Rant

This is going to be a rant, so if you don't want to read it just surf away from my blog right now. If you stay, don't say I didn't warn you. If you see yourself in my ire, then so be it.

My son was in the hospital for four nights. He had invasive chest surgery. The only reason he is not in tremendous pain is because he is on extremely serious pain medication and muscle relaxants, not because his surgery was "minor" or he has a "high pain threshold" or because he has "bounced back" already. This is called PAIN MANAGEMENT. Thank goodness for it. As his mother, I set two alarms in order to give him the medicine he needs on time so that he doesn't experience terrible pain.

A friend of mine told me about "CarePages." I am experienced with maintaining my own website, so I set up a CarePage for Freddie. I sent it to anyone who I thought might be interested in reading about Freddie's progress. It's remarkable how many people called us upon receiving the link to the CarePage out of concern for Freddie before he even had his surgery. It's remarkable how many people who are not our closest friends and relatives check on the CarePage, and even leave messages for Freddie (although some don't but I know they check). But what is truly remarkable, is how many close relatives have decided that the CarePage alleviates them from making an actual phone call or a visit to see how we're doing. Apparantly, by creating the CarePage, I've relieved people of an unpleasant burden -- that of actually caring.

Finally, as it was when Freddie was in the hospital, and now still with him being at home, our lives go on. Is it too much to ask that when someone says they are coming to town to help out, that they actually do help out while they are here? Or instead of saying "We'll come see you after dinner," how about "Can we bring you dinner? We want to come see Freddie."

A couple of people have gone out of their way to be helpful, and their actions are so appreciated. My good friend Heidi calls everyday, went to the grocery for me and brought lunch to the hospital while Freddie was in surgery. My brother and sister-in-law took Sarah for most of the day, thus allowing us to spend undivided time at the hospital with Freddie. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Let me just finish with one more thing, almost unrelated. I got up early this morning to give Freddie his meds and decided to get my run in while Scott was still here. Because it is just us, and Sarah has camp, Scott is going to work late every day and leaving early to take Sarah and pick her up. We thought we would have assistance this week, but apparently we don't. But I digress.

3 mile tempo run today. The nice weather has left us and we are left with this gross muck, so thick it feels like you could cut it with a knife.My run looked like this:
Avg. Pace 9:42. I'm pretty pleased with it.
Mile 1: 10:13
Mile 2: 8:52
Mile 3: 10:03
Mile .37 3:32 (9:41)