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health & happiness

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2008.03.25

We had quite an experience today, this little family. We took Ken in for his scheduled check-up, and the doctor decided that surgery was going to be the best option. It's scheduled for the third week of April, though we don't yet have a date.

The decision came because we're still pushing the herniated bits back into the boy on a daily basis, frequently five or more times a day. And it's been getting harder to do so, with the hernia resisting and itself becoming a hardened lump.

I'd helped Mari take the baby to the hospital (itself quite a chore given that it was rush hour on the Yamanote loop) but had to go to work for noon. As has been the recent habit, I was intensely busy at the office, and wasn't able to read an email that came from Mari for a couple of hours after it arrived.

When I did, my heart sank. It was a chilling depiction of the ordeal that Ken was put through after I'd left. The blood work, the x-ray .. maybe it was just Mari's description, but I was left wondering how an eight-week-old survive it all without permanent trauma. Here's what she said:

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The check up finished around 1:00. He took an electrocardiogram, X-ray and blood test. I couldn't stand looking at our poor little boy...

His body was stabilized in some kind of retainer while he was in the X-ray. They tied down his arms and legs, and his head was held still with some padding.

And he was screaming when he took a blood test. (he didn't cry. I think he was complaining.)

I couldn't be with him at either time. I had to wait at the hallway. I was close to tears at the time...

But he was very good boy. I gave him a big hug after that.

Please give him a big hug from you, tonight. :)

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I gave him a hug, to be sure. Really wonder why on Earth I felt I had to go to the office.

rand()m quote

Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.

—Lenny Bruce