#2 Son slept.
He is 14.
He slept from 10am until 5:30am, only getting up twice to eat a small amount and use the restroom.
He says he is feeling much better now. He says he feels good enough to wrestle a bear.
I told him let's not and say we did.
Even #1 Son, a former champion sleeper, says he doesn't know how his brother does it. He relinquishes any claim to fame on this issue.
Today is
Anti-Bigot Day
Constitution Day -- Uruguay
Chrysanthemum Day
Dental Awareness Day
National Caviar Day
National Ice Cream Day
Railroad Day
St. Philastrius' Day
Weiner Day
Birthdays Today
Chace Crawford, 1985
Priyanka Chopra, 1982
Vin Diesel, 1967
Richard Branson, 1950
Martha Reeves, 1941
Joe Torre, 1940
Paul Verhoeven, 1938
Hunter S. Thompson, 1937
Dick Button, 1929
Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 1929
John Glenn, 1921
Nelson Mandela, 1918
Harriet Nelson, 1914
Richard "Red" Skelton, 1913
Hume Cronyn, 1911
George "Machine Gun" Kelly, 1895
Vidkun Quisling, 1887
Margaret "Unsinkable Molly" Brown, 1867
William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811
Robert Hooke, 1635
Today in History
A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome, BC390
The Great Fire of Rome begins in the merchant area of the city, 64
King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B'Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities, 1290
Matthew Flinders leaves England to circumnavigate and map Australia; it was he who gave the continent its name, 1801
The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility, 1870
Britain introduced voting by secret ballot, 1872
Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of a new element and propose to call it polonium, 1898
Nadia Comaneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics, 1976
Beverly Lynn Burns becomes first female Boeing 747 airline captain, 1984
On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts; over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee, 1995
Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever, 1996
The well is dry today.
Hmm, actually, I should probably be more specific. The well of what to write here is dry. The "well", as I call the hole with a sump pump in the laundry dungeon, does have water in it, because the water table is high enough here that it is seldom completely empty.
The A/C people came back out, and couldn't find any reason for the unit to cause the wires in the house to burn up. Of course they couldn't. The sum of what they are saying is that if the unit is going bad, we have to wait for it to do so, in its own good time, to do anything about it.
Meanwhile, we will get the surge protector. It beats the house burning before we have moved everything out of it. Once we move, some sweet day, I will probably set the blaze myself.
Today is
67th Annual Chesapeake Turtle Derby
Birthday of Nepthys -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (sister of Isis)
Constitution Day -- South Korea
Crank Call Day
Feast of St. Kenelm
Feast of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne
Feast of the Clockless NowEver
La Festa del Redentore -- Venice, Italy (Feast of the Redeemer)
Munoz-Rivera Day -- Puerto Rico
National Peach Ice Cream Day
Petal-Hopping for Hopeless Cases -- Fairy Calendar
Prince Lot Hula Festival -- Moanalua Gardens, Hawai'i
Scillitan Martyrs' Day
St. Alexius Day
St. Marcellina's Day
Toss Away the "Could Haves" and "Should Haves" Day
Woodie Wagon Day
World Day for International Justice
Wrong Way Corrigan Day
Wrong Days in Wright, Minnesota -- through tomorrow
Yellow Pig Day -- mathematics festivals at various universities
Birthdays Today
Tash Hamilton, 1982
Mark Burnett, 1960
J. Michael Straczynski, 1954
David Hasselhoff, 1952
Phoebe Snow, 1952
Camilla Parker Bowles, 1947
Diahann Carroll, 1935
Donald Sutherland, 1934
Phyllis Diller, 1917
Art Linkletter, 1912
James Cagney, 1899
Erle Stanley Gardner, 1889
John Jacob Aster, 1763
Today in History
Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa are executed for being Christians, the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world, 180
Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming Dynasty of China, 1402
Catherine II (the Great) becomes tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia, 1762
Londoner Thomas Saint patented the first sewing machine, 1790
The first issue of Punch magazine was published, England, 1841
The Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston as the first dental school in the U.S, 1867
On the orders of the Bolshevik Party carried out by Cheka, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are murdered at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia, 1918
The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; 5 lives are lost, 1918
An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain begins the Spanish Civil War, 1936
After being denied permission to make a transatlantic crossing, Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan, 1928
Disneyland televises its grand opening in Anaheim, California, 1955
A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 3,183, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless, 1998
The A/C is repaired at the shelter, for which all humans and animals are grateful.
Chyna, our resident FELV+ cat who lives in the office, is obviously going stir crazy. She was a huge cat when she came to us, and when we put her on the lite food, she ate it with disdain at first, but finally, upon realizing nothing else would be provided, treated it the way she had treated regular food. That meant she went nuts and ate her whole serving in one quick chunk, then begged for more.
