Matthew Monday: Halloween 2018

I warned Matthew this year that if he dressed in an evil character or villain costume I would not take him trick-or-treating.  I just don’t like associating with evil.

So he told e he was going as a ninja.  Is a ninja evil?  He told me it depended on the ninja.  A ninja is not evil by definition.

OK, I bought it.  So I took him.  But why is a ninja dressed in black and look mean?  I think he tricked me.  Anyone out there know if a ninja is a villain? 

Anyway, here are a couple of photos.

And here he is with my mother.

Matthew doesn’t seem very enthusiastic, does he?  He wasn’t and I couldn’t figure out why.  But he didn’t seem to enjoy this Halloween.  

Photo Essay: 59th Street Pier (And Update on Mom)

First the update on mom.  She was transferred to the Rehab Facility across the street from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon.  Wednesday she had her first full day of rehab exercises, and now they pretty much exercise them morning and afternoon.  Eight years ago when she fractured the other hip and had it replaced the rehab stay was a month and the exercise was once a day. 

It’s not clear to me whether she was extra sore or just routine sore, and I’m not sure if they gave her extra pain killers or just the prescribed dosage but she was given Oxycodone.  Her medical list says she’s supposed to get 5 mg and from what I gathered they gave her 10 mg.  On Thursday—my birthday of all days—I got a call at work from the rehab facility that she was disoriented and non-responsive and that they had to send her to the emergency room. I spent a good part of my day into the evening at the hospital. As it turned out, she either had a bad reaction to medicine or they accidentally over dosed her. When I got to the hospital her blood pressure was down to nil and she was incoherent. To make a long story short, they stabilized her by the end of the night, she was sleeping soundly, and all her vitals were normal. They even sent her back to the rehab facility, and on Friday, the next day, she was great, perfectly normal. I was astounded actually. I didn't know how I would find her this morning. She didn't even have a hangover, and she did her rehab exercises.  Doctor has given the instruction she is to never get oxycodone.  She will have to tough it out with only Tylenol. 

Here’s the photo essay.  My mother is staying at Lutheran Medical Center, which is in Brooklyn, NY, one avenue from the NY Harbor and three additional blocks from the 59^th street pier.  While taking a walk around, I discovered it.  I had heard of it, but never went to it.  It has a great view of the harbor.  Apparently there’s a fast ferry that stops there for commuters.  So yesterday I took my camera and clicked off a few shots.

As you approach the pier.

There was an interesting looking tug boat docked there.

The pier was surprisingly long.  It had to be a good quarter mile.

As you walk to the end, you can see the harbor.  That’s New Jersey on the left and Manhattan from the center to the right.  Somehow the camera zoomed out makes it look farther than it really is.

Here’s a really good shot of Manhattan looking at it from the south.  This is ore how it looks with the naked eye.

And here’s a zoomed in view of the southern Manhattan skyline.  The tall building is the new Liberty Tower that replaced the Twin Towers.

And finally the best picture of all when I really zoomed in was the Statue of Liberty.

Unfortunately from my angle I got that lousy New Jersey building in the background.

Personal Note: Update on My Mother’s Hip Replacement

I owe you all an update.  Friday she had her hip replacement.  Surgeon said “it went beautifully.”  So I take it the surgical part has gone well. 

Later than evening when the anesthesia wore off, she was in severe pain.  She was in agony actually.  They gave her oxycodone, but it didn’t seem to make a difference.  Not only that, the contraption that they put over the bed for hobbling patients (see image) to lift themselves fell apart when she pulled on it and one of the support bars came off and hit her on the leg that had just been operated.  Ultimately they had to give her morphine.

Over the weekend she improved.  They had her up and even had her walk with a walker for some twenty feet.  She was to get discharged today, Monday, but they held back.  Her blood pressure has been very low, and I just figured out why for the nurses.  She takes a blood pressure medication to raise her blood pressure, Midodrine.  She has the opposite of blood pressure issues than most people.  It’s too low from orthostatic hypo tension.  The medication lifts her pressure, but when I read the details it says that a patient should not take it if they are bedridden.  It’s plays havoc on her blood pressure.  So hopefully they will either change the dosage because she is bedridden or get her on her feet more. 

So that’s where we are.  She’s doing well, but delayed from going over to rehab.  Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.  It's most appreciated.

