Timely Television
I think I may have seen the timeliest piece of televised fiction I’ve ever seen. I had a little bit of ironing to do for the next day (can’t possibly show up to work looking all wrinkled and disheveled!) and I turned on the TV. Nay was TiVo-ing “Boston Legal”.
SIDENOTE: What is the proper conjugation of the recently minted verb “Tivo”?
Anyway, the main non-William Shatner character, Alan Shore, played by James Spader, is arguing in front of the US Supreme Court, whether a mentally deficient man who was convicted of raping a child in Louisiana should be put to death.
Okay, so, not more than a few days earlier (4/16), I’m listening to NPR’s All Things Considered, and I hear this: listen.
The article (in case you don’t want to listen to the whole thing) is all about a case that’s headed to the Supreme Court to decide whether Louisiana has the right the execute a man convicted of rape of a child.
Whoa. Seriously?
I just heard this piece on NPR and a few nights—just a few—I’m watching it play itself out fictionally on national TV. Without going into the particulars of my own belief in the death penalty (that the practice should be discontinued), and avoiding the political diatribe into which Spader’s soliloquy descended (which I ultimately found distracting), I have to say, this is the single most timely piece of fiction I have ever seen on TV.
Not The Way To End The Day
At about 4:30 yesterday afternoon, Nay calls me to say she and the girl’s are headed to the doctor’s office to check out Maggie’s hands. When I met them at midday for a visit with Animal Adventures, I noticed Maggie had these weird pinprick-tiny spots on her hands and wrists. Nay had noticed it as well and was keeping an eye on it. Later, after naps, she called the doctor who told her to bring Maggie in.
Normally a trip to the doctor’s office is a non-issue. Olivia had one last week when she started to get sick, only to discover she had a case of strep throat. So, okay, no problem.
But, in this case, the doctor’s weren’t immediate sure what it was, so bloodwork was required.
Ug.
Initially they wanted to rule out things like petechia. Then it was for white blood cell counts. So, out came the pinprick and the squeeze tube for Maggie’s tiny little finger. Which she did great with, considering. Then we waited.
The doctor having looked at this “rash” said that the most likely cause was trauma to the hands. Not horrible horrible trauma, but a mild one. I know exactly where that came from. The night before, after getting into her PJs, Maggie came running up to me to “walk up my legs”. She grabbed my hands and I hers, but her feet were moving a little too fast for the rest of her. They both gave out from under her and she went down, literally flat on her back…and head. But I still had her hands. So the motion of falling down so fast and me still holding her hands was the most probable cause of this spotty…thing on her hands.
But…
The white blood cell count came back slightly elevated. Which means that Maggie is probably fighting off an infection of some type. Could be bacterial, could be viral. Could just be fighting off the strep her sister had. But it needs to be tested. And because the spots appear under the skin, the are to be tested for infection is…the blood stream.
Double ug.
Which means drawing out blood and sending it to a lab to be tested and waiting. Oh yeah, and in the meantime, giving Maggie direct antibiotic shots, two at a time (one in each leg) over the course of at least two days.
So Maggie got her shots yesterday, and did great. I wasn’t actually present, as I had to take Olivia home and get her some dinner (we stopped and had a little MacDonald’s date on the way home) and getting her into bed. Because, by the time the doctor saw Maggie, drew the blood from the finger, analyzed it, decided to draw more blood (this time with a butterfly needle), give her the antibiotic shots, and wait to make sure she didn’t have a reaction to the shots—well, Maggie and Mommy didn’t get home until nearly 8PM.
And then there was watching Maggie throughout the night to make sure she didn’t get a fever or that the “rash” didn’t start to spread. Because that would indicate an infection in the blood stream, which is bad and which would land us in the ER.
Maggie is doing beautifully this morning, no fever, no spreading of the “rash”, up and bouncy at the early hour of 5:50AM. So she seems to be good (though she still goes back for a second set of shots this afternoon). But all things being equal, I can think of better ways to end the day.
I Get So Excited Over the Little Things
My wife went to Target today and, at my request, looked for and purchased a small item for me.
Today my much was packed in this:
Tomorrow my lunch will be packed in this:
Thanks honey!
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?
The weather has turned absolutely beautiful up here in New England. And we deserve it, after the long winter we had that felt like it went on for three years…
But when the weather turns nice, the air smells clean, a can walk across my new carpet with my bare feet and not feel like I’m walking on a polar ice cap…well, then it becomes one of my favorite times of the year.
Know why?
Huh? Do you? Do you, huh?
This is why!!
BTW, check out my new toy. In an effort to get away from lighter fluid, I went to Target and got myself a chimney starter. Good god, does this thing work fantastic!