Now, she ignores it, and begs for loving and petting. When a chow kitty wants love more than food, you know it is time to get her out of that office and adopted already.
When I cleaned Grady and Prissy's room, I tried my best to keep them both in. I was only partly successful. Grady, master escape artist, did get out. Most caretakers let him out and get it over with, clean the other rooms, and then attempt to corral the troublemaker. I didn't want any nonsense from him tonight, knowing how hard he is to return, so I didn't let him out. I couldn't let him get away with sneaking out, so I went straight for the gardening gloves and made a grab for him. He wasn't expecting a direct attack, and it was over quickly. He's a nice enough cat, but he doesn't like being put back in his room.
Princess and Zeus were their usual ultra-loving selves. Abnormally friendly is how Bigger Girl puts it.
Poor Nacho and Kevynn had a rough day this past week when the morning caretaker accidentally shoved their litter box back up against the wall with the opening facing the wall. The evening caretaker found them almost literally crossing their legs, and they both bolted for the box the moment it was turned. Today, they were doing well.
Frieda is an odd bird. Poor thing can't decide whether or not to be friendly. They are talking about renaming her, and are asking for suggestions. I wrote "Tallulah" on the list of possibilities, but I'm not sure anyone will take me seriously.
Molly was so shy she wouldn't come down from the top shelf in the room. Mouse was anything but a mouse. She is so gregarious, she needs a better name. Poor thing was about 4 months old when she had kittens, and is only a petite 8 month old now, and so friendly I wish we could bottle it and give some to Frieda.
Sparky, Simba, and Curly Sue had apparently broken their truce today. None of them like other cats much, and they usually barely tolerate each other. Today one must have gotten to the breaking point. Curly Sue is nuts anyway, and when she was in a cage was the messiest thing I had ever seen. Sparky and Simba were looking daggers at each other, the water was spilled, and the floor dirty because one of them had messed on it. We could move them back to cages, but it is policy to not leave a healthy animal in a cage more than their week at LuvAPet adoption center, unless we have no other choice. We might have to make an exception.
Angel and Dusty were their usual sweet selves, and now have Corrie, and equally sweet girl, in there with them. None of them are on eye meds right now, but all three have that "weepy eye" syndrome. Any time they are under stress, their calici virus acts up, and they can shed virus for months even after the eye clears up. So, no adoption center for them, being in a cage brings on a bout of virus and yucky looking eyes. They will have to be adopted through Petfinder on the net, or adoption days at the shelter itself.
ZuZu is our only regular cage resident right now, and only until space opens up to move her out. Bigger Girl says she is very unfriendly in the cage, so we are hoping she will turn cheerful when she gets more space. If not, we will have another Frieda on our hands.
Rory is the most gorgeous guy there. His wounds are almost totally healed up, thanks to the loving care and goldenseal wash to keep them clean. This is a bruiser sized guy who is, well, a pussycat. He purrs when you give him a shot. He purred through IVs. He loves petting and is absolutely ravenous most of the time. He was skinny, that is for sure, and has filled out nicely without getting fat at all. He makes that trilling noise when he wants you to quit petting and get on with serving his dinner.
The other day they let him get out of the cage and walk around for the first time. I was told he was beautiful and cute, stretching his legs out and practically moaning with pleasure as he roamed. In another week or so, he will be ready for neutering and put up for adoption.
In the clinic room we have 4 kittens named Bonsai, Shenzi, Mulan, and Shogun. They were dropped at the pet store. Not wild, but not friendly, except Bonsai. They were obviously indoors as they were clean and flea free, but were not played with and properly socialized. Most likely, the irresponsible owner who couldn't be bothered to spay the mama didn't want them handled by other family members so no one would grow attached. That means we have to try to help them learn to be friendly so they can be adoptable. Yes, I will rudely call the owner irresponsible, especially as his/her solution for not bothering with proper care for the mama was to dump the kittens on someone else to take care of. Well ... ah, don't get me started.
Our final current resident is a tiny, sweet, orange tabby and white boy who was found on the side of the highway today, with a broken hind leg. The leg cannot be splinted without the possibility of losing movement in the joint, so he has to be kept still and quiet. No running or jumping, and yes, if he is put on the floor, he runs, putting just the lightest pressure on the hurt foot. So, he is not hurting so badly, and purrs lots when petted, and is obviously just barely weaned. He will be in a large carrier until his leg heals.
So, that is the report from cat central for this week.
