Random acts of kindness

After this whole injury I feel that my outlook on some things have changed. One of the things we Jews focus on this time of year is the sins we may committed against our fellow men and women. I'm not an evil person, but there are some things I've been unaware of when out and about in public (especially in the emotionally chilly climate that tends to prevail in Boston). From now on, I will try to pay more attention and:

• to hold the door for anyone obviously handicapped (wheelchair, crutches, etc..),
  
• to give up my seat on the bus or train for someone handicapped (wheelchair, crutches, etc..)
• not to grumble audibly when a person who is on crutches, or is otherwise impaired, moves slowly in front of me

Tags: Yom Kippur, holiday, polite, injury, urban life

Red tape marks the spot

Spoke to the doc today about my MRI results. Seems the impact from the misplaced metal stub on Beacon Street has more consequences than just a sprained ankle. Doc says it might take months to heal. I'm supposed to let the pain be my guide - if I try something and it hurts, I'm to quit doing that. It hasn't really quit hurting since that remnant of a pole smacked into my foot on September 9th.

This sucks (and hurts). What's a blog good for, if it can't be a safe place for me to vent my emotions?

I've barely left the house since this happened (minus going to work). There have been a few ventures into restaurants, supermarkets or other public places, not all went successfully (the elderly were whizzing by me at Shaw's the other day - I am not kidding). There won't be much going out with friends for a while. Bars can be a dangerous environment for someone with a delicate and sore foot. Plus you have to stand a lot, not one of my talents lately. This leaves me feeling isolated in my 3rd floor apartment. I'm only going to climb those stairs once a day, unless given a really good reason. (I wonder how entertaining I can make this place in hopes of my friends wanting to hang out here more often? And sad that I'm missing the last of the nice weather before the dreary New England winter blows in. This means that I might as well toss any cute shoes that I was planning to wear this fall back into storage. No shopping or malls for a while (too much walking). I'm not getting much exercise either.

Side note- A temporary handicap permit in the Bay State takes up to a month to get. This makes a temporary permit kind of pointless. I've been relatively lucky with parking spots and people willing to drop me off near the door, but the luck has got to run out sometime. I'm not in a wheelchair, but I can't walk very far (without pain) or very fast. And I've still got the darn boot on.

Tags: Boston, incompetent city agencies who leave metal around for people to trip over, ankle, injury, RMV, DMV, red tape, Massachusetts, parking, urban adventures

Brand Evangelism + The Masses

Citizen-spawned media creations are on the rise! Accodring to an article in the NY Times, some forms of user-oriented media are making the move to the big time. IN advertising, that often involves a sporting event. Several organizations are sponsoring contests that invite users to come up with spot ads that will (potentially) run during the Superbowl. We the people even get to vote on them in some cases. Are big name brands making peace with user-generated media?

Commercials not chosen for the Super Bowl by the two companies may still be posted online on YouTube or individual blogs," Mr. Neisser added. The risk is that the consumer will tell you what they really think," he said.

Because who really cares what the customer thinks anyway, right?

User-generated content, now common on popular sites like MySpace and YouTube, includes videos, photos and songs created by nonprofessionals and shared with the world online. Advertisers have increasingly incorporated amateur content into their marketing plans over the last year because of the form's popularity.

Tags: media, advertising, TV, Superbowl, ad, commercial, marketing, citizen media

Ooh! I can feel the magnets!

Had an MRI this morning on my lame ankle. Doc thinks I might have some sort of problem involving tendons, especially since I should be able to put almost full weight on it by now. (I can't.)
As I lay there half encased in a giant machine I could feel the magnets at work creating grainy black and white images of my ankle. They tickled.

Tags: science, health foot, ankle, injury, medicine, doctor

A very un-neighborly act

One of the neighbors stole my Sunday NY Times. I'm the only one in the building who gets a Sunday newspaper delivered, let alone the NY Times.
It was downstairs by the mailboxes when I arrived home from NY yesterday. I limped upstairs, planning to ask Roommate to bring it up when he got home. He got home not long after me. He saw it downstairs and planned to bring it up when we went down to get some stuff from my car that I needed help bringing up to the apartment. Not 10 minutes later, we headed downstairs. The newspaper was gone.
This was stolen by someone in my building. How uncivilized have people become? I hope the culprit was wearing something white and expensive and gets the newsprint all over themselves.

