Look with your eyes, not with your hands.


Such a minute fraction of this life do we live: so much is sleep, tooth-brushing, waiting for mail, for metamorphosis, for those sudden moments of incandescence: unexpected, but once one knows them, one can live life in the light of their past and the hope of their future.



A grad student muses on her life, film, friends, politics, reality televizzle, and music.

 
A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

I don't feel much like writing today, but I felt obligated to say something. It has been a very strange 24hrs. Yesterday morning, my father's younger brother (my Drunkle) had a series of serious strokes. Apparently the largest damage was confined to the cerebellum and the swelling put pressure on the brainstem. His breathing stopped and he was rushed into brain surgery. For a while it was very touch and go and they removed a substantial piece of brain (insert obvious joke here if you know anything about my Drunkle). I talked to my father this morning who told me that, rather amazingly, my uncle was awake, talking, and moving all four limbs today. When he was admitted, he was showing signs of paralysis on the left side of his body. My aunt's family came in from New York and everyone is still at the ICU while Kristin and I are here for the day. More than anything else, I guess I am still surprised that you can go from healthy to this condition in one day and someone who is only 42 could have such a severe stroke(s). I haven't seen him and apparently this ICU is the least visitor-friendly of any hospitial either of my parents had previously visited. I don't know... I am more shocked than shaken-up emotionally (again, if you know about my Uncle, this makes sense). Just the same, lots of disbelief.
posted by lmjasinski at 10:58 AM