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Jan. 26th, 2021 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaToday I paged down on FB till I came to Duke Flieg's short story of the week . I always love his stories, I seem to fall exactly in the middle of his target market group, but this one was just such a beautiful story, with "all the feels" as they say these days, that, after I dried my tears, I felt the need to share it with a friend who I thought really ought to read it, so I used the "share in messenger" option.
Then, thought of another person I thought might especially enjoy it, and then I thought of a few more, and then I started paging down the list of friends that shows when one is in the "share in messenger" mode, clicking on at least one per page. I chose friends who create things, or who I know would appreciate that sort of magic, or who I thought might enjoy the play of emotions the story evokes.
Eventually, I realised that I had had been pressing the share rather a lot, so, curious, I exited that screen and opened messenger to count. 45 people! That doesn't count the many names I saw and didn't share the story with, because they are also friends with Flieg, and probably didn't need my help to call attention to it. Normally I am content to read the stories and leave a comment for Flieg saying what I appreciated this time. This is the first time I felt so compelled to share. I hope that they all enjoy it (those that have time to read it of course, I have already had a few people reply with "thanks, I will look later", and I expect that some of them are likely to forget). A couple of others have already replied saying that they also found the story beautiful.
I am certain that the story would have made me cry no matter when I read it, but I think I may have cried a bit extra since things have been so challenging emotionally lately. I have mentioned my housemate, E, who is living here on an extended visitor's visa until the end of June so that she can finish up her Master's degree. She's had a very rough year (and a not so easy life overall), and this weekend she got yet one more piece of bad news that shook her enough that she quit eating (saying that she just couldn't keep anything down). By Sunday evening she was doing poorly enough that she gave me permission to call the hospital, and after consulting with the 24 hour psychiatric urgent care people they said I should bring her in.
I wasn't certain were to bring her, so I tried first the main door, which happened to have someone leaving just as I walked towards it, so I asked and she said to go around to the back of the building. Around the back of the building I found the entrance for the Emergency room, and we tried that. Right now you enter the door into a foyer and you press a button on a screen for either serious emergency (symptoms of stroke, heart attack, extreme bleeding, etc.), or less urgent emergency (I can't recall the exact Swedish phrases they used). I pressed the less urgent option, and a while later a computer monitor activated and a human spoke to us. When I explained that we had called and been told to bring her in, they said that we need to go a bit further around the building to the entrance labeled "psykiatrisk akutvård".
That door is locked, but had a call button to push. Very shortly thereafter two people came to the door. When I said we had called ahead and who we were, they said that yes, they had been expecting us. They asked if we had any symptoms of covid or other illness, and since we didn't they took our temperatures (in our ear), and let us into a waiting room.
A bit later another couple of people came and did a pre-screening, asking a variety of questions, taking her blood pressure, taking her temperature again (this time with a hand held thing that one points at the forehead) etc. They went away saying that the doctor would be along soon. Then another person came and asked for a urine sample (not easy to provide, given that she also had had nothing to drink that day, but she managed a few drops).
Then the doctor came and brought us into a consultation room, where she asked lots of questions. I had heard most of what was revealed in the answers before, of course, and it is very clear to me that feeling overwhelmed and upset about the hand she has been dealt is an appropriate and reasonable response. I still wish she were doing better, and that she had had fewer things go wrong in the last year.
Eventually the doctor suggested that E.stay with them, at least for the night, and she agreed. Before I left they gave her a sleeping pill, and much to my delight, she drank water with it.
I got home from dropping her off at midnight on Sunday, and should have gone straight to sleep, but, not surprisingly, I couldn't. So I read fluffy posts on FB for a while and managed to get to sleep just after 02:00. Needless to say, I was not at work by 07:00 the next morning, but I did arrive at 08:30. I managed just over 2.5 hours of work, and decided that I was really too tired to usefully sort archive documents, so I flexed my flex time and went home for a three hour nap.
I got up in time to eat a little something before B. showed up at 15:00 for sledding on my hill. The first time this year that someone has joined me for that. It is more fun with company! Though I spend a lower percentage of my time actually sledding. It was a lovely to play in the snow, and what I really needed. Then I checked in with E. (we had also exchanged a few messages the night before after I got home, and before the sleeping pill worked), who wasn't yet doing as well as I would like.
I should have resumed work on my data processing for my Durham research that evening--I had had such a good meeting with my thesis advisor on Friday, and had been feeling even more keen than ever to get that done, so I can publish the results. But while the sledding helped with emotional equilibrium, I didn't really get by brain on line enough for that, and mostly spent the evening twiddling my thumbs.
This morning I managed to make it to work by 07:40, and put in more than 4.5 hours of actual productive time. Came home and continued reading the archaeological inspired cookbook I bought recently and then took a nap. After my nap I went out for more sledding (alone this time, but B. will return tomorrow), and then came in and did a skype call with E. She is looking better today, but I am still worried for her. But the day is still young, so I think I will try to eat a little something more and do some of that data processing before time for yoga and bed. Wish me luck!
