Happy Easter
Apr. 9th, 2007 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
garnigalI had a good long weekend and am trying to get back into my real life. It's a bit of a struggle though - I've been at the farm every weekend for the past three. I usually go up about once every two months. Mom and Dad are in the city so frequently that I don't really feel the need. However, the last three weeks have been killer.
My new nephew arrived on the 23rd of March. I'd already planned to head up to the farm - I had to get pictures of my brother together for a collage. So instead of the leisurely weekend I had planned - get pictures, get story written - I went up to the farm, found the pictures, back to Guelph, pick up D, go to Toronto to see the new baby.
The next weekend was my brother's Stag and Doe and the bris for the new baby. A Stag and Doe (or Buck and Doe) is a dance with all money raised given to the soon-to-be-wed couple, and a bris... well, if you don't know, look it up. Friday I was up at 5 am to get to TO for the 7:45 ceremony, stayed until around noon, then I spent the rest of the day printing the pictures Adam had sent me to include in the collage (which was for the Stag and Doe the next day). Saturday I had to buy the incidentals for the lunch at the party that night - you must serve food at any event serving alcohol in Ontario - and be in Brussels by 2. We were 20 minutes late. Then the wedding party spent the day together, going over the last minute details. By 8 we were back at the hall getting the last stuff set up, then we had to run the event. It was almost 2 before everyone left (lights came up at 1; I'm still not sure what they were all standing around waiting for), then there was the after party at the Bach Pad (the house my brother lives in with Adam's best friend and our cousin). We were driving Adam and Cheryl (the couple) so we couldn't leave. Finally fell into bed at 4, only to get woken for breakfast 4 hours later. About 20 of our closest family descended on the house for the Buck and Doe the night before and now wanted to be fed. :) We didn't get home to Guelph until 7 pm, and we were so freaking exhausted it wasn't even funny.
Monday is when Adam called to say Dad had malaria. Maybe.
Dad had been sick for about a week. He managed to hold on through the Stag and Doe weekend, but he was hospitalized on Monday. Symptoms looked suspiciously like malaria, and it is one of the health warnings for Costa Rica. Malaria will show up between 14 and 30 days of exposure, and we'd been down there from Mar 5 to 12, so the timing was right. He was in rough shape, especially for a guy like him who doesn't really get sick. He gets injured (and usually walks it off), he had a heart attack 10 years ago, but he's still one of the healthiest and most active people I know. This time he was sick enough to go to emerg (which he didn't do when he had his heart attack), and now he's getting daily blood draws to see how his illness is progressing. He was a bit better over Easter weekend. He can stay awake for 3 hours for every hour he naps. He didn't even play soccer with the kids on Easter at Parsons - he had a nap. Very atypical, if you know my dad at all.
We are all supposed to watch ourselves for symptoms, since we were all on vacation together. Mom and Dad, Adam and Cheryl all took anti-malarials for the trip while D and I didn't (irony!), but so far it looks like it was just Dad that got it. The worst part is that none of us really believed the diagnosis. It's a small town hospital and it seemed like they glommed onto the trip and went to their "Big Book of Tropical Diseases". As one of the doctors said "I'd say it was Dengue Fever, but you aren't bleeding from the eyes." Not exactly confidence inspiring. The blood tests were neither positive or negative, but inconclusive, probably because of the anti-malarials. Nevertheless, it's been a little whack at home, so Mom's been calling on a daily basis to... well, mostly to complain. She went right from Dad being away (he had to go to BC to help his cousin settle her mom in a nursing home - patriarchal responsibilities, you know) to dad being home and really, really sick. Dad doesn't do sick well, so she's been annoyed, and feeling guilty about being annoyed.
What a fun three weeks! Anyway, he's on the mend now. He's back to insulting people (though his sister got the zinger in regarding his illness - "maybe they'll just put you in a coma and wait for you to die"), and I'm sure he'll be wrestling with his nephews (who are way too old to want to wrestle, but that's another story) in no time.
Oh, and we raised over $3000 at the Buck and Doe.
My new nephew arrived on the 23rd of March. I'd already planned to head up to the farm - I had to get pictures of my brother together for a collage. So instead of the leisurely weekend I had planned - get pictures, get story written - I went up to the farm, found the pictures, back to Guelph, pick up D, go to Toronto to see the new baby.
