April 13, 2020

Still here. The Castle isn’t the word for the place nowadays. Well the latest toll as of yesterday is 4 residents with Corona virus.

I actually saw the vp of Archcare (owners of many nursing homes in the city including this place) being interviewed on msnbc. And his big complaint was that if testing is going to be done, start with the nursing homes which have the most vulnerable populations.

He also complained that the poorly paid front workers, the canon fodder (my words) who were still coming into to take care of the old folks, didn’t have the protective gear they needed and actually took a few jabs at Trump.

I’d bet he voted for Trump because of the abortion issue.

I’m not saying that all of this death and horror is Trump’s fault.

In fact, I can’t blame him. He is still the same snake oil salesman he always was. It’s a democracy, if we can hold it.

It’s been slipping away.

Imagine, if you will that “crooked Hillary” was president.

Possibly she would have acted faster.

And she never would’ve pointed to her head and said “I have all the metrics here.”

Or
I’m a very stable genius.

We get a reflection of how broken this country is whenever the idiot opens his mouth.

Well I try to keep this diary free from the inane politics of this world, but obviously I failed today.

How’m I?

When I first came here there were aides coming into the room many times a day, and it was annoying.

Now I’m happy (mostly) to see a face in my room. I’ve deteriorated somewhat without the constant PT and OT I was getting. I’m also on a new infusion of IG, every two weeks for two days instead of what I was on before (5 days in a row) per month.

I now have a touch of why solitary confinement must be so agonizing even tho I have a big room, computer, facetime, and cable tv. Also people on the outside that are looking out for me.

And then to hear (NYT) that the dope was being told since January that this was on the way.

Well, in other words, I had been waiting for spring to go out and just sit in the sun. I’ve been out twice in the last few months.

Once when I had the fall getting off the toilet in the bathroom and waited for about an hour after pressing the pendant I wear for 45 minutes. I was asked if I wanted to go to the hospital ER or not. I figured I could see my neurologist and explain about feeling weaker…

So I ended up in the ER for 7 hours with people all around me and the place filling with what would be Coronis patients. That was more than a month ago. I wanted to deal with people (ambulance people) who knew how to get me off the floor and onto a stretcher.

And they did. They were able to move the wheelchair out of the way. Then dragged me out into the room. Decided the best lift to do. Got me on a stretcher, and off to the center of the pandemic in NY I went. And happy to go.

No fever. A cough from an allergy. And eventually discharged by a very smart neurologist who got me discharged quickly saying this was no place for me.

A few weeks ago I also got out in the wheelchair for my Entyvio infusion which I get every two months.

It’s in a separate building (apart from Mt. Sinai) and was mostly empty. I was in and out in less than an hour.

The food got worse.

The number of hours aides are working – now 12 hrs a day for 3 days at a time one week and 4 days a week – alternating.

I don’t know if any aides got it. But there’s a bunch of aides calling in sick.

OT and PT, at least one of each have returned, part-time. That’s great for me.

Feral Cat

New Jersey, I think it was at some sort of Submarine and Rocket exhibit, on the way to Costco? Memory fails. Two other shots from that morning.

Missile and Cat

Detail, WWII Submarine