Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

Personal notes: This past weekend was mostly spent at the hospital with my mother. Actually, it started on Friday when I took Leslie (my wife) in for a previously scheduled procedure and ended with both my mother and Leslie's grandmother each in the hospital.

Leslie's procedure was for an ultrasound-guided needle aspiration. That is, to have the fluid drained from a cyst that was causing a breast lump. Everything is good, the procedure went well, and there's extremely little chance that this incident is a sign of anything like breast cancer developing.

My parents happened to be visiting as well, mostly to see our nephews (their grandsons) who are out for the summer. On Saturday morning, when we thought we were meeting them for brunch, came the call to meet them in the emergency room instead.

My mother had woken up shaking violently and unable to eat or drink anything. At the ER, they discovered she was de-hydrated and that her temperature was too low. They brought up her temperature and gave her fluids and started working on the cause. At first they thought maybe a kidney infection, and by about 6:30 PM - after nine hours in the ER - they checked her into a regular room for observation "over night."

On Sunday they concluded that the infection was in her blood, and decided that she should stay there "for a few days" until the infection is completely gone, and be sure it does not lodge itself into any other organs. She's looking much better, and feeling good, but not having a great time there.

Meanwhile, back to Saturday, Leslie called her parents (in Malibu) to tell them what was going on, and they told her that her 92-year-old grandmother had just gone into the hospital with "a touch of" pneumonia. She's got advanced Alzheimer's already, so this does not look good at all.

We had been planning to go on vacation later this week, but will likely cancel that so she (or we) can go down to L.A. and (hopefully) see her grandmother before it's too late.