1 Boring Old Man

OMG, I am so sorry. Thank you for letting us know and for outing him and risking his annoyance:)

Thinking good thoughts for your dad, you, and the rest of your family.

Thank you. I’ll do my best to keep updates here so his online family will know what’s going on.

I am very sorry, Abby, and wish him a strong and swift recovery. Of course, I have never met you or Dr. Nardo, but the intelligence, care and spirit of this blog jump out at me daily, and I have often thought, “What remarkable man produces this?” All the best to him and your family, and I hope to see another incisive entry here soon, as evidence of his recovery.

Abby,

Thanks so much for keeping us informed. When there is an interval between posts, I always wonder if Mickey is delving into more deep analysis to inform us, or actually treating himself to a holiday. I don’t know if your Dad understands how much a part of daily life he has become for some of us; how much he has taught us; and how he has created a real community–though none of have ever met.

Please give him our best wishes for a speedy recovery. Tell him we’re waiting for his next installment.

Melody

My best wishes to you and your father. I understand completely as I am currently going through the same thing.

He’s been sedated since we got here on Wednesday, so I can tell him things, but I don’t think he is really processing. I’m actually very grateful for the sedation. As many of you on here know, doctors don’t make the best patients.

I think that you are correct that much of the time when he goes away for a while, he is researching issues that relate to his next posts. The times when he calls and needs to reach me IMMEDIATELY are always when his blog is down.

Living out in the woods is isolating at times, so I know the vibrant community on here is one way he is able to get his much-needed intellectual stimulation.

It’s funny. People told me they were worried my dad would be bored in retirement. I never worried about that at all.

Thank you Abby for reaching out to us.
I wish him good and swift recovery and lot of strength to all of you.

Despite I’m neither the practicing doctor nor in the respectfull age of other peers here, this blog mean a lot for me and the insight and human way of writing makes me craving for a medicine teachers or mentors like him.

We are all so very sorry to learn of this. Please let Mickey know we miss him and will be here when he gets back.

And please tell him he IS special. Over the years we have communicated via email and he has touched my heart. and I can’t even begin to say how grateful I am for being his “digital student” in the master seminar he has been leading on this blog. I am sure many, many other will agree that we have all benefited from his (sometimes cranky) wisdom.

Appreciate the notice and hope he recovers as quickly and completely as able.

That said, publishing his picture is something you need to talk to him about when he has recovered fully. I can’t speak for him, but, if I ended up hospitalized and my blog had a substantial following like Dr N’s has, I might not be too pleased if my wife or daughters published my picture without my approval, it’s just the anonymity I think is fairly important to weigh especially in mental health arenas.

Just my opinion, but, while I genuinely hope your father recovers and gets back to his efforts at confronting the failures in both psychiatry and medicine in general, it is his blog. If he ok’d your efforts already, then this comment is irrelevant. But, I hope you think about what I offer.

Especially in these times with the level of outrage and sense of perverted retaliation fanned by some in the antipsychiatry realm, although I don’t see your father as a public enemy like I sense some see me…

In our prayers and our hopes.

Joel Hassman, MD

Update from rounds this morning:

He was in septic shock when he came in. EKG showed no heart failure (this is the big surprise). Creatinine is going down. It’s 1.29 today (close to normal) from 1.82. White blood cell count going down. On day three of antibiotics. Found Aureus staph, and he’s on antibiotics for that. CT Scan shows extensive COPD which we knew. On higher steroids than he’s usually on at home. Head CT perfectly normal. Removed a lot of virulent puss-like material in his lungs. Some kind of pressure is high (not sure what doc said). This morning had sedation vacation, he didn’t wake up quickly, he became quickly asynchronous with the ventilator, so they had to resedate him. Because of respiratory status, sedated him again. Giving him fluids. Sedation vacations are done as a first step towards weaning off the ventilator. He’s not at all ready for that.

