There Might Be No Post Today

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

When in the course of human events, a Sarah is still trying to cough up a lung after three weeks and a course of antibiotics and furthermore, when this interferes with the writing, she has to be dragged — kicking, screaming and swearing in four existing languages AND a made up one — to the doctor.

She doesn’t like doctors except the ones who comment here, and she sure hopes she doesn’t have to go to the hospital. They kill people there. (No, really. Iatrogenic events are one of the primary causes of the death in the US.)

I’m under threat, though, by family members AND fans. And that last is very scary because you guys are resourceful and determined. I don’t want anyone driving here over two days just to drag me to the doctor, so I surrender right now.

Anyway, I will try to post when I get back. Considering it took me till now to be out of bed and functional, this might not work.

118 thoughts on “There Might Be No Post Today”

  2. Being persnickety, it is iatrogenic.

    I’ve only read the word; it doesn’t come up in conversation. In many fonts, a capital I looks exactly like a lowercase l.

    I am currently resisting my husband’s attempts to make me go to a doctor, for a similar reason. I have hopes that my condition is improving.

    Get well soon.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. DuckDuckGo has no way of distinguishing between pages where people used the correct form and pages where people misspelled or typoed. But Wiktionary has no entry for “latrogenic,” and when I check Liddell & Scott, the Greek root “latros” does not seem to mean a doctor, but a servant or hireling. Putting on my professional copy editor hat, I’d correct “latrogenic” to “iatrogenic,” with no author query.

        Like

        1. In the course of my practice, I’ve only ever heard the term as “iatrogenic.” My DDG search and conclusions were about the same as yours — I suspect Latrogenic is typically a typographical error.

          However looking at your findings on the root “latros”, perhaps our hostess is suggesting that The butler did it.

          Like

          2. It seems to be a little more complex than that. The animate noun seems to be latris, rather than latros; the adjective is latrios, which suggests latriogenic. There is an inanimate noun, latron, which appears to mean pay, and that would suggest that “latrogenic” is something you get from your pay; I’m not quite sure how to interpret that. But perhaps it could be stretched to be something you get from your employee, servant, or in the feminine handmaid . . .

            Liked by 2 people

  4. Sarah, we don’t want to lose you. Dan doesn’t want to lose you. Your boys and their wives don’t want to lose you.

    And your future grand-kids will miss you if you’re not around to spoil them. [Crazy Grin]

    Oh, I’m aware that we haven’t been told that grand-kids are on-the-way. [Wink]

    Liked by 2 people

  5. I’m glad you’re being pushed to go. Do you have an inhaler, and are you using it? If they didn’t do a chest x-ray last time, I hope you get one today. And as a last resort there are always steroids although they are indeed the last resort for a good reason. Best of luck.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Consider how loud it would be if all the Huns were in the room yelling as well.

        Whenever local instances of humans tell you to use the inhaler, or go to the doctor, or keep taking your meds even though you feel better, just envision all of us there arrayed standing behind the speaker, transparent and wavy in a holographic fashion, glaring over their shoulder at YOU, with that look in our collective eyes which equates to “Do NOT make me come all the way to Undisclosed Location and glare at you in person!”

        Like

        1. I learned the lesson that “just because you feel better doesn’t mean you are well” at 19. Haven’t done this again. Never wanted to. I do not recommend it.

          Like

  6. Prayers up. Hope you turn the corner on this soon.

    And don’t worry about us. You know perfectly well we can entertain ourselves for a while.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Oh, no, the aardvark’s wise to that. He calls. Unless you let him check your notion of contractors, he’s making the call.

        Fluffy’s backing him up.

        Like

              1. Well, I thought I was whistling Sam the Sham’s “Hey There Little Red Riding Hood”, but my sister got the music talent in the family, so probably botched it for something like “Monster Mash”.

                Like

              2. That cawing is the ravens and crows.

                Yes, they are usually so quiet you don’t hear them, but there’s something about spells that keep them from dead bodies that annoys them.

                Like

  7. GURRRRRRLLL, you BROKEN. You better get it fixed, and I DO mean with a quickness. I’ll come over there and kick you bowlegged. I will snatch you bald headed.

    I…just ran out of excessively-folksy threats. But you get the gist. Get on that. Please.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You omitted “scratch your eyes out” and “whup you so hard you’ll be eating off the mantel for a week”.