Today is
Atomic Bomb Day
Birthday of Isis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar
Constitution Day -- South Korea
Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
Hot Dog Night
Ice Cream Cone Day
International Juggling Day
LaPaz Day -- Bolivia
National Corn Fritters Day
Petal-Hopping for Non-Starters Day -- Fairy Calendar
St. Eustathius' Day
Talk to a Telemarketer Day
Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival -- Dorset, England; through the 18th
Twin-o-Rama -- Cassville, Wisconsin
Birthdays Today
Corey Feldman, 1971
Barry Sanders, 1968
Will Ferrell, 1967
Michael Flatley, 1958
Ginger Rogers, 1911
"Miss Frances" Horwich, 1907
Barbara Stanwyck, 1907
Orville Reddenbacker, 1907
Roald Amundsen, 1872
Mary Baker Eddy, 1821
Today in History
The Islamic Calendar begins, 622
East-West Schism between the Eastern and Western Christian churches begin, 1054
The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco, 1661
Manchu Qing Dynasty naval forces under traitorous commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands, 1683
Father Junipero Serra founds California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Over the following decades, it evolves into the city of San Diego, 1769
First performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, 1782
The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown, 1809
Emily Stowe becomes the first female physician licensed to practice medicine in Canada, 1880
The world's first parking meter is installed in the Oklahoma capital, Oklahoma City, 1935
The world's first nuclear weapon, the "atom bomb," is detonated in New Mexico, 1945
The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane, 1948
J.D. Salinger novel The Catcher in the Rye published by Little, Brown and Company, 1951
USS George Washington (SSBN-598) a modified Skipjack class submarine successfully test fires the first Ballistic missile while submerged, 1960
The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens, 1965
Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land on the Moon is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, 1969
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter (impacts continue until July 22), 1994
John F. Kennedy, Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies in a plane mishap over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, along with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, 1999
Bigger Girl works with cows. She has learned to love them, or at least most of them.
She has come to like watching the mama teach her calf how to lower his head and threaten anyone who comes by.
She talks to them, and she likes watching how they respond.
She has not made any progress at learning to like Kamikaze, the cow that she claims keeps trying to kill her. That is understandable.
The cows at the research center have a very easy life. Cows produce a fluid in the uterus that they use to incubate horse embryos that they are genetically researching. Twice a week, Monday and Thursday, some of the cows are herded in and the fluid drained. They make sure no one cow is drained more than twice a month.
The cows are considered contaminated because they have been at a research institution, so they cannot be sold for slaughter, so when they get too old, they are just put out to pasture.
Part of this procedure of getting the fluid the cows produce involves making sure the fluid doesn't become contaminated by what I will delicately call "cow pie ingredients." So they take care of that business end of the animal first.
Bigger Girl loves cows now, and she loves spinach soup. She no longer loves spinach soup on Mondays and Thursdays.
Today is
Birth of Setekh -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (god of dischord)
Cow Appreciation Day
Feast of Rowana -- Druid (rowan tree goddess)
Festival of Castor and Pullox -- Ancient Roman Calendar
Festival of Santa Rosalia -- Palermo; Sicily
Get To Know Your Customers Day (celebrated quarterly)
Gummi Worm Day
Ides of July -- Ancient Roman Calendar
I Love Horses Day
National Tapioca Pudding Day
No-Hitter Day
Petal-Hopping for Beginners Day -- Fairy Calendar
Respect Canada Day
Shark Awareness Day
St. Bonaventure's Day
St. Swithin's Day
St. Vladimir of Kiev's Day
Birthdays Today
Tanner Maguire, 1998
Emily Roeske, 1991
Brian Austin Green, 1973
Beth Stern, 1972
Forest Whitaker, 1961
Kim Alexis, 1960
Jesse Ventura, 1951
Linda Ronstadt, 1946
Jan-Michael Vincent, 1944
Alex Karras, 1935
Clive Cussler, 1931
Mother Cabrini, 1850
Thomas Bulfinch, 1796
Clement Clarke Moore, 1779
Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1606
Today in History
Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege, 1099
John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, 1381
Alexei Chirikov sights land and sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska, 1741
The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, 1799
Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine to explore the west, 1806
Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon, 1815
A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, 1823
Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union, 1870
The stratovolcano Mount Bandai, Japan, erupts killing approximately 500 people, 1888
In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing), 1916
Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others, 1955
AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation; the Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day, 2003
Hallelujah! Let the Bells Ring! Three Cheers!
Little Girl is finished with rehab/physical therapy on her arm, and has full range of motion at the shoulder!
Only 9 sessions over 2 months, and they told her to continue to exercise daily for another couple of months, so she can maintain movement and regain strength.
