Monthly Archives: July 2026

Day 67: Friday, July 17

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The sign on the door says “NPO.” I looked it up, Wikipedia says:

“Nil per os (NPO) is a Latin medical term that translates to “nothing by mouth”. It is a strict directive instructing a patient to avoid consuming any food, beverages, or oral medications. It is used to prevent life-threatening complications like aspiration during anesthesia or to rest the digestive tract”

These doctors sure do love their Latin (and Greek) terms!

Had an ultrasound this morning to check for DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis). Of course, they could only do the left leg since the right is still bandaged up and in a metal frame. Maureen came in around noon and sat up with me until a bit after 2 pm. The case manager, Andrea, stopped by when Maureen was still here and we asked about trying to get Whittier for rehab this time.

Miranda called me after Maureen left. She and Devin are having their floors done and were supposed to be in an Airbnb, but they just called her and had to cancel. Apparently, the last guest had broken a window, so they could not let the place until it was fixed. Miranda was left at the last moment to try and find another place for the two of them and the cats. Eventually, they decided to stay home and sleep on the couch in the living room, and give Kitty and Sprout free roam.

 I’m #3 in the queue for the operating theater. I had hoped to be in by 3 pm, but it’s 3:10 already. Haven’t eaten or drunk anything since last night and getting peckish. In the end they called at 6 pm to tell me that I was not going to be taken today and could finally eat. I finished off the half sandwich that Maureen had brought in the day before and that had been waiting for me in the fridge. I also called for supper and picked at the uninspired pasta and marinara sauce.

The Garden in July

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Photos from the garden in July while I was laid up MGH

The living room bed. We moved the white panicle hydrangea ‘Bobo’ from the front bed in the late fall two years ago and thought we’d killed it. Apparently not! To the left is a lace-cap hydrangea, ‘Tiny Tuff Stuff’.

The left side if the living room bed. Past its best. To the left is fringed bleeding heart. To the right nasturtium grown from seeds handed out at an MMGA meeting,

The first eggplant!

Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers

Day 66: Thursday, July 16

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Had a decent sleep, interrupted of course by nurses bringing meds, taking vitals, and drawing blood. Also, they moved a new patient, Jim, next to me late at night. He’s 91 and seems to have multiple problems. I haven’t talked to him. Despite the interruptions, I put on my headphones and listened to ambient sleep sounds and slept soundly till 8 am. Fitbit gave me a 78.

I was not moved to MGH yesterday, obviously. Still waiting for beds to open up.

Sat in on the final MMGA Helpline Training class in the evening. Partway through the nurse stopped in to tell me that a bed had opened up at MGH and that an ambulance had been ordered. I asked if it could be put off until after the class at 8 pm, and she said she’d ask. Came back to say they were ok with that.

Ambulance to MGH: Drove down Memorial Drive and I could see out if the back some of my old haunts from when I worked in Kendall Square. Seems like an age ago. We checked in at MGH and set off for Ellison. It has 23 floors and I was hoping for a high one, but I’m back on the 6th floor which is where I was before. I’m in room 618a – no window, but probably nothing to see anyway! A nice nurse, Caitlin, helped me settle in.

Dr Ratnasamy from orthopedics stopped by. He told me that my femur was fractured, alongside the plate. I’m surprised that the doctors at Emerson didn’t catch it. Anyway, it’s going to be a CAT scan and an X-ray, probably tonight, followed by surgery tomorrow.  After discharge from MGH it’ll be a minimum of six weeks in rehab. Will try to catch my case manager to see if we can get into Whittier this time.

Day 65: Wednesday, July 15

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Slept fitfully through the night, listening and falling asleep to Haydn’s later symptoms, then queued up the complete series of Beethoven symphonies. I read recently that Beethoven had been a student of Haydn’s. This means that a lot of Beethoven’s early pieces overlap with Haydn’s later pieces. You can tell influence in Beethoven, the chords and the doodling around with short riffs.

Left leg is still very painful. Called Maureen. She’ll be over later.

Watched the England-Argentina game on my laptop. Had my hopes up when Gordon scored for England early in the second half, but it only stung Argentina into action who dominated the game from then on out to win. But it was good to see Messi playing so well.

The plan is still to move me to MGH when a bed opens up, but when that’ll be is in the hands of the Capacity Coordination Center (aka patient flow).

Day 64: Tuesday, July 14

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This is turning into a real roller coaster ride. The morning started off at home normally, took my pills and played my games. Late morning when I still hadn’t heard from VNA about the nurse to do my blood draw, I called. Got a call back on the landline, which I missed as the handset was out of charge, but I was able to redial and got through to the scheduler in Concord who told me that the nurse had a family emergency and that there wasn’t another available. That was when we decided to go to Emerson to get it done there.

Butt slid downstairs. It was harder this time but I made it into the car. We arrived at Emerson and that’s when it happened! Maureen pulled in at the entrance and went to get a wheelchair. I hauled myself out of the car and on my good leg maneuvered myself so I could sit in the chair. It was a very wide chair and we couldn’t angle it towards the car. As I pivoted to lower myself in the chair I heard a crack in my good leg and the world went white. I found myself sitting in the chair but my vision was all off. It was much brighter outside and my field of vision blurry. I didn’t feel terrible, just stunned by what had happened.

In the blood lab they declined to do the blood draw and called in a doctor. They put an IV in my arm, with a saline bag, as apparently I was severely dehydrated. He said I needed to go to the ER. Msureen said she could push me (even though it’s up a slope) but the EMTs had turned up and said it would be best for me to have a stretcher. So that’s what we did -lifted me on to a stretcher followed by an ambulance ride of less that 100 yards.

The “good” leg is no longer good. It was pretty obvious that I wasn’t going to be able to go home. It’s quite painful and I can’t put any weight on it. The doctors in the ER took x-rays but didn’t see anything, so maybe it’s just a bad sprain. I messaged SLC, but it was after 5 pm. Fortunately, one of the doctors was able to reach him. SLC wants me back at MGH tomorrow. Emerson is deferring a CAT scan until  I get there.

Initially my systolic blood pressure was low, in the 80s. This is consistent with the fainting (aka syncope) episode. After an hour or so however the blood pressure came up. They also drew blood for a blood culture and a Sepsis Lactic Acid test. The first test put me in the elevated zone, with a measure of 3.1 mMo/L (milli Moles per liter). A later blood test had me returning to the normal range of 1.8.

I’m not happy at all with VNA and will not use them again. I specifically asked them when booking nursing appointments for the two blood draws on Monday. The nurse they sent yesterday couldn’t do it so there was no point in her coming out. The dressing she replaced on my left leg quickly fell off after she left. The OT person they sent out couldn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, and PT never showed up. They didn’t return my first few phone calls when I asked what had happened to the results of the blood tests, and those turned out to be time critical as they showed that my WBC had increased. Finally, if they had sent a nurse to do the blood draw today like they were supposed to, then I wouldn’t have needed to go to Emerson, and the fall would never have happened.