thanks everyone for all the good wishes for my mom. this family stands by "all prayers are welcome." i am tired - we had to be at st vincent's at 6am, which is an hour and a half before i usually WAKEN. most of this is from the email i sent to my favorite uncle and cousin.

after much coaxing and whining on my part, i talked everyone into putting my dad in respite care for the weekend. i just couldn't worry about two parents. mom IS an easy patient, but what if there were complications? besides, think of my bipolar! :D it means i have to get up early tomorrow, to sign him out of respite and into daycare, before work, but having a break tonight was good. no pill dispensing, no dinner delivery service. and since we could leave the house without worrying about my dad getting hurt, on sunday, i took my mom and aunt to visit my cousins in farmington. it was an awesome, though tiring day.

btw: my mom and brother, and uncle and cousin (but not i, nor my aunt marcia) have a condition called HHT or Osler-Weber-Rendu Syndrome. it's inherited, and it affects the blood vessels "A person with HHT has a tendency to form blood vessels that lack the capillaries between an artery and vein. " (it's not a "blood disease" - it only affects the blood because the weakened vessels break, and aforementioned blood leaks out.) "We usually call a blood vessel that is abnormal in this way a telangiectasia (tel-AN-jee-eck-TAZE-ee-ya)" - that's from the web site. i always forget the word and cite "mom's televisions in her nose." i confuse everyone but my mom, and it's my mom who needs to know what i'm talking about, so...

all went well. we arrived at the hospital before even the valet parkers! and they took her very early. the nurses and anesthesiologists were really good about explaining. mom's doctor, dr ross (not the one from ER) stopped in to talk to both of us before they took her away. they gave me a beeper "like chili's" to let me know when she'd be done, especially since i had to leave the hospital grounds to smoke. (it's fine with me; it's a hospital. i went to the street, which isn't owned by the hospital. i also picked up my butts. you wouldn't believe how many butts there were on grounds covered with NO SMOKING signs every few feet. well, MINE are in the trash.)

dr ross didn't even page me; he came right into the lobby, his hair still in its "shower" cap. it was only an hour after they took her. (surgery was scheduled to take 1.25hr) everything went well. he lasered a bunch of those television things in my mom's nose, and she should be good for six months to a year. she was in recovery, waking up. he sent me out to smoke while i waited. i would have emailed and updated my, and her, Crackbook pages, but my laptop cable shit the bed right before i packed it, and my battery had died.

they paged me after i'd been back inside for a while, and i went into recovery. mom was drinking diet coke and was pretty happy, it seemed. she was more rested than i was! - she got to nap :D we were home well before noon, with no traffic.

i had more problems with the pharmacy (they didn't have the exact medication on the slip, and the hospital didn't call them back about a substitute - it's just an antibiotic cream and not pain meds, thank goodness) and the self-check for my groceries (hand scanner wasn't working, and i wound up going to an aisle with a person, and then holding up the whole damned aisle while i tried to unpack and walk out but kept being told "just a second" totally pissing off everyone behind me) than i did with getting my mom to the hospital at an ungodly hour. really. it was quite simple from this end.

mom has royal palace - i loaded up the fridge last night so we'd have soup and i wouldn't have to cook - and happily watched NCIS

my brother and i had been in touch all morning, and i called aunt marcia as soon as my mom was out of the OR. i'm still a bit annoyed that i couldn't let the immediate world know what's up, but well, laptop...

dr ross said that mom can come back in six weeks if she wants or if there's a problem, but otherwise there's no need to follow up. one nurse said that they have a patient who comes from massachusetts just to go to dr ross. i will definitely say that he was very personable, and very kind to come looking for me. (i kept ignoring the beeper because it didn't vibrate like my old 1990s pager and i was listening to garth brooks and then alice cooper on my sony walkman) i napped when i got home, awakening to a nightmare that i'd missed the beeper and that old lady candystripers were looking for me in the lobby.

my biggest worry right now is not my mom, but that i'd started making a kelly clarkson ringtone for my cousin anna, and i can't access it because my laptop won't boot. (there's a hack for getting free ringtones onto one's razr. i need to find it; it's on lifehacker i think. paying retail is just wrong.)


--
I want to believe that the world is just teeming with awesome people, but all of this is giving me great pause. I want to go back to cyberspace.
- Penelope Garcia, Criminal Minds
Episode: "House Afire"