To put things in perspective. Just when I finished whining about Dragon Dictate, an email arrived from my cousin, Terrell. She and her husband’s youngest daughter and one of her daughters were driving Wednesday night when a driver ran a red light and hit them. Both are okay and their daughter may be released from the hospital today, after a roller coaster of emotions.

“After xrays and cat scans of [daughter’s] neck, they found a tear in her carotid artery, which caused the ER doc to explain to her the very real possibility of a stroke and death, which scared her and all of us out of our minds.  They put her on IV blood thinner, and watched her in the  Shock and Trauma room of IHC hospital for the past three days.  She is now out of intensive care and in a nicer room, and the tear turned out to be very small, with one last layer of her artery still intact.  They believe the inner walls will heal themselves.”

The roller coaster came from the docs leading her to believe that she was about to die and saying good-bye to her family. It was only by chance that a doctor-family friend happened to see her and read her chart and reassured her that she had three other arteries to do the work for her and that the tear would heal and she’d be fine.

I say: The hell with Dragon. What does the upgrade have to do with anything important? My cousin’s daughter and granddaughter being okay is what is important. And I’m going to stay in this realistic mode for the rest of the day, starting with next posting Beck Knight Hammon’s formal birth announcement, which arrived yesterday. Becks’ card is charming. His sweet smiles remind me of the photos that Terrell’s husband, Paul, has taken of their children and grandchildren. Beautiful.