Faith Filled Friday: St. Catherine of Siena and Jesus as Thou

I’m always willing to pass on some wonderful tidbit about the patron saint of this blog, St. Catherine of Siena.  BishopRobert Barron, who seems to be everywhere in the Catholic media, wrote an article on why we should refer to Jesus in the formal, archaic thou, and apparently it was inspired by how St. Catherine referred to Jesus while praying.  Here’s what he wrote:

On the final morning of the November meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, we were treated to a fine sermon by Archbishop J. Peter Sartain. The leader of the church in Seattle spent a good deal of time discussing Pier Giorgio Frassati, a saint from the early twentieth century to whom he and I both have a strong devotion. But what particularly struck me in his homily was a reference to the great St. Catherine of Siena. One of the most remarkable things about that remarkable woman was the intimacy which she regularly experienced with Mary, the saints, and the Lord Jesus himself. Archbishop Sartain relayed a story reported by Catherine’s spiritual director, Raymond of Capua. According to Raymond, Catherine would often recite the office while walking along a cloister in the company of Jesus, mystically visible to the saint. When she came to the conclusion of a psalm, she would, according to liturgical custom, speak the words of the Glory Be, but her version was as follows, “Glory be to the Father, and to Thee, and to the Holy Ghost!” For her, Christ was not a distant figure, and prayer was not an abstract exercise. Rather, the Lord was at her side, and prayer was conversation between friends.

Archbishop Sartain invited us to muse on Catherine’s use of the intimate form of the pronoun, in her Latin tibi (to you), and rightly rendered in English as “to Thee.” As is the case with many other languages, Latin distinguishes between more formal and more informal use of the second person pronoun, and it is the familiar “tu” that Catherine employs when speaking to Jesus. It is an oddity of the evolution of spoken English that today “thou, thine, thy, and thee” seem more rarified, more regal and distant, when in fact just the contrary was the case up until fairly modern times. These were the words used to address family members, children, and intimate friends, in contradistinction to the more formal “you” and “yours.” How wonderful, Archbishop Sartain reminded us, that this intimate usage is preserved in some of our most beloved prayers. We say, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done…” and we pray, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Again, I realize that to our ears, this language sounds less rather than more intimate, but it is in fact meant to convey the same easy familiarity with the Father and the Blessed Mother that Catherine of Siena enjoyed with Christ.

Yes, St. Catherine visibly saw Jesus often, and how funny she would say “Glory be to the Father, and to Thee, and to the Holy Ghost!”  I could see her nodding her to Jesus and saying, “to Thee.” 

To read the other reasons for referring to Jesus as thou you can find the article at his Word on Fire website, here.  

One last thing.  Today is my mother’s hip replacement surgery.  Say a little prayer for a successful outcome, and I’ll appeal to St. Catherine of Siena, patron saint of nurses, to also pray for my mom.

Personal Note: My Mother’s Hip Replacement Surgery

Just a personal note.  I’ve mentioned my mother a few times on my blog.  On Friday my mother will be going for hip replacement surgery.  This is her second hip to be replaced.  Eight years ago she fractured her left hip in a fall, and while they tried to screw it together (in the x-ray you could see a screw hold bone together like a screw holds together wood) but it didn’t hold and ultimately she had to have it replaced.  This time age and arthritis have her left her right hip bone on bone in the socket, so that she is now hobbling in pain.  It started just a few months ago  and day by day you can see the reduction in mobility and increase in pain.  When the orthopedist saw the x-ray he was shocked that she was even walking at all.  It will be the same orthopedic surgeon on Friday that did her left hip.  The x-rays also showed that her left hip replacement was still in excellent shape.  We were very happy with this orthopedist.  My only concern is that now she is 83 years old.  That’s advanced for such a major operation, at least in my mind.  But the doctors, including her cardiologist, find her age not to be an issue, and she has passed the pre-op testing with flying colors.  Her blood test didn’t have a single category outside of normal.  Her cholesterol was 156.  She’s in great shape for her age, but I am still worried.  Say a small prayer for her.

