Second (or third or fourth) Chances

Tim had a very long day yesterday. What was supposed to be a pleasant Sunday at the baseball game with his brother and parents turned out to be an hours long ordeal in a Detroit area hospital emergency room.

During the fourth inning of the Tigers game, on her way to the restrooms, Tim's mom collapsed. Jim caught her as she went down, and there just so happened to be a cardiologist and a nurse 8 feet away when this happened. They performed CPR and brought mom back from what they called a flat-line state. No pulse for 14 seconds was what the cardiologist said.

While this is incredibly disturbing, what makes it even worse is that this isn't the first time this has happened. In July she convulsed and passed out right at the kitchen table at their house while we were there after enjoying a family dinner. We called 911 and emergency personnel descended on the house. She was taken to a hospital in Saginaw and spent 4 days there undergoing various tests. Which basically turned up nothing, and now we find out the results of the Holter monitor she wore for 3 weeks have mysteriously vanished. In the last 2 months, basically nothing has been done.

In the preceding two years, she's had a couple of these episodes at home. Which we all found out long after the fact.

In July, the ER doctor mentioned the possible need for a pacemaker. The cardiologist who saved her life yesterday flat out said she needs a pacemaker. Hello....!

So, thanks to this latest crisis, and a whole lot of phone calls to her doctors, now maybe a fire will be lit under some asses and something will get done.

And what was I doing the whole day while all this was going on? Sleeping, and then cooking. Cooking is what I usually turn to doing when I'm not sure what the hell else I ought to be doing to help. I made hand-scraped whole-wheat spaetzle, a cabbage and apple saute', and an apple strudel. In anticipation of the sausages Tim was going to bring home for our Sunday night dinner. I ended up having dinner alone, sans sausage. Tim dined on the same side dish only meal once he finally got home. We'll make the sausages tonight.

BTW, I tried a different strudel dough recipe. This one I found on line here. It's an oil-based dough instead of butter, and it rolls/stretches out to the proper thinness so much easier. Almost too easily. I had several holes in the finished strudel to repair, but I think I like this one better.

Tim didn't get home until nearly 2330 last night. And after all that, the Tigers went from a 5 to nothing lead to end up losing to the Rays 8 to 7 in extra innings. It's been an ugly summer for those boys.