Monthly Archives: March 2009

CREATE South Donation Day

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Free conferences cost money to produce and promote. CREATE South is an just such an event; the second annual conference takes place on April 25, in Myrtle Beach SC. Today is CREATE South Donation Day; if you have a few bucks to spare for a non hoity-toity conference where people can share, learn, and teach, then CREATE South is the place to funnel them. Just go to CREATE South, click the Donate button, and let the good times roll. If you plan to attend, you may want to kick in a tad more. Why? Two words: chicken bog.

I’ve ponied up a few ducats myself; I say this, not to boast of my largesse, but to note that I put my money where this old blog is.

-k-

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I don’t have it bad, at all

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I went to work for my first full day in a week and a half today. Mark all Read was my email buddy, and the voice mails also had emails covering the same topic1.

I also found out that one coworker’s mother had passed away while I was out; another has a 4-year daughter with a congenital heart defect. The little one had some kind of heart-related distress, and she’s now in Children’s Hospital. Both her parents have recently relocated to NoVA, which has to add additional stress.

So, I can’t complain about a thing; MLB is getting better by the day. The adjustments I’ve made to my personal little daily routines to help her out are piddling indeed.

-k-

1 Why do people both call and send email for the same thing?

Finally, Monday

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MLB arrived back at tbbs WorldHQ around 4:30 PM today. I just got back from filling 6 prescriptions, doing a little grocery shopping, and buying some rubber gloves and packing sponges for wound maintenance detail.

She’s sore, tired, and uncomfortable. She is able to navigate stairs (tbbs World HQ is a 3-level townhouse); this small thing is great, and has saved a huge amount of furniture shuffling and resource reallocation to make her comfortable on a single level of the place; any solution we’d have devised, had this been necesssary, would have been sub-optimal all the way around. Still, we’d have done what we could with what we have.

She’s resting; I’m in the WorldHQ control room, catching up on news feeds, and thankful to have her back home. Before the surgeon released her, he looked at me and said, “You’re in charge now.” I just hope I can wear the caregiving mantle with sufficient skill and grace.

-k-

RIP, Reverend Hal Marchman

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Reverend Hal Marchman, who for decades delivered the invocation before the races at Daytona International Speedway, has passed away.

NASCAR races start with the presentation of colors, an invocation and prayer, the National Anthem, and usually, a flyover of military aircraft. From the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959 to the 46th running in 2004, Rev. Marchman delivered the invocation and prayer. He had been in poor health for the last several years; his death, however, was sudden.

Thanks, Rev. Marchman. You’ve been missed through your years of poor health, and are most sorely missed now.

In my own little tribute, I’ll conclude this post with words I’ve heard him utter many times:

“Shalom and amen.”

-k-
More about Rev. Hal here.

Monday, Maybe

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I just got back from my daily hospital visit. MLB continues to mend. Except for the post-op infection. They removed a couple of more staples from the incision1 to clean and disinfect the problem area. And gave her more IV antibiotics. She may have to stay another day. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

This is getting to be grueling; there’s not much I can contribute at the hospital, other than lend moral support. With my energy level dwindling, and not knowing how much longer this siege will last, my moral support has been less than stellar today.

Part of my job when she gets home is changing the dressing on the wound. They’ve packed the infected areas with gauze soaked in saline, and covered those areas with a gauze pad. These are changed twice daily. The surgeon and nurse have had me witness the procedure. I don’t consider myself to be overly squeamish; I’m more concerned with the amount of pressure required to remove the old packing, and install the new. My observations have told me two things:

  1. Don’t remove the old packing like you’re starting a lawn mower.
  2. Don’t pack in the new gauze like you’re stuffing in insulation.

Still, the old stuff doesn’t leap out, making way for the new to float gently into place. Some force is required. I conveyed these concerns to MLB, who assures me she’ll let me know if I’m being excessive in the force department.

Knowing her as I do, I’d say that perhaps I should wear a cup when providing this particular caregiving service2.

-k-

1 The surgeon refers to it as the wound, not an inaccurate description at that.

2 We’re investigating whether our insurance company will pay for in-house visits to handle this dressing maintenance; if they do, I won’t be singing soprano.

Monday, Monday

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MLB continues to mend; she’s gone from sips of liquids, to clear liquids, to non-clear liquids1, to the more pabulum stuff(cream of wheat, tapioca, etc), to reasonably solid food (chicken breast and rice tonight). Her progress is on track, and she’d have been home today or tomorrow.

There is a small post-operative infection that’s the cause for concern now. They elected to keep her in the hospital until at least Monday, so they can administer more powerful intravenous antibiotics. Much as I’d like to have her home, and she’d like to be home, this is the proper course of action. It’s been a long week of constant, incremental progress, and neither of us wants to do something to negate all that.

