Smash has a fabulous AAR from his visit in the hospital with Mikey.
Mikey is definitely in there, responding to touch and to words, and fighting hard to get better and come back to us as the Mikey we all know.
Keep praying folks, he's a long way from out of the woods...... And keep hitting the PayPal button (on the sidebar here), almost $1000 donated so far!

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Margi's Little Peanut made his debut this afternoon weighing in at 4 lbs and 15 oz and is 18
inches long.  Small but feisty.

Little man and Mommy are both doing well!  More to come as soon as Koolaid can tear himself away!

It's a good day for blog babies, today is also Draco Esmay's 1st birthday

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Smash and Da Goddess have set up a PayPal fund to help out Mikey's family.  Although they have insurance, there's a hefty deductible, and Mikey won't be bringing in a paycheck for a long time.  Mrs. Mikey can't work either, as she is staying by his side.  Every little bit you can drop in the bucket helps.

The button is on the sidebar.  Click early and often!!

Come on folks, you donated almost $100,000 in 11 days to Soldier's Angels, surely we can raise enough to buy gas and groceries for a few weeks!

If you's like to send a card, Smash has generously made his PO Box available.  The address is:

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Koolaid took Margi to the hospital today.  No baby yet, they just want to watch her closely as the pre-eclampsia signs are starting to ramp up and the little man will probably be asked to make his grand entrance by this weekend.

Keep the Lowrys in your prayers as they wait for their special delivery!

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GOOD NEWS!

from DaGoddess:

"I spoke with Mrs. Mikey a while ago and this is the update I received:

Sedation was lowered and Mikey responded. The nurse was wiping his
face with a cloth, he seemed to like it, and turned toward her. She
told him to turn his head back the other way but he wouldn't do so.
Mrs. Mikey told him to turn his head toward her, and he did!

At one point, Mrs. Mikey was talking to her friend about him and he
pulled her arm. She asked him if he wanted her to stop talking about
him and he pulled her arm again. She stopped talking about him and he
relaxed.

They've reduced his blood pressure medication because his blood pressure has come down. Yay!

His blood pressure and his ICP are lowest when his daughter is by his side.

This is all good news. Very good news. Still, he's not out of the
woods yet. The doctor has told Mrs. Mikey that there is brain damage,
no doubt about it. How much? They don't know yet. And the stroke
occurred in the part of the brain that controls personality and
cognitive ability. Mikey may not be the same guy he was before."

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Pixy has set up a post on Mikey's blog where you can leave your thoughts and prayers for his wife.

To do so, go here.  And go here for updates as they come in.

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From Da Goddess:

"Mikey had surgery tonight to remove the blood clot and stop other bleeding. His intracranial pressure is rising (not a good sign) and he remains in a medically induced coma. His wife is trying her best to be strong, but it's difficult. She's scared and confused."

Da Goddess will update her page as soon as she gets more news. Please keep up the good wishes and prayers for Mikey and his family, as it seems he needs them now more than ever!

You can drop by Mikey's page or Da Goddess's to leave messages of support for Mikey's family.

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I was the only child, you see, and the youngest grandchild on both sides by a minimum of 10 years, so stories like this are foreign to me....

This happened at Bou's house tonight:

"Today the boys informed me they were going to have Bones put on his Hulk costume and then shoot nerf stuff at his butt to see if he could feel it. Nice. The crap they come up with amazes me.

So I'm in the kitchen making a salad and I hear, "Let's punch him now and see if he feels it!"

Yeah, that's never a good thing to hear.

I was in that room within fractions of a second to find my youngest standing in the middle of the room, but almost looking bow legged. I shouted, "STOP! There WILL BE NO PUNCHING!"

They know the rules: the Be No's of this home. There will be no punching. There will be no kicking. There will be no spitting. Or typically as I say it, "There will be no punching, kicking, hitting, spitting or beating of each other!"

All three of them looked at me blank faced like, "Are YOU talking TO ME?" Like they were innocent. I heard them. I HEARD THEM!

Finally one of the eldest said, "Mom, we're going to hit him in the weenie; he can't feel it. He's wearing 20 pairs of underwear"

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:06 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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As most of you know, my Dad was recently hospitalized for MAJOR surgery to remove a tumor.  Due to some complications (edema and pneumonia), his total hospital stay was 21 days, including 4 in the ICU and 2 more in "telemetry step down", which is similar, but less closely monitored.

In any case, the total bill was (get ready for it) $196,787.63.

