COVID rules are a real problem for hospitals these days. Shocking, I know. In John’s Hopkin’s Jenn could join me till 6pm the day of the surgery but I was on my own Wednesday evening through Friday evening when I transferred out to Sinai for rehab. at Sinai:
- I get one visitor per day which typically lasts ~1.5 hours because I get so exhausted
- No one under 18 has been allowed in for the last 3 months
- I can not leave the floor except for medical appointments which I do not have except on the 6th. typically this time of year a lot of rehab is outside because it is good for different surfaces, good activity, etc. but not this year #2020
Also, the food. Hopkins was passable. I’m not a picky kid and I’m an eater (220 lbs doesn’t just happen, you gotta earn it). But Sinai is, uh, not. Did you know an inedible PB&J is a thing? Did you know an order of Raisin Bran is 110 calories and requires a separate order of milk? Me neither. I have also been generally surprised how hungry my body has been as it struggles to synthesize all these different medicines and recover from a major surgery. When my sister went through her Meningioma she always talked about her 2am second dinners.
With that said I’m sharing a really important list – the people that have fed me and kept me sane when I know I haven’t been the most entertaining host.
- Saturday, 9/26 – Jenn & McDonalds. Not the first visit date food she was probably hoping for and we are venturing squarely into TMI here but McDonald’s is really really good at one thing. I hadn’t had a BM in 4 days and it took Ronald and his highly effective blend of… Googling… “canola, soybean, and hydrogenated soybean oil” all of 40 minutes to deliver the goods. Humans have made incredible advances over the last few centuries as we have developed more advanced tools. Few are more reliable than McDs.
- Sunday, 9/27 – Pete Canon & Jenn – 2, that’s right, count them 2. Pho! Also, a cautionary tale that Pete (who does some work as Sinai so figured he could sneak in) learned the hard way: Do not surprise your friend who has not seen anyone they know for >3 days and is still an emotional basketcase and is recovering from major brain surgery and is abjectly terrified of what the near future holds unless you are ready to get emotionally UNLOADED on. It took me a full 2 minutes of looking at him in his mask to confirm he was not a mirage and then I unloaded in a totally uncontrollable deluge of emotions. We laughed, we cried, we watched football. I may write a full post about this but Saturday and Sunday and unloaded on 4 people where I just started talking and just sort of watched what happened with no control over where the conversation went. Those 4 people helped me in ways they’ll never understand and if I made a physical turn Friday when I got out of the ICUs and over to Sinai, the emotional turn came Sunday. Weds – Saturday nights I was a mess with no shot at sleep and tons of dark thoughts. Starting Sunday and every day since I’ve slept pretty well (at least on the hospital ward sliding scale of sleep). As a funny bonus, they almost didn’t let Jenn in after counting Pete as my guest.
- Monday, 9/28 – Jenn – Little Carmines. You just can’t go wrong with a pizza salad combo. This was also the day I realized just how hard it was for Jenn to keep up with the 1,000 things being asked of her every day from keeping the kids on schedule to being their rock when they struggled with not seeing me for over a week and counting when each day I ALSO wanted her to make what amounts to a 4+ hour trip to visit me (1 hour each way, an hour or 2 to hang, and a few requests for creature comforts she had to stop for).
- Tuesday 9/29 – My Mom, Oma – Arby’s. This has always kinda been our thing. I remember hunting for Arby’s on road trips ?35? years ago. Plus I have been carefully curating a world-class ‘packet drawer’ that in my professional opinion really required some horsey sauce.
- Wednesday, 9/30 – Jenn – Chipotle. Really, really bad Chipotle that they somehow halfway through the 2 bowl build switched which bowl was first so we each missed what we ordered by a country mile. Booooooo Fort McHenry Row Chipotle. Also, did you see those food pics above? It was the best meal I had that day by a mile.
- Thursday, 10/1 – M & Souvlaki a Greek place in Hampden. Spending some time learning where I was and what is around was big. Hampden is a cool little foodie area. Yes, my sister, who is also a nurse, flew in from Montana for 24 hours to surprise me and it was awesome. She is 2 years removed from her own meningioma and had a bunch of tips and tricks that have helped me cope.
- Friday, 10/2 – Jenn – Whole foods. Acceptable performance by WF but really designed to reload the snack drawers that allow me to make it through the 2 early brutal meals of the day. Beef jerky, graham crackers, Gatorade and chips do a body good.
- Saturday, 10/3 – My Dad, Pops Rex & Outback for some college football
- Sunday, 10/4 – Jenn & Souvlaki (a repeat… and as I mentioned there are a few locations so take a look)
- Monday, 10/5 – Scott Dunham, brother-in-law and world’s chillest dude. Mother’s wings for MNF! and 100% the only guy ever to smuggle in a warm bottle of Espalone with a Ginger Ale chaser and no food for himself in the history of the Sinai Neuro recovery ward.
- Tuesday,10/6 – big meeting with Dr. Weingart to get pathology report and remove head staples – Burger King