Daphne's Delight

I do a little e-column once a month at work, spotlighting some good news or a good time in some staff member's life. It's called "Bright Spot" and the idea is to counter, in some small way, all the bad news we get inundated with. With which. Whatever. This month it was about a new pregnancy. Enjoy.

My name is Daphne. I two years old. My Mommy is Sarah and my Daddy is Adrian. Mommy works at a big desk. Every day Daddy and I drive her to work, and she blows a kiss at me in the window and I wave. Sometimes she gets lost and I have to hold her hand and take her to her desk so she can find it.

Then Daddy and I go home so he can help me. I need to draw and paint because I a very good painter. Daddy turns the light on for me to paint and fixes snack for me. He says he is a “SAHD Dad”. Mommy says it’s ‘cause he’s a “Stay At Home Dad” but I think they teasing because Daddy can fly so he must be a Happy Dad. I know he can fly cuz one night I woke up and I heard Mommy and Daddy jumping on the bed and then Daddy asked Mommy if he could “let it fly”. Mommy said “go for it”. Then when he came to check on me he had a big smile. He’s a Happy Dad.

One day after that Mommy dinnint come home for lunch. Every day she comes home and we have peanut butter and jelly, my favorite. But that day Mommy told me she walked to the Fun Deer rest’rant and eated a big giant bunch of enchilalas and then she was still hungry! She said she had a hole in her tummy and she went to the store to buy a little piece of paper. I thought she was gonna put the paper in the hole, but she dinnint. She pee pee’d on the paper! Then she told Daddy it was Posatif. Daddy said no, it was Negatif. They silly.

The next day Mommy pee pee’d on another paper an’ it turned all blue, my favorite color. Mommy said, “I knew it! I could tell by that sick hungry feeling in my tummy. Our first try!” Daddy hugged her and he said, “Now I’m going to have to build on that addition” and Mommy rolled her eyes around and made me laugh. I like her funny faces.

One day Auntie Michelle was babysitting me and Auntie Michelle told me that Mommy and Daddy and me are gonna get a baby! And you know what? The baby is in Mommy’s tummy! Isn’t that funny? Mommy has a baby in her tummy! I guess it went in that hole she got from the Fun Deer res’trant. I told Mommy about the baby in her tummy and she opened her mouth really big and her eyes too. I guess she thought she was just getting a fat tummy, but now she knows about the baby cuz I told her. The baby is growing in Mommy’s tummy and Mommy says it’s gonna come out before Santa Claus gets here.

Mommy went to see her doctor. The doctor sewed up the door to Mommy’s Room in her tummy so the baby can’t fall out. Mommy said when I was in her Room the doctors had to sew the door shut too so I wouldn’t fall out. I glad the doctor sewed the Room shut cuz Mommy forgets things ever since she pee pee’d on that paper, and she might forget to close the door to the Room and then the baby would fall out. I don’t want the baby to fall out cuz she’s gonna be my baby sister and sleep in my room, but not the room in my tummy , the room with my bed in it.

Silly Mommy and Daddy say maaaaaybe the baby is a boy baby, but I know it’s a girl baby. Her name is Apple Mehlela Princess and I her big sister. I a big girl now, and I going to school. I happy I gonna have a sister. I had a brother before, but he went to heaven when he was a very very tiny baby. When my sister Apple Mehlela Princess comes out of Mommy’s Room, she will play with me and we will laugh at our crazy Mommy and Daddy.

If you see my Mommy working on her big desk please give her some food because she always hungry since she got that hole at the Fun Deer rest’rant. But don’t give her animals to eat cuz she never ate a animal her whole life. But ‘cept you can give her choclit if you want cuz she loves choclit, but not as much as she loves me and Daddy and our baby!

Call for Stories

Some of you know of my great good fortune in having been invited to help write a book this Spring. I lucked into it, and am still pinching myself! It's going to be an exciting book. It's called 50 Ways to Leave Your 40's and, as you might guess, it's about midlife.