Tags: NY Times, newspaper, neighbors, idiocy, crime, Boston, apartment complex asshole

Caution! Graphic display of body art ahead.

I love BPD News. I'm a loyal reader. But sometimes they just crack me up. Here's an example:

"The victim was tattooed. A PDF file is available showing the tattoos of the deceased. WARNING This file may be considered graphic by some viewers, as it contains actual photos of the tattoos."

Forget that the pictures are of a dead body, beware of the tattoos.

Tags: BPD, Boston, police, crime, death, urban adventures, tattoo, body art

Life in slow motion

I'm happy that the crutches are gone. But I can't get over how slow I still am, especially with this walking cast contraption shackled to my lame ankle. I'm like the member of the herd who would be the first to get eaten by a lion if this were the Serengeti instead of New England.

Tags: Africa, survival of the fittest, life, urban adventures, Boston, health

Comedy & crutches

Have been making slow progress. Spent Thursday evening laughing at Denis Leary, Bill Dana, Steven Wright, and co. at 30 Years of Comedy at Emerson College. The Majestic Theater was pretty good about accommodating my handicap issue. Some of their guests were not so accommodating. As I was being escorted to my seat, this one schmuck would not get up to let me and my crutches by. On my way out at the end of the performance, I said "Go ahead, you go first, I'll be slower" and again the asshat wouldn't move. I should've whacked him with my crutch and been like "Oops, sorry!" (if only I'd thought of it at the time). I was kind of dangerous with the crutches in public. I whacked a few people in the Ladies Room and some urban youth and students tripped over me on the street.
Friday evening's adventure involved a motorized shopping cart at Stop n' Shop. I didn't think I'd need one of those things for like another 40 years. It was strange driving through the store at 2mph. It was also kind of weird trying to reach things on shelves. And everyone, especially little kids, kept staring at me. Overall, this experience has really opened my eyes to what some people go through.
Good news is that I'm mostly crutch-free as of today (Sunday).

Tags: disability, handicap, pain, foot, ankle, Boston, life

All booted up

I feel like a burden on friends, family, and co-workers. Hope to be rid of crutches soon. Went to orthopod today, he gave me a boot for my ankle. It looks like a black Ugg, only way less stylish (not that Uggs are terribly attractive to begin with). It inflates (sort of like the Reebok Pump sneaker) to provide a cushion of support for my damaged foot. I am to start walking on it, lightly, with aid of crutches, and hopefully be OK to walk gingerly on my own in the next few days. He did bend my ankle to 90 degrees, (the splint from the ER had it at about a 110 degree angle), not a pleasant feeling.

Tags: foot, injury, pain, ankle, style, boot, crutches, annoying, urban life

The lymph accumulates

Good teamwork at the office today We took digital pictures of my (more) swollen foot and ankle. So glad I happened to paint my toenails the night before the accident.

When Blogger lets me post them, I shall.

Tags: injury, pain, foot

Just call me "Hoppy"

Usually, I'm about to try to do something for myself when I'm gently reminded that it's bad to try and carry a plate of food somewhere while on crutches. As a result, I have a new appreciation for the physically handicapped. Being on crutches leaves me unable to the simplest tasks, like cooking for myself or filling my car up with gas. Getting out the door is a mess.
My apartment building has a heavy glass door, which is very tough to push open (I cannot imagine what it will be like to try to get back inside later today. I hope that the downstairs neighbors are home so that I don't have to wrestle with the door, keys, and crutches).

Tags: ankle, injury, pain, help, handicap, annoying, frustration

ER adventure

I ended up at the ER on Saturday night after trying to put some weight on my foot and having it cause LOTS of pain. By the time I got out of the house and to the car, hopping on one foot, it was about 7:45pm or so. Night in the ER was long, yet sort of an adventure. Roommate took me for rides up and down the hall. On my gurney. We were there until after midnight. I now have a soft splint and crutches and have stayed home from work today. This loss of freedom and independent movement sucks.

