They Come in Threes

They Come in Threes, originally uploaded by macslost.

It's been said that all good (and usually bad) things come in threes. Typically I don't pay attention to that much except in the case of celebrity deaths. Pavarotti just kicked off the next wave after the Tammy Fay/Ingmar Bergman/Merv Griffin wave last month (which usually happens within 3 weeks, as well).

This summer has been a rough one for friends & family, though. And not just mine. A number of close friends have had relatives and friends hospital-bound or even die this summer.

Mine seems to be a 3-hospitalization in 3-months kind of deal. I blogged before about my Dad's sever bike accident last July. Broken ribs, clavicle, jacked up lungs. He was in for over 2 weeks and healed up pretty well. He's actually in India right now where the majority of his suffering has to do with the soaking-wet heat and eating too much Indian food.

Last month a good friend of mine (and groomsman in my wedding) got PLOWED over in NY by a town car. It ran OVER him and into a store front, with him still underneath. He had a fractured skull, clots in his brain, a broken hand and ankle, a collapsed lung and pneumonia in the other. They didn't know if he would be brain damaged or not. This happened 3 weeks ago and he's still in the hospital. He's doing MUCH better now and the doctors are amazed at his recovery. He's already planning his next marketing campaign for Madden. I'm flying out on Friday to see him. If he's still there, at the rate he's healing!

So then comes this morning's news. My cousin (my 2 cousins on my Dad's side are as close to me as my sister, so they might as well be brothers, since we grew up 3 blocks from each other) was admitted into the critical care unit in Santa Barbara He went in at 4:30am this morning with viral meningitis. I panicked for a second as I Googled it and saw that viral is the least dangerous version and most people with a healthy immune system get better in 7-10 days. So I hold onto the belief that he'll be fine by next weekend. I've got faith. You kind of have to after so much craziness abounds in such a short period of time.

Since my cousin was admitted to the same hospital that my Dad was and my sister had her baby (who, thankfully has been blessed with nothing but good luck so far, all happy & healthy) we're petitioning to have the hospital name changed to McLean Memorial.

It's only fair.

UPDATE: Turns out the virus was just some freak not-sure-what-it-was thing and the antibiotics seemed to have cleared it out pretty fast. He'll be in for another day or so for observation, but it looks like it'll be fine.