Matthew Monday: A Very Star Wars Christmas

Matthew had a very Stars Wars oriented Christmas.  Many of his presents were Star Wars themed: Star Wars toys, Star Wars shirt, Star Wars Watch, Star Wars change bank.  I don’t know how children learn of the upcoming movie blockbusters, but Matthew was already speaking about Star Wars even before the movie came out.  Of course they—the movie conspiracy people—timed the movie for Christmas.  And so it followed that Matthew was primed for a Star Wars Christmas.  Matthew knew some of the characters from the previous movies.  I promised early this month to take him to the movie, and he was so excited. 

Yesterday afternoon was the day of the movie.  Before this he’d been to two other movies in movie theaters before.  He saw the Minion movie over the summer as a Summer Camp trip and around Thanksgiving my wife took him to the recent Peanuts movie.  My wife bought him popcorn and M&Ms, and I think he got the feel of being in a movie theater.  Not bad for a six year old.  I don’t think I saw my first movie in a movie house until I was a teenager.  They do everything younger these days. 

At two hours and fifteen minutes the Star Wars movie (The Force Awakens) was a bit longer than the other movies.  I was worried he wouldn’t last through it.  Before I get to the Star Wars movie here are a couple of pictures from Christmas.  I didn’t snap him with any of his Star Wars gifts, but I did capture him jumping up in excitement after he opened something here.

And here he’s giving my mother a framed picture of himself as his gift to her.

As an aside since several of you ask about my mother, she’s been doing fairly well with her health except for her feet.  She got some sort of infection which went bad and turned black on one of her side calluses that never seem to go away, and it had to be cut off in an in office mini operation.  Luckily it didn’t get into the bone.  The podiatrist had to take a good quarter inch deep, one inch length piece of flesh off.  It was disgusting to watch, and I ultimately had to leave the room.  She’s been in pain and she’s hobbling—she just refuses to stay off her feet—but it’s healing nicely.

So yesterday we saw the movie.  We got there early enough to get prime seats and we bought popcorn and a strawberry smoothie.  I wished I had a camera.  I’ve been reluctant to get a phone with a camera but I can see how advantageous they could be.  Matthew sat deep in his seat.  His legs extended out because his knees couldn’t reach the edge for his legs to bend over, a bag of popcorn in his lap that almost reached his eyes, and his smoothie in the cup holder beside him with a straw twice the size of his cup standing like an antenna.  Extending his right arm over the bag, his right hand would go into the popcorn bag and pick out a single piece of popcorn and then lower it into his mouth.  Priceless picture lost, but I hope by writing that I have burned it into my memory.

As to the movie, Matthew loved it.  (I’ll give you my review at the bottom.)  He wasn’t bored once in those 135 minutes, and he even whispered at one point to me that it was “exciting.”  He was disappointed to learn that the storm troopers are actually bad guys.  He had received a storm trooper toy and had thought he was a “good guy.”  I wonder why the storm troopers are in white.  We knew the Darth Vader-like character was a bad guy.  Matthew was also struck by the movie theater audience applauding when all the old characters made an appearance.  Han Solo, Chewie, Princess Lei, Luke Skywalker, C3PO, R2D2. 

Well if you haven’t seen it, here’s the trailer.

As to my review, here’s the bottom line: if you’re a Star Wars fan (and who isn’t?) or if you’re a kid you’ll love it.  If you’re a discerning moviegoer, the movie is wonderfully made, but lacks a fresh story.  It had all the clichés, and the plot—other than the lead hero being a woman—was nearly identical to the original Star Wars.  I guess it’s tough coming up with a new story that would still be true to the subgenre that has been built up from the Star Wars movies.  There was one scene, however, that did transcend.  I won’t spoil it, but it was the scene where Han Solo meets his son face to face and tries to bring him back to the good side.  The movie was well done, but the story is old.  Two stars out of five.  

Personal Note: The Mothers in My Life

Well, I haven’t mentioned my personal life much lately, other than the vacation we took to Florida in March, and of course the occasional Matthew post.  So let me honor the three mothers in my life with a little information. 

