Weekends must start on Friday, because that's when my bad one began.
I got a call early yesterday morning from my parents. My grandfather is in the hospital again. From my notes, he had the majority of his colon removed due to cancer. They also discovered that his liver was also "riddled with cancer as well". They had taken him to Sampson Regional Medical only because he couldn't make it to anywhere else. His kidneys are functioning at 43% capacity, he's strapped down and tubes are running in and out of nearly every place they could put one, they even made new places to put some. In short, he's in critical condition. Last night, doctors wouldn't give a prognosis past his surgery. Now, they won't venture past the next 48 hours.
The hospital is located in Clinton, NC. Close To Fayetteville. This is also the hospital where I was born.
My grandfather on my mother's side has not always lead the lifestyle of a health-conscious individual. He never dieted until the past couple of years and even then not faithfully. He smoked cigars for a long time, didn't exercise a lot, and his body paid for this in full. Even in sight of the damages his choices would render, he wouldn't change. For that, I felt angry at him for the longest time.
My cousin Jeremy and I(Jeremy being the funnier, more charasmatic of us) opted to visit him in the ICU since they only allowed two at the time. We were told that he was drugged for sleeping and that he wouldn't be awake, but at least we could see him. The last time I saw my grandfather in the hospital was in Raliegh, high on Percocet, and the nicest I've ever known him to be in my life. I knew that wouldn't be the case this time, but I was kind of hoping that the experience and what I've seen on NOVA and such would serve as a reference springboard for what I was about to encounter.
We passed through the security doors into the ICU and followed the doors in the room to his. He was awake, conscious enough to recognize who we were, and was very, very upset. I can't remember what either Jeremy or I said, but I remember that he did most of the talking. Everything I could think of saying didn't really apply. Tubes traced across his body like a map with different fluids moving in different directions, going in and out of his body at different places. He was awake, and wanting to move, and communicate, but his mouth was taped shut and his arms were strapped. His movements were jerky and forceful, and eventually triggered a red light behind his ear and some nauseantingly pleasant "alarms"(more like soothing door bells) to go off in the ICU. We left and got the nurse, who came and examined him and proceded to close the curtain.
I was not excited about how that went. It's kind of difficult to watch a relative move around like an amateur puppet, and when we left, we couldn't help but feel that we got him riled up and caused that to happen, although cooler logic would dispel such a notion.
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I just received word that the Pope passed away tonight at around 9:30. While I'm not a catholic person, I know that he was one of the more revolutionary characters in their religion. While his views on certain subjects(sexuality and women) were less than compromising, some of his others(Judaism as an "Elder Brother" and the opposition and expulsion of communism) were more admirable. Definately someone you should read up on.
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And third in this Trifecta: a "movie" review.
What the $*#@ do we know?
Marlee Matlin(Reasonable Doubt), Armin Shimmerman(Deep Space 9)
Directed by: Who cares?!(William Arntz, Betsy Chasse, Mark Vicente)
Rating: -0.025/4
This is not a "movie", I'm not sure what to call it, but it's not a movie. At first I thought it was a movie that had to be seen on the big IMAX screens with awesome surround sound in order to enjoy. About 30 seconds later, I was thinking that if we had vodka, 4 shots were required for the movie's full effect.
About 20 minutes later, Tami is conked-out and I'm wondering who in the hell recommended this brainfart of a loser movie. This is a cumulation of all the drunk hypothesizing you did in college, with the CGI from the eye candy movies you'd watch when you were drunk freshman year, and some crazy ass ex-trekkies who are suffering acid flashbacks on camera.
If anyone ever suggests this movie to you, treat it as if they're trying to sell Amway, and bitch-slap the taste out of their mouth. Unless you have a penchant for counting the number of absolutes a person uses, put this movie down, step far away from it, and keep going.
The only reason it didn't get a -1 was that there is one scene were a "downer" mood protein puts a bag on its head. That was funny enough for a quarter star. The other quarter comes from a post-op Matthew Lillard now known as Elaine Hendrix(just kidding!) in the best movie role of his life as the move-in sister of Marlee's.
What a weekend.
Posted by Jeffrey at April 3, 2005 12:30 AM