I’m back in New York, back to the grind, and back to my parents and their never changing ways. Since coming home after his bypass surgery, my dad for the first time in my life has admitted that the house is absolutely freezing, and the heat needs to be kept on. He had massive coughing fits until we turned on the heat and allowed him to breathe in warm air. Before I left, I insisted to my parents that they keep the central heating on so that my dad wouldn’t cough. He’s particularly susceptible to getting pneumonia because of his limited lung capacity as a result of the open heart surgery.

The last two days haven’t been good for him. He’s been kept awake by his coughing spasms, at times staying awake from 2-6am just coughing constantly. I feared he had caught pneumonia and insisted he make an appointment to see his primary care doctor immediately. He said he would e-mail Dr. Tang.

“Why are you e-mailing him? We already discussed that you were going to change primary care doctors after the surgery. He’s not a good doctor, and he doesn’t care about you!” I said, trying not to raise my voice.

“Well, how do I know that there is a doctor in the Kaiser network that is any better than him?” he asked weakly. I told him that his anesthesiologist said that she had a number of recommendations for more proactive doctors, and I was going to call her to get their names so that he could switch. He said okay.

My parents’ laziness and stubbornness is coming out again, except this is a true matter of life and death because this is his health.. during his critical recovery period, and there’s no way I’m going to let them make lazy, bone-headed decisions regarding this.