to me! Thank you!
I’ve been having sort of a rough time. I’m so tired. Everything is difficult. Good days are rare.
However, I do have some good days still! And on those good days I make things. I’m still working on my Friesland Blanket, which I started in March of 2017. Here’s a progress photo from last week:
At that point I needed to make six more motifs, and since then I’ve made two so there are only four remaining!
I also finished my beautiful Wildflower Farm Quilt! This one is mine mine mine. I love it so!
The virus has stopped kicking my butt! I won’t say I’m “well” because my new normal state is very far from well, but at least I’m no longer hacking and sniffling and too exhausted to get out of bed! Hooray! I’ve been spending my time quilting my beautiful Wildflower Farm quilt, and bought some new needles, Fons & Porter Utility Quilting Needles, that have changed my life! So sharp, so smooth, so strong.
I had literally no idea what day it was so I just looked at my calendar and discovered that I’ve been sick for three full weeks. Yikes. I’m on the mend, slowly slowly. Today I took a shower.