Joel Hassman,

My mother and I discussed it, and we both feel good about the photo. Dad is easily googleable and there are photos of him out in the world. And Dad has never minded me posting photos of him online (I do a lot of photography. This is a photo I took.)

Thanks for your concern though.

What worrisome news to wake up to! Your father and I have corresponded a great deal and in typical fashion he rarely even hinted at his health issues. Over the years he has become one of my closest confidants. Please let him know he is in my thoughts. Are you at liberty to say which hospital he is in? And thank you, Abby, for your backup support of him on this weblog.

Hope you have a speedy recovery. Your intelligence, and concern for effective care to the public is very inspiring.I have learned a great deal from your efforts, and want to let you know that you are making a very real contribution.

i am grateful that you shared the news of your father’s health …i hope he has a pleasant and full recovery …

Thanks you very much for taking the time to provide these updates about your dad. They are greatly appreciated.

Abby, thank you for the post and update. Your father has been an inspiration to me through his blog and email exchanges. He is in my thoughts and prayers in hopes of a full recovery.

One of my children had severe behavioral problems in grade school/ secondary school, and I had to deal with researching all the medicines they gave him or wanted to give them. (He is doing really well now at age 26) Mickey’s blog has been one of the shining lights of real science for those of use who are not steeped in biochemistry & medical data analysis, but can get by — and need more unbiased information to help the ones we love. I will miss Mickey when he goes. Keep us posted.

Dear Abby. Thank you for the information about dr Nardo, and thanks a lot for your lovely shot of the down-to-earth, wise and humane man whom you are lucky to have as your dad. Reading his blog has thought me immeasurably more than I ever expected when stumbling upon it a few years ago. Following the interesting blog quickly turned into a must, mostly pleasureable, often challenging, always practical and relevant. Warm wishes for your dad and your family from across the pond, from Berit, Norway.

Thanks Abbey for taking the time in a hard family moment to let us all know about your father’s illness. Please take care of yourself and your Mom as well. Doctor’s really do not make good patients! I wish him the very best.

How very kind of you to let those of us who follow his blog (I have for years) know about this. We will be hoping for a full recovery. I’m glad you feel good about the care he’s getting.

Wishing you all the best!

Very sad to read about Mickey’s illness. Hoping for the best. Thank you for keeping us posted.

He’s at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, GA in the green building ICU.

Hoping your Dad gets better real quickly, I love reading his posts. Wishing you all the very best.

As is true of all the others who are responding to you, Abby, for your thoughtfulness in letting us know about Mickey’s condition, I am glad that you are keeping us informed–and that you have allowed us to see that lovely picture of him. I am sure I do not need to tell you that your father is a wonderful person who has informed and enriched my life with his blog and the few emails we have exchanged. I know he is old but he is far from boring, so I deeply wish for his speedy recovery and many more years of writing. I hope you and the rest of your family will take good care not just of Mickey, but of yourselves, as well.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness in letting us know what’s going on with your dad. May he recover well and soon and be back to his home and his blog! I am so glad to put a face to this lovely man whose thoughts I’ve been reading near daily for a year. His writing means a great deal to me as a psychotherapist, and I hope he gets to keep sharing his wisdom with all of us for a good while more! He is clearly very lucky to have you for a daughter.

Thank you for Dr. Nardo’s picture. It captures his wisdom, informed skepticism, wry sense of humor and wit, knowledge and a bit of a twinkle in his eye– and above all else his kindness. I pray for his recovery.

Abby, I am so sorry to hear your father is not well, and please let me add my best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Like many here, I have never met your father in person. However, his blog has been and continues to be a tremendous inspiration, during my own clinical training, throughout my own parents’ illnesses, and many other personal and professional challenges.

You, Mickey, and your family will be in my thoughts and prayers. I know it’s difficult to navigate the confidentiality issues, whether it’s disclosure of an illness or publishing a picture, but I really appreciate your keeping us up to date. Thanks so much. Will check back regularly for updates.

