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Showing posts with label Hunger Strike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hunger Strike. Show all posts

10.15.2015

Jammu and Kashmir: Casual employees sit on fast unto death

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-jammu-and-kashmir-casual-employees-sit-on-fast-unto-death-2131462

9.16.2015

Environmental activists go on hunger strike in McPherson Square ahead of pope’s visit

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/09/15/environmental-activists-go-on-hunger-strike-in-mcpherson-square-ahead-of-popes-visit/

7.10.2015

30 school principals from Malvani on hunger strike

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-30-school-principals-from-malvani-on-hunger-strike-2102986

5.08.2015

SPDF: Medical update, Fri a.m. 050815

Please note: I mean my comments at the end about this hospital to be encouraging to the staff. But make no mistake, everything I said is exactly truthful and based on my for decades of experience both in and leading high performance organizations. this is not confidential and please share it widely. If there is any other way I can help please let me know.

One of the surgeons came in to speak with me this morning.  

They will be releasing me sometime this after noon.

Yesterday morning it occurred to me that two elements that I considered important about my situation I had never heard said back to me in dialogue with these wonderful surgeons. So I respectfully and politely took a moment to try and be sure that they were clearly registered in the minds of these brilliantly capable folks. And that's pretty much how I introduced the two points. 1. That the first incident of bowel obstruction occurred about 3 months ago. 2. That two weeks ago yesterday I completed a 52 day hunger strike where I took only about 100 calories per day and broth and/or tiny cubes of sugar so that I could complete the 20 to 40 block walks necessary for my unpaid lobbying work.

Based on my conversation this morning, clarifying these points, was time well spent.

By the way, aside from some symptomatic fullness that I experienced yesterday evening, my abdomen felt pretty normal during the course of consuming solid foods yesterday and through the night including through this very moment. 
 
To summarize the key points from the doctor this morning: A. they have no doubt and we mutually agree that I have had a whole series of between mild and complete intestinal blockages, doubtless due to the inevitable scarring from the surgeries that so far have saved my life, B. The 52 day hunger strike is likely a major factor in the distress I've had of the last two weeks. Their strong recommendation this morning, the first time I have received anything like this recommendation in all my doctor encounters the last two weeks, their strong recommendation is that I go extremely extremely extremely extremely lightly and carefully on food for the next two to four weeks. This wonderful doctor said, don't go have a hamburger today, don't have one for several weeks. Take it very very very very slow. As you have been, eat your meals very very very very slowly, don't have anything heavy, stop when you begin feeling the least bit full, don't hesitate to skip a meal or two, lots of broth, mashed potatoes....

In response to my question about under what conditions should I contact the team or return to the hospital: any prolonged severe pain of 1 or 2 hours or more, come to the hospital. Any symptoms that are less severe but suggest that the pattern of obstructions is continuing, call the surgical team and schedule an appointment to come in for a consultation.

.............

I went down to the hospital management offices yesterday and asked to speak to someone about a customer satisfaction issue. Quickly they made a representative available to me and we went into a private office. I spent the next 10 or 15 minutes documenting in every way I could why I perceived that this hospital is easily one of the best in the world, from the folks that cheerfully , promptly, professionally drive one in a wheelchair down to x-ray, the housekeeping staff, the nurses, the surgeons ( the Fishbein the Banovac team the Carol team... ), the Doc He cancer team that is the reason I am still alive, the kitchen,, radiology, the tech team, the emergency room team 2 Bless, 4 Main ( where I recovered from the liver section ) .... It is a breathtakingly wonderful collection of individuals and competence and kindness. The recruiting must be brilliant, and the management must be sufficiently good that it is not extinguishing the excellence of these recruits.
And the inclusiveness, breathtaking. Black, white, brown, yellow, Catholic, Christian, Muslim, female, male....

Universally respectful, professional, kind, courteous, competent....

Excellent communication. Excellent listening....

Accommodating, efficient....

This hospital is a testament to how things should be.

And all of this delivered to a homeless bum (as was Jesus before us) with tattoos on his face.

" as you do unto the least of these my family, you do unto me."

" they will know you by how you love."

" do unto others all that you would have them do unto you."

5.07.2015

SPDF Day 52-14: Thu 050715 Medical update. Surgery?

My awe only increases by the hour with the competence kindness and compassion of this extraordinary hospital.

The surgical team concurs that this is my 7th episode.

I emphasized with them this morning two factors that I was not sure I had clearly enough registered before: 1. The first blockage event was about 4 months ago, an 18 hour event that finally resolved itself, but the exact same pattern of all these more current events. 2. I made sure that they were understanding that 2 weeks ago today I ended a 52 day water only hunger strike(SPDF Stop Palestines Death Fast ).

It is clear to me that they have all of this in mind now.
It remains their near certainty, and mine, that these problems are a result of the unavoidable scarring that has occurred with my cancer surgeries.

I have just returned from another series of x-rays that they ordered.
I'm sure that I will hear from the team later on today.