Yes, you read that right.

Now, my parents are lucky enough to have fabulous insurance, a PPO plan that includes $0 co-pay for inpatient services and  considers the hospital Dad was treated in as a preferred provider.

The insurance paid $51,975.00.  The hospital considers the bill paid under their PPO agreement.

Imagine if they had no insurance or minimal insurance.  They would have had to sell the house to save Dad's life.

Clearly the hospitals have jacked up the prices so far that they're still breaking even (and probably doing well) taking in just 26.4% of the bill.  And it's no anomaly.  Their insurance plan is one of the major plans in town, as Mom's employer is the largest in the county.  The hospital expects that the majority of their patients will be under a PPO plan.  So why jack up the prices that high?  To screw the poor and uninsured?  To make them choose between saving their life and caring for their family?

No wonder the insurance companies are complaining.  If this wasn't a PPO  provider, and the insurance paid 80% (what my last plan would have paid for a non-PPO inpatient stay), the insurance company would have been out $157,430.104, more than 3 times what they paid....

The system is out of control.   But socialized medicine isn't the answer either.  So what should be done?

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An open series of questions to any of you with blogs, we'll call this the last audience participation special of National De-Lurking Week:

Do you blog under your real name?
Do your family/ off-line friends know about the blog?
Is that a reason you don't use your real name?
If you blog anonymously, have your off-line friends who know about the blog ever outed you to someone you'd prefer to keep away from your blog?
Doesn't it piss you off when people cross your personal blog boundaries?
How do you go about handling something like that (which is really an invasion of your privacy)?

I ask this because dear Helen just experienced a major betrayal of her boundaries at an incredibly bad time, and I had a similar, though not nearly so devastating experience recently, and I know others who have (or are about to) run screaming from their old blogs because of trolls they knew in real life (you know who you are).

Your thoughts?  Any advice for Helen?  I really am interested to hear what you have to say. Email me if you don't feel all that comfortable leaving a comment....

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To my wonderful Mother and my dear friend A.

And to adorable Brandon, too.

Here's to a better year than the last and many many more.

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At least, according to this lovely lady (from whom I stoleborrowed this graphic).

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...that Margi tagged me with, and I was watching the PC about the miner who went to the hospital, when a woman ran up to Anderson Cooper screaming that all the other miners were dead.  Seems that just when they told us all was well, the worst possible thing happened.  And I'm sobbing.  Just sobbing.

How in God's name did they fuck this up so badly?  We were wondering why we didn't see the miners come out, why the ambulances weren't running, why the hospital only received one patient.

Now we know.  What kind of cruel bastard would let this happen to these poor people who have suffered so much over the last two days?  How could they have been taken from the depths of despair to utter joy, back to horrified pain again?

The president of the mine company is on TV right now, eating a big shit sandwich.  Trying to cover his ass, but frankly the man is going to burn for it.  He says his company never said everyone was alive.  But in reality, they never said that they weren't either.  His company could have avoided this SNAFU by saying that they COULD NOT CONFIRM that there were any survivors.

Now he's spinning like a top.  Your ass is SO toast buddy.  Your company is going down in a blaze of courtroom glory.

Anyway, maybe tomorrow I'll answer that meme and Fight On! for USC, but tonight, I just don't have the heart.

Let your dear ones know you love them everyday.  You never know which day is the one when they won't come back to you.

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This post by AWTM really got me thinking. She says this is the first Christmas in 5 years where she is at home.

She says:

The last 5 Christmas's have been hard for me.

I won't go into specifics tonight, because honestly. I am too tired for it. Let me say this, the last five years are filled with death, illness, new babies, and deployments.

This year is the first year my tree is up in OUR HOME. I haven't seen any of this stuff for 5 years.
...
The phone rings, and it is my Dad.

"I miss you, and love you and sure wish you would come home this Christmas."

He doesn't understand I am already home......

I know how she feels, in a way. When DH and I were married, we knew that he'd be leaving soon for Basic, and that we wouldn't spend Christmas together. So I didn't bother to put up any of my Christmas things, didn't get a tree, and made plans to return to CA with the Princess, who was then about 6 months old. Just before Christmas, however, we found out that his basic class (the last of the year) would be released for 2 weeks over the Holidays, and we managed to get him a ticket on the same flight as the last leg of my journey home.

That was the last time all of us were together at home for the Holidays.

For the next 5 years, DH and I decided that the trek to CA was more of a pain than it was worth. Forget flying a dog in cold weather, and we weren't paying a $400 boarding fee on top of flights, gifts, etc.