      Like

  9. I can’t say anything that others haven’t already said, so just listen to the people who love you and GET WELL!!! We’ll all be here when you get back!👍👍👍

    Like

    1. The flamingoes are promising to help the aardvark clean up so you won’t even be able to tell what we were up to.

      At that, the blue mice and pink elephants are distinctly subdued.

      Like

      2. I remember the warnings when they were trying to pass that law, and how the Leftroids jeered at us. “Won’t happen!” they all said. “Slippery-slope fallacy!” they cried. “Conspiracy Theories!” they accused.

        Well that slope slipped faster than even the most wild-eyed conspiracy nuts ever imagined.

        And still they’re pushing for the same thing here.

        Like

        1. We already have MAID here in Oregon.

          “Why don’t you want to go to the doctor?” Glare.

          Or why mom has me as her backup for DNR.

          OTOH when BIL went downhill so fast a little over a week ago, with a DNR and SIL’s power of attorney, both medical and financial, he was still force transported to the ER. Choice was via police, or EMT and ambulance. What she, the wife, (& us, the brother, SIL, and nephew) wanted, but he definitely didn’t about the only thing he was coherent about, and (not that we had a say, exactly) SIL did not want to go against BIL. Luckily legal prevailed. BIL is now doing great. Another 3 weeks or so will see if staff infection returns (one month after antibiotic pic line came out). Huge different attitude with the doctors this time. Last time it was “stay the coarse until oral antibiotics are done too”. Meanwhile BIL and SIL are screaming “something is wrong, it isn’t working!” Should she have hauled his tush to the ER in spite of the official doctors? Hindsight? Yes. When they did show up at ER? Attending, multiple of, and nurses comments were “knee is infected, that is why he is incoherent!” Response was “No Shit! I’ve been screaming at his doctors that the infection wasn’t gone, and was worse.” (SIL can be pushed easily to politically incorrect. She was well pushed past.) So there is hope in Oregon. Note this was in Eugene. Can’t answer for greater Portland or Salem.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. Is there an officially named fallacy for this? The slippery slope is a genuine rhetorical fallacy that doesn’t really apply to an argument where *real* problems are being dishonestly ignored.

          The “good intentions” fallacy, maybe? (But even so, that wouldn’t apply; their intentions are almost never honest or good.) “Just the tip” is the most accurate thing I can come up with. EVERYTHING they do is like that.

          Like

          1. They dismissed any concerns that their new measure would be applied…inappropriately, by claiming that was just a slippery-slope fallacy.

            Then they went and slipped down that slope at warp speed.

            Liked by 1 person

        3. “Slippery-slope fallacy!” they cried.

          When you read “The Gods of the Copybook Headings”, it helps to keep in mind that every one of the three cases is a demonstration that the “slippery slope” is not a fallacy; it’s just reality.

          Start compromising principle around the edges, and all too soon it’s gone.

          Like

  11. You don’t have to worry about me trying to drive up there. I can send some very persuasive folks to your compound next time who are close by. Or to your doctor/hospital if need be. Just don’t expect for me to wait for permission. This is getting tiresome. I had to make house calls too many times because of your ilk in past, and I doubt anyone does that anymore.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Goes both ways, sister Sarah. Last time I had to go to the doctor, nearly unable to walk and talk, unable to focus for more than two minutes at a time they had to drive me kicking and mumbling (screaming took too much effort) as well.

    This is why men and women are made for each other. We look out for each other better than we do ourselves. Sometimes you need that other person to put their foot down and take care of you, even when you might resent the fact that you even have to be taken care of for any reason at all.

    Don’t worry your wee noggin’ about this little corner of the digital frontier. Like as not it’ll still be standing when you get back to minimum functionality.

    Were I a betting man, I’d expect not a few of us will be under the weather these next few days. The body deals with stress in different ways, but a common one is to shut down and become ill when it gets too much. Go pet a kitty, snuggle with your husband, and call your daughters-in-law when you can. They worry about you, all of them. Reassure them that you aiten’t dead yet, and remind each other of what’s really important in life. Family. Friends. These things are meaningful and precious.

    We will miss you while you’re gone. But that might be because some of us have bad aim. ;p

    Liked by 1 person

      2. A “not severe” pneumonia. “Hardly a flesh wound.“

        ”Come over by my bed and I’ll beat you up, if I can raise this arm.”

