We're home from the hospital and it's almost as if we were never there. A month and half, and we were never there. Yeah, right.

Negligent Homicide

Jake had his breathing tube removed Friday. That's one step closer to getting out of here and getting back to Brooklyn. I don't think there's a word in the dictionary to describe how good it felt to see that tube taken out of his nose. That's our Bug.

I've been thinking about the recent story of the parents who basically let their kid die of an entirely treatable form of diabetes. They opted to pray for healing rather than taking her to the doctor. Where does this mindset come from? When I think about all the things we've been through with our son, I gotta say that we wouldn't be here without medicine. We had a fetal intervention for crissakes. Who comes up with that? We indebted to the advancement modern medicine and the availability of treatments that didn't exist even 20 years ago. We hope to be taking our son home from the hospital relatively soon, with a very good chance of avoiding heart surgery. Less than 5 years ago, he probably would have had to have some type of surgery and would have gone through life with only one functioning ventricle. His life would probably not have have normal.

What a disgrace those people are. Yes, there are beliefs and sticking to your values, but I would think that in a matter of life and death, all that goes out the window and you do what's best for your kid. It's mind boggling really and extremely sad. Negligent homicide sounds about right to me.

Good Night

Since Jake was born, he's been giving us gray hair, agita and upset stomachs. It's tough seeing your baby boy hooked up to machines that monitor every beat of his heart, every pulse of blood and every breath he takes. Machines beep and sound alarms and you jump with every one of them. The numbers go up and down and you go along for the ride. It's only natural.

He's had an infection brewing so the numbers were all screwed up. He's had so many lines getting stabbed in him in various places that he's starting to look like an infantile junkie. The infection was likely caused by all this stuff getting stuck in him, despite the staff's best efforts to keep things sanitary. He's been bruised up, dried out and handled like a rag doll.

Tonight though, his fever broke and his infection seems to be subsiding for now. He made my nightly visit enjoyable. He looked so peaceful and relaxed with his heart rate down in the 130's for the first time in several days. Plus he's learned to love the pacifier and sucks like a champ.

Music For Life

I need to get something out of the way before I post anything else. Our son Jake was born with a congenital heart defect. You can read the whole story here. The name of the page is baby casden. You may have to log in to view, it won't kill you. Now I can just report on things as they come instead of going into a long-winded discussion of what's happened to us in the last few months.

Just so you know, this blog will not be about congenital heart defects and all the namby pamby crap that goes along with that. Our kid is tough, he's going to rise above his condition.

Moving on... Since we're allowed to bring our own forms of entertainment into the ICU room, I've been introducing Jake to some music I thought he might like. So far he's enjoyed the sounds of The Lively Ones, Charlie Feathers, T-Bone Walker, some Studio One reggae tracks and Las Vegas Grind Vol. 1. Amy nixed the Bad Brains and I actually exercised some restraint - I thought the CICU was probably not the place for Slayer. Hopefully he turns out to have good taste in music. It's never too early to start.

In other music news, I bought a Fender Champ II off the 'bay the other day. I've sworn by my Marshall JCM 800 for over 15 years, but now that we have a small person in the house, I needed a smaller amp to play through. Neat little amps, only made briefly in the early '80s. They were designed by noted amp guy Paul Rivera. It's the little cousin of The Super Champ which goes for BIG bucks.

The Yankees suck. They can be really hard to watch. They never seem to get clutch hitting when they need to and the pitching just never lives up to the hype. But that's OK cause The Rangers are in the playoffs and thankfully, the Isles are not.

And lastly, from the "If I was king of the world dept." Paper. Why is there so much wasted paper in the world? Do I need 75 napkins when I get a piece of pizza or a cup of coffee? Am I that much of a slob? I can see getting one napkin, perhaps two for messier fare, but come on. People need to engage their brain and say, I don't need all this since I'm just going to throw it out unused or worse, leave it or dump it on the ground. Paper bags for everything - do you need a bag if you're going to eat your Big Mac in the restaurant? I almost always say, "I don't need a bag." I also find myself pushing the stack of napkins shoved at me back across the counter in hopes they will be saved for someone else. People are just unconscious, man. If I was king of the world, people would not be allowed to be so wasteful. Less paper=more trees. Case closed.

How Do?

Like most people who do this type of thing, I've created this blog to document some of the things in my life and to have an outlet for my thoughts.

My name is Greg. I'm 38 years old. I live in Brooklyn, NY with my wife Amy. Our first kid was born one week ago today, his name is Jake. We also have 3 cats: Mama who is a 2o year-old Russian Blue, the incorrigible kitty known as Maurice and one very large and crabby tabby named Jasper.

I have a few varied interests that I'll probably talk about here. Besides my wife, son and pets, my true love in life is the automobile. I recently completed a program at a technical school to become an auto technician, otherwise known as a mechanic. I love older cars from the '60's and '70s. I have restored/rebuilt a few. I also love door slammer drag racing - mostly nostalgia type stuff and the stockers.

My other main interest is music. I have been playing guitar for 20+ years and drums for almost 23 years. Car guys and guitar players are cut from a similar cloth, especially when it comes to gear. I guess I'm a gearhead-of-all-trades. I love cool guitar equipment of which I have a very small collection. Now with Jake around, it might be tough to crank it up on a regular basis but we'll see how it goes. Maybe he'll like it.

So that's all for my introduction. Hope you enjoy what I put up here. I don't have any sort of plan or expectations for this thing, but I thought I might want to give it a try. Dig it.