Having Your Own Sphynomanometer DOESN'T MAKE YOU A PHYSICIAN

That is a message I would like to impress upon my Father. He's in the hospital again. He'll have good care; hopefully he doesn't need another angiogram.

But through my worry I find myself so angry and frustrated. One of the VERY few nights I don't play vampire (trying to be a "normal" person and sleep more often AT NIGHT) and my Dad's up all night having dizziness, trying to faint, having stomach symptoms. His solution was to sit and take his own blood pressure to see how low it was - again and again and again. Finally, I guess he woke up my Mother at about 5:00 a.m. and they went to the hospital when he finally decided that seven thousand REALLY LOW blood pressure readings were not good.

I had no idea. I went out to the garage to get cat food at about 7:00 a.m. and wondered where my Mom had gone so early. I called her hours later, because I was getting VERY curious and a little concerned about the early departure, etc. and she told me where they were. I thought perhaps my insisting on the paramedics at the airport last month might have made an impression. I imagine that he thought that since they let me drive him home (his oxygen saturation was okay, his EKG was okay, his blood pressure and pulse were low, but not dangerously). He just didn't really listen very closely to the part about FOLLOWING UP WITH HIS DOCTOR because they couldn't do blood cultures and other tests. And I'm not sure he listened to the part about how stents can get clots and can collapse and all such fun. He was leaving town again in a few days so he followed up the by calling the nurse. AHHHHHHHHH!

He has seen the heart specialist since then, which was good. HOWEVER, after spending time feeling like he'd narrowly eluded his own death, he went back to his same, over-working, over-stressed ways (I grant you, it's hard to change a stressful nature, but the WORK...).

And let's put the heart problems aside, and the stroke risk - even the foreboding hernia - and talk about what should be considered his most drastic health issue - the cancer. What is going to happen if he has to go on chemo when the androgen therapy finally fails and they don't have a post-androgen solution yet? The man WILL NOT wash his hands effectively, cover his mouth when he hacks all over - you name it. I can't imagine a worse person to be immunodeficient. We'll have to hose him down regularly with hand sanitizer, I guess.

I'm truly sorry, this is not the sort of festive holiday message I would have liked to post right now. But this just impresses so strongly in my mind that my number one holiday wish for EVERYONE I know and love (okay - and for the World) is that they take good care of themselves. And please, please let the medical professionals take over when you are at a loss.

My best and warmest holiday wishes to everyone; GOOD HEALTH and happiness to all.