7 Quick Takes Friday #15

As I look around me and see that it is Friday again and time to contribute to 7 Quick Takes Friday, a meme hosted by Jennifer at Conversion Diary, I am happy to report that I am still in sunny California.

1. (Picture: my friend's dog before additional snow fell!) We had visitors at work this week from Washington DC (amazing that they even got out), who have told us horror stories of being housebound there. One even put a shovel in his trunk so that he can dig his way back into his house when he returns! Did I say that I am glad to be in sunny California at the moment? Did I say that I am thankful to be here? Did I also say that I am being sent to Alaska next week? Wrong direction! Wrong direction! (Well, for this time of year; otherwise, I would be very happy to go to Alaska. My cousin is married to the chief of one of the Native American tribes there and is an artist laureate of Alaska, so going to Alaska is really a pleasure. I suspect, though, that returning from an Alaskan winter experience will be an even greater pleasure.)

2. We have had good news this week from several quarters. Yes, it is about time! The first piece of good news is that my brother's long-vintage girlfriend, who has been struggling with cancer, has just been declared to be in remission!!!!!! Yes!!!!! Now my brother can leave his New England home peacefully for a two-month assignment in San Diego. Two months! Yes! San Diego! Yes! In San Diego he is less than a day's trip from us in San Ignatio. Last year he came to visit, and we are hoping that, given the timing, he will be able to drive up this year, too, just in time for my February birthday. (We may change the celebration day because, in order to work with my brother's timing, it will conflict with Lent -- too many people giving up too many different things to do a good celebration, so I guess this year we will do a "moveable feast" -- or is that moveable birthday?)

3. The second piece of good news is mixed, but good. Noelle, as you may have noticed from my sidebar, is still fighting her bone disease and still staving off amputation of both feet. Several weeks before Ray died, she had been told that there was no choice but amputation. However, a doctor soon appeared on the scene -- a new guy in town -- who had some other ideas. He scheduled surgery for two weeks ago, but for some reason none of us know, when she showed up at the hospital, there was no record of the doctor having scheduled anything at all. She made an appointment and just got in to see him yesterday. The result? The bone disease in her right foot is gone, and she no longer has to do any care for it! Yes!!!!! (She is still scheduled for surgery, date unknown, for the left foot; we will deal with that when the time comes.)

4. I, too, had some good health news although I have not shared earlier that I have had any health issues to manage. Well, I have had them. They are probably of long-term vintage, but they are definitely of short-term knowledge. When I went into the clinic to get my very mild blood pressure pills re-prescribed, there was a new doctor. He did a quick and partial physical exam and heard a heart murmur. That was no surprise to me. I have had a systolic ejection murmur IV all my life. All my kids have the same thing. It is a functional, not a structural, murmur and is quite innocuous. I explained this to the new doc and thought he understood. However, two days later the clinic called me to tell me that he had made an appointment with a cardiologist for me! Sighing, I tripped over to the cardio guy to put the rumor to rest once and for all. I explained the whole situation to that doc, telling him that my heart is just fine. Yes, it goes squish-squish, instead of thump-thump, when someone listens to it, but that is an innocuous anomaly not of any great concern. Th doc listened patiently but insisted on an an electrocardiogram, the first I have ever had. He did not like the results. There is an electrical discrepancy caused by a left branch bunch node (what a name!). Essentially, it means that my heart does not keep up with me. (Donnie says that this is nothing to be concerned about since no one can keep up with me -- why should my heart be any different!) The doc then insisted on checking my cholesterol. I patiently explained to him that my cholesterol was fine (it had been checked a year earlier). He responded, "You told me your heart was fine." Oh! He insisted on the cholesterol test and an echocardiogram. To make a long story short, to the doc's surprise, the echocardiogram showed a functionally strong heart (that goes squish-squish instead of thuump-thump), about which the doc kept shaking his head, not understanding how this could be the case. So, instead of saying that I have a structurally fine heart with a functional anomaly, now I have to say I have a functionally fine heart with a structural anomaly. The cholesterol? At the very top of the normal scale. However, Dr. Doc still fretted, this time about my weight. He told me that if I were to lose 25 pounds, he thinks there will be no more structural damage (which was probably caused by untreated high blood pressure -- did not know for a long time that I had it), naturally lower blood pressure, and naturally lower cholesterol (because of changed eating habits). Ah, diet time! Sigh! I don't particularly like food or eat a lot. I certainly don't crave and sometimes forget to eat a particular meal. However, I get pressed into a lot of social eating because of my job -- guests, especially dinner guests, occur many times a month. Everyone has been understanding, though. I have had to go in for weekly checks, except for when I was in Lithuania (that would have been complicated). So, I lost one pound, then two pounds, then left for Lithuania. Yesterday at the weight check, I had lost another 8 pounds. Gotta go back next week, but I am not getting any more lectures from the doc. Nonetheless, he is still functioning on a doverai, no proverai (trust, but verify) basis! Oh, my! Look how long I have gone on about one simple thing! Sorry!

