(no subject)

Update on my dad:

They did an angiogram this morning and found arterial blockage. The doctors were unable to clear it via angioplasty, so he's being evaluated for surgery. I'm not clear on the location of the blockage, but my mother's text talked about heart surgery.

Before surgery, they need to ensure his foot infection is resolved. I'm also unclear about how other issues will affect timing or possibility of surgery. I think my mother will have more information later today, which I will share when it is available.

As with updates in the past, I do not really know, objectively speaking, how serious this all is. But it seems to keep getting more so. On the other hand, I know someone online who had heart surgery recently and he has more energy than he's had in quite a long time; the blockage had been affecting
him subtly for quite some time. Maybe that's why my dad has felt tired so much.

I don't know if I'm still going to go and visit on Friday, or if I'll end up going earlier than that. I don't know about scheduling of surgery or anything. My mother should know more later today.

(no subject)

I'm going to settle down and/or chill out about the chunk of reading I need to do for my history class. If I just sit down and read one chapter a day of both Philip Jenkins "Decade of Nightmares" and Robert Greenfield's "Timothy Leary", they only have 12 or 13 chapters each. I have 48 days and 62 days, respectively, to do my writing on them. That is entirely manageable, and I'll have plenty of time to do more reading on Leary for the big paper at the end of the term.

And I'll have time to concentrate on the other things I need to do, like group projects, an interview, and other random bits. I can do that. I can even do more than one chapter a day when I have extra time and start writing really early. It'll be ok.

No news on my dad yet. I tried calling my mother a couple of times, but have not managed to connect.

(no subject)

Dad update for those following:

I just got more information from my mother. My dad will definitely be having heart surgery. They are not sure when yet; they're going to get him as ready as possible first. This entails making sure his foot infection is taken care of, and improving his kidney function to the highest possible level. A heart surgeon will be talking to my parents about the operation itself tomorrow. They will be doing a triple bypass, and replacing his heart valve that, due to birth defect, has only two flaps instead of three. He's joked about his insulin pump making him a cyborg; now he'll have an internal upgrade as well!

After surgery, he'll be in the hospital for a week. Then he should be able to come home, though his activity will be restricted for a month or so while the bone in his chest grow back together. And after that, he'll be doing cardiac rehabilitation stuff as an outpatient. I was already talking to him about letting him use the second Fitbit that I thought was lost but which finally turned up. Maybe that will help with the program.

(no subject)

On a completely unrelated note, Timothy Leary did a lot of things that were *way* more ethically problematic than I could have guessed before I started reading this bio. That guy would seriously creep me out if I knew him in person.