Meanwhile, #2 Son has escalated his escapades, and now his bike ramps include the small BBQ pit, complete with fire.
I'm reminded of the lines in a book I used to have called Zoo Vet, which Sweetie insisted I lend someone and I have never seen since, so I cannot quote exactly. The essence of the conversation, upon the zoo vet insisting on continuing to drive in extremely severe conditions in order to save a sick chimpanzee, was "Some people are fools, they say." "Yes," came the response, "I hear some mothers do give birth to them."
The child is probably not so much a fool as just plain nuts. He is also a born con artist, and is one of those people who will always land on his feet somehow.
On the vehicle front, we are still waiting for parts to come in so they can work on the van. It's been over a week, and if it doesn't come in soon, I might accidentally spend the repair money on something else!
Today is
Bastille Day, France
Comedy Celebration Day
Feast of St. Nicholas of the Holy Mountain
National Grand Marnier Day
National Nude Day (Wednesday of the 2nd full week of July, National Nude Recreation Week)
Pandemonium Day
Pick Blueberries Day
Shark Awareness Day
St. Deusdedit's Day
St. Procopius' Day (patron of Czechoslovakia)
Birthdays Today
Tommy Mottola, 1949
Roosevelt Grier, 1932
Polly Bergen, 1930
John Chancellor, 1927
Harry Dean Stanton, 1926
Dale Robertson, 1923
Ingmar Bergman, 1918
Gerald R. Ford, 1913
Woodie Guthrie, 1912
William Hanna, 1910
James Abbot McNeill Whistler, 1834
Today in History
Foundation of the Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra, 1771
Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille and free seven prisoners, 1789
First ascent of the Matterhorn, by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom die on the descent, 1865
The Campanile in St Mark's Square, Venice collapses, also demolishing the loggetta, 1902
The United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation, 1969
A powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, causes a geomagnetic storm on Earth, 2000
The United States Government admits to the existence of "Area 51", 2003
Started my Monday with exercise, and that's when I heard the buzz.
It was coming from the breaker box where the wire had burned through a lug, and it scared the tar out of me.
I was out of the room like a shot, and, sure enough, the A/C had come on. I shut it down and went back to exercise.
Later in the morning I called Generator Guy and left him a message. He called me back and said he would be out after he finished the current job for the day.
The day went, as days go here, hot and sticky and made me wonder what it is about this state that makes me love it so much. In my case, love is not only blind, it is heat resistant!
Generator Guy came around 6pm. He had me turn on the unit, and sure enough he heard the buzz that meant a surge of electricity. It was short and sharp, and did not, curiously enough, cause any kind of unusual reading on the meter he was using. There is electricity coming back through that wire, somehow, but it is not much, not long, and shouldn't have been enough to burn through the lug the first time.
Not that it should happen at all, but considering this house, it is not surprising.
The lady who sold it to us used to do her own electrical work. And plumbing. The stories I could tell of what we have had to repair that she messed up are numerous, including sewer lines, water lines, and all of the wiring including new boxes indoors and out.
I am starting to wonder if she hasn't left us a problem we haven't identified yet.
Generator Guy, a certified electrician and good friend of the family since he hung around our house with my younger brother as a kid, explained a whole lot to me about wire ratings and lugs and taps that I couldn't repeat if my life depended on it, but the upshot of it is that I trust him and he says we are not overloading anything.
He called an A/C friend, who said that if the previous repair to the A/C, the capacitor, is bad or the wrong rating for a kick start capacitor, it might, maybe, perhaps cause that little buzz. It should not, considering how much amperage is going through the wires even when it buzzes, have burned out that properly rated lug.
So, now the A/C people will need to come back out and see if they can find something, anything at all.
If they do, great, it can be fixed. If not, well, the next step, which we will take whether they identify a problem with the unit or not, is to put a whole house surge protector at the main panel. That way, no matter what, the worst can happen -- overload, lightning strike, feedback loop, whatever -- and the house won't burn down.
I hate throwing even more money into this place, when it just can't be salvaged ultimately. We have to, though, because we have to keep the place habitable until the value of the land comes up to be enough to pay off the mortgage, so we can tear it down and sell the lot and come out even.
It also beats the heck out of a house fire.
