about an Austrian living in NY City
Archive for January, 2008
Getting old…
Jan 29th
Looks like I’m getting old. Have been at the doc today and now after my shingles are drying up and getting better I feel aches and pains in the back since a couple of days and was asking him what that could be. After looking at my back he explained that one of my spinal disc is coming out and pushing against a nerve which is causing the pains I’m feeling right now. This might have happened while lifting my TV on my sideboard as it is typically when your are lifting something and turning your chest around that your spinal disc can be pushed out of your spine. Nice!
The conclusion is that I have to do some X-rays and maybe go to physical therapy. That’s what you get lying around and relaxing as the doctor recommended to strengthen your immune system again. Now I’m out of shape. I definitely will hit the gym again soon…
“The harder you try, the dumber you look”
Jan 28th
Have you ever had a day where you tried hard and even harder and it made you look even worse because you kept pushing into the wrong direction and your f*#$% pighead prevented you from changing directions and being more patient?
I just had one of those days and I’m looking forward to starting a new day tomorrow.
Rambo
Jan 27th
“You know what you are, what you’re made of. War is in your blood. When you’re pushed, killing’s as easy as breathing.” First of all I must say that this is one of the bloodiest movies I have ever seen. It is definitely no movie for the faint-hearted. Sad topics like war, genocide, rape and mass murder are shown in a very realistic manner and you should always be aware that you’re watching a movie and not a documentary otherwise you wouldn’t be able stay in your seat until the end. For me it was quite was I had expected: A lot of bloody action. I was just really surprised about the realistic looking pictures (bodies exploding by mines, peoples heads getting chopped off being hit by a heavy machine gun….) but I guess that’s what the RAMBO audience is asking for.
HD cable box with DVR
Jan 26th
Today was my lucky day as I finally got my HD cable box with DVR and can now really use my new nice TV to watch some nice channels in high definition. (currently I’m watching “Pretty Woman” in HD – I know its kind of unusual for a guy to watch this movie voluntarily but I was just in the mood for it) . I really like the hard disk DVR which gives you to option to record the movie you are watching in the back and just skip the commercials on a fingertip. It is kind of a new experience for me as I never used this nice technology before.
Btw, my shingles seem to get better as it they are starting to get very itchy which I guess is part of the healing process.
more pictures of my room
Jan 23rd
My room here in the Lower East Side is starting to look more and more like I had imagined. I got my TV delivered yesterday and already attached my MBP to it to watch DVDs and work on it with my wireless keyboard and mouse but I still have to wait for my HD cable box with DVR (this one is being deliverd on Saturday)Here is a picture:
Before I got sick I assembled the third thing I got from IKEA: my stolemen clothing system. I’m really proud of that and I still owe you a picture:
Actually, the mirror can be turned around and has some shelf in the back which is really useful.
good sleep
Jan 23rd
For the first time since a couple nights I was able to sleep well and I think I have to thank the new narcotics I got yesterday for that. I was really exhausted yesterday as I couldn’t get any good sleep for the last week as my rash was hurting too much and the painkiller I had were just not working.
But today I feel much better and hopefull my rash gets better soon. The rash looks much worse now. The first pox are now dark red and hopefully healing but there are a lot of new pus-filled pox which looks that gross that I don’t even want to put a picture on the blog….
btw…I just counted the number of pills I’m taking now every day: 20 
Getting better – the american way
Jan 22nd
My shingles got worse and worse the last couple of days and I didn’t have the feeling that the meds that they gave me in the hospital last Saturday were showing some results. So I decided to follow up with a doctor here in China Town near my apartment. I went there this morning and as I didn’t have an appointment and just walked in I had to wait around 45 minutes but I had a book with me which made time fly by.
The doctor was actually a very nice guy and took his time to take a look at my conditions and to explain what his approach would be to make me feel better. He also explained that he is worried about the fact that there could be some nerve pain that I could suffer for years called postherpetic neuralgia which he wants to address with a new medication called Lyrica. It’s a very expensive medication and I really hope that I won’t have any remaining pain after I’ve got rid of this really painful illness. Then he was asking me if I was taking any narcotics for the pain and what the prescription was that I got at the ER. After I told him he was laughing and told me that this is not strong enough and that I must have had some sleepless nights which he was completely right about. So he prescribed me some stronger narcotics today which I just took 2 hours ago and I must say that those are awesome as I already feel kind of drowsy and I’m pretty sure that I will have a proper sleep tonight
Then he gave me a list of some dietary supplements which should support the healing process and now I ended up with this stuff that I have to take every day (see below). This is the american way to get better and I guess I don’t have anything to eat anymore
I’m now on sick leave for this week and have an appointment for next week again where it will be decided if I’m able to go to work again.
Nice grocery shopping experience
Jan 20th
Since I’m staying in NYC for the whole following week to cure my shingles I had to get some groceries today. For the first time since I live here at the Lower East Side I went to this very nice store which is only two subway stops away from my place. I must say that I was impressed by the quality of the food there. Most of the stuff is natural and organic and you can get fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, flesh, cheese and bread. Of course it is pricey compared to a usual store but I’m really willing to pay more for this quality and freshness of food. If you want to buy more stuff and don’t want to carry it home – no problem – they do delivery as well – only for 5 bucks. I guess I will go there more often
I’ll also order some stuff from FreshDirect today as they got cheaper prices and you can order everything online and get it delivered the following day.
btw: Patriots just won against the Chargers and will play for the Super Bowl (probably against the Packers) on 3rd of Feb
1 more game for the perfect season which I predicted
Shingles
Jan 20th
Since Tuesday I had this rash on my left shoulder and chest and I was thinking that it might be caused by an allergy as a I used my new sheets without having them washed before which isn’t usually a good idea. So I bought some Hydro cortisone cream to get rid of it but during last week it got worse and worse. My whole shoulder was burning like I would have a very serious sunburn and last night it got so bad that I couldn’t sleep which was when I finally decided to go to the ER today which I did. I went to the NYC downtown hospital and was surprised how smooth the whole process was compared to what I was used to back in Austria. I went there straight to a desk with a doctor who was doing the initial examination asking me about my issue and taking blood pressure and so on. As I have seen this guy using his IPhone before I had to ask him if he likes it and we were talking about how cool apple products are 
Afterwards I went to the next desk where all my personal data was entered in their system and it just took another 5 minutes until I was finally brought to a room and checked by a doctor again. After taking off my shirt she (the doctor) knew right away what it was: Shingles (in German: Guertelrose). Damn it!
So now I got to take some anti virus and have also some narcotics against the pain as it really hurts like hell. Hopefully it should be better in couple of days….Until then I’ll stay at home and won’t fly back to Chicago on Monday.
Here is a picture of this damn thing:
It’s getting cold again in the Windy City
Jan 17th
This afternoon we had some snow showers here in Chicago which caused some major delays of the flights out of O’Hare. Luckily I wasn’t flying out today (my flight is tomorrow – wish me luck) but some of my colleagues were suffering from it. Coming out of the office tonight wasn’t fun as it had -10 degree Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) and there was a very cold wind which was really hurting in the face. The weather forecast for this weekend is even colder and they already predict one of the coldest days here in Chicago which means that it will get around -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) and I’m happy to go back to NYC tomorrow also the forecast for NYC is very very cold for this weekend (around -10 degrees Celsius)
Zieht euch warrrrrrrm an!