The Hits Just Keep On Coming

Sometimes I wonder how professional boxers do it: just stand there and get hit day after day. Punching, taking a punch, moving, dodging, weaving, and back again for another hit. That kind of cumulative beating has got to take a toll.

I suppose it's a matter of conditioning. You kinda just get used to it. Maybe you just don't notice anymore. Is that what tough is? Somehow I think that's just what numb is.

That's where I find myself today: cumulatively worn down. Physically and emotionally -- just too tired to react. For four weeks I've been both mother and father to the Nodlings while Mrs. Nod recovers from her surgery (only 8 more weeks to go!).

Then my youngest brother, Shoe, lands in the hospital with an apparent stroke. Sudden and unexplained: right-side paralysis, loss of speech, migraine headaches. The family has been up all night providing physical, emotional, and logistical support to his wife and baby and taking turns at Shoe's bedside.  The MRI and brain scans came back clean, so no evidence of an aneurism, arterial dissection, or blot clots in the brain.

Now 24-hours later, he has regained movement and speech, but is still pretty groggy. Doctors still can't tell what's wrong with him, but they are doing a blizzard of tests to find out: seizure? meningitis? West Nile virus? leg blood clots?  It's going to be a few days before we know anything.

Next, I went to the pharmacy to pick up a new prescription for Mrs. Nod, but they didn't receive it. Sorry, Charlie, no meds for you. On my way back, I noticed there was smoke coming out of my car hood. I pulled into a gas station only to find that I lost all my antifreeze (if the explosion of green, sweet-smelling liquid all over my engine block is any indication). Now my car is overheating and the thermostat is pegging in the red. I left it with the garage and hitched a ride home in order to relieve our babysitter for the night. Did I mention I already dropped a boatload of cash to get the van fixed up last week? No? I was doing much better at keeping my whining and moaning to myself last week.

I'm just ready for this week to end. I'm looking forward to a day where nothing much happens. Each day I close my eyes with the hope that tomorrow will be that day.

Sigh.

DMC: In Their Own Words

Divine Mercy Care has provided our OB-GYN and baby needs since 1998. The doctors there are fantastic and show all of us how to bring our Catholic faith into everyday life.

Divine Mercy Care is a grass roots, community-based healthcare corporation that is at at the nexus between the culture wars and the healthcare crisis. Divine Mercy Care is not a series of programs. It is not social work. For healthcare workers, Divine Mercy Care is our vocation in medicine: caring for all stages of the human person; fighting illness and suffering yet recognizing their role in the mystery of life; and supporting our communities by seeing all people including the weakest and most vulnerable. Divine Mercy Care is how we love God and love neighbor in our practice of medicine. This is the foundation of our excellent care for all people.

These are true, committed Christian doctors who use the Theology of the Body in their everyday practice. They serve the poor, the under-insured, and the uninsured every day for free as part of their regular practice, as well as ordinary Joes and Janes like us.

Most of them haven't been saints their whole lives, but their conversion to the Gospel is real and tangible. We are blessed to have them as our doctors. If you've never had your doctor pray with you -- you're missing out on an amazing experience.

Pray for them and for like minded doctors everywhere; contribute if you can -- you are literally helping the most vulnerable and at-risk members of our society by doing so.

Read about them in their own words (emphasis mine):

Divine Mercy Care (DMC) is the Catholic tax-exempt health care organization for Northern Virginia. Recognizing that the health care system in the United States is broken, DMC answers the problem by bringing sound medical and moral principles into the business environment of health care at its most vital level—the individual and the community. Waiting for the government to legislate or for the economics to evolve is not acceptable. DMC is filling a moral and medical leadership void in the delivery of heath care. The key issues facing health care are: service to the under-insured, the anti-life bias, and the conversion of physicians into technicians. DMC answers these issues.

1. DMC's commitment to serve the poor, not out of excess but out of our day-to-day work, is fundamental. Serving them within the community is a more effective model than government-directed health care.
2. By not ignoring the spiritual aspect of medicine, DMC provides authentically holistic and comprehensive health care.
3. DMC runs a value-based, consumer-driven business by retaining the sound medical practices of the profession while treating each patient with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Divine Mercy Care's original, nationally respected and regarded entity is the Tepeyac Family Center (TFC), an Obstetrics and Gynecological medical facility founded in 1994 by Dr. John Bruchalski. Reading the economic realities of medicine, TFC was reorganized as a tax-exempt entity in 2005. Today, the team of six physicians and one nurse practitioner provides services to women regardless of their race, creed, culture, or ability to pay. At TFC over the last three years, 25% of the babies were born to mothers with no commercial health insurance. It is the only practice in the country that provides full obstetrical care for patients from Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs), and it is the only practice in the area that serves charity patients on a routine basis.

DMC Pharmacy, LLC, a pro-life pharmacy located at a major crossroads in Chantilly, VA, opened in October 2008 and is operated by Mr. Robert Semler who has operated pharmacies for over 30 years. For the past 12 years he was the manager/owner of one of [only!] seven pro-life pharmacies in the country.

Vasovagal Attack

Here's a recipe for a killer headache: low blood sugar and a pronounced vasovagal reaction.

Huh? Wuzzat? That's what I said.

I went to the doctor to have a blotch on my shoulder looked at. He said it looked benign but we'd biopsy it just to make sure. So he does his thing and gives me one stitch to make it all nice and neat. No biggie.

Only problem is he gave me lidocaine with epinephrine as a local anesthetic. It's kinda like taking a downer with a chaser of adrenaline. (Adrenaline supplements make the numbing agent last longer.) I hadn't had anything to eat that morning and I tend to be on the low end of both blood sugar (hypoglycemia) and blood pressure (110/65).

All of a sudden I felt dizzy and nauseous. The doc lays me down, but I go 1-2 seconds with my eyes rolled up in the back of my head. I bolt upright with my heart pounding, feeling flushed, and break out in a fine sweat all over. "Ugh. (pant pant) What happened?"

[WebMD] Fainting, also called syncope (pronounced SIN-ko-pe), is a sudden, brief loss of consciousness and posture caused by decreased blood flow to the brain. Many different conditions can cause fainting. These include heart problems such as irregular heart beat, seizures, panic or anxiety attacks, low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), anemia (a deficiency in healthy oxygen carrying cells), and problems with how the nervous system (the body's system of nerves) regulates blood pressure.

A simple faint, also called a vasovagal attack or neurally-mediated syncope, is the most common type of fainting. It is most common in children and young adults. A vasovagal attack happens because blood pressure drops, reducing circulation to the brain and causing loss of consciousness. Typically an attack occurs while standing and is frequently preceded by a sensation of warmth, nausea, lightheadedness and visual "grayout."

Warmth, nausea, lightheadedness -- yep that's me. That little episode made me feel off all day, even after eating and taking a little nap after work.

A little unnecessary excitement if you ask me. I know what you're thinking: Dude, you fainted.