I do not think any of us have yet decided what is in store now by way of treatment, how long I am in the hospital, the likelihood or timing of any surgery, etc. What the doctor did decide was to take me off of solids and put me back on a diet of nothing by mouth. The ivy has just been restarted with saline and glucose 
This is just conjecture on my part, but now that I think of it, nothing by mouth suggest to me that they may be thinking that surgery is something they have moved to a higher likelihood.

 We had been expecting that I would be released from the hospital this morning. Clearly that is no longer the plan. 

12 p.m. update:  The surgical team just came in and evaluated me.  The head surgeon wants me to go back on regular diet immediately. IV removed. It is not that they are doubting any of my symptoms. it is simply their judgment that we should give it more time and see if my system can learn to cope with the incoming food. I should receive lunch momentarily. I'll have dinner. a meal tomorrow morning. If all of that goes well then they will discharge me tomorrow and we will see what happens.  If and when there is the onset of another event then they have decided to administer a test that in time lapse watches the food go through my intestines so that they can better spot what is going on, where, more exactly.



5.06.2015

***** SPDF. Med Update. Houston, we have a problem.

At about 10:30 today they started me on normal solid foods. A normal, tasty breakfast. A normal, tasty lunch. A normal, tasty dinner. Since ending the hunger strike 2 weeks ago tomorrow I was extremely careful to be wise and informed regarding the process of gently enabling my body to switch from consuming itself to being able to consume food. In addition to the years of experience that I have with this, I did additional reading, and was sure that I was heading the advice quite well. And yet, as some of you know, whether related to the hunger strike or not, my body has been quite a disaster as it relates to my stomach and gastrointestinal tract since Saturday morning about 10 days ago. Friday night when the medical team inserted an NG tube in my nose was 8 days of four bouts of ever-increasing intense abdominal pain clearly a consequence of partial and then finally total bowel obstruction. Since Friday night, 6 days ago now the medical team has had me on IV fluids until about 2 days ago, then 2 days of clear liquids, and beginning this morning solid food. Their intention was to give my bowel the opportunity to totally totally totally decompress and our hope, our expectation, was that upon eating food as I begin this morning the problem would not reappear.
Well, it has totally reappeared. Despite being three times more careful than ever, eating extremely slowly, one meal over 2 hours, chewing extremely carefully and slowly, consuming plenty of liquids, avoiding high roughage food, taking great care to never reach the point of feeling full ... I have the same distension, the same early low level of pain, as has been characteristic of the prior four bouts beginning about 10 days ago.
My wonderful young nurse that has been with me most of the days called the medical team to inform them about 45 minutes ago and they are due to come examine me soon.
This is distressing, I admit it. And it is totally nothing in the scheme of things, Palestine, environmental Armageddon, the end of democracy.....
Yes, it is a great blessing that it is happening here at the hospital, and the medical team, surely they are due credit for keeping me this additional night in the event that there was something to see. Well, show number 5 has begun.

5.04.2015

Tufts students to begin hunger strike over job cuts

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/05/03/tufts-students-begin-hunger-strike-support-university-janitors-targeted-for-layoffs/O30YeVmPxq6cJz8PPOmkVL/story.html

5.03.2015

SPDF Day 52 minus 10: Hunger strike is most dangerous once food intake is attempted.As I have experienced and......

SPDF Day 52 minus 10: Hunger strike is most dangerous once food intake is attempted.

As I have experienced and said for almost a decade now, the long hunger strike is most dangerous once food intake begins. This is always the case, and in my personal experience, by far the most clear, in this 52 day fast.

Part of the reason that returning to the world of food is so particularly dangerous for me at this time is that it comes after 3 years of surgeries and chemo fighting cancer. But, never the less even on my hunger strikes before the cancer, that the time of reentry is the most dangerous time, was true.

Since the beginning of this Stop Palestines Death Fast I have gone from 175 pounds down to now 145 pounds. Four of those pounds lost since I began attempting to consume food 1 week ago Thursday afternoon, 10 days ago now. 

Remember this when you gain the courage and sanity, the humanity, to realize that you value the well being of others more than you value your own life... to be yearning to use this Death Fast weapon yourself, for the future of every one that you care about. The body, when switching from consuming itself for food to consuming external calories, is the most dangerous, the most tiring, and in some ways the most difficult part of the hunger strike.

This Sunday morning is my second day here at Georgetown University Hospital. They are keeping me here with this NG tube sucking what little body fluids enter my stomach for several reasons: 1, watching to see if emergency surgery is required, 2, hoping that by taking several days using this tube to fully decompress' my intestines that what was a full bowel obstruction may completely resolve without the need for surgery. 3, they prefer to not do surgery on weekends.

Friday evening is when they inserted the tube; within one hundred and twenty seconds almost 2 liters of fluid gushed out, and for the first time in, well, the first of now four obstruction episodes, that lasted for 2 hours beginning the prior Saturday morning, my stomach began to stop aching, and to be without the large distention, and to feel fairly normal.
My stomach continues to feel normal and to be without the distention. Unfortunately, now the pain is in my throat because of this NG tube. The pain meds that occasionally I accept from them barely touch the pain of swallowing which otherwise is an 8 or a 9.

