Harvesting items, newsworthy or not

 
Thursday's doctor appointment went well. Mom is now able to read down to the fifth or sixth row on an eye chart; her biggest gripe now is that she sees "floaters," and not small ones, either. She likens it to looking through a microscope at a plate of microbes. The doc is pleased, however; we needn't go back till next week.

Here's a nice overview of photo file management on your 'puter. Yet another use of light which might strike some as interesting: laser treatment for varicose and spider veins.

The Daily Spin: Donors met Cheney panel. It's not illegal, but the reluctance to admit it implies a quid pro quo took place. This Administration's inability to be open and aboveboard continues to bite it in the backside. More spin: Dubious ANWR "footprint" claims by Interior Secretary Norton. And EPA has internal disagreements as well; a 12-year vet resigns from the agency in protest. Fortunately, several judges seem to share the belief that the Administration should be more forthcoming. Of particular interest in these cases is that two of the three suits in question were brought by a certifiedly conservative interest group, Judicial Watch, usually an ally of Republican administrations. Here's a little more on those lawsuits. And finally, here's a pretty scathing indictment of former Master of the Universe Jeffrey Skilling.
posted by Link Meister at 5:12 PM

 
No trip to the doc today; we go again tomorrow a.m. I have been waving fingers in front of Mom's eyes from a 10-foot distance, and she's now able to correctly count them, so I suppose that's a continuing good sign. To show you what sort of resilience she has, we keep track of the various eye drop bottles (five of them) in a 6-cup muffin tin, in order to avoid duplicate application of any one medication.

Kids learn early, it appears; offer me a bribe and I'll eat healthy food! But if I've got sweaty palms, Mom and Dad, it's all your fault. Speaking of blaming your parents, an Alzheimer's gene has now been isolated and screened out pre-birth. That idea, and this one too, gives me sweaty palms; microchip yourself. I suspect Batgrl was one of the subjects of these chocolate trials; I'm willing to be proven wrong.

I'm sure most of today's Enron news has already been seen by those who care, but here's one which should outrage every taxpayer in the country. We may be on the hook for its pension obligations.

I heard this essay quoted on Fresh Air today; I'm not usually a reader of Mother Jones, but this phrase caught my attention: "we encounter a soft anti-Americanism that, whatever takes place in the world, wheels automatically to blame America first."
posted by Link Meister at 5:15 PM

 
Well, we made it to the doc's office today, and there is some definite improvement. Yesterday even finger motion in front of the eye was difficult to recognize; today the top three lines of an eye chart could be read. This is no doubt in part due to five (5) different varieties of eye drops to be taken at various times during the day! So there is some reason to be encouraged.

On a marginally more amusing note, for various reasons we have been reluctant to try to use my car as our principal choice of transport for various doctors' appointments over the past few months. This was partly my feeling that a little Geo was so low to the ground that it would be difficult to get out of (not into; that seemed easy). Necessity being the mother of invention as always, Sunday in the move from one hospital to another we were forced to use it, and whaddya know? It turns out to be a snap. We could have saved a slew of money we've been paying out to Handi-Cab vans for the past six months, and saved even more in aggravation and waiting time. How many times have I heard that old bromide "Never Assume?" Not enough, apparently.
posted by Link Meister at 6:27 PM

 
I should have found some wood to knock on when I said that was a pretty satisfactory experience. We've had an eventful two days; Mom was recovering well from her cataract surgery, we thought. Then on Sunday morning she woke up with a great deal of pain and thoroughly clouded vision in the eye from which the cataract was removed. After some delay, we called the surgeon; he insisted on coming to the house yesterday afternoon to examine it. After doing so, he said we had to go down to his office at once for further examination with all the proper equipment. Getting there was a struggle, but we did it. He diagnosed an unexpected infection, and was insistent that Mom have an immediate emergency operation to (hopefully) kill any bacteria and clear up the problem. So away we went to a hospital down the road (mind you, this is on a Sunday afternoon!), since the surgeon who does this sort of thing at the hospital where the original operation was done was on vacation (!).

This all takes place between 4:00pm and 6:30pm yesterday; at that point, Mom is being readied for this second operation, and, given the hour, the doctor tells me to go home. They'll hold her overnight post-op and we'll go to the surgeon's office when she's released this morning. By this time, of course, we're starting to understand the urgency the doctors feel, and so we aren't arguing that this could be done later, or something. So I went home, and returned this morning to pick her up. The surgery was done in little more than an hour or so, and she spent a comfortable night in the hospital. We got to the doc's office this morning, he examined her, and wants us to return tomorrow. The infection may have been stopped, he said, but he won't know immediately, thus the repeat visit tomorrow. Now the question is, how much sight will she retain in that eye? We won't know the answer to that for some time.
posted by Link Meister at 6:30 PM