If you don't fight for it, you're going to lose the friend. If you do fight for it, you might win, and you might lose, but you won't be sitting around in ten years, regretting that you didn't try.

Should be embroidered on a pillow.

Besides, I have yet to attend a drag show with her, and that's been one of the goals of my life, just for the helpless giggling factor.

edit: thanks for the support, guys. It always terrifies me, putting myself consciously in potential pain's way.

Teppy, you must be so exhausted. You poor woman.

I'm actually not as tired as I thought I'd be. Yet.

How is your dad doing?

Yesterday's angiogram -- AFAIK -- showed no blockage that was serious enough to warrant opening it up with angioplasty. He had a CT scan on Sunday that showed he had gallstones, which the doctor said *might* cause pain/discomfort to radiate toward the general chest/heart area, and Dad could have been assuming that was cardiac-related pain. (Which is always the smart assumption for someone with his medical history, because if you don't take it seriously, you DED.)

He should be released today, unless an alien baby bursts out of his chest. He didn't get a chance to talk to the cardiologist after the angiogram yesterday, so I don't know what the official prognosis is. I'm hoping Dad can give me a good sense of it after he talks to her.

Thanks for asking, honeybunny.

It always terrifies me, putting myself consciously in potential pain's way.

Understandably so. But if it helps, keep in mind that if you don't put yourself out there, there's pain as well. It's just a pain that you already know, so less scary. If you take the risk, there's the chance of a new and different kind of pain, but also the chance of the pain going away altogether. And I'll stop before I start sounding any more like a pharmaceutical insert.

Timelies, all. Much ~ma to everyone who needs it.

He should be released today, unless an alien baby bursts out of his chest.

Oh, Tep. I know it's serious and you're worried, but this made me snort tea through my nose. Poor guy. And poor you, with the insomnia. Hope the doctor has good things to say.

alien baby

Shouldn't that have shown up on the angiogram, if it were there?

He had a CT scan on Sunday that showed he had gallstones, which the doctor said *might* cause pain/discomfort to radiate toward the general chest/heart area, and Dad could have been assuming that was cardiac-related pain

Apparently the nerves that control the stomach, the heart, and the lungs share a lot of the same routing, so pain in any of those areas can feel like pain somewhere else. The gallstones could be feeding into the stomach nerves. Hubby had some acid-reflux problems that were making him very nervous except that it was triggering his particular pattern of heart attack pains.

Strength on the long, frustrating road to diagnosis and treatment.

He should be released today, unless an alien baby bursts out of his chest

It's amazing how many pregnant ladies I know who were not amused by references to face huggers and chest bursters.

Shouldn't that have shown up on the angiogram, if it were there?

Yes, unless the technician performing the angiogram is really an android working secretly for The Company.

He should be released today, unless an alien baby bursts out of his chest.

Oh, Tep. I know it's serious and you're worried, but this made me snort tea through my nose.

I also frequently tell him he's going to have a heart transplant soon -- a PIG heart. (Though pig heart valves are actually used in valve transplants.)

And then I just talked to him to see if he was going home today (he hasn't seen the doctor yet, so -- holding pattern), and he said "If they need to take my gallbladder out, that's fine. But I don't know how they do it, these days." (He meant Big Huge Incision as in Days of Yore vs. current laparoscopic surgery.)

However, I told him that gallbladders are actually removed by those fake "doctors" you always see on TV shows about supernatural shit, who just wave their hands above a patient's abdomen and then suddenly BAM! they hold the patient's liver/tumor/whatever in their hands!

Dad thought that sounded kind of cool, actually. Especially if he could be on TV. (The man, after years of cardiac trauma, has a *good* sense of humor.)

alien baby

Shouldn't that have shown up on the angiogram, if it were there?

Alien babies are notoriously wily, and will go hide somewhere else, like behind the appendix.

Alien babies are notoriously wily, and will go hide somewhere else, like behind the appendix

When they're not mooning the monitor and cackling.