Today, as I read my daily "On This Day" e-newsletter from Encyclopaedia Britannica, I realized that I recall precisely what I was doing whilst the "top event" of the day occurred (Britannica cites Arnold Schwarzenegger's inauguration as the "Governator" of California as the most historically significant event to occur on 17 November).
Strange. Understand: I am a news junkie. Under normal circumstances, I can't go for more than a few waking hours without hearing a newscast or visiting MSNBC, and my car radio is perpetually tuned to KCBS All-News 740 AM. (Like any junkie, I need my fix!) But, while I was vaguely aware that he was due to be inaugurated sometime that cold, dark, blustery November, I had absolutely no idea when it actually occurred...until I read Britannica's missive, that is.
So, what was I doing on this date in 2003, when I was oblivious to Arnie's taking of the Oath of Office? I was hanging over an oscillating ventilator isolette in the UCSF NICU, monitoring the various machines keeping the immobile scrap of humanity that was my precious 2-week-old daughter alive. Every couple of hours, I'd withdraw to a warm room furnished with comfy rocking chairs to express copious amounts of breast milk, praying all the while that, someday, she'd be able to drink it. My world, for those 4 agonizing weeks, extended no further than the shuttle bus route between the Ronald McDonald House and the Parnassus campus of UC San Francisco. At the time, I couldn't have cared LESS what was happening in the world at large, so long as I could roll up my sleeves, slipcover my shoes, scrub up, and visit my baby. I didn't turn on the news even once that whole month.
Six years later, there's a race going on for Arnie's successor in Sacramento. And here I am, writing this blog post just before dawn. It's about time for me to go shake that little girl awake, because school starts in a little over an hour...and because the alarm clock isn't loud enough for her to hear.
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Arnie's got nothing on sweet Calyssa (and her awesome mom!).
ReplyDeleteIt just occurred to me that I didn't mention WHY she was in the NICU. For those who don't know: Calyssa experienced acute meconium aspiration pneumonia at birth, and was in a coma, on life support for nearly 4 weeks...until her lungs healed enough to allow her to attempt to breathe. We were fortunate; while she was near death several times, the only "side effect" she seems to have had was the loss of her hearing.
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