Grateful Harvest

I had hoped that we would make and bring Thanksgiving dinner to our "family" in Pediatric Oncology & Hematology at HUMC when instead, Sylvie and I are sicker than sick. As it turns out there are so many organizations who already provide that service that we'll have to come up with something else!

What a week it's been.

Last Friday, Michael's brother Ed suffered a heart attack. Two stents later from the skillful hands of our friend Dr. Kim and an arsenal of medicine, Ed is recovering at home. The following day after a trip to ICU, we turned around and headed to Philadelphia where Catherine, Andy, Sara and Michael were all running the full or half-marathon. Actually, we were kicked out of ICU because the nurse wanted Ed to rest and "think about' what happened. Wow. That nurse was one tough cookie, as my mom would say. Once in Philadelphia, we were excited to see our friends Michelle and Scott and their adorable baby Ian. I made pretty awesome signs for Andy, Catherine, Sara and Michael and nearly froze my fingers off holding them up while cheering them on. It was so cold that all four ran their fastest times ever! I've cheered Michael on at three other marathons and have to say, I get hysterically weepy when the first runners come around the corner. I simply cannot stop crying. Then when an older couple began jumping up and down as their daughter ran past, once again, the tears began flowing. I'm a little hormonal to say the least.

Sunday morning, when I checked in with my mom, she mentioned to me that Sylvie had a fever Saturday night. We sped to their house to get Sylvie who was definitely under the weather. By Sunday night, her temperature was over 103. So while my dad was having knee surgery at Hackensack, I brought Sylvie to Dr. Rosen on Monday where he determined it was viral and to keep giving Sylvie Tylenol and fluids. Her fever broke that night but she hasn't eaten since. Has not eaten a morsel since Sunday night.

I'll spare you the details because if you have kids or grandkids or work with kids, well then you know that kids get sick and there's nothing worse than seeing your child helplessly ill.

We are however a little sensitive to it. I have to admit, I have had to literally restrain myself from Googling bad shit about you know what. I also admit to calling Dr. Rosen today, Thanksgiving. We're going to see him tomorrow morning. Ironically Sylvie's supposed to get a preservative-free H1N1 vaccine next week.

So ah, Thanksgiving. With the exception of my passion for cooking and baking, I don't subscribe to the Thanksgiving holiday or how we expand the original historical concept of celebrating a grateful harvest (see the must-read Howard Zinn "The People's History of the United States") to being thankful for good things that have happened in our lives. I didn't ask for our daughter to battle a life-threatening illness in the first place, nor do any parents of sick children, so I can't be grateful for her being well on this day either. "Thanks for making the past 9 months suck, let's eat turkey." But I get it, if your family lives far away and they all come together on this day, well then that's positively wonderful.

Michael and Caroline are at my parents house feasting while Sylvie and I hang out at home nursing our Tylenol. I told Caroline that my dad is the world's best turkey carver and could literally be on David Letterman carving a bird. Good thing he had knee surgery instead of hand sugery! I do miss not being with them though. This might be my first Thanksgiving EVER not being with my family.

Sylvie went to sleep at 5:15 so I'm powering through The Vampire Diaries that I previously recorded. I sent them off with a caramelized apple cake, a pumpkin cheesecake with ginger crust and marshmallow topping, a chocolate pumpkin tart and roasted root veggies. If I were a judge on Iron Chef, my secret ingredient would be pumpkin.

Michael's 40th birthday is on Sunday so I'm really hoping to be over this African Sleeping Sickness thing so we can go out to dinner and celebrate him.

OK the princess is coughing so I must run for now. I hope they bring me home dessert!