It was just a short ambulance ride to Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC). Kalman wasn't there when I arrived, but he came soon afterward. I was really glad to see him; going to a hospital, especially one where you've never been before, is traumatic enough. If you have to be admitted with no one there for moral support, it's very disheartening. The first thing the ER doctor wanted to do was put me back on a respirator, albeit just for a short time. There was no way I was going to agree to that. That's when Kalman stepped in. Basically he told me to stop being a jerk and let the doctor do his job. The thought of being hooked up to that monstrosity again chilled me to the bone and scared the hell out of me. But with Kalman and the doctor ganging up on me and the latter assuring me that this would be very temporary, I gave in. He was a man of his word: I was removed from the respirator a few short hours later. Meanwhile, I was not aware of all the machinations that were going on behind the scene. My siblings were trying desparately to get me transferred back to good ol' Columbia Presbyterian. Because I had already been admitted, however, the red tape involved in getting me
unadmitted was just too much to deal with. I stayed in RUMC and frankly, in retrospect, I'm glad I did. Granted, they are not the world class facility that Columbia is, but a world class facility was not needed this time. A very nice man named Dr. Arsuro was in charge of my case. They ran tests to see if I had a new infection and I did not. I'm not even sure exactly what they did for me, medically speaking, but I was only there five days so I guess they m
anaged to stabilize me. If this all sounds a bit vague it's because I don't really remember much about my time there at all. I'm not sure why. In fact I asked Kalman to help me with the details and he couldn't remember much either. Maybe there was something in the drinking water. Anyway, Kalman stayed with me the first two days of Passover. We didn't have a seder, but we did have grape juice and matzoh. Kosher hospital food is bad enough; kosher for Passover hospital food is even worse. Ugh! I was beginning to miss my old friend the feeding tube. I was discharged on Thursday, April Fool's Day and was soon back in my old room at Silver Lake. Joe was in middle of a soliloquy about how John Gotti was framed by the feds. Ahhh...it was good to be home.
It was just a short ambulance ride to Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC). Kalman wasn't there when I arrived, but he came soon afterward. I was really glad to see him; going to a hospital, especially one where you've never been before, is traumatic enough. If you have to be admitted with no one there for moral support, it's very disheartening. The first thing the ER doctor wanted to do was put me back on a respirator, albeit just for a short time. There was no way I was going to agree to that. That's when Kalman stepped in. Basically he told me to stop being a jerk and let the doctor do his job. The thought of being hooked up to that monstrosity again chilled me to the bone and scared the hell out of me. But with Kalman and the doctor ganging up on me and the latter assuring me that this would be very temporary, I gave in. He was a man of his word: I was removed from the respirator a few short hours later. Meanwhile, I was not aware of all the machinations that were going on behind the scene. My siblings were trying desparately to get me transferred back to good ol' Columbia Presbyterian. Because I had already been admitted, however, the red tape involved in getting me unadmitted was just too much to deal with. I stayed in RUMC and frankly, in retrospect, I'm glad I did. Granted, they are not the world class facility that Columbia is, but a world class facility was not needed this time. A very nice man named Dr. Arsuro was in charge of my case. They ran tests to see if I had a new infection and I did not. I'm not even sure exactly what they did for me, medically speaking, but I was only there five days so I guess they m
anaged to stabilize me. If this all sounds a bit vague it's because I don't really remember much about my time there at all. I'm not sure why. In fact I asked Kalman to help me with the details and he couldn't remember much either. Maybe there was something in the drinking water. Anyway, Kalman stayed with me the first two days of Passover. We didn't have a seder, but we did have grape juice and matzoh. Kosher hospital food is bad enough; kosher for Passover hospital food is even worse. Ugh! I was beginning to miss my old friend the feeding tube. I was discharged on Thursday, April Fool's Day and was soon back in my old room at Silver Lake. Joe was in middle of a soliloquy about how John Gotti was framed by the feds. Ahhh...it was good to be home.
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