5. Yesterday was an enforced eating situation, but I was careful. Two of our Chinese specialists married Chinese mates, and we had a pre-wedding ceremony Chinese style, replete with very tasty but fattening Chinese food. It was interesting to see the differences between Chinese and American weddings. Some things, such as cake cutting and rice throwing, were the same. Other things, like the men telling the women in front of everyone why and how they loved them were not only different but touching. Then everyone took turns making a short formal well-wishing speech, including yours truly. (That caught me by surprise and because I was the senior person from our office in attendance, I had to go first, having no idea what I was supposed to say. Well, some good words I did say, but I missed the traditional ones that everyone else there, all of whom knew the culture, said, such as wishing the couples a marriage sweet as honey, a life as strong as diamonds, and a career like gold. Or something along those lines -- my presence made it a requirement to translate everything into English, so I know I miss some things entirely and some details in other cases. Unfortunately, Chinese is not one of the languages I speak.)

6. My "son" from Jordan is back in town. Briefly, "ibni" (the Arabic expression for "my son" - ibn is son; you may have seen that word, another variation of which is bin or ben; -i means my), which is what I call him in person and in writing, became ibni when my office sent a delegation to Jordan in 2006. Ibni is one of my lower level program managers, and he was in the delegation. We visited his family who had made a marvelous Jordanian meal for us. Like all Jordanian meals, however, it was so much and so slow-paced that we were there from noon until evening. The others in the delegation wanted to see the Dead Sea, 45 minutes away, and the sun was dropping. However, we had not begun dessert, and leaving early would have been rude by Arab standards. Donnie and I, who had lived in Jordan for two years (Donnie was still living there at the time although I had already returned to the USA), offered to stay with ibni's parents since we could handle the Arabic on our own (ibni had been interpreting for everyone) while ibni took the others to the Dead Sea. Ibni's mother, a traditional Arab woman, who conservatively dressed in black abaya and black hijab, broke down and told me how much she missed ibni and how she worried about his safety in the USA. (There is a general sense in Jordan that life in the USA is unsafe; when I had a residency permit there and would travel back to the USA for visits, Jordanian border guards would tell me to be careful because it was dangerous in the US). I promised her that I would be in loco parentis (or is that in loco matris?) for her son, and her relief was so deep-felt that I have taken the mothering role seriously. He is the age of my own children, and he has come to know them through family outings. He also comes to Mass with me, and on this past Wednesday he came to Bible Study class. He had been coming to Bible Study with me two years earlier until he was assigned to Cairo, Egypt, so everyone there was happy to see him on Wednesday. (He will be working here on a temporary assignment for a month.)

7. Shane and Lemony decided to take the kids to Disneyland. It was a trip planned before he lost his job, and the first that they have been able to get away in two years because of all the medical issues with Nikolina. It will be Nikolina's first trip out of reach of Stanford University Hospital, but she is doing very, very well -- unbelievably well, considering her very difficult start and very tentative initial hold on life. She is now a bouncing, inquisitive, happy, clearly smart 9-month-old baby, so off they head south for some fun, finally. On the employment front, California Highway Patrol, where Shane worked for 12 years, has offered him a job at his former level of seniority. He had left because of the low pay, and the pay is still low, but the benefits that he needs for Nikolina are good. He will manage. Money isn't everything, as the Mahlou clan well knows!

I hope that your week has been as good as ours, and, if not, that your next week will be!