Fun with snow, pediatric cardiology, and Ned the Wino
And so we begin another lovely winter. We got that fucking pain in the ass snow that I�ve been waiting for, which I had to drive in a whole bunch yesterday due to the fact that Mickey�s appointment was in Manch-Vegas, a 30 minute ride from here, and his first test was at a hospital and the rest at his doc�s office. And it was goddamned freezing as all hell. I could have handled the snow a lot better were it not for the cold. I hate the cold. Hate it. I know, what the hell am I doing up here, right? Deal. I bitch about it every damn winter.
I just hate driving in the snow. Not so much the physical act of it, because I�m pretty good at it. I can turn into a skid in a heartbeat and never lose control of the car. Knock on wood. It�s the other people out there, the retards who forgot last winter and every other one before that. They all seem to be out there during the first snow of the year too. It�s like a bunch of native southerners are up here driving in it (no offense, but y�all can�t drive in this shit and ya know it! Only for lack of practice, I�ll add). Like the dumb bitch in front of me on the highway yesterday, who decided to slam on her fucking brakes in front of me. Oh, did the kids learn a whole bunch of new obscenities when that happened.
I hate cleaning the van off. At 5�9�, I�m tall, but not tall enough to get the snow on top of the van off. (We have a lovely law here that says if your vehicle causes an accident due to poor snow removal from your car, you�re going to pay. How so, I don�t know, but I don�t want to find out). And cleaning the windshield is a bitch.
And I fucking can�t stand those freakin� fenderburg things that accumulate behind the tires. They drive me nuts, man. Especially when it�s freezing and you can�t kick them off.
And then there�s Hub, working his ass off in this shit, coming home in a pissy mood. And neglecting to plow us until last. That�s irritating. And the boys, who couldn�t possibly have picked up a shovel to clear off the steps and the walk while I was out. Who were told to, btw, by Hub. (There�s two things I just will not do if there are male people in the house---snow shoveling and taking out the trash. And I end up doing both at times, resulting in a very nasty mood for me).
At least we can look forward to eating next week.
End of snow rant.
Mickey�s appointment went�.okay. I had gone over everything he could expect the night before, and that was an amazing help. He sat still through the lung perfusion scan, which was only about 5 minutes anyway, and sat amazingly still through the echocardiogram, which was a good half an hour. He had a Spongebob video to help him through that.
However, by the time he had the EKG (when they put those stickies all over and hook it up to wires to read the electrical beating of the heart), he was getting a bit impatient. The lady had to take four readings before she got a good one. This was also at the time that he decided to talk about �butt crack� and �boobies�. The more I asked him not to talk like that, the more he did. And of course, Minnie was a long for the ride and decided to show off her latest wiseass talents. Knowing, of course, that I wouldn�t do too much about it in the office. Had we been at home and she�d acted like that, she�d have been backhanded. Not that I make a habit of doing that, but she was a BITCH and really could have used it.
The kids� behavior had me more exasperated than the whole reason for us being there.
The prognosis is up in the air. What they were worried about, his pulmonary artery, is fine. He�s getting good blood flow to both lungs. That�s good. But yesterday, they started on his aorta. I�ve known that his arch isn�t perfect, and his aorta is bumpy. This, I believe, is why a cardiac catheter has been mentioned. But Mickey�s doc, who�s rather new, imo, would like to consult another doc (�Dr. F�) who specializes in intervention. Dr. F is the doc who sat down with me for a good hour at Dartmouth (at 11:00 at night, btw) to go over Mickey�s condition when he was first diagnosed, so I�m familiar with him.
Mickey�s doc, �Dr. S�, is new to his case. His original cardiologist was �Dr. R�, a man in his 60�s who is well known, very much trusted and an excellent doc. This is a doc who was able to diagnose Mickey quite quickly, after he�d been been deemed �fine� by the pediatricians. He�s amazing. Harvard educated, on the cutting edge, and had an incredible bedside manner. However, Dr. R has semi-retired, and kept only a handful of patients. Mickey not being one of them, so he was picked up by Dr.S, who�s in the same practice.
Now, Dr.S. is quite nice. She�s also quite young, like my age or maybe a little older. Pediatric Cardiology is a very specialized field, so she had to spend more time in med school than a regular doc. So I�m thinking she hasn�t been in practice very long and certainly does not have quite the expertise of Dr. R. Hence, the being cautious about Mickey�s condition. Which is fine. But I�m bearing this in my mind while I await the results of her consultation with Dr.F. Because I specifically remember Dr. R. targeting the age of 8 before any more intervention is needed for Mickey, and I�m going to stay with that. Cuz I have a feeling that�s what Dr. F is going to go with.
And that�s that.
I went over to check on my nephew last night, Ned�s kid, �Jayden�. I�ve been hearing stuff about Nina, Jayden�s mom, smoking crack and otherwise not being a fit mother. Plus it�s Christmas and we usually take Jayden with us. So I popped in. The kid was thrilled to see me, which is cool. He�s 7 now. Holy crap, the time flies. And damn if he doesn�t look just like Ned.
I found everything over there to be fine. The house is clean enough and the kids are fine. A shit load of food in the house. Granted, Jayden� needs a haircut and his teeth are awful, but that�s petty shit. And Nina�s boyfriend of 5 years is good to him.
So, we sat down, had a beer, smoked some pot, and trashed Ned while Jayden was out of the room. Heh, they�d had no clue that Ned was on a state sponsored vacation for a month. They hadn�t heard much from him since he stole Nina�s cash in the beginning of November. I guess he showed up once and blamed Nina for leaving the cash in front of him. Fucker.
Nina�s boyfriend, �Rob�, asked me, �So, what are we going to do about your brother?� and all I could say was, �Rob, you might have to beat him up again.� Even though we all know that wouldn�t do any good. The last time Ned saw Jayden, he�d promised him he�d see him on his b-day. Then he took Nina�s cash and he hasn�t seen him since. Fortunately, my dad saw Jayden on his b-day, which made up for Ned ditching him but not really.
He�ll never get a clue. It�s just a matter of time before he crashes and burns. I give up. At least Nina is totally cool about us taking Jayden whenever we want. I just hope he doesn�t emerge for Christmas, because I am too disgusted with him to deal with him right now.
Well, I gots to go. Ta-ta!