Collective Breath

Best Morale Medicine Imaginable

I was really not looking forward to this week. Not just because it would be the de-compression week after the joyful boarding of the FBR last week at our house. I also have to conduct union negotiations which start today on a new contract. My biggest concern though was having my Favorite Panamanian back in the hospital yesterday so the doctors could send a camera back up into her brain. She had the initial procedure seven years ago where they found and repaired an aneurism in her head and located a smaller one they would monitor. I’m still amazed at the technology that allowed this repair to happen, twenty years ago she would probably have died.

Wife in the Recovery Room

Despite the marvelous technology I still worry intensely when she undergoes these procedures despite endeavoring to keep the proverbial stiff upper lip she doesn’t worry more than she already does. I brought her in at 7am yesterday and received a call at 930am that she was back in the recovery room. I went back to the hospital and spent the next couple hours waiting for the doctor’s report on his findings and measurements. Thankfully the news was uniformly good and she’ll only to have to go through this one more time, in three years; hence the explosive exhale of relief from the entire family. If that test is good they’ll close the book on testing. The coolest thing is how fast the turn around, significantly improved over the past few years. I had her home resting by 2pm.

BRS Getting So Big - So Fast

Since they open up one of the largest blood vessels in her upper thigh to pass the camera through she’ll be on bed rest for a couple days while that wound heals. During the couple hours we waited in the recovery room I entertained my wife with the accompanying photos of the BRS which my Favorite Son sent. They had the anticipated effect of cheering her abuela up significantly. Throughout the day I was struck by the dedication and care provided by the nurses assigned to my wife. While I may share some familial bias, nurses are some of my favorite people in the world – just special people.

FBR On the Move

And Shopping

The FBR was back in her accustomed New Jersey haunts and speeding around on her new tricycle despite a New England bred cold that dogged her a bit. I know she was pleased to have her mom and dad back although there were apparently some calls for her grandpa and abuela. We were in the midst of our nightly FaceTime call when an act of FBR misbehavior required an abrupt end. She’s not operating under grandparent rules anymore.

After feeding my wife her dinner in bed I was accused of excessive hovering. I was dispatched to the movie theater with our Tuesday boarder, the Keene Friend. I had my first bad experience with MoviePass on Monday night when it wouldn’t work. I went through the help desk and wanted to test it again last night. I think they figured out what a money losing prospect I will be and I’m now required to take a picture of each movie ticket I purchase. I guess they find it hard to believe I go to the movies as often as I do.

Keene Friend and I always loved seeing horror movies together and we took in Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare. There should be something to like about a horror movie. Making that statement provides an insight into what fails so miserably in this college aged body count flick. A group of “friends” engage in a haunted game of truth or dare while on spring break in Mexico and acquire the game’s resident demon along the way. All too quickly they realize the stakes as bodies and secrets fall with similar anticipation. It turns out they all weren’t very nice people to begin with except for a couple minor characters and you know they’re doomed. Other than an extremely disturbing Joker-like smile with which the demon announces his presence there wasn’t very much frightening about this. The ending was bizarrely out of whack with the entire plot line. Avoid this.