Hello again!
It’s been another long gap between blog posts. I’ve been in Chicago the whole time, still
hanging out with my friend Robb, and I wish I could report that I’ve spent the
last few weeks roundly enjoying myself. Unfortunately,
that isn’t quite what happened.
To be sure, I did start out having a wonderful time. During the days, while Robb was at work, I would shoulder my pack and walk in the wintry air through the neighborhood of old brick buildings to one
of my favorite local coffehouses (shoutouts to CC Ferns and Star Lounge), where
I'd open my laptop alongside my coffeecup in the hip urban crowd and get some
hopefully hip urban writing done on my novel.
In the evenings I made my reacquaintances with Robb’s family after many years. His daughter Layne, now a college graduate and drama teacher, joined us for dinner at a great pizza place called Peqoud’s, and on another night Robb and his ex-wife Deni treated me to a delicious birthday dinner at local Indian restaurant called Cumin.
CC Ferns
In the evenings I made my reacquaintances with Robb’s family after many years. His daughter Layne, now a college graduate and drama teacher, joined us for dinner at a great pizza place called Peqoud’s, and on another night Robb and his ex-wife Deni treated me to a delicious birthday dinner at local Indian restaurant called Cumin.
Robb strikes a successful pose with Layne and me
The pizza at Pequod's was great!
However, my real birthday present started a few days early
with a strange itch on the back of my ankle.
Within a few days it developed into a full-blown case of cellulitis, in
which my whole ankle steadily swelled up and turned purple, and within a few more I went
into the hospital. Which is where I spent
the last three days.
As of Nov 8
As of Nov 17
The sequence actually went like this: (1) Thinking to be proactive, I went to an Urgent Care center and got an antibiotic. This had no effect. (2) I went back to the Urgent Care center and got a second antibiotic. This one caused me to break out in red
spots all over my body--the eruption occurring within a matter of minutes as I
sat at CC Ferns working on my book. (3) Thoroughly polka-dotted, and with the cellulitis still spreading, I checked myself into the hospital. I was admitted immediately, and
sent Robb a text to let him know his houseguest’s new address. He came by after work as quickly as he could.
I went to Cook County Hospital, for the dismaying reason
that I’m travelling with no health insurance.
The hospital is known for taking anyone regardless, and is thus a magnet
for the indigent, and I did share my room with a nice black man who was a
heroin addict and moaned with withdrawal aches all night long, but it was a clean,
organized facility and I was handled with smooth professionalism there. Basically all they did was take me off the
offending antibiotic (Keflex), put me on a stronger one (Doxycycline) and wait
to see what would happen. For some
fortunate reason the allergy rash didn’t itch, hurt, cause fever or bother me
at all, so day by day I lay in bed in a thin hospital robe feeling completely
not sick, watching my body change colors.
Periodically I was visited by doctors who did the same. It was remorselessly boring, but I’d come
straight from the coffeeehouse with my pack so I had my Kindle, and the hospital
had wi-fi, so I downloaded a Spenser novel and a collection of Henry James
short stories and sat there trying to ignore the IV stent in my arm and the
moans from the next bed.
So that’s how I’ve spent my time in Chicago. Not how I imagined! I was released this morning, to my relief and
Robb’s, with both the ankle infection and the rash in slow remission: the ankle
now looks merely like I’m recovering from having stepped in a bear trap, and
the rash has gone from red to a mild brown color rather like leopard spots. The literature sent home with me says the
latter might take two weeks to go away, but it’s not on my face or hands so I’ll
be able to go out in public.
No one ever discovered for sure the source of the cellulitis infection.
The next medical blow, of course, will be the bill. I was so hoping to get through the USA part of
this road trip safely until I got home and got a job with benefits again! So much for that. Merely going to the Urgent Care center twice
and getting their antibiotics cost me $400, and that was before being
admitted to the main show. Cook County Hospital has a
financial aid office and I was told on entry that I might qualify for relief, but
today being Sunday it was closed. I’ll
go back tomorrow.
I’ll stay in Chicago through Thanksgiving (which I’ll share
with Robb, Deni and Layne), and then it will be time for the last leg
home. I’m starting to plot my route and keep
an eye on winter weather. Already here
in Chicago we’ve had a few flings with snow, and I see that my Cascades are currently
getting clobbered with a projected five-day blizzard. Should be fun!
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