My Sister's Keeper

Book club tonight - we read "My Sister's Keeper, " Jodi Picoult's bestselling book, that was made into a movie a couple years ago. I've not seen the movie, but I they really changed the book's ending for it.

I always have a hard time with medical stuff - ever since Patrick, our baby boy born with a heart defect. The pain from that time in my life has taken its toll on my outlook. When I watch TV, movies and even read about medical dramas I can't help but insert my feelings from my own medical drama.

The book is about a young girl who was born for the specific purpose of saving her sister's life - as her stem cells from the umbilical cord were supposed to cure her leukemia. Unfortunately it didn't work forever so ongoing sacrifices were necessary to keep her sister alive. In the book, she sues her parents for medical emancipation - so she won't have give her sister a kidney. It's a good book and the characters are believable and quite well-developed.

What a tough spot for parents to be in - one sick child, and would you want your other one to sacrifice for the one who is ill? We faced that dilema a bit with Patrick, when deciding on whether or not to pursue a heart transplant. To think of leaving our two healthy children for long periods to concentrate on Patrick and to rush to a hospital in Ohio, if he made it that long, for a heart. And we weren't sure if he had sustained brain damage from his initial crisis in Creston. And what quality of life would he have in the meantime - getting stuck with needles, on a respirator. We chose to let him go...

So after the drama of the discussion we did have some laughs at book club. The dogs (Thea has three - Peaches, Lucy and Hydrox (that's not really the 3rd one's name, but Oreo died and I never remember the new one's name...) I always like Hydrox better than Oreos anyway!

Diane told about when her son (who is now in his late 30s?) was young and saw Diane's friend breastfeeding (discreetly). He asked a series of questions so finally the friend, after asking permission showed Todd the baby and the breast. When he expressed doubt about milk coming out of there, the friend whipped the baby off the breast and shot him in the face. He walked out of the room and never discussed it! Traumatized I'm sure...

I told the story of the Mexican jumping beans that Dad got Betsy when she was with him on a Lorraine Lingerie sales trip to South Dakota. They were actually little worms inside of beans that would twitch making the beans "jump". Only they left the box in the sunny car window the next day - making them fry in the sun. Then they were Mexican resting beans.