Today is
Barbershop Music Appreciation Day
Beans and Franks Day
Birth of Osiris -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar
Embrace Your Geekness Day
Festival of the Three Cows -- Basque
Fool's Paradise Day
Go West Day
Gruntled Workers Day
International Puzzle Day
La Retraite Aux Flambeaux -- France (night watch, before Bastille Day)
National French Fries Day
St. Henry the Emperor's Day (patron of Finland)
St. Mildred's Day
Ulambana (Obon) - Buddhist (reunion of family ancestors with the living), through the 15th
Birthdays Today
Cheech Marin, 1946
Erno Rubik, 1944
Harrison Ford, 1942
Patrick Stewart, 1940
Jack Kemp, 1935
Bob Crane, 1928
Dave Garroway, 1913
Nathan Bedford Forrest, 1821
Julius Caesar, BC100
Today in History
Capt James Cook begins 2nd trip (Resolution) to South Seas, 1772
William Wordsworth, on a walking tour through the Wye Valley, visited the ruins of Tintern Abbey and a few miles further on composed a poem about them, 1798
Greek War of Independence: Greeks defeated Ottoman forces at Thermopylae, 1822
Henry R Schoolcraft discovers the source of the Mississippi River, 1832
After 9,957 unnumbered patents, the U.S. Patent Office issues Patent No. 1, for locomotive wheels, 1836
Queen Victoria becomes the first British monarch to live at Buckingham Palace in London, 1837
First day of the New York Draft Riots in response to President Abraham Lincoln's Enrolment Act of Conscription, 1863
Horace Greeley publishes his editorial advising young men to "Go West, young man, go west and grow up with the country," 1865
PT Barnum's American Museum was destroyed in one of the most spectacular fires in New York City's history, 1865
Gold was discovered near Cochrane, Ontario, Canada, 1909
The British airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight, 1919
Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the Nixon tapes to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in, 1973
The Live Aid benefit concert, a telecast fundraising concert for famine relief in Ethiopia, was held in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Sydney and Moscow, 1985
Warning: Sensitive topics, including death, medical stuff, and religion.
She would be 16 today.
Had she lived, we would have had cake, and ice cream, and dinner would have been whatever favorite dinner she requested.
It's all so amazing to think about, this many years later. She really wasn't supposed to have happened at all.
They told me I probably would never have children, and after 3 years of trying, and depression, and eating my way to my highest weight ever, it was a shock when I got pregnant with #1 Son.
The pregnancy went great, at least to me. I barfed for 4 months and lost 15 pounds, then, partly because I was exercising daily and partly because I watched what I ate religiously, I only gained 15. Yes, I ended at the same weight I started at, which pleased my OB mightily.
He was born on my birthday, after more than 8 hours of good strong contractions that took me from 1cm to 1 1/2cm. We gave up and did a c-section, which turned out to be a good thing, as by his head circumference I would never have delivered him anyway. That's what comes of stopping growing taller at age 12.
My doctor told me to go home and be happy I had a child. After all the surgery and other treatments, they never expected me to have one, and he sure didn't believe it would ever happen again.
Bigger Girl followed 20 months later. I had kept my weight down from the first pregnancy, and again lost 15 through morning, noon, and night sickness, watched what I ate and exercised, and gained 15.
I went into labor with her 2 days before my scheduled section, and by the time I got to the hospital and they started the surgery, I was very close to rupturing. They told me I had dodged a bullet, and to go home and be happy, as I now had a boy and a girl. Honestly, since neither of
my ovaries worked right, they didn't see how any more kids could be possible.
We found out I was pregnant again in the middle of moving. From the beginning I was tired, and something felt off. Morning sickness, but more than that.
At 28 weeks, we found out what the something more was. My OB had become almost complacent about me popping up with kids when I shouldn't, but then it hit the fan.
Chorioangioma. A big medical word that means the equivalent of a feedback loop in the placenta. Some of the blood pumped through the umbilical cord goes into a part of the placenta that loops back on itself, so that blood doesn't get to drop its load of waste and pick up oxygen and nutrients the way it should.
These happen about one in every 125 or so pregnancies. Usually they are so very small they are not even detected, or only noticed after delivery.
Once in every 10,000 or so chorioangiomas, they grow big enough to cause a major problem. All that blood that comes back without having properly exchanged waste for food and nutrients has to be pumped back again, forcing the baby's heart to work extra hard to get enough nutrition. Result: congestive heart failure in utero.
Then, there is the further complication called mirror syndrome. It's where whatever the baby is suffering, the mom gets it, too. So here we are, in the middle of moving, a not quite 3 year old and a 15 month old, and I'm going into heart failure and carrying a dying baby.
My choices at first were very limited. Continue the pregnancy as long as safely possible, and take the chance that we mistime everything and she dies before we can deliver. Or deliver right away, put her in the NICU, and hope that by taking the strain off of her heart, she can survive the premature birth.
At the church we attended then, the pastor's wife scolded me when I told her those were my two options and accused me of trying to abort her. Talk about getting kicked when you are down. I'm stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea and now, no matter what choice I make, I'm the bad guy.
