The last week has sort of been a blur. This cold / flu / bronchial thing I've had is particularly noxious & persistent. Several times, I've thought that it was clearing up, only to have it return with a vengeance in a new, mutated form the next day. I will assume that you can live without hearing tales of coughing, snot & sleeplessness & just say that I think that there finally may be light at the end of the tunnel because for 2 nights in a row, I've actually been able to sleep lying down. Woo hoo!
Normally, I would try to work from home instead of contaminating my co-workers. (Which is how I got sick in the first place, thanks, Caroline!) However, I had to handle my boss' clients & paperwork as well as my own since his mom was still in the hospital & he was rarely available. Sadly, she died last Wednesday. She was 82, had open heart surgery at the beginning of September & had been in the hospital almost continually for the past two months, so you might think that her death was not unexpected. But 2 months ago, this woman was healthier & more active than I am (which may not be saying all that much, but you get the point). She died because she contracted malaria through a blood transfusion during the heart surgery. Malaria. Malaria not being all that common in this country, she went undiagnosed for weeks while the parasites attacked her organs. As you can imagine, the hospital & local Red Cross have been busy trying to keep this all under wraps & avoid widespread panic over the possibility of a tainted blood supply. The local newspapers & television stations have been covering the story, but because of the "spin" (which sounds so much better than "outright lies") provided by the doctors & other "authorities", the story that's being disseminated is almost completely untrue. Which makes me wonder about the veracity of every other news story being reported.
Normally, I would try to work from home instead of contaminating my co-workers. (Which is how I got sick in the first place, thanks, Caroline!) However, I had to handle my boss' clients & paperwork as well as my own since his mom was still in the hospital & he was rarely available. Sadly, she died last Wednesday. She was 82, had open heart surgery at the beginning of September & had been in the hospital almost continually for the past two months, so you might think that her death was not unexpected. But 2 months ago, this woman was healthier & more active than I am (which may not be saying all that much, but you get the point). She died because she contracted malaria through a blood transfusion during the heart surgery. Malaria. Malaria not being all that common in this country, she went undiagnosed for weeks while the parasites attacked her organs. As you can imagine, the hospital & local Red Cross have been busy trying to keep this all under wraps & avoid widespread panic over the possibility of a tainted blood supply. The local newspapers & television stations have been covering the story, but because of the "spin" (which sounds so much better than "outright lies") provided by the doctors & other "authorities", the story that's being disseminated is almost completely untrue. Which makes me wonder about the veracity of every other news story being reported.
In happier news, apparently Bijou was just suffering from kitty menopause, or maybe seasonal affective disorder, or maybe it was all just a ploy to get me to feed her deli turkey by hand. In any case, she is finally back to normal. Which means she's carrying Smacky (her velvet mouse) around in her mouth, pretending Lemieux doesn't exist & taking up way too much room in the bed. Strange how I don't mind so much these days.
Labels: cat-tastrophes, random ramblings
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