–Matthew Jansky

Abby, thank you so much for updating us on your father and for the subsequent tranches of information. Your father has touched a lot of people here. I’m an aspiring psychiatrist and he’s been a huge inspiration to me as a scientist and clinician. Wishing him a speedy recovery!

Get well soon, Dr. Nardo.
Your blog is a must stop whenever I surf the net. When I need an unbiased view about psychiatric practices, this is my go-to blog.
I am in Cebu, Philippines.

Thanks Abby. Get well soon, Micky. My thoughts and best wishes are with you. The picture was a great touch. It does show his kindness and intelligence very well.

Wishing Dr. Nardo a quick recovery. I love his writings!

I realize it’s confusing when I post as Dad (Mickey), so I’m logging in as a guest. I wanted you all to know that I have created a secret Facebook group with more details about my Dad. You won’t be able to search for it, but if you’d like to be added, befriend me (Abby Nardo) on Facebook, and send me a message that you would like to follow Mickey Updates. I find that doctors want to know numbers, and those are in the group. You are welcome to unfriend me afterwards (I talk a lot and you don’t necessarily need that!), but I need that to add you to the group.

Update for today: Dad is still stable, still sedated, and his ventilator support is slightly reduced from yesterday. Best bits of news are: the congestive heart failure diagnosis was inaccurate AND there is no damage to his brain from lack of oxygen. That’s my favorite part. I know my Dad. If his brain was gone, all these other measures would be of lesser interest to any of us. As you all know, he has quite the brain!

Thank you for keeping us updated. Prayers for fast recovery for Dr. Nardo, tell him to get well, we will be here. Take care of yourselves too.

Thanks so much for taking the time to make the announcement. It’s very kind of you to do it when you’re dealing with it.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

P.S. Meant to add that I’m very sorry. And again, best wishes.

Thank you very much for updating Mickey’s friends and admirers on his health. I wish him a speedy and full recovery. Your father is a remarkable man, truly one of a kind, and we have all benefitted greatly from his wisdom. Best to all of you.

Yet another voice thanking you for letting us know how your father is doing. I was shocked when I opened the blog this evening and learned of his illness.

Like many of the commenters here, I never met your father and he never met me, but his blog was a regular stop on my web surfing. I have used a couple of his vignettes with the psychiatric residents for whom I get a short time each years to introduce them to psychodynamic psychotherapy — and the necessity to go beyond the symptoms and really get to know the patient.

I will check back every day to find out how he is doing.

Abby,

My heart goes out to you, your father, and others close to you. I hope he has a speedy and complete recovery. Thanks so much for taking the time to update us here when you must have so many other things on your mind.

Abby, I’m so sorry to hear this – sorry for you and your family; and sorry for me and all the other people who know Mickey is wonderful and want him to keep blogging forever. Hoping for the best, Melissa

Thanks so much for all of your kind words. Dad’s situation hasn’t changed much, but he remains stable, sedated, and in the ICU.

Dear Abby,
Just a note to echo all the good wishes from so many people for your dad’s speedy recovery. His wit and charm are wonderful to experience in his blog, and although I never have met him, we have corresponded as if we were old friends. When he is receptive to news, please give him my warmest regards and hopes for a quick return to health.

Only the best to your father and the family.

This blog was an anchor during a health scare 18 months ago. He may not be in the office, but he is still practicing medicine.

Steve Lucas

Dear Abby,
I have only recently come to know and admire your father through his writings. He is one of a very rare breed of people with knowledge, judgment, and sustained fire-in-the-gut commitment to making a difference.
I hope for his speedy recovery and wish you all strength during this difficult time. I look forward to your father’s thoughts once more on 1 Boring Old Man.

Thank you so much for posting. I am sending my warm wishes to Mickey and the Nardo family. Mickey is a most remarkable man. I have learned an enormous amount from him that goes beyond the massive amount of data he has so carefully analyzed over the years. He has also been gracious and patient with the many raucous voices in the comment section. He paid me the greatest honor by inviting me to share my own thoughts here. I am forever grateful.
While we have never met, I feel a deep connection. He is a role model for me and has been one of the few areas in which I can find pride in my deeply troubled profession.
Sending warm wishes. You are all in my thoughts and my heart.

