Reply With QuoteI'm really sorry to hear about all of your recent troubles, Rob. I hope you can see some light at the end of the tunnel soon. You're always missed around here.
Reality Check - Just Letting You All know I Miss WNY
Hi-
Just got out of the hospital again (HUGE kidney stone- 8mm x2.5mm - requiring surgery). It came on out of Nowhere.
It was my second week-long stay in a hospital in last three weeks. NYC might have the best hospitals (I was at Ny-Presbyterian for 8 days for severe depression and St. Vincent's for six days for the Kidney Stone ), but a hospital is a hospital and it sucks. For the record, St. Vincent's had a much more "caring" staff and was kind and responsive. I was in the newer building and it was really quite nice. NY-Presbyterian was all about "checklists" and get me in and get me out. Very professional, but they were there to clock-in and clock-out for a paycheck. A very overrrated facility. I wouldn't stay there again.
Still on the mend from the September car accident. An EKG before sugery administered last week showed some heart problems that I need to get adressed this coming Tuesday. Add that to my EMDR therapy for my PTSD, my appointment with the psychopharmacologist for my depression, and my urologist appointment to remove the ureter stents and it is worse than anny hellweek in a fraternity. I'm especially nervous about getting the stents taken out. I know how they went in to destroy the kidney stone with laser and the resulting catheter I had. I just can't quite get my head around how they get back up in there to get these out, ifthey are coming out. I'm nervous. Not sure if anyone has had this, but the pain when urinating is like someone is holding and sqeezing my right kidney with all their might with one hand and crushing my right testicle with the other. Too much information? My apologies, but it is real. And somehow, I still care about the Gehry Project at Atlantic Yards.
However, I am finally getting my shoulder fixed. I have had ZERO new bone growth since September 8th and the fracture has moved 45 degrees, so that now I get stabbed in the back (from the inside) when I lay down. My surgery is finally scheduled for Feb 26th, after which they can start fixing the torn cartilege in my knee (which they couldn't do until I could support myself on crutches).
For those into drugs, I was bumped up from IV Morphine to Dilaudid in the hospital - WOWSA! what a combo - plus a percocet here and there. I now have a prescribed home a cocktail of Percocet 325mg, Vicodin ES 750mg, Ditrpoan 5mg, Valium 10mg, Klonopin .5mg and Atavin .5mg - plus anti-biotics.
My trip to Paris that was supposed to start this past Thursday is off (obviously) and the weather there has been sunny and in the 60's. Naturally.
I'm still out of work indefinitely, but I think my depression is finally moving. I've done ALOT of writing - arounf 300 pages so far about the hospitals, the ailments and about life. If I drop dead from one of these procedures at least someone will have the definition of "hell" documented.
Sorry for the downer post. I'm feeling really isolated. I think it comes with the territory. I just need to kind of put myself on the map and say, "I'm here." I'm readingthe forum daily, but my passions are muted from the drugs. All of my friendly adversaries on different topics are getting free passes from me right now. But I will be back - in full force.
I'm also reading alot of stuff on the new Coney Island Development that is not making it into our forum and Thor equities also has a HUGE development ready to roll into Red Hook (I've seen the architectural plans). These two things are off the WNY radar it seems.
If I were a building, I'd be one of those crap things londonlawyer would want razed.
Anyway, I appreciate this forum and that I didn't have to think too hard to figure out someplace in cyberspace to make this post. I've found myself meditating a lot on our TLOZ Project, remonding me that anything is possible if I just dive in (and ask for help). I'm really glad to be a part of this community and THIS post has helped me alot. I just needed to put it all in writing.
Peace-
Rob
I'm really sorry to hear about all of your recent troubles, Rob. I hope you can see some light at the end of the tunnel soon. You're always missed around here.
Writing can be very therapeutic and you do it well, Rob. Stick with it. Your inspiring efforts on the JB project united us all and touched our lives in a lasting way. We know you're here, or not far away, and we're with you. I'm glad you feel you could reach out and share your pain here, done with dignity and humour.
I know you'll be back better than ever. It couldn't be any other way.
I don't think we'll be needing the wrecking ball any time soon!
Rob, your strength and spirit are an incredible inspiration. I'm praying for you, and I know there will be a trip to Paris in your future.
We take so much for granted. You've touched my life, just being yourself, and I think you are simply amazing.
May you be feeling better soon, dear friend.
