surviving modern healthcare

before i get into just how LONG my day was yesterday, here are your national poetry month links:

http://skokie.suntimes.com/things-to-do/poetry-LWR-04242014:article

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/169614/poetry-month-hirschfeld

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2014/04/cowboy-poetry?fsrc=scn/gn_ec/rhyme_em_cowboy

http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/04/national_poetry_month_continues_with_two_syracuse_slams.html

so we got to the hospital around 11 am, seeing they wanted us there at 11:15. mom and i go back as my sister waited in the waiting area. about 30 minutes later, my sister is allowed to come back. they had to stick my mom 3 times to get an i.v. started. i wasn't happy about that. then, the 1:15 surgery was pushed back to 2 pm. then, it was pushed back to 3 pm. needless to say, i'm at the point where i could murder everyone. my mother finally goes into surgery a little after 3 and my sister and i finally get to eat some lunch. now i have to admit, lunch was about 10000000000000000000000% better than i thought it was going to be. around 4:30, the surgeon tells my sister and i that mom's surgery went great. they saw everything they thought they were going to see and he was really happy with the results. that was a huge load off of my mind. but, given that my mother is a goody two shoes who doesn't abuse drugs or alcohol, EVER, i figured she was going to take forever to come back to reality. sure enough, around 7:15 we were allowed to go back and see her. i could tell that she was still loopy. but, after a good 45 minutes of talking to her and joking, she started to act like herself again. my sister helped her get dressed as i went to get the car. i needed that long walk to wake my damn legs back up. now, we had 3 prescriptions that needed to be filled and the pharmacy we use is about 45 minutes away from this hospital. so, i did my best to drive cautiously/aggressively and not get my mom sick/upset in the backseat. we got the prescriptions in and then went to get some dinner. i got mom a plain cheeseburger, which she said was so much better than the stale crackers and flat ginger ale she had at the hospital. we went back to the pharmacy and they had just finished my mom's order when i got up to the cash register. that made me extremely happy. we ended up getting home nearly 11 1/2 hours after we left.

thankfully, my sister let me know on the way home that the Yankees were winning and the New York Rangers had won. that made me even more happy. i definitely needed some victory beers.

Yankees won 10-2. Rangers won 4-1. i at least got to see the highlights when i got home.

mom is doing ok today. she's sore but isn't dizzy or feeling like she's going to puke. so, that's a good first step. the pain pills are knocking her out pretty good. she'll have to take it extremely easy for the next few weeks. the shunt should be settled in and doing its' job by then. so, i'll be her little slave for the time being. i don't mind that at all. even though i told her if she died in the surgery her life insurance would kick in for my sister and i. she knew i was joking though. sure, i was joking....

not sure what the family is going to watch tonight. i get the feeling i will be in my room flipping between playoff hockey and the Yankees game.

on top of all that yesterday, i also wrote 6 poems during my hours at the hospital. i typed them up at 2 this morning. they are short and pretty good. i'll be sending those out in the next week or so.

no clue when i'll be on here tomorrow. kind of depends on how my mom is doing and the sports schedule. i'll try to bust something out before i pass out.

hope this finds everyone well. have a great weekend. and thanks for all the kind thoughts and well wishes for my mother. she really appreciated it.

peace and chicken grease my enemies...

music:

AC/DC - Rock 'N' Roll Train
Arcade Fire - Wake Up
Kiss - War Machine
Shrug - Scratch
Barbarian Overlords - The Harvester
Gary Allan - Smoke Rings in the Dark
The Crystal Method w/Dia Frampton - Over It
J.D. McPherson - North Side Gal
Portugal. The Man - Purple, Yellow, Red and Blue
Yellowman - Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt

"When all else fails there's always delusion." - Conan O'Brien