Vuvuzela, etc.

The current hospitalization started a bit over 2 weeks ago.  In addition to the pain syndrome we explained several times before, there's more stuff going on.  Liam has a pretty weak immune system by now.  Every cath`ing (done 4-5-6 times a day) can potentially bring more infections.  And infections indeed she has.  In order to fight those infections, she gets antibiotics.  But there are at least two problems:
1.  The bad bacteria gets used to the antibiotics, so these have to be adjusted.  It's quite a complex bio-game.
2.  Many of the meds Liam gets have this or that side effect on the stomach.  Many of them are recommended to consume with food.  But Liam doesn't eat.  Plus, her stomach is not great to begin with (see "the syndrome").  Bottom line:  Even when she gets stuff to help her, it disturbs her stomach.  Sort of a catch-22.

The questions is how to break out of this cycle.  If anybody has an idea, you can have my lottery ticket - the one I was gonna win the $64M with.

The Graph
While Liam's body is not getting better in the last year - to put it mildly - her fighting and surviving spirit has never been stronger.  A picture sometimes better than words.  I'm not an economist or a mathematician, but displaying the following graph makes me look smart:


The graph is not to scale.  It just presents a trend, an idea.  Click on the graph to enlarge it.

As you can see, while the body line is on a general down slope, the fighting spirit is strong.  Purple too (for my gay friends).


The Laundry Basket Guide of How To Deal With Them Vuvuzelas
(The credit for the title goes to my friend JT)
The Laundry Basket Guide is on vacation for the World Cup.  However, we reconvened for a special emergency session to discuss the noise level.
If you don't know what a vuvuzela is, you're probably in the wrong blog.

One of the things I enjoy  most about the World Cup, next to the soccer itself, is seeing all the nationalities and learning about them.  I mean, everybody knows who Italy is, how pathetic England is, why it's a MUST to hate Germany (because "soccer is played 90 minutes and at the end Germany wins"), but who the hell is Uruguay?  Where in the world is Paraguay?  What's the difference between Slovakia and Slovenia and Serbia?  I find myself going to the internet again and again to learn not about these teams, but about the countries they represent.  Where is the country?  What's the climate there?  Where are the people from - native, settlers?  What's the economy like?  Etc. etc.  Often, after I gain more knowledge, it makes the matches more interesting.  I understand dynamics in the teams, I'm discovering new rivalries.  It's fun.  My geography teacher from high school, the one who saw me through the window playing soccer during his lecture, would have been very proud of me.
And by the time I learn all that stuff, the sound of the vuvuzelas is somewhere in the background.  Unfortunately, all the laundry baskets are still full to the top.

The Laundry Basket Guide to Father Day
I don't know how Father Day started and I don't care to learn.  Today it's just another commercial date.  Just an excuse to bombard our brains with more "specials", more "deals", more meaningless "value promises".  I have my family's love and appreciation every day.  I don't need a special day for this and I don't want anybody telling me when to celebrate it.
But there's one thing this day IS good for:  leave Abba alone and let him watch soccer and golf until he falls of his feet.  And so it was.  (Fortunately, I was on my ass in front of the TV from 7 AM till 9-something PM, not on my feet.)
The laundry baskets were still full after 3 soccer games and the US open.