The next weekend was my brother's Stag and Doe and the bris for the new baby. A Stag and Doe (or Buck and Doe) is a dance with all money raised given to the soon-to-be-wed couple, and a bris... well, if you don't know, look it up. Friday I was up at 5 am to get to TO for the 7:45 ceremony, stayed until around noon, then I spent the rest of the day printing the pictures Adam had sent me to include in the collage (which was for the Stag and Doe the next day). Saturday I had to buy the incidentals for the lunch at the party that night - you must serve food at any event serving alcohol in Ontario - and be in Brussels by 2. We were 20 minutes late. Then the wedding party spent the day together, going over the last minute details. By 8 we were back at the hall getting the last stuff set up, then we had to run the event. It was almost 2 before everyone left (lights came up at 1; I'm still not sure what they were all standing around waiting for), then there was the after party at the Bach Pad (the house my brother lives in with Adam's best friend and our cousin). We were driving Adam and Cheryl (the couple) so we couldn't leave. Finally fell into bed at 4, only to get woken for breakfast 4 hours later. About 20 of our closest family descended on the house for the Buck and Doe the night before and now wanted to be fed. :) We didn't get home to Guelph until 7 pm, and we were so freaking exhausted it wasn't even funny.
Monday is when Adam called to say Dad had malaria. Maybe.
Dad had been sick for about a week. He managed to hold on through the Stag and Doe weekend, but he was hospitalized on Monday. Symptoms looked suspiciously like malaria, and it is one of the health warnings for Costa Rica. Malaria will show up between 14 and 30 days of exposure, and we'd been down there from Mar 5 to 12, so the timing was right. He was in rough shape, especially for a guy like him who doesn't really get sick. He gets injured (and usually walks it off), he had a heart attack 10 years ago, but he's still one of the healthiest and most active people I know. This time he was sick enough to go to emerg (which he didn't do when he had his heart attack), and now he's getting daily blood draws to see how his illness is progressing. He was a bit better over Easter weekend. He can stay awake for 3 hours for every hour he naps. He didn't even play soccer with the kids on Easter at Parsons - he had a nap. Very atypical, if you know my dad at all.
We are all supposed to watch ourselves for symptoms, since we were all on vacation together. Mom and Dad, Adam and Cheryl all took anti-malarials for the trip while D and I didn't (irony!), but so far it looks like it was just Dad that got it. The worst part is that none of us really believed the diagnosis. It's a small town hospital and it seemed like they glommed onto the trip and went to their "Big Book of Tropical Diseases". As one of the doctors said "I'd say it was Dengue Fever, but you aren't bleeding from the eyes." Not exactly confidence inspiring. The blood tests were neither positive or negative, but inconclusive, probably because of the anti-malarials. Nevertheless, it's been a little whack at home, so Mom's been calling on a daily basis to... well, mostly to complain. She went right from Dad being away (he had to go to BC to help his cousin settle her mom in a nursing home - patriarchal responsibilities, you know) to dad being home and really, really sick. Dad doesn't do sick well, so she's been annoyed, and feeling guilty about being annoyed.
What a fun three weeks! Anyway, he's on the mend now. He's back to insulting people (though his sister got the zinger in regarding his illness - "maybe they'll just put you in a coma and wait for you to die"), and I'm sure he'll be wrestling with his nephews (who are way too old to want to wrestle, but that's another story) in no time.
Oh, and we raised over $3000 at the Buck and Doe.
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-09 03:38 pm (UTC)I've never heard of a "Stag and Doe" before, what a great idea.
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Date: 2007-04-09 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-09 03:53 pm (UTC)Malaria! How did he get it with the anti-drugs? Is he on heart medication that could have compromised the effectiveness of the anti=malarial drugs?
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Date: 2007-04-09 04:09 pm (UTC)A Stag and Doe is pretty much a rural southwestern Ontario tradition. I've never heard of it anywhere else. They do it in Manitoba, but they call it a social. You have to have a huge group of friends/family/friends of family that are local to pull it off. We're farmers and have been in the community for over 150 years, Adam bought a house in the same community, so our ties are strong enough to get over 400 people out on a Saturday night.
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