Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Monday Meanderings…a day late & serious

Ok, back from the BookWorld at last.

About a week or so ago I mentioned vaguely some family problems. Here’s the detail I left out then. DH’s older brother went to the ER with what he thought was a gall bladder attack and about two hours later was having open heart surgery to replace a faulty valve. He’s much better now, but those first few days were very hard on the family because he had some serious memory & motor function issues & there were concerns they might be permanent.

A 4 hour operation took almost 8 & he almost died twice because he has thin ‘skin’ on his heart. I know there is a term for it, I’ve even been told it but scary things tend to vanish from my mind until critically needed.

What happened was every time they tried to stich him closed his heart tore a little more. They didn’t know his heart was like that when they started. 

My MIL died from the same complication during the same surgery on Dec 24, 2001.

My FIL died 16 years earlier of congestive heart failure.

DH’s older sister had to have valve replacement surgery 10 years ago.

So genetically, if you will excuse me for a moment, DH is fucked.

My mom had valve replacement surgery in 2002 and has to have it again this year because the pig valve they used needs replaced

So genetically, the boys are probably fucked too.

My SIL did not have the thin heart issue. My other SIL has no heart issues at all. My dad, apart from back issues mostly stemming from weight, is healthy as a horse and so am I, excluding rampant insomnia and endo. So maybe the boys are not totally screwed, but odds are good.

And it kinda sorta freaks me out if I think about it too much. And it’s one of those things you can’t fix. There is nothing to ‘do’ about it except be aware of it.

Believe me, I am *aware* of it.

So I made Oreo Chocolate Chip cookies.

(denial, not just a river in Egypt)

Not the stuffed kind where you wrap cookie dough around an Oreo, those never bake right. These are the sort where you use broken Oreo cookies as a replacement for some of the chips. They bake evenly are not as achingly sweet as the other version.

baking-3

I used the Oreos with chocolate cream. I wanted one of the spring versions with yellow or blue cream but Safeway didn’t have them.

They were awesome cookies.

Know what’s great about living in the 21st century?

Two in one cookies!

Advanced medical science is pretty cool too.