{"id":195,"date":"2022-02-08T21:53:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T02:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foxglovesystems.com\/herbheineman\/Stowaway\/?page_id=195"},"modified":"2022-04-07T17:51:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T21:51:53","slug":"fourteen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Stowaway\/fourteen\/","title":{"rendered":"FOURTEEN"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Normally blood solidifies (coagulates) in minutes once it leaves the vascular system. Simple as it sounds, coagulation is far more complicated than drying out by evaporation. It involves a complex cascade of chemicals (\u201ccoagulation factors\u201d), each activated in turn upon completion of the previous step. Hemophilia comes in shades of severity, depending on the extent to which a coagulation factor (factor VIII most commonly, sometimes others) is lacking. In that respect Chris was lucky. His condition was designated clinically \u201cmild,\u201d meaning that it took significant trauma to make a joint bleed. The football-related injury was enough, but use of the knee for walking and running caused him no trouble before or after the event.<\/p>\n

C.J.\u2019s attitude toward Chris softened once the diagnosis was clear. He apologized for his ungracious behavior on the night of Chris\u2019s injury and thereafter spared no effort to be a protective older brother.<\/p>\n

His father was another matter. It was more than having a son of limited physical ability. After all, his first-born was everything a sports-loving father could have wanted, and he ought to be satisfied. So what if Chris became a poet, or a philosopher, or a homosexual \u2014 God forbid. A father can\u2019t have everything he wants. His mind went back to his own youth, his backyard football, his aplastic anemia. Jill<\/em>. How could he ever forget that sweet soul? How different his life might have been if she had lived.<\/p>\n

In his impulsive teenage years he had fantasized being married to Jill \u2014 recovered from leukemia, of course \u2014 and she would have been the mother of his children. Now, in his more mature thirties, he realized that this fantasy was without basis beyond his obsession with her vulnerability and courage, and, yes, his pity. But if there hadn\u2019t been time and further acquaintance to nurture his love, neither had there been time and further acquaintance to allow it to die naturally. So he treasured the memory even as his life moved on.<\/p>\n

In any case, with Jill he would not have had a son with hemophilia. If he\u2019d learned anything from the doctors, it was that Debbie was the vehicle. And so was Debbie\u2019s mother. Josh, like C.J., had gotten off scot-free, on the right side of statistics. And Chris was the unlucky one, the black sheep of not one but two generations.<\/p>\n

On a purely intellectual level, he couldn\u2019t blame Debbie. She didn\u2019t know what her genes were hiding. But intellectual justification was no match for his disappointment at Chris\u2019s disability. Con was angry at his son\u2019s bleeding disorder, at the Indian doctor who first diagnosed it, and at the checkers-and-chess-playing black doctor who had taken over Chris\u2019s care. And he was angry at Chris himself for not excelling at sports. The litany of justifications for his anger kept repeating itself.<\/p>\n

But Chris was an innocent child, victim of the injustice fate had perpetrated on him. He had done nothing to deserve his father\u2019s anger, and Con admonished himself to show Chris understanding. The doctors were doing their best, which was limited by what medicine offered at the time. They didn\u2019t deserve Con\u2019s anger either. They had earned status in their professions and Con was hardly competent to judge them.<\/p>\n

He felt like a tightly wound spring on the verge of tearing loose from its attachment. It was only a matter of time, unless he could find a way to relieve the tension. He said to Debbie:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to tell our parents about Chris, don\u2019t you think?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d she answered without hesitation. \u201cI can imagine how your dad will take it. He\u2019ll find a way to blame me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, would he be wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n

For a few seconds there was total silence, and the air between them seemed charged with electricity. Debbie tried to control her voice, but it shook nonetheless.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you<\/em> blame me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen what did you say?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust what I said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Debbie shook her head. \u201cDon\u2019t you distinguish between what I was born with and what I\u2019m to blame for? Don\u2019t you know that if I\u2019d known about my genes \u2014 which I didn\u2019t \u2014 there wasn\u2019t a thing I could do about it except refuse to have children? That\u2019s the kind of reasoning I\u2019d expect from your father, but not from you. I thought you\u2019d emancipated yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019d never expressed herself like that about his father, and she expected a harsh response. But luckily he took himself in hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo need to insult my father,\u201d he said quietly, \u201cnor me either. I know you\u2019re not to blame<\/em>, but you can\u2019t deny that you carry that gene, and that you transmitted it to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t deny it, and I feel terrible about it. But I don\u2019t want to quarrel with you about it. We both love him and we have to work together to give him what he needs. And it\u2019s time our parents, yours and mine, knew what\u2019s been going on. I\u2019ll take it up with mine while you\u2019re at the convention. And you\u2019ll take care of your end; I don\u2019t have the courage \u2014 your mother maybe, but your father, no way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOK, okay!! Soon as I get back.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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<< THIRTEEN<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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FIFTEEN >><\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Normally blood solidifies (coagulates) in minutes once it leaves the vascular system. Simple as it sounds, coagulation is far more complicated than drying out by evaporation. It involves a complex cascade of chemicals (\u201ccoagulation factors\u201d), each activated in turn upon completion of the previous step. Hemophilia comes in shades of severity, depending on the extent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-195","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nFOURTEEN - The Stowaway Gene<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Stowaway\/fourteen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FOURTEEN - The Stowaway Gene\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Normally blood solidifies (coagulates) in minutes once it leaves the vascular system. Simple as it sounds, coagulation is far more complicated than drying out by evaporation. 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