My daughter isn't having a birthday this year... such is the fortune of my baby girl who was born on February 29th, Leap Year Day 1988.

She really was supposed to be born much earlier in the month... February 9th, the doc told me on that happy day when confirming that the rabbit died. "May your first child be a feminine one, and an Aquarian, too!" the obstetrician mugged in a cheesy Godfather-like voice.

Chelsea always did pride herself in being different from everyone else, however...

She foreshadowed her imminent arrival early on a cold Sunday morning, with contractions zinging thru me every ten minutes in the form of achy back labor the whole day long...just toying with me, naturally, and never really progressing into anything worth a "hooo-rah!" from any veteran mothers on the sidelines.  

Long about 4 a.m. Monday morning, just after a heavy snow started falling (of course), with a wink she signed her letter of intent to be born, and that I'd better get myself to the hospital post haste for that noon-time birth.  Not only did she decide to make her grand entrance into the world in a snowstorm, but she was also 20 days over due, thus declaring she'd rather be a Pisces than an Aquarius child. Just to be different, mind you.

Well, Chelsea is still late most of the time, has a great sense of humor and fun, and hates to be like everyone else.  That rascal...I should have known!

Happy 18th Birthday, Baby Girl! Though technically, you're only 4 1/2!  One day you'll appreciate the advantage of only having birthdays every four years. 

You are the sunshine of my life!  :)

                                         Pierre Auguste Renoir

Renoir is one of my favorite artists. I especially love the breezy, carefree slice of life depicted in this painting of the cafe above. Don't you just wanna sit down at the table and relax for awhile with them?  :)

If you could choose any one person (living or not) to have dinner with, who would you like to share a meal and conversation with, and why?

                            

                                             "Medicine Buddha"

On the quiet ride home from work at the surgery practice, I found myself waxing philosophical about my day today. Specifically, the different reasons patients request medication, and why life just isn't always fair.

One patient, a 20-something young girl, whom I believe to have quite an affinity for pain killers, made a call to me requesting a refill on her narcotic of choice. I recognize her type: a "doctor shopper" who will make the rounds of docs in town until she finds the kindly father figure (or two or three!) who will enable her addiction for a period of time before he gets wise to it and sends her on her way. It was "game over" today. I informed her that she had been non-compliant with treatment and doc would not be filling any pain meds for her.

"None of the suggestions he offered are going to help me!" she protested, raising her voice. "I NEED to have some kind of pain medication! THIS JUST ISN'T FAIR!" Politely, but matter-of-factly, I mentioned that her pharmacy had shared with us the fact that she was already getting pain meds from five other doctors, and we would not enable this further here. Dead silence on the other end of the phone. Busted. She had nothing further to say and ended the call. I can't begin to know the reasons this young girl has for craving the feeling of being sedated by painkillers... but this won't ever truly "kill" whatever psychic pain she is experiencing in her life. No, it's not fair, but her answers do not lie in further orthopaedic treatment with us...

I did not recognize Mr. D's voice on the other end of the phone when he'd called later on in the afternoon. He had a herniated disc which I'd scheduled for surgery last week. However, he was cancelled at the last minute due to abnormal pre-op blood work results. He told me today he'd just learned that he has cancer at age 48, and maybe a year to live. It felt almost surreal as he told me "guess I won't bother rescheduling my back surgery now." I was stunned and didn't know what to say. It didn't seem fair! He went on to ask if doc would please refill his Valium... he said it was all he could do to cope when the nighttime came. This seemed only fair. And right.... 

Mr. J called. He was outside trying to show his son how ride a skateboard the "old school" way of his 40-something generation. Of course, he'd fallen while showboating for the boy, and asked if he could get some mediation for his swollen knee until we could examine both him and his bruised ego in the office tomorrow. Now that was fair enough.

Medicine means different things to different people... whether broken souls, bodies seeking comfort, or twisted middle age knees.

And so goes the circle of life.

 

     

Just for fun, I've sent Mario (my houseboy and personal masseur at The New Residencia) out to do a "man on the street" poll:

"How much did you pay for a gallon of gasoline/petrol/your addiction to oil this week where you live?"

 

Just the facts, Ma'am! :)

Okay, here we go with another round of Friday Fun Facts:

1. I have never ever gotten a speeding ticket in all my years of driving. Mind you, I'm not saying I've never been pulled over... I've just never been issued a ticket! ;)

2. My favorite scent has to be Patchouli (I know, very retro and 60's) and my favorite aroma in the whole world is the smell of freshly baked bread. My Lithuanian grandmother was always baking bread and surely this is where it all started for me.

3. No matter how hot it might be outside, I always have to sleep with a sheet partly covering me, especially across my legs. I think this has something to do with childhood and thinking the boogeyman would come out from under my bed and grab my feet while I slept. (Yeah, like a sheet was gonna protect me!!! :)

4. I am a very optimistic person and believe that when you expect good things to happen, they usually do. Even when things don't go well, I'll find the silver lining of the situation. See my pic above!

5. I love peanut butter, and eat it in some way or another almost every day, i.e. on toast, on crackers, or in a sammich.

-Six