A quick recap our adventure (my first time being the patient in a big city ER):

• As I limped/hopped in the doors of the ER an agitated older gentleman was trying to flee his friends and family who had brought him in. And when I say agitated, I mean lots of arms waving and other wild gesturing. I tried my best to avoid him as I hopped (yes, hopped, anyone who wasn't staring at the flailing guy was watching my slow progress) over to the desk to register myself. Once they got me inside the desk area, seated in a wheelchair, the agitated man took off again, nearing knocking down Roommate, who was walking into the ER after parking the car. Like eight staffers and security people took off after the elderly gentleman. We also overheard conversations that the man's family was having with hospital staff. From this we concluded that he might've had a stroke of some sort or a diabetic blood sugar freak out and that "the martini probably didn't help things."

• Eventually they got around to officially registering me., ordered X-rays and then they told me that I couldn't eat until X-rays were done. Bastards! I mean how could this possibly effect the outcome of my X-rays?
  

• Roomie went out to get food at the only place open in that area- Au Bon Pain. Thankfully he soon returned with a corn muffin and croissant. Mediocre pastries never smelled so good! Any business that is located near the Beth Israel ER could make a killing by staying open late, especially on weekends. I don't know why more don't.
  

• No room at the inn- this means that I got put on a gurney in the hallway. Busy hallway too. I was like a curiosity in a museum.
  

• I did get to observe the goings-on in my unit. Like the agitated elderly woman waiting for her nursing home to pick her up. They came to claim her around midnight. Turns out she's 90! This woman didn't look a day over 80 and, except for her agitation, seemed kind of clearheaded. She only wanted to stand and wait by the nurses station. They would not let her, as they have to keep patient privacy a priority.

• A student at a local college had gotten trampled at a free punk show of some kind. That had to suck. She also messed up her ankle.
  

• Nurses seemed nice and competent. It took forever to see a doc and when a guy came to transport me to X-ray, I insisted upon going even without having seen a doc yet. I'd been told by a nurse that ankle X-rays had already been ordered by someone. This set of X-rays was for my ankle.
  

• By the time our area of the ER (the Blue area) was pretty empty, no one seemed to care what you do. This would be when Roomie was taking me for gurney rides up and down the hallway. We also tried to see how high the gurney could go and I had almost touched the ceiling when a nice young man came to get me for my second set of X-rays.

• Second set of X-rays: the head resident seemed to think that I might've broken a bone in my foot and they needed slightly different angles to see. Oy vey! More contorting of my body and swollen foot. Just what I wanted after being there for over four hours.

• Doctors were probably younger than me (I'm 27). Kind of a scary thing, as it took 3 of them to get the splint formed and on my foot. That hurt. Roommate's girlfriend was nice and held my hand through it.

After they finally finished putting my splint on, it was 1:30am. Where does one find food in Boston at that time? IHOP. Wow, was that place ever a melting pot at 2am. Eurotrash, students, urban youths, bikers. You'll find them all eating pancakes and bacon at the IHOP in Brighton.

I hope this is all coherent. The pain pills are making me a bit silly and sleepy. Much thanks to Roomate and girlfriend for coming with me and keeping me sane.

Tags: ER, hospital, pain, X-ray, Beth Israel, doctor, nurse, medicine, health, sprain

Metal spike ruined my night

Thank you, city of Boston, for not removing this lovely metal spike from the sidewalk on Beacon Street (inbound). If you had I would not have tripped over it and spent my evening (from 8pm to 1am) in the ER at Beth Israel. I also would not have a superstrong Fiberglas splint on my right leg and would be without this season's hottest accessory- a chic pair of metal crutches.


UPDATE:
I called the Mayor's Constituent Complaint hotline. The woman I spoke to dispatched the DPW to see to a solution about the spike. She also said I could call City Hall on Monday to file any claims. (If anyone has ever done this, advice is much appreciated.)

Tags: ankle, hospital, Boston, emergency room, ER, Saturday night, pain, logistical nightmare

Death by stingray- on TV?

Will the final moments of Steve Irwin's life be broadcast?

Part of me thinks that it's gross. Part of me is very curious (admit it, aren't you?) to see it.

Tags: nature, Australia, stingray, death, accident