Monday, March 30, 2009

Lauren in Hospital

After work, Jamie picked me up and we headed straight over to Seton NW to check in on Leaguer Lauren. I am happy to say that she's handling the situation with her usual gusto, and I would expect she'll be back to swing dancing her way across Austin again fairly soon.

I also realized how much goddamn time I've spent sitting in hospital rooms just like the one she and Steven are sitting in. I've never really wanted to count the total days that I've spent sleeping in those chairs or shuttling between home and the hospital and work, eating on the road or in the greasy spoon that all hospitals seem to have for a cafeteria.

And I don't think Jamie or her mother would want to tally the hours Jamie's spent sitting in a hospital bed.


The truth is, there have been so many trips to the hospital, and so many trips to the ER, and so many procedures and surgeries, I've lost count completely. I can't even ballpark.

That's not to detract from Lauren's stay, which is going swimmingly, save some post-op discomfort, etc... and Steven is doing his part, it seems. You just can't help but walk into a hospital room and not evaluate, assess, etc... and want to give tips on how you can proactively manage the situation, even if nobody wants to hear it.

Lauren was chatty, which is the best sign possible, even if its pretty obvious she isn't hitting on all six cylinders quite yet. We saw pictures of what they saw and what they took out. Its odd to look at the innards of a pal. Its who they are, but it isn't any part of what you think of when you think of them. But modern technology gives us that amazing insight into territory folks didn't see thirty years ago without an operating lab or a cadaver.

I hope Lauren comes home tomorrow, as has been suggested. But mostly I hope she feels better tomorrow and she receives the best in care. Again, Steven is doing his part, as you kind of knew he would.

Juan and Letty came up, and we decamped to The Cheesecake Factory where the old Arbor stood when I was a kid until sometime after college. Letty and Juan are about to move in a week or so, so I'm watching them with great interest as they prepare the next step in preparing for Baby #1.

The Old Models are Busted

Watched with interest as the White House made moves on the auto industry today. The part of me that's been trained to believe that this isn't how things are supposed to work is deeply at war with the part that says "if they want the money, then things must be different". I've not reconciled my opinion on this issue as of now, but don't think it's "wrong", per se. But it also unreconcilable to say that the industry can make it without the money, just as its unrealistic to believe that leaving the powers that be that got us there in the first place are going to know how to do things differently. Or that the car companies weren't going to just go under without assistance.

But that doesn't mean I'm keen to go deeper into debt to resolve the issue. Or that the US should have a department worried about car manufacturing.

As I said... unreconciled.

But I suspect we'll be talking about this for a long, long time.

I generally try to avoid political affiliation, not because I'm deeply private (see: the last 6 years of this blog). Rather, I'm not particularly a fan of buying into a set of ideologies that can't conform to new or unanticipated situations, or unable to change when its clear the old models aren't working. Or trying to apply a single rule to all situations, as if all situations required the same treatment.

It seems it would leave one unprepared for the eventuality of the unanticipated. And its been that kind of political expediency and "common knowledge" application of the rules thats made so much of the bailout efforts so bungled. We aren't supposed to have government involved with dictating business, but if we don't support the business, huge parts of the economy fail. If we became involved, we're nationalizing and becoming something we don't want to be, but if we don't place rules (as has happened with criticism surrounding AIG, etc...), then we're being irresponsible.

It's a no-win. But everyone agrees SOMETHING must be done. Its just that everyone has a different opinion, and everyone is sure that the rules with which they arrived at the party are the right ones.

Its a bit like those scenarios in movies where they have to pause and someone has to declare "gentlemen, we're in uncharted territory...", and then nobody says anything for a beat or two before they cut scene.

I have no idea how any of this works. But I'm willing to see a brand new, previously unthinkable plan at least tried. Because we sort of know the consequences of doing nothing, and/ or doing what we were doing, which wasn't helping. At all.

And, hey, if we never tried new things, we'd all still be going to the barber for a good bleeding every time we got a sniffle.

@#$% Day is OFF

I'm not feeling it.

3 comments:

tjeff said...

"@#$% Day is OFF"

your a f$#%&ng p&#%sy!

The League said...

Ah, @#$% you, you @#$%ity #$%%-#$%^!!!

J.S. said...

Hey, at least you got in kind of a mild swear while describing your number of days spent in a hospital.
Hope Lauren is feeling better, and I'm glad you guys went to go see her.