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Poem of the Day, number twelve: Trees, by Sara Coleridge

I just took a shower and washed my hair for the first time in 10 or maybe 12 days! Yay!!!

Poem of the Day number 11: Trees, by Joyce Kilmer

I am safely home again after emergency brain surgery. I had a burr hole craniotomy to relieve pressure in my skull that was caused by a mysterious subdural hematoma. Funny hair-do is because half my hair is gone and I have an alarming Frankenstein’s Monster wound, and I don’t want to scare anyone! Also have not washed my hair in nine days. Yikes.

I hope all my friends and listeners are safe during this global Covid-19 pandemic. Please please please shelter in place, wear a mask if you must go out, and wash your hands obsessively.

My hospital, UCSF, is braced for impact but every nurse, doctor, cleaning person, and food service person is showing up and doing their job to keep us well. Please do your part to stop the spread!

Poem of the Day number ten: A Wee Little Worm by James Whitcomb Riley.

This one is short enough for you all to memorize and recite it to everyone you know :)

Poem of the Day, number nine: What Do We Plant? by Henry Abbey.

I love this poem! I’m still in the ICCU at UCSF. Notice that one braid is thicker than the other? We had to cut off most of my hair on one side because the surgeon put some kind of insoluble sticky stuff in my hair and it turned into an impenetrable glob! Oh well. It’ll be a new fashion. :)

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

Still alive

In hospital

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.