First my mother.  The last time I posted on my mother was over a year ago when she fainted and fell and broke her little finger.  She was seventy-nine then, she’s eighty now, and what I haven’t mentioned is that the finger required a second minor operation (to pull out a stitch that got stuck in there and was driving her crazy, believe it or not), she has had several fainting episodes, of which she got hurt a couple of times and needed emergency room visits. On top of that her blood pressure had gone out of control.  It kept crawling up until finally it was regularly over 170/90, and the medication seemed only to give her headaches.  We went through a number of adjustments, and they didn’t change much.  And then one day at the cardiologist, while undergoing an EKG, she went into atrial fibrillation.  It seems that this had been part of her problem all along.  A-Fib is when the top part of the heart starts beating at a different rate than the bottom, usually faster.  It happens sporadically and can last from seconds to days.  For my mother it only seems to last seconds to perhaps an hour.  It was never detected before because she’s never gone into A-Fib while actually being monitored.  The other problem with my mother was that her heart rate when not in A-Fib is extremely low.  She’s always seemed to have a low heart rate, but lately it was regularly in the fifties, and when sleeping down in the forties.  The cardiologist sent her over to a cardio electrophysiologist after the A-Fib episode to be assessed for a pacemaker and within a couple of weeks she had one implanted.  It’s only been a couple of weeks now but so far the change has been dramatic.  The pacemaker keeps her heart rate above sixty, which in effect I think keeps the blood pressure down.  I’ve only recorded in 130/75 range or less.   So far I’m very happy and hoping the fainting never happens again. 

 

Next, my mother-in-law.  She’s been a great boon to us, helping with Matthew when we’re burdened.  She’s a few years younger than my mother, and in better health.  Other than a recent knee problem which she needed some outpatient surgery (I forget exactly for what) she doesn’t have any health issues I’m aware of.  When we’re running around trying to get something or other done, and Matthew slows us down, dropping Matthew off at her home is so helpful.  And she adores him, and he adores her, possibly more than mommy or daddy since she never yells at him…lol.  When I had to take my wife to the emergency room—I’ll explain below—we called my mother-in-law at eleven PM to stay with Matthew while he slept.  She came over and stayed until the wee hours of the morning.  She’s a great help, when she’s in town that is.  Ever since she retired a number of years ago she’s been a traveling maniac, hop scotching the world when she can.  Her next trip will be to Australia.   

 

Finally my lovely wife.  Ever since our Florida vacation, my wife and I have taken turns being ill.  At first nothing serious.  We both had colds with no fever.  First me then her.  We both went to a doctor independently and he said the same thing to both of us: it’s a viral infection, and so antibiotics are useless.  Just rest and you’ll get over it.  We both did and it did, and then suddenly my wife got it again, but this time with fever.  She emailed me at work to tell me it was up to 103F (39.4C).  I stayed home the next day to take care of her and get Matthew off to school.  At first the fever seemed to come down with Tylenol, and then by afternoon it shot up to 104F (40.0C).  Whoa, so I took her over to the doctor (we go to a walk in office) and this time the doctor (a different one) gave her Tamiflu and took cultures to identify the infection.  Her fever came down by evening, but she developed a severe pain in her right side.  It really hurt when she coughed.  It was on the rib cage above the liver, so we speculated she either pulled a muscle when she coughed or perhaps did something to her diaphragm.  When she said she couldn’t take the pain any longer, we made arrangements with my mother-in-law to cover and I took her to the emergency room.  As soon as the doctor there saw the x-ray, it was evident—she had pneumonia.  And it was a big pocket that took up one third of her right lung.  Normally you can detect pneumonia from listening to the breathing.  Her pneumonia was so solidly packed that you couldn’t hear any rasping sounds with the stethoscope, that’s why the doctor in the afternoon never suspected it.  She was admitted and she wound up spending three nights in the hospital to get an intravenous antibiotic.  I got to take off from work for a couple of days and play mother myself (do I get a mother’s day card? :-P), and I have to admit poorly at that.  My wife has since recovered nicely. 

I think I’ve also made her happy.  We’ve wanted to renovate our living room, dining room, and kitchen for the longest time, and it was supposed to be by a step by step approach.  However I said, let’s just get it over with and do them all at the same time.  It will be a hassle but it will be over and we won’t have to go through something like this repeatedly.  So we’ve found a contractor we liked and committed to it.  Now it’s just a matter of picking flooring, cabinets, countertop, paint color, and a couple appliances.  So now she’s really fired up and excited.  Of course what’s going to come afterward is new living room furniture.   

Well, today is Mother’s Day, at least here in the United States, and perhaps elsewhere.  I want to wish the three mothers in my life, the mothers who frequent my blog, and any other mother that just might be stopping by and seeing this.  I truely believe the whole of society rests on the love of mothers.  Happy Mother’s Day!