General Hospital

Yesterday's news from back east threw me for a bit of a loop. My sister lola_kristine called as her family was returning from seeing our extended family in Florida to let me know my Dad was in the emergency room and was being admitted to the heart ward.
( He'll be home soon and has to take care of his irregular heart beat with medication )

--==∞==--

I can't but think of this year as the year of General Hospital. Christine's surgery came at the same time my mother was distressed about her father's health and hospitalizations. I will not forget the feeling as i called her from the hospital cafeteria, "Paging Doctor Green," in the background, and she talked for an hour about her father's heath before i could explain that, ha-ha, gee, i'm at a hospital, too. A friend had her knees replaced in two separate surgeries. My nephew's health took my sister's family to the hospital for quite a while. Seeing my mother fallen and in pain, while only a minor issue in the scale of things, sent a cold bolt of fear through my heart that has not yet really melted. And this with Dad. Oh, and visiting my grandmother in Arizona while she was in the hospital with her broken leg.

With The Cold, my focus is on getting backlog handled, not reflecting on any sort of year end review. (Still have yule gifts to finish.) Nonetheless, the episodes of hospital visits and stories do seem to color the year with an overriding theme. And i'll note, i am grateful and thankful for hospitals, imperfect as they can be (thinking of a few issues with Christine's recovery). I am glad for the care all my family members have received this year, thankful that it seems everyone is recovering well and, in the cases where there is a new normal, like my nephew and his diagnosis of arthritis, folks seem to be adapting well.

That said, i do hope for good health and no need to visit hospitals in the coming year. I'm a little worried about my parents, though, and quite thankful that my sister is not merely near but now living with them.

(no subject)

The last day of 2011 slips by like many of the others this December. I laid down for a nap and set the timer for 30 minutes, but did not feel like budging and ended up sleeping almost two hours.

Given the ongoing sinusitis, I've tried nasal irrigation but it seemed to have no effect. I've just now read why one should use sterilized water ( an edge risk, but, yeah, boiling the water for the rinse isn't that much of a bother. )

We did succeed in grocery shopping. I should go cook beets for our salad tonight as we have a echo of Christmas dinner tonight, since we didn't really cook a festive meal last week.