Here are thoughts from two of Mickey’s friends who for various reasons are technologically challenged. They asked me to post these responses for them.

Allen Frances says: “I never met or even spoke to Micky, but I cried reading about his illness. Amazing how close I feel to him via email and his blog. What a man- a quiet, unassuming giant; scourge of phonies; embodiment of wisdom, integrity, and competence. A man for all seasons.”

And Jay Amsterdam says: “I am so, so sorry to hear of Mickey’s travails. Unfortunately, I do not know how to post comments on blog sites, or I would add my well-wishes to the others for his speedy recovery. This fault in my writing skills is, no doubt, the anlagen of those dark days when my attorneys suggested that I not publicly blog or make statements during my whistle-blowing adventures at Penn.

So, if you have a free moment, and do not mind doing so, perhaps you could let Mickey know that he is now constant in my thoughts and prayers; and that I will put Ian to work on his case immediately (which should assure his complete recovery). I was always conscious and grateful for all of Mickey’s support and blogged opinions during my darkest days of battle with the KOL’s dark side of the force; and how much joy I would receive whenever I would read one of his daily posts further exposing the bastards.

I look forward to his complete recovery; if for no other reason (selfishly) to have him back in the fray!”

Dear Abby, Thank you so much for letting me know about Mickey’s misfortune. If you have a chance to talk with him, please let him know of my sincere wish for his complete recovery – even if it’s only to be boring for yet another day. I’ve enjoyed his contributions enormously. It sounds like you are doing a great job as a caregiver too! Please convey to him all my affection. Mark Kramer, MD Ph.D

Hi Abby,

My best wishes for Mickey’s complete recovery.

He is an inspiration to all of us independent psychiatrist/bloggers.

George Dawson, MD, DFAPA

I am so sorry to hear that your dad is ill. I hope that he recovers from his illness.

i have learnt so much from your father’s blog – best wishes and prayers for you all at this challenging time.

I am Mickey’s wife, and I just read all your comments. It means so much to me and our family to know how he has touched your lives. This blog was like a second profession to him, and has given him such purpose in his retirement years. He is certainly not out of the woods, but many of his numbers have improved. His heart rate, blood oxygen, blood pressure and renal condition are all near normal now. The big problem which remains is that he is still not breathing on his own, although the ventilator is doing much less of the work, and they are slowly weaning him off. He is still sedated although today they lowered the amount of sedation. We’re still hoping for him to wake up and to be able to talk to us again. On a personal note, I’d appreciate being contacted by Bernard Carroll and Rob White. You can message me on Facebook.

Sending my warm wishes, as well as profound respect and admiration.

Oh so sad to hear dear Mickey is so unwell. Much love to him and you his family. As a keen follower of his blogs and occasional emailer I have grown so very fond of him and have such great respect for who he is and what he values. With heartfelt tears and every good wish. Mick

Dear Abbey,
Thank you for letting people know about your dad. I send him and your family best wishes for his recovery. As someone trying so hard to support a loved one with severe mental distress, this blog is where I felt I could go for honest, accurate information about studies and drugs and so much more. I have been enormously helped by your father and his blog.

Thank you for the update, Sharon. Mickey is such a treasure of a human being, and his blog is invaluable. I am hoping he continues to improve and that we’ll all have him back soon.

Peggy & I wish all the best for one of my oldest friends, whom I’ve admired for more than fifty years. Please let me know if we can help with anything.

Hello all. Dad is on slightly less vent support today: 50%. I’m back in Raleigh. If I know my Dad (and I know my Dad), he’d much prefer I get back to my clients. It’s actually been great seeing them this morning.

Again, if you want to follow the medical updates, I have been putting them on Facebook in a private group. In order to join the group, you will need to be friends with someone already in the group. That could be me, my mom (Sharon Nardo), or anyone else you know who’s already in the group. There’s an add members option that’s on the right side of the screen when you are on the web on a computer or at the top of the screen if you’re using the mobile version on your phone.

