Gorilla ObGyn

I was watching the news tonight when it was announced that a gorilla at Brookfield Zoo had undergone surgery for "female issues." As I sat there, they interviewed a doctor about the surgery, and I thought, "Gee that looks like one of the docs who took care of me during my pregnancy." I rewound the footage, and sure enough, it was Dr. Murrey, who I have to say is one very cool individual. I LOVE her! Anyway, I would have caught more, but our DVR started recording Jon Stewart and cancelled the live programming. I visited Brookfield Zoo's site and copied a snippet just for fun. I guess one of my ObGyn's is famous now! I would like to work with primates at Brookfield eventually myself, so now I know who to call :)

"Recently, Beta has experienced some uncomfortable reproductive problems that many human women can probably identify with. In the past, issues of very heavy bleeding and fibroid tumors might have required a hysterectomy to treat, but Chicago Zoological Society vets wanted to try something else. They brought in Dr. Susan Murrey from Adventist Hinsdale Hospital to try out a relatively new treatment used on humans called hydrothermal ablation. The treatment has been used for similar problems in women who were at the same stage of life as Beta. A Case Study In Caring Once again, Beta has paved the way to better care for aging animals in the zoo---when Dr. Murrey performed the surgery it was believed to be another first for the groundbreaking gorilla. Even though this was her first time working with a gorilla patient, Dr. Murrey had no problems because a gorilla’s reproductive system is so similar to a human’s. Beta recovered quickly from the non-invasive, “out-patient” surgery, seeming to have experienced only minor discomfort. Like doctors who work with humans, veterinarians are always looking for new treatments that offer the best care for their patients. As with human women, the problems that Beta experienced are not unusual in older female gorillas. As primates in zoos continue to live longer lives, care like Beta’s will not be unusual---but for now, she is one of the world’s most unique primates and CZS will work hard to keep her happy, healthy, and living the life of a star in the future. "

In Mikey's Honor

Back on February 22nd, a sweet baby boy earned his angel wings. His name was Mikey. I knew of Mikey and his mom through the T21 forum I belong too. The people on that forum are my second family. I think of Mikey and his mom Danielle and their family all the time. What they went through and what they still go through on a daily basis, knowing sweet Mikey is in Heaven. One of the people from the forum, Connie, posted this beautiful song and pictures of Mikey on her blog and we were allowed to copy it as well in honor of Mikey. If any of you would like to do the same, please do! It would be wonderful seeing sweet Mikey's face all over on blogs in his honor.....This is for you Mikey!!!!!

Dancing with the Angels by Monk & Neagle

Memories surround me

But sadness has found me

I’d do anything for more time

Never before has someone meant more

And I can’t get you out of my mind

There is so much that I don’t understand

But I know

You’re dancing with the angels

Walking in new life

You’re dancing with the angels

Heaven fills your eyes

Now that you’re dancing with the angels

You had love for your family

Love for all people

Love for the Father, and Son

Your heart will be heard

In your unspoken words

Through generations to come

There is so much that I don’t understand

But I know you’re dancing with the angels…

We’re only here for such a short time

So I’m gonna stand up

Shout out And sing Hallelujah

One day I’ll see you again

Heh heh heh! My daughter decided that she was going to boycott naptime today. She kept yelling, "Aaaahhhh!" in her crib, and I knew that there was no way that she was going down today. So I pulled her out and she had a great time watching Barney, eating some yogurt, drinking her milk, and banging the stacking cups together. At about 5:15, she started showing signs of fatigue....finally....so I broke out the ziti and fed her. Well, I gave her a couple of spoons of spinach after the pasta went down when all of a sudden her eyes started closing. Then the head jerked once or twice. I just dropped everything, picked her up, and within maybe a minute or so she was fast asleep in my arms. 5:45 pm and my two and a half year old is already asleep!!! I hope to God that she sleeps through the night. Otherwise we're gonna hear feet swishing and tooth grinding in the middle of the night. I gotta say, though, that she was awfully darn cute passing out in her high chair!!!

I was looking at the calendar today and remembered that it is the first day of Cherokee II class (or Tsalagi). And I thought to myself, "Why not do a Cherokee word or phrase for the day" for the heck of it. So here goes:

Osiyo! Tohitsu? [Hi! How are you?] It's pronounced, "Oh see yo! Toe hee juh?" (bold for accented syllable)

I wrote it in English characters, but Cherokee is actually the first, and one of the only native languages that has its own writing system, called a syllabary. It was created by Sequoyah after he saw the white man with what he called, "talking leaves" (books.) According to what I've read, it is the only written language in the world created by just one person. Also it only took a couple of days for a person to learn. Pretty cool!

Mina and I went to my sister-in-law's house for an impromptu Easter meal with Grandma, aunts, uncle, and the cousins (Daddy was running errands.) It was a shorter visit, but really nice. And of course, being a Sicilian family, we had some ziti al forno (from the Soprano's Cookbook no less!) Mina has recently discovered pasta, and I thought for sure she would dig in to the ziti. But after a couple of tastes, she started throwing it onto the floor, and it had to be picked up so that the puppy (Bazzo) wouldn't get to it. Sigh! So back to the baby food (yech!) Of course, it turns out that she was coming down with something, and it was kind of chaotic. When she got back home, Daddy started feeding her some ziti, and she was in Mina heaven....eating ziti and watching Barney
while in her Easter dress.

I got a couple of pictures of her in her dress and sweater, and I swear she looks like she's saying, "I'm not listening!" The other one is a shot of her 'do....mom was pretty proud of her hairstyling this time.

OK, I'm done now with the pictures. Needless to say, she was so beautiful. I don't know about you all, but I was never this cute when I was little. I'm sure you feel the same way about your kids. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

After a full week of health and giddiness, I started wondering when the next round of illness or sleep problems would happen. Well, exactly one week after Mina started to feel better after the stomach flu. Turns out she's come down with massive congestion again, and even a little fever. She ended up sleeping something like 3-4 hours this afternoon, which she never does, and then didn't fall asleep until about 9pm. Mind you she started rubbing her eyes at about 7:00 pm, so whaddya do?! I knew that kids were carriers of all kinds of germs, but I didn't think that every time she went to day care FOR AN HOUR that she'd get sick again. The things you learn when you become a parent.

Lazy Woman Has Figured it Out....she thinks.....

I was tagged by Rose to think about 5 things I love about being a woman (or was it feminism???) So here goes nothin'!

1) Being able to conceive, carry, and give birth to another human being. It creates a bond I never knew existed.

2) The multitude of clothing options for us. I mean let's face it....we can get away with men's style suits, but men can't get away with frilly lingerie!

3) The way we're wired to be compassionate and relational. It can be emotionally draining, but I think the human race would die off if it didn't have that social bond. Not that men can't bond, but it's just a particular strength of women, in my opinion.

4) Something Rose said hit me......just the ability to be engulfed by someone bigger's arms and be secure and safe there.

5) When you beat a guy at something a guy thinks you can't do because you're a woman, and you do it without hurting his ego.

I probably could have come up with some better things, but I am fairly out of it this evening (as an old boss would say, "just today, Julie?!"...thanks Rita!)