Of the four extreme pain episodes that began last Saturday morning at 1:30 a.m., it is unclear to me and to the surgical team here whether they were four distinct obstruction episodes, or whether they were one episode of partial blockage that never fully resolved and finally became a 13 hour complete blockage. The reason that matters is because if we knew, it would inform whether surgery early next week is the best option. 

In my view, & I think that they concur, if it was four distinct episodes that each began within 18 hours of me attempting to take food, each time, then that would suggest that surgery now to remove the causal scar tissue is in order. If, however, it was one long episode that never fully resolved, then this 2 or 3 day reset, taking all pressure off of the intestines through the use of this NG tube, then that would suggest to forego surgery at this moment and see if I can return to a normal eating pattern without surgery. I suspect that that decision will be made by us today or tomorrow.

There may be hospitals in the country or the world that are as good as Georgetown (GUH), but I seriously question whether there are any that are superior. This Is an extremely competent kind, professional staff from the people in housekeeping, the technicians that continually take my vital signs and blood, the people that wheel me around the hospital for tests, of course the nurses, and the doctors, although at least one of the surgeons has the bedside manner of a stone. GUH is a testament to how entirely possible it is for a large group of people to live and maintain extreme humanity and caring. It is a miraculous blessing to my attempts to live the life we are all created to live, 1 completely committed to serving the neediest of humanity, as pitiful, and totally impotent, as my attempts obviously are. With whatever time I have left I expect to continue to miserably fail in my attempts, and to never ever fail to make the attempt. Full effort is full success, the only full success, there is none other, as Gandhi rightly said.

Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to grab my 7 inch tablet and a charger as I hobbled to the health care clinic after the first seven hours of this fourth episode on Friday, where they kindly called an ambulance for me and sent me off to the hospital. as a consequence, when I am NOT sleeping, or too distracted by pain, I can at least be fighting for my tormented, terrorized, tortured family in Palestine, online.

5.01.2015

Back in the emergency room. Extreme pain since 7 this morning. 12 hours now. My hunch.....

Back in the emergency room. Extreme pain since 7 this morning. 12 hours now. My hunch is that 52 days without food allowed the scar tissue from my cancer operations to lay traps around my intestines causing obstruction. Awaiting results from the CT scan an hour ago.

4.30.2015

SPDF Day 52-7: Released from ER and Hospital this afternoon.... more

SPDF Day 52-7:  Released from ER and Hospital this afternoon.

Admitted to ER at Howard University (I survived) 7am after sitting on the toilet floor since midnight pouring sweat, shaking in stomach pain.  Finally called the ambulance.

Diagnosis, twisted, obstructed, small intestine.  The only comment on me going to the ER was, 'WHY DID YOU WAIT FOR 6 HOURS TO CALL US???? DON'T DO THAT AGAIN.'  I won't.

Cause?  The senior surgeon who admitted me and attended me each day, surrounded by his gaggle of interns, at mid day today, when I asked, 'What did I do to bring this on?,' thinking it was what I ate, how I ate, the 52 day fast... he said, 'No, it was nothing you did, and you have no restrictions now.  It is all the cancer surgery in your abdomen.  It unavoidably causes scarring, and this often, frequently, usually(?) sets up the condition for such small intestine obstructions as I had.

My SAINT of a primary care doc, devoted to we homeless, saw me when I returned from the hospital, and has called my cancer team to find out if they want the surgeon that did the liver section to see what is going on?  And, she wants me to get the colonoscopy they've been trying to get me to schedule, which I will.

For now, tho I've been given no restrictions, I'm trying to avoid eating any C.R.A.P. (Carbonated, Refined Shugars, Artificial sweeteners or colorings, Processed) (the Farmers Market is open with subsidies for we economically poor), chew vvveeerrrryyyy carefully, watch portion size, hydrate.

I'm taking some gut-beast-feeding farmers market sauerkraut each day, and Greek Yogurt for the gut as well (sorry sister cows) :-(  . 

Tho the extreme pain has subsided, the nature of the pain and feeling of vulnerability has not.  Feels pretty wounded, and vulnerable.  I'll see what happens.  They emphasized I need to be ready at short notice to back to the hospital.

I needed to be on Captal $$$ Hill with the Free Palestine Vigil this week... that didn't happen.  Whether I can get to the White House Sat and Sun... I pray so... will have to see what my body says.  Pretty messed up.  Of course, I'll make every second count for Palestine, on line, that I can, regardless.

4.28.2015

SPDF Day 52-5: They have given me something for the pain. they are keeping me comfortable. They have....

SPDF Day 52-5: They have given me something for the pain. they are keeping me comfortable. They have taken a full set of abdominal x-rays to see if they can spot a blockage and/or adhesion. the doctor has not yet brought in the results. I am able to get some work done on my tablet. But having set up all night in the bathroom shaking with pain, drenched in sweat, I am also requiring quite a bit of sleep. Unfortunately. I needed to be on Capitol Hill with the posters for Congress today. Hopefully tomorrow. I must better understand how to consume the calories I need without creating a crisis in my carved up abdomen.