If Life Sucks, Does That Mean Death Blows?

No, this is not a "trick" question. Got your attention, though, didn't it? Seriously, it often does seem that life sucks---as when receiving the wonderful opinion of a psychologist that your 22yr-old son will probably never mature enough to marry, let alone give you grandkids. Okay, it's not like I hadn't intuited that possibility before, but it sure hurts coming from an expert.
Needless to say, I've fought battles for schooling, etc. for years, and none of the experts has been proven right---yet. Ay, there's the rub. Not being morbid like Hamlet, however, helps. As with everything in Judaism, there's at least 3 sides to every problem. Hey, it gives more options, right? What's that Yiddish saying---"A good question is half the answer"? And that's the point; if the answer is bad, change the question! We all know how precise wording is essential to slanting those polls just the "right" way for enabling our government's predetermined solutions "democratically". You know, like Fox News---We Distort, You Comply? So, are the distorters liars, or only "deceived deceivers"? Don't ask me. I just write this stuff for fun.
Nevertheless, I'm disturbed by the swift judgements these experts are wont to hand down---often after only a perfunctory "interview" with the "client". I know that this particular expert will test him to see if these assumptions are true, but what of the others who won't? And what's truly worrying is the fact that I have to pay for these tests even though he's already a "client" in our community mental health services, which is supposed to test for free. What of those parents who haven't the money (God only knows how we manage to scrape up the money!) to avail themselves of private tests? Prozac Nation, here we come!
So, at this moment life sort of sucks for me, but I won't give up. If I'd listened to all those experts in the past, my son would be one of those drooling, drugged-up zombies wandering the streets, rather than a college student. Not that the experts didn't mean well, they just overly rely on the words of their fellow experts instead of testing for themselves. And yes, I know how expensive testing can be, and how strapped most community health programs are for funds. Still, it's my son, so what else can I do? Sadly, though, it's always someone else's child that's not our problem. Sigh. I'm as guilty as the rest. Divide And Conquer---pit the LD funding against the CP funding, so the parents of learning-disabled kids battle the parents of kids with cerebral palsy instead of banding together to demand funding across the entire health-related spectrum. For my son, the future looks brighter only because we can afford (so far) a "future" that's not routinely spit out by the "machine", so to speak. We all speak of the "Deux Ex Machine" (often translated as "ghost in the machine" but equally translatable as "god" as well) in cynical terms. For once, I'm hoping God is "in the machine".

OnToThe Next Disaster...

Finally got back to whatever's "normal" for me, as the urologist removed the stent this morning after the x-ray showed me clear of stone fragments. Couldn't believe how long that bugger was---at least 12 inches! One end started way up at the top of the left kidney and hung all the way down to the urethra (sic), where it was anchored by a nice little curl on that end. Yeah, real nice. It felt like I had a fishpole stuck up there, and every time I voided it felt as though I was hooked, too. Boy, nothing like having a plastic tube (green, mind you, and about the diameter of a pin worm) lodged "up mine", so to speak.
Having it pulled out was soooo much fun! No anethesia, just a dab of lidocane to deaden the pain (hah!) around the hole while the doctor inserted some kind of torture device (I kept my eyes shut) and slooooowly pulled all ten feet of that stent out. Okay, so it wasn't ten feet, but it sure felt like it! Then he playfully dangles the thing over my face and, as I'm not wearing my glasses, I nearly yell because it looks like he's pulled some green parasite out of me. Jeez! Good thing I don't mind snakes. And then he hands me a plastic gallon jug (empty) that I'm to fill with 24hrs worth of urine---so he can maybe figure out why I got a kidney stone---"No hurry", he says. Yeah, like I'm really gonna fill it right then.
At any rate, he said he'd be happy to keep treating me, since he has two kids in college and could use the income, which is only fair, I suppose. But now I can actually sit without using a rubber "doughnut", so it's worth it. (By the way, click the photo to see it larger.) I'm going sledding! Yippee!

It's Official! I'm Still Alive,If Full Of @#$%

Yep, I'm not-so-happily passing pumice from my erstwhile kidney stone---and those tiny pieces hurt like hell! Still, it's coming out, which is better than the alternative, I guess. What I should have mentioned last time, though, was where I got this cartoon. The website is great! You can pick from several poses of Bush, Kerry, Der Governator, etc., and put your own words in the balloon. The url is on the bottom of the cartoon. Try it.
In other news...Ariel Sharon's massive stroke will likely mean Netanyahu's rise and ,considering the accounts of Palestinians who openly celebrated this tragedy, I can't wait. If the Palestinians don't want peace (and their celebrations seem to say this) then continue the wall, I say. How many Isreali "suicide" bombers killed their innocents? How many Isreali children volunteered to become "martyrs"---with their proud parents standing behind them?! Sorry, but Isreal has no choice but to wall them off. Isreal has been the only partner in this sham "peace process" to actually offer real concessions, remember. Share Jerusalem? What, are you nuts? Are the muslims "sharing" Bethlehem, or Nazareth? Now that they pretty much drove out all the Christians from these places, do you honestly think Christians will ever be allowed to have power there again? Hah!
Let the Palestinians have Gaza and most of the West Bank (sans Jerusalem, of course). Complete the wall and leave them to stew in their own cesspool. They want peace, they can show it by acting responsibly. Until then, no more concessions.

2006-Same Old @#$%

Okay, so I'm crabby today. I admit it. But you wouldn't feel so charitable either if tomorrow you faced what is euphemistically referred to as "day surgery". Nothing serious, just a stupid kidney stone the size of a grapefruit (okay, a marble, but it's gonna hurt the same) that will be pulverized by lithotripsy (from litho-rock and I have no idea what "tripsy" comes from) because it's too big to pass. Seems Solomon was a bit too optomistic about that "gam zeh ye'avor" (this too shall pass) advice, I guess. Then again, maybe he never had a kidney stone, either.
Anyway, it's not the surgery---I'll be knocked out, thank God---but going home right after that I dread. Yeah, I know medicine has advanced and all that, but coming home feeling as though my left side was kicked by a mule certainly doesn't thrill me. Plus all that pulverized @#$% coming out when I urinate, which I have to catch in a strainer, no less, and keep in a speciman jar for the doctor visit later this month! I wanted a vacation, but this is not the kind of "trip" I envisioned, believe me. And Saturday I turn 57, too. Happy birthday to me. Well, at least if they don't get it all pulverized this time, they'll probably succeed next time. After all, the lithotripsy machine only comes to my hospital once a month.
Uh oh, gotta go---literally. That phospho-soda I had to take to clean me out is about to explode. Hope you have a nice day.