So we would nest at home. Almost never leaving the house the years he was still in the Army, just enjoying the time we could spend together, sitting in front of the tree, playing with the dog.

But something was missing.

I realized it last weekend as we were choosing our own Christmas Tree. This year we really will have Christmas at home. Yeah, my house is all decorated (although I can't find my Wreaths. Scumbag movers) and we have a lovely tree, but all of that will sit alone for a week as we load the car up with presents and make the trek home. For the first time in 5 years.

I'm sure there will be years when we won't want to make the drive, but not this year. Even if Dad hadn't been sick, we'd still be going. As my mother said the other day, I'm looking forward to opening presents without trying to balance a phone to my ear!

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After a few false starts, strangely unremoved central lines and drains, and an extra day to drain fluid, Dad finally came home around 7:30 tonight!

As I write this, he's probably in his own bed for the first time in 3 weeks. Snoring so loud he's shaking the house

He's still taking the pancreatic enzymes and has one drain left, but that was supposed to come out today, and will come out when he sees the doctor next, either the end of this week or beginning of next.

Oh, and because I am built just like my Dad, further proof why I never see diet results: The man has lost about 30 pounds and his pants still fit!

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1 So glad to hear that he's home, that's wonderful news!

Posted by: Amanda at December 07, 2005 05:01 AM (ay+rD)

2 Glad to hear he is home, and seems to be doing well. This is great news, and a great (if early) gift.

Posted by: Laughing Wolf at December 07, 2005 05:32 AM (zI0Ey)

3 Hip Hip Hurray!!!! Home for the holidays!

Posted by: vw bug at December 07, 2005 08:32 AM (BAHyt)

4 Yayyyyy Daddy! Shake that house! Happy, happy, sweeties.

Posted by: Margi at December 07, 2005 10:09 AM (nwEQH)

5 That is great news! Snore-on, CTGDad!

Posted by: Marie at December 08, 2005 05:26 AM (JfXX4)

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Long weekend in Fresburg. Dad is doing better and worse. He's more alert, moves better, eats pretty well (still just broth and jello, though), and has no pain, but he also has pneumonia. The docs seem to have caught it early, and it is responding to treatment.

Also, the drains are still draining, so he can't come home until they're done and the pneumonia is gone. Suck.

But as long as he continues to get better, I could care less.

Any number of forthcoming posts about how hospitals suck, and nurses really suck and bastard selfish doctors who can't be bothered to leave their turkey for 5 minutes to call the doctor who is on call in the hospital to get him to look at Dad and order the appropriate antibiotics for his pneumonia.

Mom had to call the bastard (on call for Dad's dr) at home to get him to do anything!

However, the CNAs are wonderful, arrive promptly, do disgusting things cheerfully, and always make my Dad feel at ease, even though he would otherwise be embarrassed.

Now, I know that nurses and doctors don't all suck, but after the weekend we've had, they might as well.

Other than that, I'm half done with my Christmas shopping (Target + Costco + Black Friday = cha-ching). I also got my birthday present from my hubby. Now I can carry my digicam in my pockety!

It was on sale, too.

Lots of fun with the nieces and nephew today, playing with the dog and on their big trampoline, using my new toy to get some pics.

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Dad continues to improve, and they've removed the nasogastric suction, the arterial line, the epidural, and the Foley. All he's got now is one IV and the central line, which they'll take out when he leaves the hospital. He's up and walking and sitting in the chair pretty much as he likes, and even walking to the bathroom on his own.

His new room has its own DVD player and my Mom and Aunt have been keeping him well supplied with movies and TV shows to watch. His room even has a flat screen and hardwood floors. Nice to have a room in the brand new wing of the hospital, huh?

Looking forward to Thanksgiving. I think we decided against Turkey since it'll be just us and Mom at our house. Dad probably won't be home yet. Although we'll probably get some Turkey with DH's family.

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Just popping in with a quick update. The surgery went well and there were no surprises at all. Doctor is pleased and Dad is resting comfortably in ICU thanks to his trusty epidural

True to form, when the anesthesiologist told him how he was going to do the epidural, Dad asked if he was having a boy or a girl.

Thanks to everyone for their continued prayers and good wishes, we're not out of the woods yet.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 08:43 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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It should be noted that this is a big day, being the birthday of "DH," Caltechgirl's hubby, known to some as Grand Moff Trojan.

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