Vunerable mothers

My mother is sick. Really sick. Went to emergency on Wednesday. They removed her gall bladder, but the surgeon said her liver was highly damaged and the gall bladder he got was atrophied to the point it looked like tissue paper. I found out last night, the doctors are suspecting a blood disorder that is attacking her vital organs. They are unable to address it and need to send her to a teaching hospital for evaluation.

When I went home, I scoured the net and couldn't find anything of help or hope. or even information for that matter. That was a surprise to me. I thought the Internet knew everything.

The other issue for me is that I'm not at the place of thinking this thing could claim my mother's life. She doesn't seem to be a candidate for this. I'm not in place to let her go. I know lots of people my age don't have their parents. I get that people in their 70's die all the time. My grandfather is in his 80's and not missing a beat. (Yeah! I see that. It's my mother's step father, grandma married a youngster.) And grandma just died 9 months ago. Near her 90's! So I've been naive to think my parents will just easily go to the 90's or 100's.

My emotions are all sitting on the surface, I vacillate from anger to deep sadness in seconds. I slept 10 hours today, longer than I have in years. The days seem surreal. I catch myself staring blankly at nothing.

I hope this is all for nothing. Next week she should get out of the hospital and onto UC Davis for investigation and a smart doctor will diagnose her, they'll apply the answer, it'll all be figured out.

men without worth

A snip from the life of non-traditional workforce. This has happened to me before. Yet everytime it amuzes and baffles me. I got a work order to go check some problems on a pair of chart recorders for some cold boxes. When I get to the cold boxes the technician from the calibration lab tells me he can't access the program for calibration. I tell him: I didn't set these peticular chart recorders up with their parameters, but since I've set up a few, I begin scrolling through the menus on the interface. I discover there is a password in the program, that is anyone's guess. He tells me the chart recorders were purchased from another company and some of his co-workers have come across them in another area of the facility. He said they ended up calling the other company and getting access that way. I said there is a global password, and did he try that? At that time, the director for the area walked up and wanted to know when the recorders would be ready for production, where we were with these, what was holding us up, etc... The cal lab guy says why don't we pull the power off the recorder and remove the battery. I figure it can't hurt it, knowing there's enough residual in the thing for me to dash over to my office and get the manual for the recorder. So as I leave, the cal lab guy removes the power and battery. When I get to my office I look over the manual, and it says in very vague lanuage, a mention of a password jumper. So I go back to the recorders and there is noone there. I jumper the password on the main board and viola! I put the device in calibration mode. Then I set the password protection to default and go to lunch break. I go on break and then back to my office where there is an email from the director saying the Cal lab guy saved the day by accessing the recorder and cracking the password code. Hmmm? Now the Cal lab guy knows full well he left the recorder off. When he came back it was on. He didn't talk to me to find out if that whole power off suggestion of his worked. So what did he say to the director? I never told either the Cal lab guy nor the director that the password was reset by my jumper which I removed before I powered the recorder back in calibration mode. Let them marinate in their divine glory. (I know this is harsh, but if you met Cal lab guy, you'd catch how much more important he is than you.) He has the same manual I have, he can read, I presume, and find the very same information I did concerning password bypass if he ever runs into the same problem, or (snicker) call the former owner of the recorder!