        Have you gotten any of the pneumovax shots?

        Like

          1. 7 years ago, I got a pneumonia booster (that curiously, the clinic never recorded having given to me). That was on a Tuesday. By Friday evening I hit the urgent care clinic (in Medford; was a preop medical trip for an eye procedure), and came up negative for flu, but with a pretty spot on my lungs. Diagnosis, pneumonia. 10 days of antibiotic later, I’d recovered and went on with the eye procedure 20 days after that.

            Dr. Mengele (who had tried, quite unsuccessfully, to persuade me to get the COVID clotshot) is trying to get me to take the latest and greatest pneumonia booster. I’m somewhere between “Hell No” and “If you try it, the syringe will look funny in your ass”.

            Like

        2. Sarah needs to let her family and friends take care of her and get better. Overachieving is indeed overrated.

          Last Saturday, I severely bruised my thumb/wrist (we’ll know if it is a break in a few weeks), broke my elbow, broke my nose, and gave myself a grade 2 concussion (2 hours I don’t remember at all), as well as destroyed a pair of glasses.

          My daughter complimented me on outdoing her on the concussion and elbow and doing it in the same incident. I could have happily lived having never beaten her records in those areas.

          Like

        3. Sarah needs to let her family and friends take care of her and get better. Overachieving is indeed overrated.

          Last Saturday, I severely bruised my thumb/wrist (we’ll know if it is a break in a few weeks), broke my elbow, broke my nose, and gave myself a grade 2 concussion (2 hours I don’t remember at all), as well as destroyed a pair of glasses.

          My daughter complimented me on outdoing her on the concussion and elbow and doing it in the same incident. I could have happily lived having never beaten her records in those areas.

          Like

          1. Ow! Prayer up.

            Back in 2004 I faceplate into concrete and broke my nose, along with getting a fat lip, a bruised cheekbone, a cut where my glasses dug in before they got ground into the pavement and (eventually) a dead nerve in one of my teeth. I say my nose protected me from a concussion.

            But I do have some idea of how much you hurt. God bless.

            Like

              1. WPDE was what I was muttering when it double posted.

                I think the worst part was that the first ER, the one the ambulance took me to, didn’t even bother mentioning that I might want to keep an eye out for concussion symptoms. They did do a head and neck CT, but having ruled out brain bleeds and fractured bones other than nasal, they just treated it as all good. Perhaps the fact that I was stuck on a stretcher in the ER hall for the whole three hours when I wasn’t in radiology contributed to them not noticing my two hours of amnesia.

                The initial xray read on the elbow also missed the fracture, but even though the official read saw it, no one bothered to notify me of this potentially important bit of information.

                I should probably mention that this is the only trauma center in Eastern Connecticut.

                Like

                1. Bother.

                  My only encounter with concussion (so far) was my college best friend getting knocked down by a cyclist. Four days later, after four days of headaches, she sat down to take her Russian final and found herself throwing up in a restroom across campus two hours or so later. She was, understandably, freaked right out.

                  The nurse at the college infirmity told her that if she hadn’t died already she wasn’t going to, and gave her valium. Watching her study for her PolySci final (I was in the same class) was….interesting.

                  For the record, she passed the Russian final and got an A-minus on the political science final. I also got an A-minus, with much more angina. (In New Jersey, pronounced, AH-ginna).

                  Like

              2. WPDE was what I was muttering when it double posted.

                I think the worst part was that the first ER, the one the ambulance took me to, didn’t even bother mentioning that I might want to keep an eye out for concussion symptoms. They did do a head and neck CT, but having ruled out brain bleeds and fractured bones other than nasal, they just treated it as all good. Perhaps the fact that I was stuck on a stretcher in the ER hall for the whole three hours when I wasn’t in radiology contributed to them not noticing my two hours of amnesia.

                The initial xray read on the elbow also missed the fracture, but even though the official read saw it, no one bothered to notify me of this potentially important bit of information.

                I should probably mention that this is the only trauma center in Eastern Connecticut.

                Like

                3. You had a concussion unless they can prove you did not.

                  I have a history of them. And the last one was TBI-level, although weirdly presented enough where several first-responding pros missed it. Still dealing with resultant problems 6 years later.