At this point, my doctor called with another option. A doctor in Detroit, of all places, whose specialty was in utero microsurgery had agreed to see me. So, pack the kids to my parent's house, and Sweetie and I go to Detroit.
Flying sick, even with no checked bags to make it easier, is a bear. I was very limited in what I could bring, and we had no way of knowing how long we would be gone. Got there and had a taxi driver who couldn't even get us to our hotel. He dropped us a few blocks away, and I had to
walk, in agony every step. He claimed the front of the hotel was blocked by the construction, but when we got up there it wasn't -- he just didn't want to go around the block because he saw another fare possibility that he didn't want to lose.
Checked in and called the doctor, who wanted me up at the hospital right away. The 6 hour ultrasound left me dizzy and feeling sicker than ever. At least it showed him what he wanted to know, and he was amazed that I stood it as long as I did.
What he didn't know, and I didn't say, was that I was savoring every moment, every movement. I knew that this could be the only time I would see her alive, watch her suck her thumb, practice breathing (which they do before birth, believe it or not); she often would put her hands up to her face, as if she were shading her eyes. I asked for an ultrasound picture of her as she was doing that, and I cherish it.
We went back to the hotel, and spent 3 days while they tried to figure out just what to do with me. Back and forth to the hospital, over and over. I got more and more short of breath every time I had to walk a hall, my walking was little more than a mere shuffle, very, very slow.
Sweetie was so bored when we were waiting at the hotel that I agreed to go to a movie with him. Little Big League, believe it or not, would be the last movie I went to a theater to see until our church rented out a theater for all of us to see the first Chronicles of Narnia movie, over a dozen years later.
They insisted on genetic testing of the baby before they would do the surgery they eventually planned, and that was hard, too, waiting for those results. It was a sped up test because of the situation, only 48 hours, but I can only imagine how hard it must be for those who have
to wait the usual number of weeks to a month it can take.
The surgery he decided on was a gamble, the first of its kind. He and his team would go in and attempt to cut off the blood supply to the chorioangioma, so all of the baby's blood would go through the properly formed part of the placenta. They got the idea to use specialized clamps that are used in other gynecologic surgery, and had to get the medical supply place that makes them to modify them and ship them in special delivery.
She didn't want to cooperate, they told me after, while laughing. She kept grabbing the instruments, and they had to untangle the suture material from her fingers. Such curiosity, and even before birth. I like to think she would have continued to be a very curious minded
child, wanting to know everything.
Technically speaking, the surgery worked. By the next morning, although I was feeling sick as could be from the drugs to keep me from going into premature labor, the chorioangioma was shrinking. She was still trying to practice breathing, still putting her hands up to shade her eyes,
still sucking her thumb. Now it was a matter of waiting to see if her heart was strong enough, with all the damage it had already suffered, for her to make it a few more weeks. Every week would bring growth and strength and a greater likelihood of survival, even though she would be
a premie. The plan was to try to get us to 34 weeks at least.
The second night after surgery, it all broke loose. I began to bleed into the uterus, and was bleeding out through my IV, too. Repeated calls for a nurse to help me went unheeded for quite a while -- this was a charity hospital in the middle of downtown Detroit, lots of mix-ups over the course of the days I was there, lots of waiting for stuff to get done. Very overworked staff who tried to do the best they could with limited funding and old buildings and equipment.
By the time help came, it was too late. I felt her final kick as her tiny heart gave out. They took out the infiltrated IV and started a new one, and got a Doppler to try to check her heartbeat. Nothing.
They called in a chief resident to do an ultrasound. I could see that her heart had stopped, and I told him so. He hemmed and said "Er" and "Um" and seemed to be at a loss. I told him that I had known it was all a gamble and that he didn't need to be afraid he would have a hysterical
mom on his hands. That calmed him, and he agreed that they had done as much as they could.
The nurse came in and asked if I was a Christian and wanted prayer. I told her yes, and welcomed her joyful and loving spirit. She helped me to remain calm as I started retaining fluid and swelled up until I looked like I was full term, even though I was only around 29-30 weeks.
I was bleeding internally although they didn't know it, and slightly nauseated when they discharged me from the hospital and put me on a flight home. The journey back, with me using barf bags on every leg of the trip, was worse than the trip up there. I had to have a wheelchair,
I couldn't walk more than a step or two. I got to my parents house and was so dehydrated I barely had time to hug my babies and realize I was in labor.
They rushed me to the hospital for fluids and a transfusion. I was still in heart failure, and they were afraid I would die if I delivered naturally after two c-sections, even though she was so small.