I'm writing today to make you an offer you can't refuse - a chance to see YOUR stories in print! Please see the Call for Stories below.

Call for Stories!
For more information, email pspencer@unm.edu

50 Ways to Leave Your 40s: What to Do When Midlife Crisis Is Not Enough – Sheila Key and Peg Spencer, M.D., co-authors of a book-in-progress, are seeking a broad range of “lived experience” stories to flesh out their funny, soulful collection of essays, stories and informative sidebars, for people in midlife. To be published by New World Library in Fall 2007, this gift/personal-growth book has a mission of inspiring readers to live healthier, more meaningful lives in their “second half.” Please see the chapter lists posted (by section) at http://50waystoleaveyour40s.blogspot.com or email me at pspencer@unm.edu for more information. Please keep your anecdotes as brief as possible and focused on experiences from midlife. Please include your name and age, plus the “name” you’d like us to use in publication. Also welcome: your favorite movies, music, books, pop-cultural references, jokes, one-liners, quotations, websites, and anything else that bears a relationship to any of the chapter concepts. New deadline: 8/31/06. Thank you!

P.S. Just tell us your experience. It doesn't have to be poetic, perfect or even grammatically correct. We'll fix it.

P.P.S. For a great midlife story, please see Kim's post at Scared to Health. Thanks, Kim, for offering us your words and wisdom!

Awake and Sitting Up!

The latest grapevine report on Bikecrash Kid - he's awake and sitting up. This is wonderful news! His eventual neurological status is as yet unknown, and will probably take a while to establish, but I have whaddyacallit - guarded optimism.

Update on Crash Victim

Tentative good news on the crash victim from last week. I stopped by the fire station in the little nearby town on my way home yesterday, knowing that they'd have their ear to the grapevine. One of the guys told me that the kid, who had been kept in an induced coma for several days to minimize cerebral swelling, was starting to "come around".

No details as to the extent of his brain damage yet, but I'll post them when I know.

Rocky Mountain High

Greetings once again from my mountain hideaway.





I am surrounded by beauty such as most people rarely see.




We're working hard on writing, but still have some time to smell the wild roses and take some pictures.




Yes, I was this close.

Crash

This afternoon, as we were banging away on our keyboards, there was a knock on the cabin door. I recognized the woman on the porch from the retreat site office. She knew I was a doctor, and as soon as I saw her face I thought, "Uh, oh. Injury." Sure enough. They had gotten word at the office that someone had taken a bad fall on a mountain bike up the valley. WEnt off the edge of the road. He was unconscious, might have a broken leg...Rescue had been called, but if I wanted to go up ahead of them and see what I could do....

Of course I went. Threw my shoes on, stuffed a pack with what little I had with me, and jumped in the car. Sheila came with me. While I was getting ready, we saw and heard a police SUV go by up the dirt road, sirens echoing in the usually quiet valley. No ambulance yet. The ambulance would have to come from town, 8 miles from us, and 15 miles from the crash site.

I threw the Pathfinder into low and put pedal to the medal. Ten minutes later I was there, at "the bench", a familiar landmark almost all the way to the pass. The road, steep along a rocky ravine, takes a curve and a dive right there. I left it to Sheila to park the car out of the way, and walked down the road heading for the huddled group I could see on the slope below. Just then the ambulance arrived, so I offered my help as a "Family Physician from down there" - vague southward wave. "If you can use an extra pair of hands, I'm glad to help. Just tell me what to do." They accepted, and we trekked down. (I know better than to try to take over a scene from paramedics. They are the experts.)

Turns out it was a 14 year old kid. Tomorrow he turns 15. He had been riding downhill on the dirt mountain road - get this- without his helmet. He missed the turn there at the bench and went right over the edge, where there happens to be about a ten foot cliff. Best I can tell, he endo-ed and landed smack on the crown of his head. Depressed skull fracture as big as your fist. (So I heard - someone had a fat gauze and pressure on it the whole time so I didn't actually lay eyes on it). He rolled down from his impact point at the base of the cliff and lay there unconscious while watchers scrambled to help. I guess his dad was riding with him, and Mom was waiting at the car right nearby. One bystander happened to be a nurse, and had gotten to him, put pressure on the wound, and covered him with a blanket.