Once you are in the group, you are welcome to unfriend whoever invited you in there if you aren’t a big Facebook user or if you, frankly, think I talk far too much!

I’ve really enjoyed connecting with many of you. Hate the reason, but I love that my Dad has such a wise and engaged group of friends and colleagues online. It’s nice to meet you all!

For now, I’m keeping all updates within this post so as not to muddy up Dad’s blog. That may change, but for now, that seems best.

Dear Abby and Sharon (and members of Mickey’s community),

Thanks ever so much for your warm and loving care in sharing news of this hard spot in all your lives. Dr. Nardo has supported me through many a moment of wanting to give up on my profession. He’s a little older than me, but started his psychiatric training at about the same time I did. It has been incredibly affirming to find someone who tells the story of what’s happened in psychiatry since the late 60’s so clearly, so evocatively, and from a viewpoint that so closely parallels mine. He’s a pillar of wisdom and a fountain of hope. the way he has used his “retirement” should be an inspiration to us all.

To read your caring posts has given me a glimpse of the intelligence and love that your whole family must share. Thank you for being so inclusive and thoughtful. You are all very present in my thoughts, and I wish you peace and renewed health in the coming days. I’ll be checking here daily.

I think the photo is wonderful! I linked here from Sandra Steingard’s latest post on >madinamerica.com<, where she gave it a very good promo! I've only been to this site a few times in the last year or so, but I've found it to be well worth my time. Wish I could spend MORE time here! Of course a "GET WELL SOON goes out to that "boring old man"! I feel that I appreciate his humility, and sense of humor correctly!…. Best wishes…. ~B./

Just wanted to add my best wishes to this wonderful man and family.

Abby, Thanks for the regular posts. Mickey is one of a kind, but you already knew that. I look forward to hearing he’s sitting up and feeling cranky about spending so much time sedated. Best wishes.

Hello

Just read this. I can’t tell you how much the illness of an anonymous psychiatrist halfway across the world affected me, and it’s mostly because I’ve been following this blog for years, and 1bom has been incredibly influential in how I see psychiatry and especially psychiatric research.

Thanks for taking so much time to keep us in the loop.

Vijay Krishnan (from Delhi, India)

Get well soon Dr. Nardo! I’ve been reading your blog, quietly, for many years and it has influenced my thinking in so many ways.

To Shannon Brownlee,

Your comment made me laugh: “I look forward to hearing he’s sitting up and feeling cranky about spending so much time sedated.”

I want to make it through this, but I must say, that particular part of things has me really stressed out! I’m a lot like my Dad in that I really like to do what I like to do, and I don’t like when my freedom is restricted in any way. This is going to be the most challenging time of his life. HANDS DOWN!

Correction: I want *him* to make it through this.

I want to express my best wishes for Mickey and to say how valuable his blog is for the insights into how Pharma is manipulating research. I also have appreciated his stories about his patients and how he treats them as humans rather than a collection of neurotransmitters that need the right chemical to fix them up.

Mickey is a great teacher and I have learned so much from him. I am so happy to hear he is improving and hope we all hear from him very soon. Am sending much love and good wishes to all of you in this hard time.

Come back soon 1boringoldman we need you very much.

Tom

Adding my voice to well wishes, I admire Mickey’s tireless intelligence and alignment to honesty and integrity, sending my best wishes and prayers

we’re pulling for you dr mickey!!

Get well soon Dr. Nardo!

Up here in cold New England you are loved for your well-placed humor when times are dark (ugh, too many dark moments sometimes), deeply respected for your determination (how do you do all that you do?), and looked upon as a bit of a ‘god-of wisdom-and-clarity-of-thought’. Would you consider a position in the Department of Education?

Prayers for a speedy recovery for you and your family.

Gina and Larry Field
Readers living in Marblehead, MA, formerly Atlanta/Marietta/Decatur residents and GATech alum.

