Sunday, November 21 2021

Sunday, November 21, 2021 

Tonight's picture was taken on November 12, 2008. Mattie's second surgery day. It was like 5am, and we were in the pre-opt area with Mattie, awaiting to meet the surgeon and anesthesiologist. I typically love anesthesiologists, because they play as crucial a role as the surgeon. However, the chief of pediatric anesthesiology was a piece of work. I did not hit it off with her in the pre-opt area, and it translated into the way she managed Mattie's pain post surgery. As you can see from this photo, Mattie wasn't happy and Peter looked tense and rightfully stressed out. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 47,730,591
• Number of people who died from the virus: 771,118

One thing that is consistent about Los Angeles, is the weather. It is remarkable to see the sun out and have warm temperatures in late November. I have no idea if California residents realize how lucky they are, but the weather doesn't go unnoticed by me. My days are busy here, and I haven't even begun packing. My dad requires a lot of assistance and my mom can't help me, because in reality she was days from collapsing from caregiving. Typically a high energy person, she is now depleted and I am trying to give her time to rest, not to mention making sure she is eating as in my opinion she needs to gain 20 to 30 pounds for her health. 

Typically my parents stay close to home. For various reasons. But today I decided to drive them 45 minutes away to Westlake. There are many lovely spots to dine in Westlake and given that it was a glorious weather day, we ate outside. They both ate very well. However, today I wasn't feeling well. My headache got to me and I started getting nauseous at lunch. Thankfully I never travel without Zofran, otherwise, I would have been a mess.

On the drive home, I got on the wrong freeway. Going in the opposite direction that I needed to. Around here, it isn't as easy as it is on the East coast to get off the highway and then get on in the correct direction. So literally I gave my parents a tour of Simi Valley. Which to me is a beautiful place. Look at these mountains and terrain. It is stunning. But the fact that I got on the wrong freeway, made my parents nervous. However, I kept calm and eventually got on the freeway going in the right direction. 

For the past two days, I have been helping my dad go through paperwork in his office. So much of it was outdated, and in my opinion needed to be shredded and thrown away. I can't tell you how much paper we are recycling. My joke with my dad is he had twenty trees in his office in paper work alone. I wish I could say we cleaned out his office, but there are still more drawers to go through. My dad had this incredible need, almost an obsession, with keeping every document he ever received and then made multiple copies of it. In addition to the office, we went through his piles of paperwork he stacks on the breakfast table. Pieces of paper with several words on it or reminder messages. It shows how scattered his brain is, as he will make notes that make no sense and then doesn't remember that the note even exists. So when I tell you we have stacks of bits and pieces of paperwork everywhere, I am not kidding. He and I are polar opposites with paper. He has a need to keep paper, and I have a need to SEE NO paper or stacks anywhere. So this will be an interesting existence between the two of us.