Releasing the health~ma back into the wild while holding on to a bit of the recovery~ma. My son made it through his surgery with flying colors. They were running late, the surgery before his ended up taking longer than expected, but he never got upset about having to wait.

He is snuggled in my bed, and watching LotR, so I thought it was safe to come and share the news.

Thanks Buffistas!

I'm deeply stressed.

Dad had a heart attack -- the worst one yet, according to his doctor. It damaged the heart muscle, though hopefully minimally. Don't know. He's still in the ICU, and I'm about to head over there.

I got some scary medical news of my own this morning, but I can't talk about it yet. I can only deal with one crisis at a time. Just know I'm freaked out and doubly stressed.

Hey there! Anyone in the Boston, or Massachusetts in general area, that wants to go to the Sox game tomorrow night, I have one spare ticket and am having trouble finding someone that can go so it doesn't go to waste. It's RF grandstand, section 1. There is a slight obstruction due to a pole that is at the front of the grandstand area(seats are 7 rows back, so it's slightly annoying). If you are interested, please contact my profile addy. First person to claim it, gets it.

Someone did reccommend that I also mention this is a free ticket. Only thing you pay for is getting yourself into Boston and whatever food/beverage/souvenirs you want.

First, thank you all for the -ma, and the prayers, and the e-mails, and the calls. I love you people with all of my likely malfunctioning heart.

Dad is home from the hospital now -- he's in good spirits and full of drugs. He has to take it easy for at least a week, but then he can resume walking for exercise, etc.

Despite this having been heart attack #4, he seems undaunted.

I, on the other hand, am utterly exhausted.

I would appreciate it if that ~ma were to continue Ohio way, as Aidan swallowed at least one piece of a plastic fork today. It's blocking his esophagus and he is on his way to the big city hospital to be scoped by a pediatric gastroenterologist. In case your ~ma needs focus, we would like it to be easily removed without perforating anything and for him to come home by tomorrow morning.

Update: Not only is there a piece of fork stuck in his esophagus, but he has a coin in his upper intestine. I'm thinking I need to vacuum better. They're going to go in and try to pull the fork bit out in about 3-4 hours -- assembling the team or something. In 90% of these cases, the doctor said, they have no trouble removing the offending bit and sending the baby home in the morning. Oh, they're leaving the coin there. Nature is supposed to take care of that one.

And the end of the story:

The doctors went into Aidan's esophagus expecting to pull out a piece of plastic fork, and found a 1" carpet staple. They went on down into his stomach just to be sure, but found no plastic fork -- so I guess he just left the crumbled pieces of plastic on the floor for set dressing.

He did so well they kicked him out and he and his daddy got a ride home with a cute nurse who was headed this way.

All is well again and the ~ma is free to go elsewhere. Thank you.

Play It Again Sam opens tonight. Broken-leg thoughts appreciated.

After taking a month off, I'm tentatively returning. After being here since Buffy was in high school, I thought I might have earned some trust, or at least some tolerance. Apparently I was wrong, and well, I'm wrong a lot. I've been trying to figure out what exactly caused this event - what exactly did I post that constituted "harassment" or "deliberate flaming" or even "homophobia" as several people informed via email.

I was shocked to discovere that my ambigous responses to this imbroglio were immediately and almost unanimously assumed to be "taunting" or "baiting." The worst conclusions were drawn about the meaning of my remarks, and the worst intentions assigned to my intentions. Any sort of penitence was automatically translated as petulance.

This was a highly subjective matter that was taken care of in a matter of three emails between the two people involved. I don't see why the all fronts attack on the board, on email and on IM was necessary, or any purpose it could have had other than an individual poster's desire for retaliation.

But I have been here for years, and I've loved it here and most of the people here, so I'm giving it another try. I do have to say that I don't think I can take another of these attacks. If this sort of thing happens again, I'm gone. It took a month to get over the fear and pain of this first assault, and I'm not willing to devote this sort of time and anguish to a group that makes this a habitual sort of thing.

Madrigal

ps. To the person who wrote to inform me that I was "an immature piece of shit" - my mother is suing you for plagarism.

My grandmother was apparently just taken to the hospital. "Glassy-eyed and unresponsive." Hopefully it's nothing life-threatening, but any health~ma you could send her way would be greatly appreciated, and calm~ma to my mother, as well.

Can I request some surgery -ma for my Grandmom? She's 84 and getting her bad hip replaced today. I know the operation is pretty standard now, and much less invasive and traumatic then it used to be, but surgery is always scary. Actually, she's a lot less worried about the surgery itself then the rehab after. So some easy-rehab-ma would be great. And that the surgery does what it's supposed to and eases her pain and improves her mobility. thanks!