Skip to main content

Do better, Penn State

Since last September, Josh Moyer, a local newspaper reporter, has been working on a story about how Penn State handled my health situation. The article kept getting delayed because he had to work on covering all the @*&$#* going on at PSU last fall - the Proud Boys speaker event and the president blaming peaceful protesters for the ensuing chaos, cancelation of the proposed Racial Justice Center, surprise announcement about merging the two law schools, etc. During a news lull, the article finally hit the front page! I wish there had been space to mention that I was re-hospitalized twice after being discharged from the hospital in Virginia, i.e., not teaching for the fall semester was the right call.

https://www.centredaily.com/.../pen.../article272439458.html The story is behind a paywall, so the hyperlink in first sentence and here goes to a PDF that I've uploaded to Google Drive. A friend also sent me a link to a free version.

Comments

  1. Esther, the URL goes to the paywall. You have a link to the PDF>

    Thanks,
    David

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I should have made that clearer. The hyperlink is in the word "story" in the first sentence. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ek4kDRFL8XejmUzPEr1jVqsV5pmIJyQ2/view

      Delete
    2. Added another link in last sentence to make it easier.

      Delete
  2. I just read your updated blog posting and the newspaper article, Esther. I am awestruck at how much the bureaucracy has put on extra burdens on you when you were clearly not in a state to send a dozen emails! However, I'm also inspired by how hard-working you are. Sending my support from Toronto! - Hye-Su

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tipping point

Dr. El Khouray came in yesterday and determined that I'd reaching a tipping point, meaning the worst is behind me and I've continued to show improvement. This was really, really good news to hear. Proning continues to be very effective, so I've spent a couple hours each morning and afternoon on my stomach, in addition to sleeping on my stomach at night. In the afternoon I invariably fall asleep since there is nothing to do other than listen to an audio book! I'm able to move about the room more; yesterday I did something like 4 little loops with an occupational therapist.  Yesterday I was down to about 11-13 L oxygen/minute. The case manager told me that to go home I need to be at 6 L or less. Today I'm at 6 L and holding steady with my oxygen saturation rate. I haven't talked with a doctor yet today, but I think this means that Monday is still a realistic release date. Until today I had thought that Monday would be out of reach; I didn't want to set myself ...

Back in the hospital

Until about 1pm I had been doing pretty well. I even spent part of the morning off of oxygen during a student's comps exam on Zoom. Then out of nowhere I felt really short of breath; even on 6L (maximum) oxygen my saturation dipped into the 50s at one point. Leland had the brilliant idea of putting both cannulas (oxygen tubes) in my nose--one from the oxygen concentrator (6L) and one from the portable oxygen tank (5L). That helped stabilize my oxygen level until the ambulance came.  So I'm back in the ICU on high-flow oxygen. :( The doctors are investigating various possibilities, including pneumonia, some other kind of infection, side effects of Tagrisso (my cancer medication), or ??? I'm back on heparin (blood thinner), antibiotics, and steroids. My oxygen and heart rate are slowly starting to improve.  Just this morning I had called the Mt. Nittany physicians group to see if I could make an appointment with any of the 3 pulmonologists in their practice. No openings until...

Heading in the right direction

The signs keep looking up, albeit very slowly. Last night while I was sleeping they were able to reduce my oxygen flow to 60% (down from 90-100%). The doctor switched up the steroid treatment a bit, which he thinks helped. Today I'm still on somewhat a reduced oxygen flow and have also graduated to a lower-flow oxygen tube. It is much more comfortable, less noisy, and allows me to breath in and out through my nose (instead of in through nose, out through mouth). I've been spending more time in bed in the prone (stomach-down) position because this really helps my oxygen levels recover and is a proven COVID therapy. I am still on blood thinners, but at this point they are primarily treating me for COVID (with an underlying cancer diagnosis). Moving from bed to chair still takes a lot of exertion, but it's getting a little bit better, i.e., my oxygen doesn't drop quite as low. I had a fabulous nurse today (Julie) was who very attentive and encouraging. She also told me tha...