What happened to Karen at ALA
I’m sure lots of people are wondering where I disappeared to at ALA. I was there and then I sorta wasn’t. I was supposed to participate in Top Tech Trends and talk as part of a panel of CMSs. However, things didn’t go at all as planned. I arrived Thursday in Chicago and prepared to teach my preconference on Friday. My preconference Friday went great and I had a good time at LITA Happy Hour and dinner with friends. When I got back to the hotel room my voice was a little hoarse (I thought from talking all day) and I was completely exhausted. So I went to sleep. Saturday morning I woke up and was feeling run down and out of sorts. I thought perhaps if I got some tea had some food and a nap I’d feel better. Unfortunately I was wrong by the time I dragged myself to a committee meeting and then back to the hotel I was feeling simply awful. I crashed completely after taking some decongestant and woke up Sunday morning in even worse shape. It hurt to breathe and coughing caused severe pain. I could barely make it to the bathroom without passing out. I decided the situation was serious and my roommate came with me in a cab to the Northwestern hospital ER, where I pretty much spent the rest of Sunday receiving fluids, chest x-rays, a nubulizer treatment, and several prescriptions. The diagnosis: a bad upper respiratory infection. The doctor’s orders were simple, drugs+lots of liquids+lots of rest.
The rest of the trip is pretty much a haze but I made it safely home Tuesday and spent the remainder of the week recovering. Many thanks to folks for their concerns and well wishes via texts and to my co-presenters who saved the day by carrying on without me.
I thought it was odd that I didn’t run into you. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t, as your ALA sounds almost exactly like my TLA conference this year (except that I didn’t go to the hospital and spent almost a month recuperating, instead). Take care of yourself!
Whoa, Karen! That’s horrible! I’m sorry you had to go to the hospital, but glad that you got a diagnosis and some specific things to do to get better more quickly. I hope you’re doing better now!
Hi, Karen,
My name is Devin. I’m currently in an MLS program and doing a project on blogging in libraries. I noticed on your companion blog to LIBRARY BLOGGING that you were going to do a presentation called “Beyond Blogging – The Future of the Format.” The post was from 2008. Have you done that presentation yet? Or did it fizzle out? If it did happen, is there a place I could access it?
Thank you for your time,
Devin
Karen, I’m glad you’re feeling better. We missed you at the HoLT program on CMS’s, but Eli did a great punt using your slides. Stuff happens, and while it was unfortunate your health comes first. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to touch base at Midwinter.
Devin,
Actually that presentation was done by my co-author Jason Griffey. I think he posted it to the Library Blogging site. If not drop him a line over at his blog Pattern Recognition (http://www.jasongriffey.net/wp/)