Thanks for the health~ma, y'all. Dad's back home now. He had an electrolyte imbalance (severe) and was very dehydrated. The doctors believe the combination lowered his blood pressure so much that he passed out and was unable to get up again. The prescription? Gatoraide.

And day-um, that stuff tastes like nothing found in nature. But at least it's not another pill.

I'm gonna keep some the health~ma hereabouts until Dad finishes his chemo in September. But the emergency ~ma is free to those who need it more. Thanks again!

Aaagh. My hard drive melted on me with COMPLETELY NO WARNING (this is a macbook, less than two years old! One minute reading craigslist, next minute spinny beachball, next minute DEAD). And while the good news is that Apple Care means I got a new one free, the bad news is that my backup is like, nine months old. DOH!!

So consider this a public service announcement: BACK YOUR SHIT UP!

I mentioned this in bitches already but thought it couldn't hurt to ask for a little -ma from the whole board. I'd been having severe abdominal and lower back pain since yesterday, and it got painful enough that I ended up in the ER a little before midnight board time. They've run a ton of tests and think that it is likely a ruptured ovarian cyst. I have one more major test (a CT scan) to rule out appendicitis in about an hour. A little let-it-be-minor-ma would be appreciated. Also a little give-me-good-drugs-ma. I've never been in pain like this before, and right now a double dose of morphine is all that's keeping me together.

Also, if everyone could tell 2008 to give the Pix-Design household a break already, that would be awesome. We could use a break from crises. Thanks, everyone.

I made the cut! I don't have a tape day yet but the show is called Trivial Pursuit: America Plays and anyone who wants to can tape themselves asking a question and send it in. The day your question airs, if the in-studio contestants don't make enough money you get to split the prize money.

My father passed away unexpectedly tonight. A blood clot in his leg traveled to his lungs. I'm not exactly numb, but I know that it's no where as bad as its going to be. He loved me more than anyone else in the world did.

Although Thailand is officially in a State of Emergency at the minute, so far it all seems pretty calm and peaceful. I have not been eaten by monsters/shot by police/otherwise come to a sticky end. Touch wood.

I've spent a long weekend with my nephew Evan and here are the pictures -- [link]

S went into the hospital again on Monday, showing signs of a lower GI bleed. She's been in ICU since Monday afternoon. When I stopped by to see her this morning, she seemed to be doing better, and the bleeding, by all accounts seemed to have stopped.

When I visited her in the hospital this evening, after work, I was informed that she had gone into respiratory distress, and had been placed on a ventilator. She is now heavily sedated. She had also been showing signs of severe mental distress -- agitation, rapid and jerky eye movements, and shaky hand and arm movements.

As of right now, they don't know what is causing her mental distress, and don't know why she's gone into respiratory distress.

They are concerned she might have had a stroke, or possibly even a mild heart attack. They have not been able to confirm either of those possibilities, nor have they been able to rule them out.

Please. Every single ounce, every last drop of your prayers, thoughts, well-wishes and ~ma. Please point it at Burbank, California.

Please.

DC-istas. I will be in your fair city this weekend for The Nation's Triathlon. (There is a course preview video that loads automatically, fyi.) My friend and I are planning to carbo load at Otello Saturday night. We're planning to eat about 6 pm. Anyone want to join us?

I'll check F2F thread for response.

So S is more or less the same -- still on the ventilator, still having difficulty keeping her blood pressure up, and her fever keeps hovering around 99 to 100.

The good news is that the edema in her lungs has gone down considerably, and none of her cultures have produced any evidence of infection, so she may not be sceptic after all (it seems that there's still plenty of guessing going on).

She's been making tiny incremental steps of improvement every day. Now that it's four days out, and there's a bigger big picture to look at, she's definitely improving. The difference between now and four days ago is remarkable.

That being said, she's still not out of the woods by any stretch. Hopefully they'll actually be able to take her off the ventilator soon, as there's always a concern that the longer a person is on a ventilator, the harder it is to take them off of it.