I wish I had some small marshmallows, and maraschino cherries. They would have been perfect for the jello I just made. Jello; the mere word makes most young people including my children shiver in disgust and hit the highway as soon as possible. It quivers, it is clear and I have missed it. I have not made jello in 30 years, but one of the boxes for the Thanksgiving baskets got left on the counter and I couldn’t resist.

I started the kettle to boil the water, got out the right princess bowl (from the 40′s of course) and cleaned the little aluminum molds that helped entice an entire generation to eat something even my late basset hound wouldn’t touch. (Trust me I tried. She didn’t like marshmallows either)

Jello was fun! It was what was for desert most nights. And oh the combinations of things one could put into the shimmering dish. Chopped celery, raisins, mandarin oranges, minced pineapple, shredded carrots, the list is almost infinite.It could be used for a salad with the peas and carrots floating in a sea of green goo, for a fun side dish with olives and pimentos carousing with red jello. or jumpin and jivin with the myriad of fruits, nuts and sweet nothings that one could mix into it before putting it into the refrigerator to let it cool and get that gelatinous touch needed to make it wiggle.

There was, however, one dish of jello I refused to eat. It was called tomato aspic. My grandmother, a lovely gentlewoman from the South, had very fixed ideas about what was acceptable or not acceptable to eat at lunch. Chicken salad, egg salad, tuna, or a delicate sandwich with the crusts trimmed off were a yes, hamburgers or spaghetti were for truck drivers and definitely no. What was considered the queen of luncheon fare was her favorite… crab meat in tomato aspic. There was a special aluminum mold for this frightening dish. It was circular so that the tomato jello made a circle around the unsuspecting crab meat (“always leave a little shell in it dear, then they know it’s fresh”). Mayonnaise was placed in the well first and then the crab meat. It was a horror to me and a disagreement my grandmother and I never resolved although I still have the aspic mold. Hmmm…I wonder what I’m doing with that.

So tonight I shall have a small cup of orange jello. No fruit cocktail handy I had to chop up some lychees to put in, I couldn’t let the little fellow go naked. And I will remember a time when we had everything with butter, we dressed for dinner, and there was never enough whipped cream on top of the JELLO.

P.S So I go on the web to find a good photo of jello and I get this one. I hope you can read the writing. This confection is made with jello, yogurt and gummy bears. OMG!

I’m definitely doing better. The Wizard called several times to see how I was doing, even leaving his personal Owl for transmission of messages (read the guy left his cell phone number!)I was smitten. He said the labs didn’t show anything out of the ordinary, but I was still having sweats and shivers and then a neuron exploded and I called the travel clinic. Yeah, Malaria, of course. So that’s all under control and I start back in business on Thursday. (Weds. is Wizard day, remember it used to be Prince Spaghetti Day, but the Wiz tops this one.)

I just have to share this letter I got from Bluc Cross. I know, so many of you deal with insurance, hell, I couldn’t live with out Margaret my billing secretary, but this totally took the cake as the funniest thing I have ever gotten from an insurance company. I know my friends and family will all be greatly relieved that they approved my admission for inpatient FOR CANCER FCS!But they did warn me that they might not in the future. Ok, so here’s the letter, No lie.

Dear Member,

After careful review by the Clinical Cooination Department of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, I am pleased to inform you that the request for hospital services made on your behalf has been approved.

Place of Service: Inpatient Acute Care Hospital

Type of Service : Surgery

I’d like to remind you that your hospital admission must be medically necessary and may vary depending on your specific condition. We will work with your physcian while you are receiving hospital services (Do you think I get to bank the days I didn’t use? Ha)

Also, in order to receive benefits during your hospital stay you must remain eligible for coverage and the coverage must stay in force (What am I going to do since the bill is paid?) The nature and level of benefits available to you are specified in your Subscriber Certificate (which of course everyone reads when they are about to be sliced open). Blah blah blah

Sincerely,
Mark Dichter
March Dichter M.D
Physcian Review Unit
BCBS

I must say I find his last name rather appropriate. Ah yes Mother M is feeling better.
Keep the faith y’all and the roof should be open for some bevies this weekend.

I had been perking this for at least a day. Older daughter was due to leave and younger was to take the shift change. There was enough chaos going on in Virginia for Older to want to get home asap. We said goodnight and I fell into a hazy sleep. She would be leaving early the next day.

