Also, if you expect to be spending a lot of time in bed, then as @Adventurer (https://sfba.social/@Adventurer/115199676231327810 and @BonehouseWasps (mastodon.social/@BonehouseWasps/11519992... suggest, consider bringing a comfortable robe. I personally did not bring a robe […]
A big, fluffy maroon bath towel draped over a shower bar. Draped over the maroon towel is a white towel with a blue stripe. The white towel is about 2/3 the size of the maroon one.
ProTip, courtesy of @msokolov in https://fosstodon.org/@msokolov/115200828334719584 If you're going into the hospital and you'll be showering while you're there, bring a big, fluffy towel with you. Hospital towels are small, scratchy, and threadbare. You […]
[Original post on federate.social]
[scatological]
The nurses are cool about it, but I have to say it's really weird to press the call button and then when the nurse comes in say, "Here, I have some poop for you!" and hand them the equivalent of a sorbet tub with poop in it.
As the nurse was leaving the room a few minutes ago […]
[scatological]
Those of you who were with me on this journey the last time around may recall that it involves collecting stool samples. That's happening this time as well, starting today (I got a free pass yesterday). The procedure hasn't changed from last time, so if you're curious you can […]
I had another blood draw this morning, fortunately with only 3 vials rather than yesterday's 7 vials. And they managed to get what they needed with just one venipuncture, so that was nice.
#PanCholLiveToot
I asked the nurse this morning for a couple Tylenol because I woke up with a headache, presumably from bingeing TV until 1:30am (bad idea, do not recommend). When she brought the Tylenol it came with my daily vitamin D pill. And I mean literally _my_ vitamin D pill, i.e., it's from a bottle of […]
Hospital breakfast tray with two pancakes, roasted herb potatoes, fruit compote, diced peaches, butter, and syrup
Here's this morning's breakfast. It arrived in record time and both the potatoes and the apple compote were actually pretty good. The menu claims the pancakes are gluten free. If that's accurate then I'm impressed, because I couldn't tell. If it's not accurate than uh-oh.
#PanCholLiveToot
Today I am hoping to have a productive, full work day!
#PanCholLiveToot
Cup of mac & cheese, small pile of steamed broccoli, dinner roll with two little butter packets, chocolate pudding cup
This was dinner last night. In Sodexo's defense, this is exactly what I ordered, so if it's a little sparse that's my fault.
The mac & cheese was not noteworthy. The steamed broccoli was good and I wish they had given me more of it.
Dinner a half hour later […]
[Original post on federate.social]
Good morning #PanCholLiveToot fans! How are y'all doing today? I had a decent night's sleep in my dark, quiet isolation room, though it would have been longer if I hadn't binge-watched 7+ hours of Babylon 5 before going to sleep.
The episode where EarthGov tries to torture a confession out of […]
My laptop went crazy again, but this time it did it gradually while I was using it, so I was able to figure out that the problem is one of firefox's WebExtensions processes is sucking up all my memory.
Remember when 16GB of RAM was enough to run Linux?
I don't want to waste any more time now […]
Whenever I travel I get nervous about the fact that I have only one laptop with me. At home I have my primary desktop and two laptops, so if one of my computers stops working I have two others to fall back on. But on the road I've got just the one.
Crazy, right? Well, when I sat down to work a […]
Hospital food tray with fruit cup, a square piece of thin crust cheese pizza, green salad, cherry ice, brown rice, and Italian dressing packets
This was lunch. Credit where credit is due: it was not terrible, and they sent up a flyer showing the weekly specials which makes it slightly less not ok that they haven't updated the specials on the website since May.
I saved the fruit and cherry ice for […]
[Original post on federate.social]
More food service whinging:
* I track my caloric intake, and they don't provide calorie counts on the menu. I can ask over the phone when I order, but that's a hassle and it gets messed up if I decide to save part of my meal for later.
* Ordering over the phone is very much not state-of-the-art […]
So to be able to order from the regular menu I had to hang up, have the nurse to remove the kosher designation from my patient record, and then call back.
(continued)
#PanCholLiveToot
When I gave up on waiting for the kosher menu and called to order vegetarian food from the regular menu for lunch, they said I couldn't because there was a "kosher" restriction on my diet in the database.
