Roger Zee Memoirs

"Life and Times of a Pandemic Musician"

OR Survival 6/23/20

"Oh, Lonesome Me" pretty much sums up my feelings as well as those of my other, very at-risk friends these days. Hard to watch people we know on Facebook joyfully toss off the yoke of isolation and eagerly jump head first into the waters of the NY reopening. For us to do that, we would risk life itself, when we already struggle just to wake up the next morning... Welcome to another segment of my memoirs, "Life and Times of a Pandemic Musician."

Today's intense heat takes me back to the summer after my sophomore year at Brandeis University. My dad got me a job as an operating room orderly at a small Queens, NY hospital where he read x-rays. If I remember correctly, and that's pretty doubtful, I worked Monday through Friday from 7 to 3. I left my house in Great Neck at 6 and hitchhiked to Douglaston where I picked up two buses that finally landed me at the job. ?? As soon as I got there, I changed into my scrubs and mentally prepared myself for a day of mostly washing and painting Betadine on the feet and hands of elderly Black diabetics before the surgeon amputatated their toes and/or fingers. "Put on a happy face," I sang to myself! Despite the sound of it, I didn't find the job too taxing.

On most days, I submerge myself into the usual routine unless, out of nowhere, someone or something suddenly upsets the apple cart. In this case, while I gently cleaned the big toe of an elderly gentleman, it came off in my hand. Kind of like a slow-cooked, tender, succulent piece of barbecued pork separating from the bone. That proved just a little too much for me. I started tearing up and had to leave the OR. And with my boss' permission, I left for the day. But as the tough guy I pride myself on, I returned the next morning and got right back to it!

That big toe coming off in my hand haunted my dreams for years -- even more so when I my doctor diagnosed me as a bad type 2 diabetic. Recently I told this story to my new primary care physician at WestMed and he said, "Don't worry about it. Amputations rairly occur these days with the diet education we give to patients. Just follow it!" As the Stones sang, "Just another mad, mad day on the road..." ?? So on an unbearably hot, Covud-19 lockdown afternoon, I stay away from the Facebook photos of my pals romping in the pools, beaches and parks. As Linda Ronstadt sang, "Hurts so bad." Instead, I focus on on the delectable rhythm sections on Neil Young's "Greatest Hits" and subsume the succulent bass lines. One <3

YouTube - Oh, Lonesome Me - Neil Young