When we got down there, he was unconscious, very pale and grey, but breathing. All lung fields clear. Heart steady at a pulse of 80 (surprisingly low). Belly soft. Legs, arms abraded but apparently intact (possibly an ankle fracture, hard to tell). Distal pulses good. Not responsive to voice or painful stimulus. Blood and vomit all around.

When the head paramedic saw his head injury, she got on the radio for a helicopter. The rest of us acted as human splints, holding him in place on his side (how they found him I guess), and then holding him still for O2 and an IV when he started to come around and get combative (which was reassuring as he moved both arms and both legs). Mom was standing nearby wringing her hands. Dad was helping. The kid came to enough at one point to say a few words ("It hurts!") which I conveyed to Mom as good news. Dad was right next to me. I kept giving him jobs to do - "hold this, Dad." knowing how guys like to be active and figuring it was keeping him sane. I also held the kid's arms away from the oxygen mask and IV needle and spoke to him (more like a mom than a doc) - "I know, sweetheart, I know it hurts. We're going to take care of you." stuff like that.

The EMT or paramedic or whoever who was trying to get an IV line in failed twice. The oxygen mask was somewhere near the kid's mouth. We were working on a rocky slope. I was kneeling on some thick branches, and my back was up against the stump that probably stopped his tumble.

Meanwhile, the weather, which had been cloudy and dark, was getting steadily and rapidly worse. Lightning flashed. Raindrops started to spatter. The helicopter pilots radioed that they wouldn't be able to make it up there in this weather, so Boss Paramedic said, "Let's get him outta here." My sentiments exactly. So we did the one-two-three heave and lifted him up, slid their inflatable stretcher underneath him, set him down, strapped him in ("tighten that strap, Dad") and did another one-two-three heave to lift him (four handles on each side) and then carried him carefully up the side of the steep and rocky ravine as the drops changed to a downpour. Just as we got to the ambulance, the downpour changed to hail. Jeezus. I gave Mom a hug, (which I don't think she even felt) helped load the stuff up, then went back down the hill with another guy to clean up the garbage and mess we'd left, wrapping bloody gauze, needle caps, alcohol wipe wrappers and trash in a portion of the kid's Tshirt we had cut off him.

Got back up to the car, soaked to the skin and stinking of vomit, and just sat there breathing for a few minutes until a wave of aftershock hit. Just feel it Peg, it'll pass quicker. So, a few minutes and a few tears later, we were driving slowly down the hill in hail that was literally piling up on the road, a visible quarter mile behind the flashing and creeping ambulance. The plan was for them to get somewhere the copter could land (probably back in town) so the kid could be airlifted to the nearest trauma hospital, over the mountains from here.

I'm hoping his youth and health will get him through and that the damage to his brain isn't too bad, and that they can fix it. I'm thinking of all the positives, to the point of absurdity (well, he's less likely to herniate his brainstem cuz his skull is open and the swelling of his brain can go OUT). I'm hurting for his parents, Jehova's witnesses by the way, who must be kicking themselves over the helmet issue, to put it mildly, and frightened to the core.

I'll probably never know what happens. Maybe the mountain grapevine will get news back to us eventually, maybe not. Maybe not 'til after I'm gone next week.

Sheila and I drove somberly back to the cabin, where I showered and put on dry clothes, and then we opened a bottle of wine. Sounds cold, perhaps, but it was a tough day, and we wanted it. We toasted a prayer for the young man's life.

I keep seeing that kid's pale young face, a kid on the cusp of manhood, so terribly injured. I hope he makes it. Hold him in the light, as the Quakers say. Pray he sees his 15th birthday.

Writer's Retreat

Greetings from the Colorado Rockies! I am here for a 9 day writer's retreat with my friend and co-author, Sheila Key. She's a brilliant and funny writer who, to my endless amazement and gratitude, invited me to join her in her writing of "50 Ways to Leave Your 40's". Think we might get inspired by this view from our front porch?






