Post Op

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There was a Post Operation room I went to at Orlando Health Central on West Colonial Drive in Ocoee. That is the hospital that looks like a clown school. When I woke up from anesthesia, I was relieved to see that KC Cali was there. Her joking snapped me awake with laughter. I was slurring my words but it was good to have a friend to talk to. My general impression was that the operation went as planned. The doctor and then KC filled me in on the details.

As the doctor described it, a laser had been guided up my penis and it was inserted into the prostate. The outer edges of the inside of the prostate were pealed much like an orange and then the instrument was shoved like a finger into an orange to separate the sections. The prostate was sucked out from the core outward. All this was done deep inside my pelvis, I thought there would be more pain, but I was just given a Tylenol.

Soon I was wheeled up to the room and KC sat on the couch keeping me engaged and entertained. Nurse after nurse entered taking vitals and introducing themselves. There was a convenient board at the foot of the bed on the wall with names and numbers and a description of the procedure, which was removing my prostate.

I hadn’t eaten for over 24 hours. I was hooked up to the IVs which helped hydrate me a bit. Then a nurse wheeled in a table of food which fits over the bed I was lying in. I looked at it and hesitated. I was hungry, but also my head started swimming. I took deep breaths. I felt like I might faint. Also on the table with the food were foot long blue plastic tubes. Those were like airline barf bags. I grabbed one quickly and retched, filling it half up. There was nothing in my stomach but water, but even that feels awful coming up. KC jumped up from the couch and helped and disposed of the blue tube. Soon a nurse was checking on me and I was given a pill which I was told would stop the nausea. KC chatted with me for a while and I started to feel better. I decided to try some food again and the nurse wheeled the table over my belly. I grabbed a blue tube and immediately retched again. The nurse explained that I was having a bad reaction to the anesthesia. I wretched about 4 times.

KC was a saint through all this and managed to keep me in high spirits. A much stronger anti nausea drug was pumped directly into the IV bag. I started to feel better but now the drug was making me tired. I gave up on the notion of food. KC read me a long list of events happening in Upstate New York. The one I remember best was goat racing with snow shoes. Now that is the sketch opportunity I have always dreamed of! Maybe I am imagining that, I was in a sort of fever dream. My eye lids were getting heavy and KC quietly slipped away when I drifted off. It is rare to find a friend like this.

The sketch above was done the next morning. KC had told me that I would not get much sleep and she was right. About every half hour a nurse would come in and ask questions and take  some vital sign. I dropped back to sleep immediately after each nurse left and the next morning I felt good enough to sketch. Pigeons roosted right above my room window, I could see then swoop in and arch up to land. Some of them pooped on the landing approach and splashed the window.

This would prove to be a long day to see if the operation had been a success or a failure.

PRE-Op

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My urethra was being choked off by my prostate. Because of this I would have to pee every half hour or so and could not sleep through the night. Worst, I couldn’t sit through and complete a sketch. It became unbearable. The prostate produces the fluids for male ejaculations. I decided to get an operation that would remove the prostate. I would no longer be able to have children but I would recover some normalcy to my life.

KC Cali volunteered to be my Health Care Surrogate for the operation. She had been through several harrowing hospital experiences with her husband Bob Szafranski, so she had experience with doctors and the hospital system. Having her join me was the smartest thing I did going into surgery. My sister Pat Thorspecken-Napolitano drove up from Port Charlotte to drive me to the hospital and back. Just Jeff who was in Yalaha from Ohio to see Stella Arbelaez‘s UCF Masters Thesis Presentation joined us to help Pat drive back to Yalaha. He was a huge help. KC was driving from a different direction and we met her in front of the hospital.

Security and reception were fairly simple and then we went to the second floor. There I was separated from my Health Care Surrogate. The whole point of having KC there was to have a second set of eyes and ears going into the process. Before I signed away my life on the three long forms, I took pictures of those forms and sent them to KC to see if she had second thoughts. Once you read that Death might be one of the side effects, you start to have second thoughts. Once those forms were filled out and collected, KC could come back to my Pre-Op cubicle.

First thing I had to do was get dressed in the hospital garb, which included a gown which was incredibly complicated with snaps and belts. It might have actually been a straight jacket. There were knee high garters I had to wear that were insanely tight. They were to protect against blood clots during the operation. KC had to explain how to put them on by rolling them up like women’s stockings. After that she disappeared behind the curtain for the sake of my privacy. Socks had rubber strips on then to avoid slipping in the hallways. Lying on the gurney helped hide the fact that my butt cheeks wanted to escape the open flaps out back.