Hi, Abby. Checking back daily, hoping for good news about your dad.

Thank you for letting us know. I will check back regularly in the hopes of finding good news. Wishing you and your family well!

Abby, thank you for keeping us informed. I have fond memories of sitting through the “TMAP trial” in Austin with your parents. Mickey and Sharon brought an aura of integrity to the courtroom. When they came to the house, I learned that your father took sugar in his coffee. As I searched frantically for some sugar (we did not have any), Mickey used a little honey to sweeten his coffee. On their last day in Austin, Mickey left his leather jacket in the courtroom, as if to say, I am not done with this. I mailed it to him, but I really wanted to keep it.

Your dad is an inspiration to so many of us. I have learned so much from his posts on this blog. Our thoughts are with your family.

Mark Wilson

Hi Abby,
I am not on Facebook. Wherever you might get the chance, would appreciate any updates here about how your dad is doing. Realize it is very much a one way relationship but have found these last 5 years of experiencing your dad very meaningful. I very much hope this finds all of you doing as well as possible.

Just hoping no news in 6 days is not having to report bad news, so would ask that very non specifics to Dr N’s condition be shared with readers who are not asking nor expecting an inside track to his chart.

At least I would like to know he is improving and hopefully out of the hospital as quickly as able to sustain in less intense environments.

Thank you for offering what is comfortable sharing.

Joel Hassman, MD

hopefully dr mickey is just resting while the pneumonia clears/is being cleared out.

him getting a bout of pneumonia felt so sudden and unexpected. i understand it can happen as we age, but still there are other ways one can contract it that are not so natural.

i am hopeful we can get an update soon. he has done too much for “the cause” to go out like this. at least let dr mickey do it on his terms, as his work has demonstrated he deserves.

I’m so sorry. Because my father is fairly private, I’ve been focusing on keeping all of these updates in that private Facebook group. I didn’t realize anyone was expecting updates here, and I’m not sure this is the place for them.

In a general way, Dad’s prognosis hasn’t changed much. He’s had more moments of alertness in the last day or two. He’s very much “still in there,” but he can only communicate using head nods yes and no. When we communicate with him, it wears him out, so after a more alert day today, it was necessary to increase these meds again. He’s enjoying the music I brought in for him to listen to. But since he’s so medicated, these yes/no questions we ask can’t be very complicated. While I did get a little bit of eye contact from him today, the only person he really connects with and communicates with is mom. I don’t think he likes that I’m seeing him in this state. When asked if he wants some of his close friends to come in and see him, he’s mostly nodded no (even to me – don’t worry, my feelings aren’t hurt. I get it).

What I would like is if those of you who ARE in the FB group can reach out to the other readers who don’t have access and share the latest updates with them. There is so much going on, so many visitors to manage, and so many decisions to make, that it’s much easier for us to just update this information in one single location. That would help us so much.

I was so sad to hear Mickey has been ill and very happy to hear he is on the mend. He is such an inspiration. Get well soon Dr. Nardo!

“What I would like is if those of you who ARE in the FB group can reach out to the other readers who don’t have access and share the latest updates with them. There is so much going on, so many visitors to manage, and so many decisions to make, that it’s much easier for us to just update this information in one single location. That would help us so much.”

Will do (in reverse). Good luck.

hello abby,

thank you for the update. as carol said, i am happy to hear he is on the mend. sorry for all the noise.

best wishes.

If anyone wants more info and is not on Facebook, you can email me at sandys@howardcenter.org and I can share info from the Facebook page.

Thank you to 1boringyoungman and others in the private FB group who will help keep us blog followers informed and lift that burden from Abby. I know I check this daily looking for updates and I think others may be doing the same.

Thank you for the update. I hope there is a pulmonologist involved, as I am sure there is with the length of time on a vent, as weaning with COPD is difficult, but has resolutions.

And I agree, this thread is not the place for details. Just want to know he is progressing, and look forward to his return to calling people on poor choices.

