The crazy lady strikes again

In yesterday's Field Notes, Garfield goes into some detail about curanderos and their role in the Mexican culture. I told her about an incident I'd heard about at a community meeting, years ago, in which a pair of Mexican parents ignored the advice of conventional doctors and took their child to such a curandero. The child later developed a burst appendix, and had the parents followed the doctor's advice in the first place, the child would have needed only a simple appendectomy. The problem is... Sign in to see full entry.

According to Dr. Myles Sheehan, Cardinal George's personal physician, Cardinal George is currently doing well after last night's emergency operation to stop a blood vessel from bleeding. Last night, Cardinal George's blood pressure dropped after the administration of routine postoperative pain medication. His hemoglobin, a measure of the amount of blood you have circulating in your system, had also dropped. (How they got enough blood to do blood counts, I don't know.) Cardinal George's... Sign in to see full entry.

I don't live in Chicago. However, I was gratified to hear the other day that the Chicago City Council passed that ordinance, and as of a given time (I think next year), stores containing over a legally-specified anount of square footage (most notably stores like Target, Wal-Mart, and the various home-improvement warehouses) have to pay their employees a just or living wage, in addition to benefits worth US$3 or so per hour an employee works. Mayor Richard M. Daley has threatened to veto this... Sign in to see full entry.

Doctors had to haul Cardinal George back into surgery at midnight. It turns out he had a bleeding blood vessel, and that the bleeding needed to be stopped. Fortunately, they were able to stop the bleeding successfully, and apparently, he's recovering well from his emergency operation. This just goes to show you that anything can happen in circumstances such as those Cardinal George is currently going through. I hope he makes it. Whether or not I disagree with the man theologically - it so... Sign in to see full entry.

I took time out from surfing the Net and writing on Blogit to watch the press conference announcing the outcome of Francis Cardinal George's surgery. I had some concerns that perhaps the press conference would be delayed if the surgery took an unusually long time to complete; fortunately, the docs were able to get the press conference started on time. The operation began at 8:15 AM Central Daylight Time, and ended at 1:15 PM or so, again in Central Daylight Time. They didn't reveal until the... Sign in to see full entry.

Remember that delusion I had the other night? I talked with my internist about it this morning. We've been playing what amounts to telephone tag with each other over the past few days. I just haven't gotten to the phone in time, and either she or her office nurse have left repeated messages over the past few days. Well, I finally told my internist about the delusions and irritability. After carefully questioning me about any other symptoms I'd been experiencing - at least she didn't... Sign in to see full entry.

Fortunately, everything cleared up. The computer worked fine - at least most of yesterday - although we did have to get rid of a malfuntioning antivirus program which affected AOL performance. The parking lot magically opened up, and all the so-and-sos parking like idiots eventually either parked appropriately or left the parking lot entirely. I wanted to put further information on Cardinal George in here because it really isn't about the Catholic faith anymore - it's about cancer education and... Sign in to see full entry.

I'm very worried about myself right now. First of all, the computer was giving my husband fits this morning. Under such circumstances, instead of approaching the problem calmly, my husband will start getting very emotional, sounding tense, even angry. I always worry under such circumstances. I worry that things in general are going to disintegrate, and we won't be able to solve any of our problems, if he reacts emotionally instead of rationally. Besides, stopping to get upset won't solve any... Sign in to see full entry.

The "just wage" is something people like Fr. Michael Pfleger (a Chicago priest serving a predominantly black parish) have been fighting for for years. It's higher than the current minimum wage mandated by current state and federal labor laws, and the "just wage" advocated by people like Fr. Pfleger is designed to allow people to make a living without having to resort to going on supplemental welfare of various sorts, or asking for frequent supplementary handouts. Fr. Pfleger and others... Sign in to see full entry.

I started out fine, although I was a bit upset that my daughter coopted the computer all morning. Apparently, she couldn't sleep, and she normally sleeps all day. Fortunately, I was able to calm down by coopting the television and watching programs which distracted me from my bad mood. While I was writing in From Death Into Life, however, the power went out. I thought that was a surprise; we'd made arrangements with ComEd to pay our back balance in installments because they were threatening to... Sign in to see full entry.