That night, the doctor had moved the nurse call button away from the side of the bed as he discussed what they were going to do. He didn't mean to, but it left me, after they exited the room still deep in their talk, alone. Totally, starkly, excruciatingly alone.
With a dead child in me, possibly dying myself, lying in my own vomit because I couldn't call for help when I felt sick, I knew, more than ever, that only and always is G-d our help and our salvation. I felt the agony of the cry of Jesus, when He felt abandoned; He was alone, even more so than I was. It occurred to me more forcefully than it ever had before that our Heavenly Father knew what it was to lose a Child, and that His loss was infinitely more painful than mine could ever be.
So, they did a c-section on July 12. Very early in the morning. I begged to be allowed to see and hold her in the delivery room, but instead they tried to sedate me. I fought to stay awake no matter what they gave me, and managed to do so. When they finally brought her in to me, I was beyond spent.
We took pictures. Sweetie didn't want to hold her, but he stood next to me. My mother did hold her. My father couldn't even stay in the room. My parents are Catholic, and one of my mother's friends who makes special clothes for statues of the infant Jesus for her church gave us one of the tiny dresses she had made, so we wouldn't have to bury her in just a swaddling blanket.
My mother kept telling me it was time to let go, and insisted that the nurses take her away from me long before I was ready. The nurses then waited until my mom left, and brought the baby back to me, and said I could have her there as long as I needed. I sang lullabies to her, and
cried until I felt empty, then cried more.
Over the next couple of days in the hospital, I had all the usual symptoms of a woman who has just given birth. With a c-section, you end up having intestinal gas, or at least I always did. The gas moving through my system would almost feel like the her moving. I would wake up almost thinking I felt her, and then remember what had really happened. My breasts were painfully swollen with milk for no one, and took weeks to dry up.
I also thanked G-d for the whole thing. Over and over. As hard as the whole experience was, the doctor in Detroit had told me that they had learned so much from this surgery that from now on they would know what to do in these cases, and would be able to do it early enough to
possibly save these babies. I told him that if they learned enough to save even one child, then everything I had gone through was worth it. I still say that to this day.
They let me out of the hospital just in time for the funeral, on my birthday. Yes, we buried her on my birthday, which is also #1 Son's birthday. Had to, it was the only day the pastor of our church at that time, who was bi-vocational, could get away from his other job to preach a funeral, as it was a Saturday. It was a very simple service, in the visitation room of the funeral home, not the chapel. We sang a few hymns a Capella, and the pastor spoke for about 15 minutes. She is with my grandmother and aunt.
Ever since then, if a friend asks how my birthday was or is going, I am likely to say that if I didn't have to bury a child, it was a good birthday.
Several days later, I was still feeling horrible. I had cramps so bad one night that I thought I was dying again. I passed a piece of the placenta they had missed getting out. It was the reason I was still bleeding. I began to recover after that, slowly.
Boxes all over the house, two small children to care for, always short of breath, it was a bad several months. My doctor was afraid for me to get pregnant again, but I told him my body would cooperate and not get allow that to happen for one year. He thought I was nuts, but I was
right. I used no birth control, and my body waited a full year.
As soon as that year was up, although I was still not feeling as good as I had with my first child, I got pregnant again. I pulled my usual sick so bad that I lost weight trick, and #2 Son left me very anemic as well. Then I almost bled to death after delivery.
I had begged them not to sedate me this time, and they didn't, which probably saved my life. The blood clots that form when the placenta releases broke free, and I was literally bleeding out. I was so tired, and kept wondering why I couldn't fall asleep. If I had fallen asleep, or been sedated, they would have found me dead. For the first time ever in his practice, my OB insisted that one of his patients get an iron injection -- my hematocrit was 12% (normal is 37% to 48%) and my hemoglobin was 5 (normal is 12 to 16). The injection left a bruise and discoloration that took over a year to fade.
By the time I got pregnant with Little Girl, over a year later, my body was rebelling. The sickness lasted the whole pregnancy. I was having SVTs regularly. I was so weak I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get up and down the stairs. I was anemic, borderline gestational
diabetic, borderline preeclampsia.
My OB was fed up with me. I wasn't supposed to have kids, for Pete's sake. It was time to end it all. He insisted on a hysterectomy with my 5th c-section, and I didn't even try to fight it. He left the ovaries, of course, such as they were. He's still not sure how they ever worked at all, but now it is 12 years later and I'm not even in perimenopause. They are pumping out hormones better than ever, but I don't bleed every month, which is a plus.