Fever induced sleep-wakedness is one of those long lonely things that one has to endure sometimes. We all know what it feels like. The skin is dry and you begin to understand the layers of your brain. My gray matter went from simmer to boil and back. The skull played a stellar game of cellular “red rover” holding on to the brains so they wouldn’t boil over and leak onto my crumpled pillow. Sweats, fever, sounds piercing the night, no place to hide till morning.The neighborhood drunk was having a bad go of it himself and was screaming combinations of obscenities that were rather creative given the lateness of the hour. And, No. I don’t call doctors in the middle of the night, I tough it out. And frankly I would have been in no mood to make that trip to the emergency room at that hour anyway.

In the morning I knew I was really sick, but there was the shift change thing and one was in Virginia and the other on the Garden State. I drank tons of green tea and finally when I knew that younger was close to the house broke down and called the Wizard. He sounded ominous and told me to get to the hospital and that I might have to stay. That shook me, here I had gotten an A+ in recovery so far.

Younger, husband and neurotic dog arrived within a half an hour and I explained about having to go to the hospital, so they dumped their stuff and off we went. I remarked that if I were in Africa I would just get a Z pack and be done with it. Ever the humorist Younger announced that we had access to good first world medicine and we were going to use it.

Hours later, failed IV line and I am home. Indeed I have an infection. Indeed I am going to have to wait it out. Oh and I’m going to get my Z pack after all. The only good thing I can say about being really sick like this is that if you relax into it, you know one day you will feel better, it’s just not now.

Track 9 ¾
You see it was most necessary that you read about Oz before you could come with me to this new place. How freeing to be rid of the anger and arrogance of Oz. I was now standing on Track 9 ¾ with an extra portkey just in case.
I had set up a meeting with the new Wizard with his secretary whose manner was definitely a Mrs. Weasley type if ever there was one. Eager to reassure me that she would fit me in, I actually had to calm her down a bit and tell her that just as there’s no crying in baseball, there’s no tweaking with cancer and that I felt certain she would find an appointment.

Indeed she did on 30 April, however the very next day the new Wizard himself called to cancel and reschedule. Now first of all I never heard of a Wizard personally calling a Griffindor, Ravenclaw or a Hufflepuff, but indeed he did. He did give me a new appointment that I could not make. Mother M did need to go to Jazz fest and have some bevies after all therefore the following day would not do. Back to Mrs. Weaseley and bingo an appointment on 30 April at a time conducive to all sorts of good things.

I arrived at the castle exactly on time. I was well equipped with my ipod for bible study and music, figuring an appointment at 12:30P was probably going to be a 2-hour wait. Remember I am used to Slitherin Surgeons who think that all they do is so important that waiting for them only means the patients will be more in awe of their importance and stature. I had no sooner settled in, didn’t even get the earphones in place when Weasley called me in. Not in, “take off your clothes, freeze and wait,” but right into the inner sanctum. There sat my Sirius, young albeit but definitely out of Hogwarts for a good long time.

I must digress a moment and tell you that both my daughters and I are rather medically savvy. Within hours of getting the news, both had gone to the appropriate medical sites and checked out the surgical options. I went on the Mass. Medical website and checked out the credentials of the potential candidates and definitely liked the looks of the new Wizard. I even read some of his publications.

So, we’re chatting away, Sirius and I, he shows me all the drawings, discusses the statistics and says something about a second opinion. I looked him dead in the eye and asked him why would I want that. He sort of choked and referred to people questioning him about his age and I told him I figured him for 39. (Mother can do math, and I knew when he graduated from the various schools and fellowships). He told me he was going to be 40 next week I asked him how he was doing with that and he smiled saying “Wow you really understand.” Instant comrades. Hired him on the spot, much to his surprise. Hey why waste time when you’ve got a nice Wizard?

Next move into the exam room and then set up the op date. Mrs. Weasley tried to move the schedule around a bit to make it sooner and I once again reiterated that we’d get the job done. She told me I was her new best friend when I agreed to 29 May instead of 22 May (ah beginning of the long weekend. What ever happened to Memorial Day on 31 May I’ll never know. And this year it would have actually been on the right day).

Signed the papers, set up the other tests, got the pre-op date and was done in 1 hour. I felt like a glass of pumpkin juice was definitely in order. The only thing that made me sad was that Weasley and Sirius were shocked that I took them on right away. I guess they are used to tire kickers and he’s used to being passed over for more senior folks. Frankly I’d far prefer someone his age who has steady hands, knows the latest, and actually calls the patients himself. Yeah, definitely good to be in the Castle. It’s like I get to go to the banquet and leave the whumping willows behind. Yee Haw!

Keep the faith y’all