Dear Rob,
in a moment like this I feel how important is being part of a community like this, where we can have fun, we can talk about news, but we can also do somethin' important! I'm sure you'll get better and that you'll enjoy your trip to Paris... and I'm sure you'll have so many nice things to experience in your life... maybe, one day, you'll come to Italy too! In the meantime, I'll be praying for you!
Everything is coming along right now. My shoulder surgey is scheduled for Monday. It will be two months that I won't be able to use my right arm, so I'm armless again. If there's a way of getting in here - even just to read - I'll find the way to do it!
The news is always interesting and the arguments make me laugh.
Cheers to all!
I hope everything goes well and you recover quickly.
Feel better Rob.
Here's your get-well card, Rob
You can only see it for free today; after that it slides behind the firewall and is accessible only to subscribers of the site.
http://www.inman.com/inmannews.aspx?ID=62295
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
ali
May you get right, right away. (You can stay left if you want, but you know what I mean.)
From the water cooler - get well soon
Hey,,,, this was a great article (and very appropriate and timely) for this thread......nice post.Originally Posted by Front_Porch
Excerpt from the inman.com article
But it's a source of something else, too: camaraderie. Sure, I go into the office of my brokerage firm a couple of times a week, but like at any real estate office, agents are rushing in and out, always in the pursuit of a transaction. I can call my friends at office jobs, but they have deadlines to meet and staff conferences to go to. Hello, Internet! On the Web you can find people who are actually taking a break, and if you're real-estate-obsessed enough they will talk to you about floor plates and floor plans.
The flip side of this is that, just as in the real world, you start to become part of a group. Hanging out begets hanging out.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that it's playing. When you work a client-oriented job, you don't want to spend too much time socializing with people who aren't your client base. People in office jobs can't spend eight hours a day at lunch, and I can't either.
But on the flip side of that, I remind myself that I am allowed to go to lunch. And, electronically, I go to the same place every day. So the people there are my pals, just like the regulars at a diner. These "water cooler connections" are superficial, but they can be very satisfying.
I really felt this the other day when I was on wirednewyork and one of the senior members IM'd me -- it was like that day in high school when, after you've been a freshman for months, an upperclassman finally taps you on the shoulder.
Of course if you were at an office job, and one of your water cooler friends got ill, it would be a drag. I remember five years ago, when I was working at a newspaper and a colleague of mine got Crohn's disease. She was in; she was out; I felt bad for her that she was sick, and selfishly bad for myself that I didn't have her to talk to.
Well, electronic water cooler friends are the same way. It's a drag when one of them disappears, especially if it's someone who says supportive things like, "I feel inspired" and "Happiness trumps everything." Worse still when you find he's been hit by a car! So, BrooklynRider -- Rob -- here's hoping the surgery works like a charm on Monday. Between now and then, I will have jumped out into real life and had lunches with friends and lattes with clients, and I know that you're frustrated that you can't. But soon, you will -- soon!
P.S. Here's hoping you get well soon Rob.
Made me laugh
"If I were a building, I'd be one of those crap things londonlawyer would want razed."
Loved the line, made me laugh, hope it brought a smile to your face while writing it. Good luck next week. Hospitals suck no matter the drugs.
Thanks. I was very excited to finally be gettingt his surgery (6 month is a long time with an unhealed fracture). Today the anxiety is hitting me. I've had 13 days in the hospital so far this year and I've been out of pain from the kidney surgery for about 4 days now.
The idea of heading back into "pain-ville" is kind of freaking me out and, of course, the implications of even the slightest complication can have a devastating effect, since I can't use my left arm. I'm dreading two months in a sling - which is two months with no arms. Ahhhh!
I'm trusting I'll turnaround in a faster timeframe. The next two days are going to be pure pins and needles. I'd been pretty good holding off the "what if's." I guess it is an appropriate time to be nervous.
I wouldn't post this here unless I felt this really were a community. I was moved because TLOZ let us into his personal life so openly and without hesitation. He did inspire me and I think alot of others here. I think it is a worthy tradition he created for us to carry on. Having met many of the active members here - although we kept it anonymous - I know the quality of the individuals and their generosity of spirit. I don't mind nor am I embarrassed to ask for that embrace going through this. I know I'll have ample opportunity to repay it.
Thanks everyone.
Wishing you the best on Monday, BR ...
Anything in particular you'd like to have posted for entertainment in your absence?
And have you been practicing your nose-on-the-mouse / nose-to-the-keyboard technique?
Watch Orion for me... only kidding.
I wish I could at least watch Amede rise up a ranking system somewhere once again. That was exciting.
We think alike. I trust you to read my mind and post appropriately.
Cheers!
Rob
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