This is stupid. "Kosher" isn't a medical restriction, it's a personal preference. If […]
(And if it _is_ true that they don't have a printed kosher menu, then that is, you know, not OK?)
Anyway, apparently the nurse spoke to someone else who said they do indeed have a kosher menu and they would send one up; it is now several hours later and they still haven't done that.
The […]
The food service here is provided by Sodexo. They are… not good at it.
When I got to the floor this morning I told the nurse I would need a kosher menu; although I'll eat vegetarian food that isn't certified kosher, I won't eat non-kosher meat, and I don't want to go a whole week with no meat) […]
It's finally time to take the vaccine. Down the hatch!
This is live, genetically modified cholera bacteria diluted in distilled water. It tastes just a little gross, mostly just salty.
Now I have to wait an hour before I can eat lunch.
I took the vaccine >20 […]
[Original post on federate.social]
White guy's arm with freckles and red arm hair, with a butterfly needle in the crook of the elbow, with a thin tube filled with blood coming out of the needle and into a vial being held by a purple-gloved hand
Last thing before taking the experimental vaccine is a blood draw. They took seven vials today, which works out to about 15% of a typical blood donation. That's supposedly the biggest draw of the study.
My veins are usually quite cooperative, but I've been […]
[Original post on federate.social]
43 inch TV on a vertical stand with wheels, about three and a half feet above the ground
It's a terrible monitor, but you work with what you've got. This big boy is also in the room, and I suppose I could figure out how to maneuver it to be close enough to the laptops to use as my second monitor, but I don't think I'll be able to get it close or […]
[Original post on federate.social]
Laptop on the left, laptop on the right, 20" Acer monitor, das keyboard, and wireless mouse in the middle
This is my workstation for the next week. There's a table in the room with an old monitor connected to a computer and some custom input devices used by other studies. I brought from home my DisplayLink hub, both VGA and DVI cables, keyboard, and mouse. I'm […]
[Original post on federate.social]
Hospital bed on the left in an alcove, to the right is a door that is propped open onto a short passage with another open door at the other end that opens out onto a hallway where a desk is visible
I have arrived at the room where I'll be staying for the next week after I take a booster dose of the experimental cholera vaccine. I haven't taken the vaccine yet, so the isolation hasn't started, so the doors are propped open.
They just took my blood […]
[Original post on federate.social]
The staff doing check-in for the clinical trials unit seemed confused about why I was here today, which is slightly atypical; they're usually on the ball. But they figured it out and I've been escorted to an exam room where I am now being rescreened by one of the study doctors to confirm I'm […]
Selfie with blood donor baseball cap, glasses, white KN95, and blue blood donor sweatshirt
I'm masked for the time being, but once I'm admitted and in the isolation room where I'll be spending the next four to seven days, I'll be able to safely unmask.
I'm sorry to say that very few people at the hospital, either patients or staff, are wearing […]
[Original post on federate.social]
The Lyft driver who brought me to the hospital was a little heavy on the horn and gas pedal even for a Boston driver. And maybe cleaning the inside of his windshield while stopped at a red light wasn't the best idea. But he'll still get a tip and five stars from me, I'm not a monster […]
Now's your chance to ask all your questions about what it's like to participate in a clinical trial for a kind of gross tasting experimental oral cholera vaccine!
#PanCholLiveToot
Photo from the back seat of a moving car, looking out the windshield, with the front passenger seat blocking most of the view
Here we go for round two of #PanCholLiveToot! I'm in a Lyft on my way to Brigham & Women's Hospital for my second inpatient stay to participate in a clinical trial for a revolutionary cholera vaccine called #PanChol. Catch up on the last chapter at […]
[Original post on federate.social]
I'm going into the hospital on Monday for 4–7 days to participate in a clinical trial. If you were doing that, what would you want to make sure to bring with you to make your stay more pleasant?
#PanCholLiveToot #clinicalTrial
A final update about the #PanChol cholera vaccine clinical trial which I participated in, spending a week in the hospital as described in the above thread…
This morning was my final appointment for the trial. I dropped off one last home-collected stool sample (ugh!), had a few vials of blood […]
