I got a call at 4:00 Friday from a neighbor that my Mom had fallen on the patio and cut her head. I got a call at 5:00 from my Dad that the cut was still bleeding and they were going to go to an emergency clinic. I got a call at 9:00 from the doctor at the clinic saying that my Mom had needed stitches, but that she was going to be fine. However, they were not going to let a 91 year old woman with a head injury drive home in the dark with her 89 year old husband. I threw shorts, shirts, and socks into my suitcase and began the 3 hour drive to get them. I returned home tonight.

Why, I wondered as I drove, do well-meaning people, even medical professionals, treat someone who is hard of hearing as if they were ignorant? Part of the difficulty my mom had at the clinic was that because she can't hear, she didn't answer their questions promptly. Just because you can't hear doesn't mean you can't think.

I was 30 miles from home when I realized that I had packed so fast that I forgot a nightgown. I also forgot my eye drops, my vitamins, and my breakfast mix. Fortunately my parents eat flax seed and lots of fruit. I improvised.

My parents are fiercely independent. Most of the time that is a good thing. But why, I asked myself, didn't they listen when I suggested that they get a church friend to drive them to the clinic? I thought I had dodged a bullet by having cooperative teenagers. Was I now going to pay the price with rebellious parents? No - when I walked into the clinic they were so contrite and so sorry that I had driven 200 miles late at night. Today they were very cooperative as we planned together what we need to do for them to continue to live at home.

My Type O Dad has had problems with edema since he has been in the wheel chair. He stopped eating wheat 2 months ago and the edema is going away. His legs look so much better.

For my birthday I got an MP3 player. I didn't want to download hundreds of songs and videos like the kids want to do. I wanted to download a Bible teacher whose radio program is on at an inconvenient time where I now live. So I shopped around on the internet and found a good price on what was probably last year's model.

One day last week I was searching for something on the BTD website and I found an MP3 of a radio interview with Dr. D'Adamo. I wondered what his voice sounded like, so I saved the interview on my MP3 player.

I tossed the MP3 player in the car, and when I got tired of thinking, I listened to Bible studies from the book of 1 Samuel and the Dr. D radio interview. I thought I understood the background of the BTD pretty well, but I learned some things from the interview about lectins and secretor status that I had never understood. I'll probably quote from the interview in future blogs, but if you want to hear Dr. D explain it himself go to the home page and look on the left for Media Center.