Ups and downs in New York City

Pre-theater toast to good times together

The photo is of Katie's hand and my face at Fig and Olive, and Katie took it for me to send to Chaska and Serena to thank them for introducing me to the restaurant. I remember us going there and sitting at a big round table and sharing delicious dishes. 

We were eating before an early show (7 p.m., what would the Spaniards say) of...drum roll..."Kiss Me, Kate," so there I was, going to see the sublime Kelli O'Hara, accompanied by the fabulous Katie Doody, and I was pretty happy! It was a fun, big Broadway musical, with virtuosic singing and dancing, and it didn't matter to me that while the reviewers loved the singing and the dancing, they took issue with the pace of the show and with a plot that the director tried to update without total success. (It's about a theater company is putting on that problem play, "The Taming of the Shrew." ) Hey, I didn't doze off and ask Katie what happened, so that is a success. Afterwards, we had our traditional cheesecake at Junior's, home of "the world's most fabulous cheesecake."

I always take the ticket home as a remembrance – my ticket jar is brimming – and this time I also took another remembrance: a black-and-blue mark, on my thigh, that is bigger than a cantaloupe. I was walking on Madison Avenue after doing an errand when I felt something at my ankles and looked down. I saw a pair of red boots and a dog leash lassoing my ankles. A youngish woman was walking her dog and giving the leash too much slack and not paying attention. I crashed onto the sidewalk. Blood dripped down my left shin. I leaned against one of those big green trash barrels and got help from a cute guy who was outside trying to get people interested in the Tribeca Film Festival. It was something about getting free tickets if you switched to AT & T.

His friend ran into the store to get a paper towel. The woman asked if I was OK and then wandered off. I muttered something about not knowing how to walk your dog. The guy helping me reminded me of Joe. We talked about the U.S. Open while the bleeding on my leg slowed down. Suddenly the garbage can began to tilt back, and he grabbed my arm so that I wouldn't fall back and hit my head. I said I thought these things were more stable, and he said they are stable, but a homeless man was reaching in from the other side. 

I had driven in, so obviously I was driving out. I sat on an ice pack for as long as I could. After I scalded my tongue on hot coffee (I was thinking about Dan), I got a blister on my tongue and, on a scale of 1 to 10, reported my pain at about and 8 when I had a checkup with Melissa at Dana-Farber a few days after. Between the growing bruise on my right thigh, which I didn't even know I had hit, and the blister on my tongue, I couldn't do without Tylenol and a little Advil. One night I even took an oxycodone, figuring I'd give my liver a little break from the Tylenol. 

With Melissa and Dr. Marty

My pain is manageable and down to a three or four, but I'm not sleeping that well because it's hard to lie on my right side or turn over. Still, I went for a little run, played tennis, and went to a "Pickle Fest" at Bay Road Tennis. Yoga – my first time in Serenity Yoga's new studio – was good for me but I decided to skip today because every time I ended up on my right side I got an extra shot of pain. All in all, it's a pretty good addition to my fall list.

Melissa had said she knew I got worried when my platelets were low, so she said that everything looked good...and my platelets were a little down but this happens if you have a cold, which I had at the point. Maybe that's one reason why the bruise is so big. She had found Dr. Marty (Francisco) in the hall and brought him in. I said, "What are YOU doing here?" I was half-joking, as a way of saying that since he's the infectious disease specialist maybe something was wrong with me, but he said that he had just come in for a hug. I put in this old photo to show that he has an infectious smile. After the good visit with the good hug,  I went off ECP and conked out.