Here's where we are staying. I must admit, it hasn't always been easy to stay indoors glued to our laptops, drinking green tea and coffee and being brilliantly creative.












Every so often, though, nature calls, so off we trundle to the outhouse. Kinda hard to leave this place too, though - check out that view!!



Here she is, the erstwhile author, busy at the keyboard. I guess I better get back there and join her! More pics in a few days. (deer, foxes, mountains, mountains, mountains)

Hi there. Just a quick fun post today. Pictures from my walk in the park the other day. Here's me waving at y'all:


You can see that we've been having a drought here. Some city parks have actually quit watering. (This one gets water, but clearly not enough to keep the grass all green)



















Here's my faithful companion, Neo the dog, doing what he does best.








A view of fickle skies, pretending to portend rain...and the pup, relieved of all burdens.

Los Globos race for the cure

Six o'clock on a Sunday morning. Dawn in Albuquerque and it was already 75 degrees on a cloudless day. Going to be another scorcher. But that didn't stop more than 3,000 committed citizens who flowed into the Balloon Fiesta Park for the 2006 Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure (for breast cancer). This is the registration table, with a blowup of Louis the Lobo (UNM sports mascot) behind it.



There were lots of sponsors for this event, giving away all kinds of goodies and trinkets.













The purpose of the run/walk is to raise money for breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. The guests of honor are the breast cancer survivors. Each survivor is given a pink T shirt, a pink bag of goodies, a free breakfast and a chance to stand up with other survivors and be honored by the crowd.










We have had several women on the clinic staff over the years that have struggled with breast cancer. This year, we were thrilled to have walking with us a survivor from our staff who couldn't walk last year because she was in the middle of chemo.






Here she is with her 16 year old daughter.






Our team, Los Globos, finally settled on the costume you see here: Trademark Lobo pawprints on a (home-decorated) T-shirt, and fuzzy gray wolf ears (also home-made, can ya tell?) on our hats.




There was a frankly silly pre-race warmup, led by one of those perky aerobics gals and followed by few.
The runners took off first, for a quick 5K'er in the full sun.







Once the runners were clear, the rest of us took off walking like a herd of, well, globos! The crowd wound
around the balloon fiesta park, past some volunteer high school cheerleaders, water tables and porta pots, and eventually back to the beginning.

Along the way we admired some of the other walkers.

This guy is a breast cancer survivor himself. He goes around the country doing these walks and speaking to remind men that they are not immune. This was his 170th race for the cure!

It was good congenial fun, but more than that, it was a tribute, a memorial, a walking prayer. I kept looking at the pink-shirted women and thinking, there but for the grace of God...As I walked, I held in my mind all the women I know who have suffered this disease. Some have survived. Some have not. Some are still struggling. All have known fear, and pain, loss, and gratitude.

Everyone finished, of course, in spite of the heat. It was only 5K, after all, a mere 3 mile walk. Compared to the journey the survivors have been on, it was nothing. I hope the funds we raised will help in some small way to lessen the burden of this awful cancer.

Oh, and by the way, Los Globos did win the Best Team Spirit award! Pizza party on Wednesday. You're all invited.

The End

Writer's Blogk

I told myself I'd never be one of those bloggers that disappeared from the blogosphere long enough to have to start a post with, "I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while." I'D keep up. I'D blog at least twice a week. I'D do better than THEM!

Ahem.

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while.

What, Peg?

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while!

Give me a break. I had PMS. Plus, the summer soccer season has started, and I coordinated two teams, both of which I know play on (co-ed and women over 30). (Alas, there's no league for "women WAY over 30" ). Plus, I was busy getting ready for the Komen Race for the Cure with team Los Globos! That's fodder for my next real post. Plus, I have been working on Real Writing. I have been asked to co-author a book! It's reeeeally exciting.

Enough excuses. I'm back.

Next up - Los Globos race for the cure!