After Little Girl, my weight continued to bounce up and down as it had since I was 12. I would diet and lose, gain it back. Lose it while pregnant or nursing, gain some back, lose it again with the next pregnancy. I had 5 pregnancies in 7 1/2 years, and for a full ten years I was always either pregnant, nursing, recovering from a pregnancy loss, or pregnant and nursing.
When I finally weaned Little Girl, I continued to yo yo diet until I got fed up with myself. I finally cleaned out my diet a few years ago, and now, at 5'0", I weigh around 92 lbs.
The aftermath of all of this -- well, hard to say.
Physically, I still have SVTs, as I have since I was a teen, but they are more frequent now, which doesn't do my mitral valve prolapse any good. Then, the time a year and a half ago when we were doing so badly financially that I got down to 84 lbs. from not having enough food in the house and I got pneumonia has left me with a permanent wheeze in one part of my lung whenever I overdo. My doctor heard it last time I was in, and believes me now when I tell him that I think the lung is scarred there. My thyroid, never strong, now needs regular supplementation, as well as the iodine. I don't let any of this stop me from exercising, and doing
whatever I need to do. My doctors say I am basically healthy, and to let how I feel guide me on when to slow down, or when to keep going.
Naturally, being stubborn, I don't slow down until I am wheezing and worn out.
The spiritual results are that I still go to church every Sunday, still teach Sunday School, still read my Bible and memorize scripture, still pray, still have faith that G-d is always good and never unkind, still believe that Jesus is my Savior. I still cling to Romans 8:28 -- "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
I am more convinced than ever of the great and infinite mercy of the Lord. When I was in the valley of the shadow, He was with me. I know it was for His good reason, and that we must go through valleys to stand on the mountains of His grace. I know His grace is ever sufficient, and infinite in depth and breadth. I know that His grace will be tried, and at the end He will still be there.
Is my faith or spiritual life perfect? No, and never will be on this side of heaven. I fight depression, struggle to understand why, and believe anyway. It is just a part of the fabric of who I am.
Sweetie and I have had our ups and downs, of course, through all of this. Yet here we are, 25 years this month, working things out, loving each other still.
We have 4 kids, and life is crazy, as it is for everyone. We muddle through.
I often wonder what she would have been like. Would she have had blue eyes like Sweetie and Bigger Girl? Or brown like the rest of us? Curly hair or straight? Would she have been tomboyish, or would I have had my frilly, pink loving, baby doll playing girl that I never got? A math nerd or bookworm? ADD and dyslexia like Bigger Girl? Artist or dreamer or very practical, straight line thinker? All the things I will never know haunt my dreams sometimes, and she was so swollen from the heart failure that it was hard to determine who she would have looked most like. Maybe she would have been like Little Girl, who doesn't look quite like anyone in the family.
I miss watching her grow and bloom and develop. Yes, I know, her days were determined from before the foundation of the world, and G-d knew everything about every one of her moments. He formed her for only that short time with me, to touch my heart and life and teach me lessons I would never have otherwise learned. He gave her life meaning, using her to teach a doctor how to work to save the next baby. I have the human failing of wanting to know what would have
happened, that's all. Something we never find out, that taunts and teases on the edge of the brain in those quiet moments.
So, she would have had her Sweet Sixteen today, if we had delivered her alive on this date all those years ago, and if she had survived. And sometimes I feel like my arms will break from the weight of the empty air they hold when they reach for her.
Today is
Different Colored Eyes Day
Independence Day -- Sao Tome & Principe; Kiribati
International Town Crier's Day
National Pecan Pie Day
Orangeman's Day (a/k/a Twelfth Day) -- Northern Ireland
Pet Photo Day
St. John Gualbert's Day
Anniversaries Today
Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr, 1543 (the one who outlived him)
Birthdays Today
Michelle Rodriguez, 1978
Brock Lesnar, 1977
Kristi Yamaguchi, 1971
Cheryl Ladd, 1951
Richard Simmons, 1948
Christine McVie, 1943
Bill Cosby, 1937
Van Cliburn, 1934
Andrew Wyeth, 1917
Milton Berle, 1908
Pablo Neruda, 1904
R. Buckminster Fuller, 1895
Oscar Hammerstein II, 1895
George Washington Carver, 1861
George Ohr, 1857
George Eastman, 1854
Henry David Thoreau, 1817
Today in History
Saladin's garrison surrenders to Conrad of Montferrat, ending the two-year siege of Acre, 1191
Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatan, burns the sacred books of the Maya, 1562
Ostrog Bible, the first printed Bible in a Slavic language, is published, 1580
The United States invades Canada at Windsor, Ontario, 1812
Pune, India floods due to failure of Khadakvasala and Panshet dams; half of the city is submerged and the death toll exceeded 2000, 1961
A fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center of the United States, 1973
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