My first crawfish boil of 2019

StillH2OEgger

I was absolutely loving this thread until the latest news. Congrats on the wonderful party and best of luck with the really important stuff.

BUFFALOMOOSE

Thoughts and prayers to you and your family NOLA. 

nolaegghead

Thanks, y'all.

In a nutshell, had a great crawfish boil on Sat.  Sunday we all got up late and I said I had some breakfast steaks and stuff to cook up, but I was dragging.  My brother, SIL and niece decided to go out to the French Quarter/CBD area and hit a restaurant for brunch.

The went to Luke ( https://www.lukeneworleans.com/ ). 

My SIL, Jen, had a seizure there, my brother caught her as she was falling to the ground and injured his knee (can't put weight on it). 

There was a doctor eating there as a customer, he checked her out.  She was groggy but could move all extremities, eyes responsive, could remember her name.  Said she had some kind of seizure, had a name for it.

Ambulance came, they decided to take her to Tulane Medical Center's ER.

At the ER, they gave her a CT Scan, found something in/on her brain.  Decided to do an MRI.  She had another seizure about an hour after the first before the MRI. 

Weird thing on scan - they consulted a neurologist, said it looked like a meningioma and they said it really needs to come out and they were ready to schedule surgery.

 

The tumor was probably not cancerous based on the imagery, but was 3 cm in diameter and must go.

SWMBO asked them to see if she could travel, this kind of invasive surgery would be more manageable from a logistics standpoint if they could do it where they lived, in San Antonio.

nolaegghead

So they released her from the hospital, she was earlier transferred to the ICU.

They were up all night and SWMBO picked them up around noon and they tried getting some sleep at our place.  I ran around and found some crutches from my brother and filled a prescription for Jen, I think some anti-seizure medicine.  Hooked my brother up with some cold packs and braces (broke my knee about a year and half ago). 

Sent a pic of a monitor that had an image of the tumor and whatever info I knew to a couple egghead surgeons and they gave us a lot of great advice.

That's one of the great things about this forum - you meet friends in all walks of life and they are happy to share their expertise to help a fellow egghead.

Anyway, they booked some direct flights out of here to San Antonio for Tues afternoon and treatment will commence in San Antonio.

Thanks to everyone who has been supportive and has offered excellent advice, I'll keep y'all updated.

BTW - initial prognosis is positive with regard to outcome, but any invasive surgery in the skull and especially on the brain is not without risk, but modern medicine and science have never been better and we are optimistic.

johnmitchell

Thoughts and prayers to the whole family.. 

lousubcap

I am so sorry to read about your SIL and her condition.  She will beat this as it sounds about as good as it can be given the location.  Just gotta keep looking for the positives in all this.  Great call by SWMBO regarding the travel question.  Getting home is definitely a stress reliever. 

And if anyone on the forum deserves support from fellow eggheads it is you.  I am glad that you were on the receiving end of some solid support and advice given everything you have done and do for fellow forum members. 

Take no prisoners. 

bgebrent

Best wishes and good vibes to your SIL and entire family.

saluki2007

Sorry to hear man.  Sending good vibes your way.

YEMTrey

So sorry to hear Nola.  Hang in there.  

lkapigian

Prayers to Your SIL You and Your Family 

JohnnyTarheel

Best wishes and prayers brother

northGAcock

Boy....life can sure change quickly. All the best Carey and family with this journey.

mEGG_My_Day

All the best for your SIL Nola (and brother's knee).  Thoughts and prayers sent from Memphis.

caliking

SIL was fortunate to have this happen close to good medical care. Happy vibes and thoughts sent her (and your) way, for her surgery and recovery.  

SGH

@nolaegghead
Im certainly sorry to hear about your SIL. Hope all goes well my friend. 
On a separate note, the grub looks excellent. More especially those oysters👍

nolaegghead

I worked from home in the morning, made everyone a big breakfast of Gordon Ramsay style scrambled eggs, thick sliced bacon and toast, then dropped them off at the airport on my way to the laboratory, where I am working on the vascular latticework for artificial meats.

thetrim

Please don’t bring any of said artificial meats to butt blast for field testing.  

littlerascal56

Artificial meats huh?  I thought Arby’s already had the patent on that. 

Botch

If I may ask Carey, how much to you pay/lb of bugs in LA?
Reason I ask, we just had a new Cajun/Seafood restaurant open south of the base, and I tried it for lunch today.  They had a blackboard with current fresh prices, and "Live 'bugs" were $14.99/lb (I'm sure they're cheeper in LA, just wondering how much)
The restaurant?  Looked to me like a first effort.  Large, lots of white tablecloths, which were very cheep plastic and clung to everything.  Weird décor.  Got the "Gumbo and Half-Sammich" special for less than $10, the seafood gumbo was great, lotsa okra, shrimp, oyster and crab but the 1/2 crawdad po'-boy had a weird sauce on it (good bugs and bread, though).  Everything came out in plastic, the soup bowl and plasticware included.  Tasty and a lot of food for the price, but I don't expect them to be here long... :( 

Photo Egg

Botch said:

If I may ask Carey, how much to you pay/lb of bugs in LA?
Reason I ask, we just had a new Cajun/Seafood restaurant open south of the base, and I tried it for lunch today.  They had a blackboard with current fresh prices, and "Live 'bugs" were $14.99/lb (I'm sure they're cheeper in LA, just wondering how much)
The restaurant?  Looked to me like a first effort.  Large, lots of white tablecloths, which were very cheep plastic and clung to everything.  Weird décor.  Got the "Gumbo and Half-Sammich" special for less than $10, the seafood gumbo was great, lotsa okra, shrimp, oyster and crab but the 1/2 crawdad po'-boy had a weird sauce on it (good bugs and bread, though).  Everything came out in plastic, the soup bowl and plasticware included.  Tasty and a lot of food for the price, but I don't expect them to be here long... :( 

Damn, $15 a pound for uncooked. How much by the pound for cooked?
Around here, about $3.50 for live and $7 for nice cooked per pound.
location is everything...I would rather have cheap fresh salmon than mud bugs.lol

nolaegghead

@Botch I paid around $3.10.  Got them directly from a wholesaler that works with one farm and the quality is excellent.   He supplies 20,000 pounds in one day to the boil competition I do.

Prices are ranging around $3 - 4 for live right now.  Because Lent, and the bugs don't come out and get trapped unless it's a sunny.  Plus temp, etc.

After Easter, the prices will drop below $2. 

Botch

Thanks guys.  That was actually a bit larger difference than I was expecting.  

BeerMike

Wow!  Just incredible!  

littlerascal56

My buddy JD came from Louisiana, and works in Kansas City now.  He does a yearly “boil” for friends and customers.  It’s a fairly large Utility crowd, and it’s in May.  He still has family and connections down south, so he normally pays $1.50/lb after Easter.  Might make the trip this spring to check it out.

KiterTodd

Holy hell that looks incredible!

@nolaegghead

alaskanassasin

Hang in there brother Nola, I am glad you all were there to help. We are thinking good thoughts about you guys 

nolaegghead

alaskanassasin said:

Hang in there brother Nola, I am glad you all were there to help. We are thinking good thoughts about you guys 

They forgot the medical records so I took pics of all the paper documents and burned the MRI and CT image disk to an ISO image and sent via Google Drive, then FedEx'd everything to them.  argh.

alaskanassasin

You da man. Family.

bangor307

Hopefully the Dr's can get her back on the mend, good of you to help out.