                  And as to “missed fracture”, been there too. Took a nasty fall at work and jammed up my hand, bad. Doc-in-box ran a bunch of x-rays. No fracture. Month later, follwo up x-rays found oddly located hairline fracture healing. The repair growth bone is denser, thus obvious. Dr radiologist admitted he and three others missed it, only seeign it when looking at the “after” picture for reference. Asked if he could retain copies before/after for teaching students. Perfect example. (of course “yes”. My 15 minutes of anonymous fame!)

                  Like

              3. I think i like the otto korrupt version better. It has evokes plating up dishes at a very fancy restaurant and the contrast with the violent result…. * chef’s kiss*

                Like

  15. I feel it also as I am down with the cough from hell, a very sore throat and sinuses leaking gallons of snot.

    I can’t be sick! I have things to do!

    Like

  17. I got rid of the creeping crud, and then I caught some kind of cold/flu. It’s annoying, because it’s similar symptoms but a totally different feeling, placement, and so forth. Also, the second one is making my nose run like a fountain.

    The kids out there apparently are coming down with some kind of mycoplasma-based “walking pneumonia” that gives them white spots on chest x-rays. Adults are sorta more resistant, but watch out for it.

    Like

  18. The sinus crud went around down here, then the tummy-crud. I missed the second one [leans over, touches real wood]. Allergies + sinus infection = 0 fun. I’m sure stress doesn’t help. Part of my job is keeping up with all the political news. I detest politics. Yes, the Most High is laughing at me.

    Rest, get better, and don’t worry about the boom, the crash, or the other, odder-sounding boom. The striped paint will hide the discoloration in the sheetrock. Or so I was assured.

    Like

    1. Here, too. $SPOUSE$ has been coming home late the last three days exhausted and in a foul mood. They are supposed to be staffed with two exceptional ed specialists, and three cooperating teachers. The other four have been out for sick leave. (One is for knee surgery, not the crud – but who knows what she might have picked up while getting that.)

      I’ve been telling her she’s not getting sick because of all the red meat I feed her for dinner…

      Liked by 1 person

      2. I finished the bulk of the patio/walkway project, with a handfull of smaller related things to finish. So, I’m not outside as much in the autumn mold season, at least for a couple of weeks.

        We’re getting a couple of troublesome trees cut down, and I’m hoping to give much of that away. If not, I have a bunch to move, but that entails more machinery than hand labor. He said with hope in his voice.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. How are the current series of storms hitting your section of Oregon?

          Here in lower mid valley, we are getting hammered with rain (son and mom says been this way all week off and on, occasionally with hail and/or lightening). We weren’t surprised to see Tetons (mountains hammered, valley flurries) and Yellowstone (definitely time to close roads for the winter) hit with snow. OTOH further west it was hit and miss. Lots of heavy rain. Big and lots of snow flakes hit just east of Brothers Oregon, but was just hard rain as we hit the extreme out areas of Bend coming in on hwy 20. Passes sleet, but roads not freezing. Hoodoo (I presume Willamette, and Hood) getting hammered with snow (good because storms keep up they might be able to open by Thanksgiving, a rare possibility for Willamette or Hoodoo).

          Like

          2. Friday was mostly cold and wet with some wind to make for extra misery. Naturally, Kat-the-dog needed to go outdoors more often than normal because Border Collie. The band of rain/snow mostly passed north of us, with us getting the southern fringe.

            We’ve had some snow, and this morning I had to work to get the sunroom door open; good and wet overnight, then freezing weather. Whee.

            I’m trying to decide when I’m going to do snow tires. I think I’ll do one of the Subies (the Honda has snows, but not studded. Waggles hand over effectiveness). I do need to try to figure out how mice are getting in the Foresters. One has a family, and it’s raising hell, swiping seat stuffing. The peppermint oil repellent doesn’t work, alas. Perhaps the poison and glue traps will.

            (Some of the critters are deer mice, known hantavirus carriers. The rest are just plain field mice. The downside of living near a river.)

            Like

            1. “The band of rain/snow mostly passed north of us, with us getting the southern fringe.”

              When we went through Brothers Oregon yesterday, we must have hit that snow storm north of you. It was nasty. Roads fine. But weren’t going to be for long if it kept up. Turned to rain before Bend.

              Like

    3. The patch for the hole in the neutronium wall around vault 247 is mostly solidified, so the new sheetrock and zebra stripe paint will certainly cover it.