A barrage of tests followed, blood pressure tests, a heart rate monitor on the tip of my finger and a hook up for an IV. KC had the genius idea that I should ask for the IV on my left hand so my right hand remained free to sketch. Once snuggled under the blanket on the gurney, I started sketch as did KC. It turns out my new fountain pen bleeds when water color washes were added to the sketch. I had to live with it. My other fountain pen was out of ink.

Then doctor Amin who was performing the operation, nurses, the anesthetist, and  a barrage of other techs each came in one at a time to ask questions. As my nervousness rose, KC kept me amused and entertained with her stories and my sketching calmed me down. Soon I was given a mild sedative. I was told that I might not remember anything that happened. KC was the last person I saw as I was drifting off. I said, “Who are you?” She smiled and I was out immediately. When I opened my eyes, KC was there in a differed Post Op area. I was slurring my words but the pain was minimal.

Orlando Urban Sketchers at Stemma Craft Coffee

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I drove down to Orlando to sketch with the Orlando Urban Sketchers group in Stemma Coffee (328 North Orange Avenue, Orlando FL). I like to go to the coffee and draw events since they are in the morning and my evenings are always full from virtual teaching.

I was running late since I had not considered the effect of rush hour traffic getting into downtown Orlando. When I entered this core group were well into their sketches. I ordered a Latte and a chocolate chip cookie. This group of three tables was full so I looked around for another vantage point from which to sketch. At the next table were two woman and an open chair. One woman was on her laptop, so probably not an Urban Sketcher. I asked if I could sit in the seat across from her. As I sat, I suddenly realized the woman next to her was very familiar. It was KC Cali. I have known KC since 2009 when I first started doing one sketch a day. I did a sketch of her when she worked with the police horses. I have a sketch of her grooming a police horse named Peanut. That was in the earliest sketch book of my daily sketch series. I have since filled two shelves full of such sketchbooks. I was so happy to see her.

We spent much of the next several hours catching up. I sketched at her wedding to Bob about 9 years ago. I remember because it was shortly after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. It was also at the time of my separation. KC never holds back discussing life’s challenges and rewards. As always I could tell her anything, and there was plenty to unload. Ironically she and Bob have been looking at property in Upstate New York but much higher up than I have been looking. The furthest north home I fell in love with was at Hastings on the Hudson. It was a gorgeous old place with an amazing rustic back yard full of plantings, and the ground floor was already set up as an artist studio in the Zillow photos. Unfortunately that place was sold out before I had a chance to see it in person.

The Urban sketching group finished up long before I was finished with my sketch. I was so focused on what KC was telling me. All the sketchbooks were lined up on the tables and photos were taken of the sketches and then the group. I was so happy KC and her friend lingered after everyone else rushed off. It felt more Parisian for us to savor the moment.

I am having a rather serious operation next month that will involve staying overnight in a hospital. Amazingly KC offered to bring me to and from that surgery. She has had to deal with doctors who mishandled treatment of several family members and she knows what can go south. I immediately trusted her judgement and I want to be sure she gets to know all the medical details while I am anesthetized. KC really is one of the oldest friends I have in Orlando and now I literally trust her with my life. Her husband, Bob, arrived as KC and I we were finishing our sketches. Bob has an eye patch and a magnificent grey beard. He bragged and joked about how medical staff treat KC with absolute respect. His light hearted joking further cemented my trust that I have a true advocate in KC.

As we bundled up to leave, I paused outside the Coffee Shop  and watched Bob and KC walk away. They were holding hands and leaning close to one another talking on that chilly morning. My heart melted. Love and affection are something worth fighting for. I wrote this on the day I posted the sketch of their wedding, “It is reassuring to see a couple reach out to each other once again, putting their faith and hopes in marriage. Life is short. We all need to believe in the power of love.” I am getting old and sentimental, or perhaps I always have been.

Day 2 Waiting for a Verdict in the Noor Salman Trial

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I arrived at the Orlando Federal Courthouse bright and early and decided to sketch the TV News cameras set up outside waiting for the verdict in the Noor Salman trial. It felt good to sketch outside after being cooped up in court for a solid month. The phalanx grew as I sketched and then a tripod was set up with all the microphones waiting for an announcement. A few reporters were curious about what I was doing and were pleased to see themselves in sketch form. I was hoping that the jury would be deliberating for a few more hours so that I had plenty of time to sketch. With the sketch complete I decided to get inside to continue waiting. Shoes and belt came off as I went through the security metal detectors. I usually don’t redress since there is a second security check at the courtroom entrance, but I was heading up to the media room today to wait.

