Wunder-mother/Med-el or Cochlear

Hey there....Friday=good, right? Tonight Schaller's with a good sized group. Christ again...hmmmm, I'm spending a whole lot of time with that guy. He's darling. Yesterday evening, a three hour session with Martin. I love my time with him, massage, bodywork, and also time to just "be" and to relax. We've been in each other's worlds for about three years - he has always been a port in the storm. Today, up and at 'em and exercising bright and early. It's a gloomy rainy day but I'll still do the lakefront walk - rain walks can be lovely. Life is good these days, hard but good. Glad to be here.

So, my head is spinning. Just checked out three new articles on NYT about exercise - a continuation of yesterday's discussion. The titles, Can You Make Yourself Smarter?, How Exercise Could Lead To A Better Brain, Post Prozac Nation. I read them all but I haven't digested them yet - it's like an avalanche - all this new research about the brain. The irony is that it's making MY brain hurt in trying to make sense of all of it. I'm going to digest this, read the articles again before I write about them. There's a lot there.

And really I need to make the blog post shorter today because I have a homework assignment. Liza has asked me to do Internet research on two types of cochlear implants. Her son Henry is a candidate for the procedure and now she is doing due diligence on the options available. She is also faced with a doctor at Children's Memorial who is the regional expert but who is also formidable and intractable  in her opinions.  Liza is feeling steamrollered into making a quick decision based on this woman's recommendations. Apparently most parents just accept her word as gospel. Not Liza. She is a wunder-mother and no one is going to do anything to her Henry without her having examined the options every which way from Adam. The little guy has been through so much. He was misdiagnosed as a baby with the flu when what he really had was meningitis. If the doctors at the E.R had made the right call, he wouldn't be deaf today. There was a critical hour, when he was in the E.R., where his hearing could have been protected from the ravages of the meningitis - something they would have administered to him immediately that would have stopped the damage. Sad, right?

Anyway he is a beautiful boy, smart with great people skills and Liza is determined he will speak some day. To date she has opted NOT to go the implant route because of her fear of another bout with meningitis - implants create an open aperture to the brain which carries its own risk of meningitis. What a hard decision it is for her - she feels like she is being asked to make godlike choices for another human being - with each option available carrying a set of risks.

So, got to go and start Googling so that I can weigh in on the pros and cons of each of the two companies that make implant products.  She wants all the smart people in her life to evaluate the choices dispassionately. I'm expecting it to be a bit like Beta versus VHS. I think the implant that Liza hopes for is made by a smaller, more innovative company. The one the doctor wants to use has been around longer, may be less efficacious but it's the "known" and the one she's comfortable with. It's doubtful the doctor would accept Liza's insistence on using the less well known device which may mean Liza finds a doctor elsewhere in the country and whisks little Henry to someplace like Johns Hopkins in Washington, D.C. If that's the right thing to do, you can be assured Liza will make whatever sacrifices are necessary to get the best for the little boy. Like I said wunder-mother.

The challenge today is BE THANKFUL!  Recently I picked up a girlfriend for lunch and she was full of angst about her financial planner being over-solicitous.  She got in the car in a foul mood, on a rampage and she, I think, expected me to feel compassion for her dilemma. "Should I fire the gal, give her a second chance, or just humor her?" she asked. In her world, at that moment, in her privileged universe, she was wrestling with a really serious problem. As she looked at me with agitation, I laughed at her. "You, my friend," I said, "are having rich girl problems!" My guess is that if you are wrestling with something this weekend, a kid that's not towing the line, too many proposals to review before Monday, a tiff with your spouse, too much to do and not enough time - you are NOT trying to decide which implant to put in your kid! Everyone think good thoughts for Henry and be grateful for your own mundane problems.

Peace,
Sarah

NADGB