I will confess that I'm going to my Christmas party from work this year, but
only because it was a great excuse to buy a fabulous designer dress this
weekend (Evan Piccone on sale) and get dressed to kill.

When I was single and living away from my folks, people would suggest that I
should spend my holidays volunteering all of the time.  Thanksgiving and
Christmas were the only two days I could count on not having to work so I
would generally take the time to just relax, catch up on reading and videos,
etc.  Hmmm, sounds like what I'm doing again this year, except the Packers
are playing on Thanksgiving day so
there's a few hours of time spoken for.  I'll probably also be catching up
on housework, school work, work work as time and stuff permit.

Jenn
(going to see the Pack play SF this weekend!!!!)

Although we do celebrate Christmas, I understand those who don't especially
like the day.  My suggestion would be to make up your own traditions.  I
know a friend who gets out to see a movie every year.  Take the holidays and
do what feels special to you.

Me too, Barbara.  I will keep you and Marty in my thoughts and
prayers.  It must be very hard -- I can only imagine.

Chris

Roxan, Chris, Beverly,

The next few days will tell more. Marty had a heart attack, probably
some time last week. The docs think he has a clot in his heart, a
trans esophageal echocardiogram (this is where the put the echo down
your throat) probably later today, will tell us more.

One day Marty's condition improves a little, next day he's in bad
shape. Today he wasn't in good enough shape to decide whether or not
he wanted to be DNR (do not resuscitate) so I had to make the decision
for him.

We'd talked about it, I know it's what he'd want, but this was very
hard to do. It was even harder watching them put the little red dot on
his wrist band, the indication at Fairfax not to resuscitate him if he
has a coronary.

The one good thing is that when it became obvious that Marty needed to
be hospitalized, I refused to let him be ambulanced to Alexandria
Hospital or Mount Vernon (which isn't much better). The doc on call
said 911 wouldn't ambulance him to Fairfax Hospital. Marty couldn't
walk and I didn't have a wheel chair. So I took my office chair and
wheeled him down to the car in that. He had to stand every time I
wheeled it over a threshhold, but we made it to the car, and then to
Fairfax. I bought a small fold up wheel chair to be kept in our trunk
from now on, so we will never have to deal with that again.

Well, outside of Fairfax being a far superior hospital with amazing
care (my experience so far), it is the major cardiac center in
Northern Virginia. I didn't know that Marty had suffered a heart
attack when I brought him there, and although I'm far from religious,
sometimes things do happen for a purpose.

Anyway, that's the latest. Thanks for all the good wishes. They are
very much appreciated.

Barbara

Barbara Hirsch, Publisher
OBESITY MEDS AND RESEARCH NEWS
The latest in obesity research and weight loss drug development
http://www.obesity-news.com/