      The eldritch grooves it left in the floor before it could be redirected are taking some effort to stabilize, plus that melty spot where Fluffy chimed in with the containment process keeps remelting, but engineering has a handle on those, something about a tachyon burst through a deflector array restabilizing the base matrix on both of them. After it stops being melty it will take some more epoxy filler before the hardwood can be patched in.

      Like

      1. I learned wisdom playing the “Paranoia” RPG. It is essential that one’s post-action report start out “I can say without fear of contradiction…”

        Like

  25. Miss Sarah,

    You are hereby directed to get well soon.

    No excuses or further extensions will be accepted.

    The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you;
    The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you;
    The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually)

    Please note that November is the month of Thanksgiving, and your physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy presence will be expected at all mandatory formations.

    Like

  26. Praying for a speedy recovery for you Sarah! I generally avoid doctors like the plague myself. Herbs may take little longer, though far healthier. Those manmade antibiotics kill off the healthy gut biome and undermine the body’s ability to fight illness overall. Other places in world so much better about this than US. Our doctors at least used to be good about diagnosis, though not so much these days unless you get someone trained over thirty years ago perhaps. Not a Dr, and one can easily find Dr.s sharing about this, and other trustworthy sources as well, at a minimum adding garlic, ginger, honey, thyme, oregano,and items like that can be beneficial they say. All the best!

    Like

  27. Well, I feel for you Sarah and for the family too! Sometimes medical issues can just overwhelm one and all.

    The last week of September the wife person was having trouble getting up out of bed and slid down to the floor – could not get up. A nice crew of EMS folks came by and took her to the hospital for a fifteen day stay to fight off an infection. Got that nailed down and she then had to go to ‘rehab’ as she was (still is) weak as a new born kitten. Rehab was fine until she collapsed on day seven and went back to the hospital for another week – Docs say it is Encephalopathy, being dehydrated and maybe some Vascular dementia. Oh joy.

    Back to another rehab set up with specialized nursing care available. Into it for five days now and seeing some physical progress but still substantial cognitive concerns. This is the first time I’ve been back “on line” anywhere over the last month plus. Kids are trying to help (not really anything do actually do) but are also needing to deal with their own families. Being hundreds of miles away is also a block to any sort of quick drop in assist as well.

    So far we’re doing ok but I fear for the future as I don’t know how much actual recovery to expect. Team/family conference next week and we will know more then but even with the therapist and doctor happy talk it’s a rough road right now. Ok… vent/rant over.

    Please get well and LISTEN to your family – do the inhaler etc. and pay attention (with family help!) to what is going on. Life can be fragile so use all the resources you have.

    Old Trainer

    Like

  28. “<I>she sure hopes she doesn’t have to go to the hospital. They kill people there.</I>”

    Hospitalization is quite a recent American practice. (Should we blame Big Insurance?) For most of our history medical care was delivered at home (a doctor who declined to make house calls was out of business or run out of town.) Harry Truman (born 1884), as a child, reportedly held the lantern for the doctor performing Harry’s mother’s an appendectomy on the family kitchen table. Truman, of course, grew up on a farm, but still … there are people living now who can remember his presidency.

    Part of this is that until the advent and widespread acceptance of antibiotics after WWII hospitals (even more than now) were breeding grounds of infection and patients unable to be cared for in their homes were <DEL>stored</DEL> treated in private sanitoria maintained by the doctor or some organization such as a religious order.

    When Beloved Spouse was receiving cancer treatment for the first insult there seemed to be constant taking of temperature via electronic digital thermometer. I bemusedly noted that ‘When I was a kid we took a person’s temperature with toxic heavy metal in a thin glass tube shoved where the sun doesn’t shine*’ and I thanked the lord for antibiotics, anesthesia, indoor plumbing, central heating and air and all other modern inventions. I’ll ‘return to the primitive’ when I die, thank-you very much. Been near enough to there to have seen it and I say Good Riddance!

    *With the singular exception of those folk who imagine it healthful to tan their perineum and I hope they <DEL>all</DEL> don’t get sunburn.

    Rgrds,

    RES

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Blame Progress.

      Two big things. One, a lot more stuff for surgeries and other investigations. You didn’t get an X-ray in your kitchen. Two, the telephone. When getting the doctor meant trudging to his office one way or another, you put some thought into it. When it meant a telephone call, it was free to you and an expense to him only.

      Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.