Then, thought of another person I thought might especially enjoy it, and then I thought of a few more, and then I started paging down the list of friends that shows when one is in the "share in messenger" mode, clicking on at least one per page. I chose friends who create things, or who I know would appreciate that sort of magic, or who I thought might enjoy the play of emotions the story evokes.
Eventually, I realised that I had had been pressing the share rather a lot, so, curious, I exited that screen and opened messenger to count. 45 people! That doesn't count the many names I saw and didn't share the story with, because they are also friends with Flieg, and probably didn't need my help to call attention to it. Normally I am content to read the stories and leave a comment for Flieg saying what I appreciated this time. This is the first time I felt so compelled to share. I hope that they all enjoy it (those that have time to read it of course, I have already had a few people reply with "thanks, I will look later", and I expect that some of them are likely to forget). A couple of others have already replied saying that they also found the story beautiful.
I am certain that the story would have made me cry no matter when I read it, but I think I may have cried a bit extra since things have been so challenging emotionally lately. I have mentioned my housemate, E, who is living here on an extended visitor's visa until the end of June so that she can finish up her Master's degree. She's had a very rough year (and a not so easy life overall), and this weekend she got yet one more piece of bad news that shook her enough that she quit eating (saying that she just couldn't keep anything down). By Sunday evening she was doing poorly enough that she gave me permission to call the hospital, and after consulting with the 24 hour psychiatric urgent care people they said I should bring her in.
I wasn't certain were to bring her, so I tried first the main door, which happened to have someone leaving just as I walked towards it, so I asked and she said to go around to the back of the building. Around the back of the building I found the entrance for the Emergency room, and we tried that. Right now you enter the door into a foyer and you press a button on a screen for either serious emergency (symptoms of stroke, heart attack, extreme bleeding, etc.), or less urgent emergency (I can't recall the exact Swedish phrases they used). I pressed the less urgent option, and a while later a computer monitor activated and a human spoke to us. When I explained that we had called and been told to bring her in, they said that we need to go a bit further around the building to the entrance labeled "psykiatrisk akutvård".
That door is locked, but had a call button to push. Very shortly thereafter two people came to the door. When I said we had called ahead and who we were, they said that yes, they had been expecting us. They asked if we had any symptoms of covid or other illness, and since we didn't they took our temperatures (in our ear), and let us into a waiting room.
A bit later another couple of people came and did a pre-screening, asking a variety of questions, taking her blood pressure, taking her temperature again (this time with a hand held thing that one points at the forehead) etc. They went away saying that the doctor would be along soon. Then another person came and asked for a urine sample (not easy to provide, given that she also had had nothing to drink that day, but she managed a few drops).
Then the doctor came and brought us into a consultation room, where she asked lots of questions. I had heard most of what was revealed in the answers before, of course, and it is very clear to me that feeling overwhelmed and upset about the hand she has been dealt is an appropriate and reasonable response. I still wish she were doing better, and that she had had fewer things go wrong in the last year.
Eventually the doctor suggested that E.stay with them, at least for the night, and she agreed. Before I left they gave her a sleeping pill, and much to my delight, she drank water with it.
I got home from dropping her off at midnight on Sunday, and should have gone straight to sleep, but, not surprisingly, I couldn't. So I read fluffy posts on FB for a while and managed to get to sleep just after 02:00. Needless to say, I was not at work by 07:00 the next morning, but I did arrive at 08:30. I managed just over 2.5 hours of work, and decided that I was really too tired to usefully sort archive documents, so I flexed my flex time and went home for a three hour nap.
I got up in time to eat a little something before B. showed up at 15:00 for sledding on my hill. The first time this year that someone has joined me for that. It is more fun with company! Though I spend a lower percentage of my time actually sledding. It was a lovely to play in the snow, and what I really needed. Then I checked in with E. (we had also exchanged a few messages the night before after I got home, and before the sleeping pill worked), who wasn't yet doing as well as I would like.
I should have resumed work on my data processing for my Durham research that evening--I had had such a good meeting with my thesis advisor on Friday, and had been feeling even more keen than ever to get that done, so I can publish the results. But while the sledding helped with emotional equilibrium, I didn't really get by brain on line enough for that, and mostly spent the evening twiddling my thumbs.
This morning I managed to make it to work by 07:40, and put in more than 4.5 hours of actual productive time. Came home and continued reading the archaeological inspired cookbook I bought recently and then took a nap. After my nap I went out for more sledding (alone this time, but B. will return tomorrow), and then came in and did a skype call with E. She is looking better today, but I am still worried for her. But the day is still young, so I think I will try to eat a little something more and do some of that data processing before time for yoga and bed. Wish me luck!