I went to visit Queen of Spain at the hospital yesterday. She is in with a bad gall bladder, the thing that has apparently been causing some of the horrible symptoms that she has been experiencing for almost a year.
She was plainly suffering. Shift change was upon the nursing staff, and Erin's meds had fallen though the cracks. She was also suffering the after-effects of an endoscopy and a colonoscopy where the famous "twilight sleep" wasn't quite sleepy enough to keep her from feeling the various tubes they jammed in various orifices and moved her organs around with.
She was soldiering on, though, and if you know Erin, you know that means she was all over the internet in 1000 places at once. She had blackberry and iPhone at hand and was reading and occasionally pecking out almost-coherent messages.
She told me she had gotten an email (from whom, she did not say) accusing her of faking her health problems in order to garner page views.
Yes, you read it here - some dillhole on the internet actually thought Erin, who has been honest about every single detail of her life for the enlightenment and amusement of readers, would make up a horrible, painful condition to earn an extra $15 a month in ad revenue. Gah.
So we decided that I should take a photo of her all hospitaled up and twitpic it and post it so that the question of Erin's hospitalization, like Obama's damned birth certificate, could be settled once and for all. So we did.
THEN this morning she told me that someone on twitter had chosen this day, as she lay in the hospital waiting to have her surgery scheduled, chose to give her a hard time about Obama's proposed health reform plan, saying she wouldn't have been able to get surgery if it passed.
(I took down the link to her twitterfeed because she deleted the tweets and then claimed I misquoted her - but GeekMommy resurrected the actual tweet for me - "MintCool: @QueenofSpain At least we know you will get it asap. With Obamacare, all bets will be off." Ok, HUGE misquote. Mea maxima culpa. /snark )
Holy cats. I know Erin is politically outspoken. I know this trifling woman doesn't agree with her politically.
But can't people who disagree, in times of crisis, just reach out and say "Hey, I'm sorry you're hurting - I hope you can get better so we can argue again soon," instead of "Hey, let me kick you while you are down?"
I dunno. Maybe I'm extra sensitive because I got to see first-hand how badly Erin was in pain. But usually the blog world seems like a big fun hot tub of love and bubbles. And then someone goes and poops in it.
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37 comments:
People are disgusting. Truly disgusting. Put your fucking agenda on hold for a week and just support another human being.
You're a good friend to the King and Queen. That's what they will remember. Not idiots being asshats on the internet.
Horridness. Just gross. Loved your last line!
excuse me but that is fucked up! plainly screwed up. People can be so f-in stupid sometimes and just cant rid of their stupidity.
I hope she's feeling better :)
Having suffered at the hands of the internet trolls a time or two I no longer believe the Internet is filled with sparkles and unicorns.
But for every troll, there is someone as awesome as you to balance it out.
I have no words.
And are you talking about poop? :0)
I was following that conversation on Twitter and it made me angry. Really, really angry. I'm so glad you were there to just be there, in person. Pixels on a screen can be all well and good but it's nothing to an actual hug.
Gah. Brutal.
I'm glad you could be there!!!
Get well soon!
PS Staying awake during a colonoscopy isn't such a bad idea. I chose to, just in case there was any extra "wear and tear" I'd know where it came from. PLUS, watching it on the screen is like watching the Journey to the Center of the Earth (Nope, that's not MY colonscopy on youtube!)
Just remember: the vast bulk of the internet is full of good people like you, Erin and the fine commenters on this post. Even me sometimes. The slime-covered slugs who squirt out their bile are a small group of idiots taking advantage of the internet's ability to amplify their tiny, flaccid personalities. Or at least that's my hope.
I followed that Twitter conversation as well. I was appalled. Thank you for speaking out.
It amazes me how intrusively rude people can be to people who are so obviously kind just because they share a piece of themselves on the internet. Thanks for sharing Suebob. And if/when you see Erin again, give her a big hug from me! (well, gently, that is)
For the record, I offered to nut-punch the troll, but being the nicey-nice that I am, I backed off.
Seriously, Erin can stand on her own, but when she's laid out on a hospital bed waiting for pain meds and the current 'high-quality' health care system to pump her pills, I'm ready to punch.
