Minor Surgery

What is minor surgery? Minor surgery is surgery that happens to someone else. Unless that someone else is your child. My nine year old son is scheduled for surgery in the morning. He is scheduled to have a tympanoplasty. What is a tymponaplasty you wonder? It's a fancy word to describe the creation of a new ear drum from a piece of skin removed from the back of his ear lobe.

It will be the second time he's had this surgery but the first time he was only three and didn't realize what was happening. This time he is fully aware of what is happening and is scared. I know from an objective standpoint how simple the surgery is for a skilled surgeon. We have complete confidence in Dr. Hughes. That doesn't stop me from being concerned about my son.

I'm more worried about his anxiety than the actual surgery. I just hope he can get a good nights rest tonight and not worry too much about it. My mother has asked him if a gift card from Target would help ease his anxiety. I'm certain he will take her up on her offer.

A Pickled Conundrum

What do you think of when someone says pickle? If you are like most people you will thing of a pickled cucumber! Dill pickles, gherkins, bread and butter, garlic, etc.

But why does the cucumber get this distinction of just being a "pickle?" Lots of foods are pickled. Pickled eggs, pickled beets, pickled bologna, pickled corn and on and on. So why do we have to specify a pickled what unless we are talkinga about the lowly cucumber? Did they have a good PR firm or a better lobbyist?

I'm probably the only person to ever ponder this question but that doesn't mean I don't deserve an answer!