Does he like music, if not already played in the room, and choices he would make? I used music when I did consult work the last year of residency and discharge length of stay in CCUs and ICUs were lower with those who had access to music who liked to listen with regularity. I know I would!

I hope he gets off the Vent soon, and out of the ICU thereafter…

Joel H

I can tell you that I’ve been very much on the case with the music. Dad is a music lover, and so am I. He’s been enjoying the playlist I brought. Lots of Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, jazz, Dylan, etc. It’s brought a bit of him into the room. I recently had a client who was sedated long-term in an ICU, and he told me last week that the one thing he remembers from his sedated time was the music that was playing. I also read a scholarly article about the reduced need for sedation in ICU patients with music in the room, so that gave me something to do before I came back down. Thanks for the suggestion. It’s a very good one!

I would just like to add my very best wishes for your father’s health. I love reading his blogs, even though as an English nurse I don’t always understand the US references. As with George Dawson’s blog, there,s a vivid sense of the ethical at the core of the science, which I like very much.

Abby had asked for updates she puts on the FB site to be posted here for people who don’t do FB. I had posted her update here yesterday but for some reason it doesn’t seem to have appeared here.

Today her posts on FB have been brief. Mickey had a trach tube reinserted this afternoon but had been alert and communicated prior to that that he agreed to the reinsertion. So now more waiting it seems.

Your dad is a very bright man, a lighttower in ethics, science and psychiatry in general.
I hope for his full recovery
Mik Adsersen, psychiatrist in Copenhagen, Denmark

Joseph-
I think you misunderstood. Abby was asking those of us on FB to communicate with folks here rather than to post here. I left my email if anyone wants to check in.

Mickey gave us a wonderful Valentine’s Day gift. We thought he was dying and decided, according to his wishes, to extubate him, take him off meds and let him go peacefully. To everyone’s surprise and delight, he woke up and talked with us for five hours. He was totally lucid, joking and making decisions for himself. After five hours, his blood oxygen saturation began to drop precipitously, and with Mickey’s consent, doctors reintubated him. Yesterday a tracheotomy was done and he was sedated for the night. I’m headed to the hospital to see where he is today.

I’m so sorry to hear about all of this. Thank you to Sharon and Abby for keeping us all informed like this. I hope that Mickey gets better soon, he has my best wishes.

@Sandra,

Oh. I am sorry I misunderstood. Thanks for clarifying.

–Joe

Thank you for the update Mrs Nardo, get well wishes from me, glad he was able to breath on his own and communicate with you for a little while. Best wishes Dr. Nardo.

I will forever be thankful for all that Mickey did for me. He was such a giving person, wonderful man and true savior

During grad school and clinical training, I learned the joy and wonder of developing a network of younger friends and colleagues and benefiting from their restless energy and enthusiasm. However, it was through Dr. Nardo and his blog that I learned the satisfaction of listening to, and corresponding occasionally, with a diverse group of (mostly) older and far more experienced professionals.

I have benefited greatly from the wisdom of so many who visited 1BOM, and I’m grateful to all of them– Bernard Carroll, Dr. O’Brien, Dr. Hassman, Sandra Steingard, Joseph Arpaia, Steve Lucas, George Dawson, Berit, Gagan, and so many others. I was always treated with respect here, even during debates which sometimes became quite strident. If I posted intemperately– and I certainly have at times– I was sometimes criticized sharply, but never made to feel unwelcome.

1BOM wasn’t, and isn’t, an echo chamber where you can expect to hear your favorite ideas parroted endlessly. For me, it was more like some wild, endless seminar with an interactive syllabus and over a dozen different professors from all over the world.

It’s very rare to find communities like that online these days, and that’s because there’s no one like Dr. Nardo to lead them. I am very, very grateful. And I am very, very sad. My heartfelt condolences to Abby and the rest of Mickey’s family and friends; my grateful thanks for the pictures and memories.

–Matthew Jansky, MA, LMFT