As a drunk man once said, some bears are assholes.
But enough of you are truly wonderful generous warm caring humans that I still believe.
Thanks, SueBob.
Be well, Erin.
I saw the conversation too & was still having issues w/twitter so I couldn't jump in. I've had all the tests poor Erin's going thru. That guy's an arce!
Honestly? Why in God's name would she lie? Does she LIKE to get a thousand tweets an hour saying "get well soon?" How bout you support the Queen in her moment of need you assholes?
Your majesty, I hope you feel better!
Holy Colonoscopy, Batman! Some people need an enema, stat.
You're a doll for making sure the Queen was hanging in there. She had me worried.
Honestly, get a life! Sounds like jealousy to me, not for the pain, but for the popular.
Thank you for being a great friend to our friends.
It's hard to believe people can be so callous.
Had a friend once who would, when confronted with bad behavior from another adult, would shake his head, curl his lip dismissively, and say, "Other people's children!"
And had my twitter been functioning reasonably at all today when it happened, I might've said the same.
This is the part where I chime in and say "once tweeted, ALWAYS viewable!!" (Because, see, just deleting it from your Twitterstream doesn't actually delete it from searches or from other places like FriendFeed)
I missed the trollish behavior, but seriously - like Erin would need to make up an illness to get traffic! That's so bizarre! We all know that she can stir up the internet with a single post *without* having to make anything up! :)
Thanks for the post - and the picture - but mostly? Thanks for going and being there with her... I know so many of us would if we could!! :(
Glad you got to get there to have an audience with the Queen. Sucks to be kicked when you're down. Yay for awesome internet AND IRL friends and double yay when they're both!
I'm really glad you were able to go support Erin in person.
I saw the tweets with my own eyes. You did not misquote.
I think sometimes it's better to be a bleeding heart than ice-cool.
I have one word that sums this all up ... OUCH!
"Ouch" for the pain Erin has been and is going through.
"Ouch" for someone feeling the swift kick in the ass when they find out that she is not pretending to be sick for traffic.
"Ouch" for the horrible and disgusting behavior people actually have to use the internet as a medium to belittle others during difficult times.
Your description at the end of the post is classic!
how can people be so douchey?
since i'm not twither, i have no idea what went on, but just meeting the queen in chicago it was pretty obvious she'd been going through something. and i read her post about her illness posted pre-conference after i got home. yes, some people are messed up in the head and fake illness in real life & on the internets, but that so obviously wasn't the case.
i really hope it wasn't the colonoscopy because that is just miserable unsedated. and i really didn't understand why they were doing the endo & colon separately, but i schedule those for people all day long.
glad you were there for support & i hope she gets a lap chole soon & it takes care of all the symptoms she's been having lately!
I am seriously thinking about therapy to figure out why I am involved in blogging. Get well Queen of Spain.
I was bellyaching about something a couple of months ago and a friend of mine used a term I will never forget. Its new to me but you may have heard it. Feel free to pass it on. He said "I know it's bothersome, but this type of douchebaggery will never stop as long as people have opinions"
Yep, sorry, the ass-hats will always practice their douchebaggery. Know why? They have no friggin' life of their own so they go and crap on other people's lives.
QOS... my thoughts and prayers are with you. hang in there. And while I'm sure you know this, I hate that your meds fell through the cracks at shift change, but not all nurses are like that. I'm actually surprised meds were scheduled at shift change. Though your ending nurse should have pushed through what was begun on his/her shift.
Hang in there!
No pooping in my tub of love and bubbles, people! I mean, COME ON.
Wow. Unbelievable. Poop in the hot tub says it all.
mintcool is kind of an asshole. that's just the way it works.
I agree. Asshat, asshole, gross, rude, jealous troll.
Wishing Erin a speedy recovery!
Thank you for being a good friend to Erin, and helping to defender her against the reprehensible assholes. You rock, Erin rocks.
Beyond belief. How do they get like that??
the first thing that people on the internet should understand is to never take anyone seriously
To be fair, I need Erin to get better quickly so I can make butt jokes without seeming cold and uncaring.
Twitter sucks, there's no way to add emotion and folks dig deep holes without meaning to.
(expletives deleted)
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