tragedy or triumph

I cannot say that we have had any tragedy in our direct family, but if you watch the news on TV or read the newspaper it sure seems like bad news is all around us. Car accidents taking lives, armed robbery and murder, cancer victims, sometimes it seems like the we are immersed in a horrible society.

I can say that we have had many extremely stressful situations in our family, but when you are in the middle of them they sure seem to make us miserable. I think stress caused me to have heart problems a few years ago when we lived in San Antonio. I went to the doctor for a cough and chest pain as I have been paranoid about coughs ever since I had pneumonia when our daughter was born. The physician's assistant who was on call thought I was having a heart attack, after doing an EKG, so he rolled in the oxygen tank and immediately gave me nitroglycerin under my tongue. I told him I felt fine, but he insisted I go to the emergency room right away. He called my wife since he would not let me out the door without her, as he did not want me to drive. After months of tests, I finally found out that I had a heart aneurysm that is common among Japanese men who run. The only problem was that I am not Japanese; however, no one knows if I have had this from birth or it has been growing with age. I had my weekly check up this week, which was really a waste of $20 as the heart doctor did very little.

Also this week our daughter had surgery on her impacted teeth to help force them to come out straight. Her braces are going to help pull her teeth down into the right place over the next year or so. Sounds pretty nasty to me, but she had no problem with the anesthesia and is slowly recovering. This is another example of you read about people who die from going under, so you can get worried about such things. I think that only leaves our youngest son as the only one in the family that has not been put to sleep for surgery. All of the other kids have had their wisdom teeth removed, so they survived without any bad side affects. That reminds me of why my wife hates dentists as growing up in South Korea, the dentist she went to never used anesthesia. That must have been a lot of fun having cavities filled or drilling into teeth without your mouth being numb. It sounds so middle ages to me, but I guess I am a spoiled American!

It doesn't seem like much tragedy or triumph was shared in this post, but I certainly am thankful for these days of calmness in our family.