I now have extra time to do laundry and toss out my empties clean house. There is a silver lining after all.

-k-

1 This does not include the Merlot, Shiner Bock, or Guinness groups

Incessantly Repeated Myths

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the chief causes of this condition were the disastrous policies pursued by our government since the World War, of economic isolation, fostering the merger of competitive businesses into monopolies and encouraging the indefensible expansion and contraction of credit for private profit at the expense of the public.

Those who were responsible for these policies have abandoned the ideals on which the war was won and thrown away the fruits of victory, thus rejecting the greatest opportunity in history to bring peace, prosperity, and happiness to our people and to the world.

They have ruined our foreign trade; destroyed the values of our commodities and products, crippled our banking system, robbed millions of our people of their life savings, and thrown millions more out of work, produced wide-spread poverty and brought the government to a state of financial distress unprecedented in time of peace.

The only hope for improving present conditions, restoring employment, affording permanent relief to the people, and bringing the nation back to the proud position of domestic happiness and of financial, industrial, agricultural and commercial leadership in the world lies in a drastic change in economic governmental policies.

We favor maintenance of the national credit by a federal budget annually balanced on the basis of accurate executive estimates within revenues, raised by a system of taxation levied on the principle of ability to pay.

We advocate a sound currency to be preserved at all hazards and an international monetary conference called on the invitation of our government to consider the rehabilitation of silver and related questions.

Two excerpts from the Democratic Party Platform of 1932, after Republican Herbert Hoover spent us silly in a last-ditch, failed effort to stop a recession.

The myth that Hoover was a laissez-faire capitalist is right up there with the one that “free, unregulated markets” brought us to our current economic state.

-k-

Kindle Reading List

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The Kindle has been getting a workout the last few days. I took it along when I took MLB to ER last Saturday; it was along for the ensuing trip to the surgical waiting room, and I’ve taken it on my daily visits. I spend around six hours a day over there with her, not that I’m bringing much to the party. I was the “walk the halls” coordinator, helping her get ready, and then accompanying her on walks of the corridors. With the removal of many of the external drains, tubage, and other medical paraphernalia, that role is diminishing. She’s getting stronger, and is perfectly capable of going on solo hallway jaunts. And she has been. This is a good thing. My chief value add now is schlepping stuff from the house to the hospital; her hot rollers, cosmetic articles, the Wall Street Journal, and such like.

Hospitals are terrible places to sleep, even at night, so it’s not unusual for Morpheus to take her in tow to during the day. It’s then Kindle time. Here’s what I’ve been reading, along with my ratings expressed in units befitting the circumstances:

The Power of Less, by Leo Babauta. My fascination with time and life management books rolls on. Rating: 3/5 bedpans.

Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, by Thomas E. Woods Jr. Timely analysis of the current economic mess that you won’t see elsewhere, and a great, easy-to-read intro to Austrian Economic Theory. It all clicked with me. Rating: 5/5 bedpans.

Southern Fried Plus Six, by William Price Fox. A bunch of short stories, mostly set in South Carolina, during the 30′s and 40′s. Rating: 4/5 bedpans.

The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. Gutwrenching, sad, funny and uplifting all at the same time. Excellent, though probably not one to be reading while your wife is being operated on. Rating: 5/5 bedpans.

The King James Bible. No, I didn’t read the whole thing, just a few Psalms; Psalm 100 and 121 come to mind. No rating here, but the comfort provided was out of this world good.

On deck for tomorrow; started it today:

Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan, by Suze Orman.

Probably more reading of non job-related stuff than I’ve done in a long time.

-k-

Nurses

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MLB has been tended by some great nurses during her hospital stay: Tess, Philomena, Maria, and Susan are the one’s I’ve met. Two eager, bubbly student nurses, Jen and Amanda, have also provided care. Nurses, like waiters, waitresses, and customer service representatives, have only first names. It’s amazing to me that they’ve all treated MLB like she’s the only patient they have. I’ll give a big thumbs up to the Reston Hospital nursing staff.

I dated a nurse long before I met MLB. It took a while, but I finally figured out her last name; it was Ratched. Or should have been.

-k-

Caregiving

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As great as the stress and upheaval of having her in the hospital has been, and as much as I look forward to the day MLB gets to come home, I’m somewhat dreading that day as well. Not that I won’t or can’t care for her, whatever those as-yet-to-be-described needs might be. I just want to do it well, and I worry a bit about that.

I have a good example of gracious caregiving: MLB herself. She’s cared for my mother, her mother, and me with grace and style.

Maybe that’s what scares me; she’s set the bar way too high.

-k-