Thanksgiving in the E.R.

Instead of watching E.R. on TV on Thursday night, the scenes played out in real life as my husband and I spent more than six hours in the Duke Medical Center emergency room on Thanksgiving night with my mother-in-law.

To give you a little background: my mother-in-law is in the latter stages of Alzheimers. We moved her from her home in South Carolina to a home care facility close to us in NC so we could look after her better.

The night before Thanksgiving, she apparently fell and sprained her left arm while wandering in the middle of the night. She was taken to the E.R. where a cast was placed on her arm. On Thanksgiving Day, her son picked her up so she could spend part of the day with us and have dinner.

While I was distracted with completing dinner, my mother-in-law decided to remove the cast from her arm. This resulted in major swelling and since no one knew how to put the cast back on without having a major fight on our hands, we figured the best thing to do was to take her back the E.R. to have them do it.

I thought we would be out in an hour max because how long does it take to replace an arm cast? Well, it actually took more than six hours because cases kept coming in that became priority over her:

Case #1: Young man shot in the abdomen while sitting on his front porch. Suspects unknown.

Case #2: Two-year-old sticks popcorn kernel up his nose and required emergency surgery to remove it.

Case #3: DUI driver runs a red light and hits a car full of people who were returning home after visiting family for Thanksgiving.

Case #4: Young pregnant woman has too much to drink and goes into some kind of seizure.

I don’t know if it’s just Duke’s E.R. but their customer service was absolutely HORRIBLE!!! I don’t even want to think about the kind of treatment we could’ve received if we didn’t have insurance.

It was an interesting night and one that kept me from missing the traditional Black Friday shopping spree because I couldn’t get out of bed. I'm also beginning to understand the role many baby boomers, like myself, are going to have to play when it comes to dealing with aging parents.

Sesame Street For Adults Only?

Movies like Debbie Does Dallas have a warning label because they're x-rated but a warning label on a Sesame Street DVD? Are you kidding?

According to an article written by Virginia Heffernan in the NY Times magazine, there is a warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” indicating the videos are for adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

Sesame Street wasn't around for my baby boomer generation but my daughter grew up watching it. Sesame Street taught her about respect, the importance of learning and what it meant to be a good neighbor and better friend. It was OK to ask for an adult stranger's help and not worry about being abducted or abused. Who cared if Oscar the Grouch was always grumpy or if Cookie Monster ate too much junk food?

How sad to think the old Sesame Street neighborhood has become a victim of urban renewal.


"Come and play! Everything's A-OK.
Friendly neighbors there, that's where we meet.
Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?"

I'm Baby Boomer 305.24

It seems like our lives are identified by numbers. We have a social security number, driver’s license number and credit card numbers. We even have to have a number to identify the size of our clothes and shoes. Some of us have an incarceration number which, like your driver’s and social security numbers, will never go away.

But I learned recently that I have another number to add to my list. That number identifies me at my public library. That’s right. My book, Whatever! A Baby Boomer’s Journey Into Middle Age is in my local library! It sits right on the shelf alongside the autobiographies of former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Fox News Anchor Bill O’Reilly, to name a few.

It’s truly an honor to see my book sitting in a place with millions of other books. I worked hard on my book and even lost my job over it. Unlike other baby boomer authors, some who got wonderful five and six figure publishing deals, no one wanted to invest in me---so I had to invest in myself (or should I say my husband did). I still don’t have a distributor but it didn’t stop me from getting my book on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Last week, my book reached the Top 100 on Amazon in the Aging category. That’s quite an accomplishment from someone whose advertising budget came more from her drive and determination instead of her pocketbook.

Even with all of the numbers I have to try to remember, I don’t mind being baby boomer 305.24. I do have a problem with my dress size though and I’m definitely working to change it!