Snow day!

Well, not for me, but for lots of you Arkansans- congrats! I remember when I thought everyone had snow days, and how I learned the hard way. My first year in grad school in Chicago, we had our first snowfall in November, a whopping 2 inches. And since where I grew up everybody hits Wal-Mart for provisions, boils water and bunkers down at the first mention of a snowflake, I thought, "Yay! No classes tomorrow!" I slept in, only to find out that not only had I missed class sessions, I was being ridiculed for my naïveté...by both students and faculty. One professor took pity on me and cut me a break; he was originally from Louisiana. At any rate, congrats on having one more vacation day.

Dad's better now, but we had a pretty big scare right before the new year. We don't know the origin, but Dad contracted an infection that spread to his blood. On Thursday his fever spiked to 105. There were 6 very tense hours that day where his outcome was up in the air. This could have come from anyone or anywhere; the holidays bring multiple groups of people together, and one of them may have had a cough. He/she shakes hand with someone...you know the drill. But with Dad's fragile and bedridden condition, what's a tiny sniffle for me or you could be deadly for him. I can't stress this enough: please be cautious if you are coming to visit: sanitize your hands on your way in and out of his room, both for his safety and yours. If you've not felt well, wait to come visit. We're in this for a while, so there will be plenty of time.

With all the infection fun, his Sunday Speaking Spectacular has virtually gone unnoticed. The focus once again went to ventilators (he had to go back on one temporarily, and periodically thereafter for treatments), antibiotics and cooling blankets. Once we're fully in the clear and his strength grows, we'll try again.

The transfer to a closer-to-home venue is still on, but delayed. There are a few people on the SSH list ahead of him who need to go, and of course they're checking his immune system to make sure he'll still be strong enough to go. Most likely we'll be seeing it happen mid-to-late January. I crossing my fingers that I can be home for it, although a work conference in Boston might prohibit that.

I've been doing a lot of research on TBIs, sound therapy and music's effect on these types of patients. Things like Mozart versus Motown, the use of bitonality in energizing or relaxing the brain. Music was a big part of our lives before, so it's only natural that it can help us now. Fascinating-yet-not-totally-related book recommendation: Oliver Sack's Musicophilia. Awesome read. Grab it if you're looking for something new.

I plan on chatting with Mumtaz and company tomorrow to see how they feel about Dad post-infection. KEEP HOPING. We still need it.