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Home Care
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
-- Voltaire
Sunday, May 14, 2000
One year ago: Festival Begins
Two years ago: Last Seinfeld
The meds Jack got from the emergency room doc are helping the pain, but they do make him very drowsy. I drove him up to his family doctor's office (right next to the hospital) Saturday morning. The consensus is that he'll have his gall bladder out, but he needs to talk to a surgeon first. His doctor wrote the referral recommending surgery. Ah, the joys of managed health care!
Jack felt clear-headed enough to drive his car back to his place, since his last pain pill had been in the middle of the night sometime. We stopped off at the grocery store and looked for fat-free food that would be palatable for him. Gallstones can cause flu-like symptoms like nausea, fever and chills, in addition to the pain.
Jack slept in his recliner and I slept on the couch, both Friday and Saturday night. We took it easy during the day both days, Jack reading and dozing, me reading and writing. Jack was able to concentrate on a pattern recognition game that's on the Palm Chip has turned over to me. He wasn't satisfied until he claimed the high-score honors from Chip! I don't aspire to such glory, but I enjoy the game too.
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The book that occupied me most of Saturday and today was Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I've had a copy for a while; I bought it when Jack and I were in Port Townsend. But the sheer size of it made me reluctant to start it, even though I've enjoyed Stephenson's earlier books. (He's certainly an author that I wish was involved in the Vanguard crowd, but that sort of social network doesn't seem to appeal to him.)
But once I started the book, I really enjoyed it! I can see how it wouldn't appeal to everyone. There are long discursions on various technical topics, a ton of characters on different timelines, and there isn't really any science fictional content (and there weren't any female characters of any importance). But it held my attention and there was a lot of cool stuff!
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Chip and I exchanged email about work. I'm concerned about leaving Jack alone here, but only Pete and Jonathan (our high-school intern) will be in the office starting tomorrow morning. Everyone else is flying to Vegas for a trade show, and won't be back until Thursday night! Right now I'm planning to drive down early Monday morning, and play it by ear from there. I'll come back when Jack goes in for surgery. Too bad we don't know when that will be!
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