Musings from an overworked translator

Musings from a hospital bed September 15, 2012

Well, not really. I was released yesterday afternoon. I had my appendix out on Thursday. I was in pain from 1 a.m. on Wednesday night, so I called my mother in the morning and she came over and took me to the emergency room at the hospital 0.2 miles from my house. No matter how old you are, when you get sick you still want your mommy there. I told the admitting clerk that I thought it was appendicitis, but the ER doctor thought it was kidney stones. He should know better than to second-guess a medical translator :-).

It was really cool hearing all the jargon I translate every day being used in real life and freaking out the staff by responding with professional jargon to their questions about pain. The surgical resident got a kick out of my responding “no pain on percussion” when he asked if I could feel pain while tapping on my back. The nurse blew several veins trying to draw my blood. I had central lines in both hands. I am sporting some nice hematomas. I got wheeled on a gurney for a CT, which (along with the blood tests showing elevated white count and no blood in my urine) revealed an enlarged and inflamed appendix.

I was wheeled into the operating room at 5 p.m. and – after being prepped for laparoscopic surgery – woke up in recovery at around 7:45 or so. I spent the night in the hospital (luckily in my own room so I was able to sleep more than I did the night before at home) and was released yesterday afternoon. It was my first overnight stay in a hospital, and it wasn’t that bad. I spent the night at my parents’ house last night and am happy to be home.

I was very, very grateful for my smartphone (even if did take a visit to the ER to figure out the outgoing server settings for my e-mail weren’t correct), because I was able to respond immediately to my clients’ e-mails. I was able to use the hospital guest WiFi the entire time. I turned down several job requests and notified one client that they should find someone else to translate the website I had accepted on Wednesday that is due next Tuesday. My clients deserve more attention to detail than I can give them right now. I will be recovering for the next few days, but have already stopped taking my prescribed pain meds because the pain is manageable.

But I am very glad I decided several months ago not to attend the BDÜ conference this year. I would have been flying to Germany right about now and would have lost lots of money on non-refundable pain tickets and hotel costs. I hope you all enjoy it without me. Wish I could be there instead of hobbling around my apartment.

If I don’t have a domain do I exist? August 7, 2012

I’m at the end of a harrowing couple of days. It turns out that when I cancelled my contracts with my German ISP earlier this year I didn’t realize that my domain would not be automatically renewed. I woke up yesterday morning to no e-mail. I thought it was weird, but simply chalked it up to a server outage. Then a client sent an e-mail to my backup e-mail at Gmail informing me that my e-mail was bouncing and I started looking into it. The first thought was that my domain had been “sniped” as soon as it had become available, but thanks to ICANN’s Redemption Grace Period sniping has become a thing of the past. I contacted my ISP through their U.S. contact number (which I had no idea even existed) and started the process to get my domain back. I also sent out e-mails to all my active clients and anyone who may have been trying to reach me.

I have since received word that the domain is being transferred back to me, and it should take 6-12 hours to be active again. In the meantime, I truly hope none of my less regular clients were trying to reach me. Thank heavens for Gmail! I’ve been able to send out invoices and deliver my translations through Gmail.

One of my closest friends called me this afternoon in a panic since her e-mails to me were bouncing. She was relieved to hear everything was fine. So if you have been trying to reach me since the evening of August 5th I am fine. Just feeling very non-existent without my domain and main e-mail addresses.