Baseball; Margie and the Super Bug

BASEBALL

We caught a lot of baseball as the season wound down. Brigid won Grand Prize in a Citibank/Mets contest and we spent a great Labor Day weekend at the beautiful Westin Diplomat with Margie and Brigid and her girlfriend Julie, enjoying a Met victory over the Marlins. Here is some video of David Wright with bags full. I won't give it away but it set up a late inning grand slam by Carlos Beltran to win the game. Guess which guy the Mets are going to let go?



In September we saw last-week-ever games at Shea and Yankee Stadiums. I had gotten two comps from the NY Blood Center for the Mets and went with my brother Dennis on 9/23. For the Mets, beating the Cubs with Santana leading the way, was one of the last happy recaps of another disappointing season. Before Dennis left he said goodbye to Section 1, where he and I sat when we were kids. We used to get to the park at 10:30 a.m. when the gates opened for a double-header.

The week before on September 18, I paid to see the Yankees beat the White Sox, Moose Mussina winning his 19th (on his way to become the first man to win 20 for the first time at 39), and Bobby Abreu hitting two HRs. Upper deck seats, a few rows from the last row, great seats behind the plate slightly up the third base line. Better get a last look at St. Patrick's, she's next to go.


MARGIE AND THE SUPERBUG

For many months Margie had a lump on her left hand. Every time she bumped the lump it hurt and I, like a fool, advised surgery. What followed was weeks of misery.

Hearing this story, I've heard several different approaches to handling a bump. One was whacking it with a ruler. Another was putting the hand flat on a table and dropping a thick book from a good height onto the lump. Both approaches reported mixed success.

So she went in for ambulatory surgery, came out with a lot of pain, and was prescribed preventative antibiotics. That's when real misery began. Her intestinal system went down, thanks to, I believe, the antibiotic destroying the good bacteria in her colon. After several days of woe, I sent her to my GI guy, Dr. Jay Weissbluth.

Dr. J is a genius. When I had my hour of need 10 years he said, "First we'll make you better, then we'll figure out what's wrong with you." Or, as he was getting ready to do my scope, he pulled a book off the shelf and said, "Let me check this, I've never done one before." Margie was in good hands and she's getting better. Should I mention the doctor who prescribed the antibiotic that made her sick for a month? Contact me and I'll tell you. He's in Park Slope. I'm not a doctor and I can't say for sure if my diagnosis is correct, but I can only wonder how many people he has serially prescribed this junk to.