The media room has a refrigerator, microwave and a sink, so it is quite civilized. Several reporters had ordered bagels. The channel 9 reporter across from me Ken Tyndall showed me a sketch that had been done of him by a Saint Augustine artist. It depicted him as a bad ass pirate. On top of that I knew the hand of the artist. It was done by Orlando artist KC Cali. I told him the artists name, but it didn’t seem to register.

A female reporter with immense eyelashes and plenty of mascara sat next to me. Her laptop was covered with stickers. One said something about Jihad. I was the outsider in the room, so I assumed she had been coming to this media room throughout the trial. This sketch was pretty far along, so I couldn’t place her in the scene. Her head would have been about where the bagel is and that is the center of interest. Ken Tyndall shot a cell phone photo of her and the laptop and sent it to other reporters in the courthouse.

The previous evening I had received a e-mail from the court saying that a member of the media had been banned from the courthouse for harassing members of Noor Salman’s family as they walked to their cars. As she said, “When I confronted her family outside the courthouse and asked
them if “Jihad” is an act of terrorism, they REFUSED to answer!”To me these actions read as bigotry masked as journalism. The media were reminded that interviews must be conducted in specific designated locations. It turned out that this was the blogger who had been evicted from court and she returned anyway the next day. The photo tipped off security and soon a US Marshall entered the media room and asked the woman seated next to me to “Come with me.”

She was escorted downstairs and back outside the courtroom. A second hand report claims that she wanted to shoot cell phone footage as she was being escorted out but the US Marshall took her phone until she was back outside. The same Marshall had confiscated a sketch I started of the courthouse lobby. My sketch showed the entry security system so I fully understood his concerns and gave him the unfinished sketches after I signed it. The female blogger stood outside the courthouse all afternoon shooting cell phone footage she posed online demanding her first amendment rights had been violated. I have to agree with the judges ruling that these rights do not include harassing family of the person on trial. She claimed that the media looked down on her by referring to her as a blogger. Personally I am proud to be a blogger. It allows me to freedom to report on this trial visually in a way that no other media outlet can match. The tight court rules were restrictive, but I worked within those restrictions to report during the entire length of the trial.

Giddy Up Go at the Wedding of KC and Bob.

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After the quick wedding of KC Cali and Bob Szafranski in the back room at Elixir (9 W Washington St, Orlando, FL 32801), the wedding party moved up into the bar area. There the order of business was socializing and Country music. Giddy Up Go began to perform on the small stage at the front of the room. Most guests kept their distance and shouted above the music. I talked to the artists that KC had invited. Then I walked into the bar to survey the scene. I’m recently separated, I should work the room and try and meet some new people. I never quite feel comfortable in loud shouting matches at bars.  Instead, I nestled up close to the band, leaned against a pillar and sketched. Any stress melted away.

Kelly and Courtney Jean Canova arrived during the reception, and began to shoot wedding photos. The large group family photos were shot just to my left. I had to watch my feet to avoid tripping anyone up. Two women at the end of the bar were loving the music. They shouted and whooped. I was surprised no one danced while I was working on the sketch. I tapped my toes the whole time. There is something reassuring about Old time country music. You don’t have to think too hard.

Giddy Up Go’s music hearkens back to the style of country that was played in smokey
ol’ honky tonk bars for patrons tryin’ to forget their troubles. From
Waylon to Willie, from Buck Owens to Hank Williams, they travel back
down that “lonesome highway”.

I had to rush off to Hamburger Mary’s to meet and sketch a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub tragedy. It was a whirlwind day of celebration and reflection of unity, love, and loss.

Wedding of KC Cali and Bob Szafranski

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KC Cali is a local artist who is a member of Orlando Urban Sketches. Her paintings range from country scenes to bold and large nudes. She and Bob Szafranski have been together for years, through rough times and good times. She confided that when Bob asked her to marry him she cried. As she put it, this wasn’t her first rodeo. She has two daughters from her first marriage, Kit and Liz Cali. Both girls have left the nest and are making their own way in the world. Bob also has a daughter from his first marriage.

The wedding was at Elixir downtown (9 W Washington St, Orlando, FL 32801). There is a quaint, barn like room in the back of the bar. KC warned me that the we did was going to be fast, no more than 7 minutes. What?! I usually take two hours to finish a sketch! I immediately sat down and started blocking in the room. KC’s daughter Liz, was thankfully 20 minutes late which bought me the time needed to set the scene.

When the wedding march finally began, everyone stood and turned to watch the bride walk down the aisle. I kept sketching. Every one kept standing through the entire ceremony. I was faced with a wall of backs. I decided to move my seat out in to the aisle. I was probably a fire hazard but, I had a sketch to finish.

It is reassuring to see a couple reach out to each other once again putting their faith and hopes in marriage. Life is short. We all need to believe in the power of love.