Holiday Drama

I have decided that it is not in my own best interest to say to myself "That's it! I can not handle one more thing going awry in my life!" It is inevitable that something will follow....

The Thanksgiving holiday week started out grand. My mother-in-law flew in from Colorado. My husband took a couple of extra days off from work. The kids had great conferences and were now out of school. I had been cooking and cleaning and enjoying my "Domestic Goddess" mode.

I invited my parent's to dinner on Wednesday to visit with my lovely mother-in-law and it was a nice evening. As my parents were leaving I started having trouble breathing. My asthma had been kicking in that afternoon because of a particularly nasty head cold I caught from my hubby. I went through the normal procedure and gave myself a nebulizer treatment and popped a few extra prednisone to get things calmed down and back on track.

It was a hellish night to put it mildly. I could not breathe. Shad drove me around in the freezing cold night air while I tried to get the swelling down in my lungs. You could hear my wheezing through the whole house. I struggled for hours. I new that I was headed down the emergency room road but with company here and more company coming the following day I thought that I could get myself through it. Good Lord, I am an asthmatic control pro right?!?!

By morning I was running out of options. I had officially nebbed myself to death. My heart was racing and my oxygen levels were dropping. Off to the walk in clinic we went an hour before they even opened. I told Shad on the way there that I was NOT going to the hospital. They could shoot me full of steroids right there in the clinic and I could neb myself at home (which is exactly what they would do for me at the hospital.) I was quite simply defiant in my determination.

I was the first person standing in line at the walk in clinic when they opened the door. I had not taken three steps towards the check in desk when a nice little nurse scooped me up and wheeled my butt in the back, slapped on the oxygen, started a neb, called for the doctor and an ambulance. NOOOOOO!!! I cried. (at least spare us the expense of an ambulance ride, Shad can drive me, I have lasted THIS long!!!) So I argued in tears with the Doctor for the length of one more neb treatment and I was outvoted.

The ambulance arrived, the IV was started and intravenous steroids were administered. A heart monitor was slapped on when it was realized that I had over twenty nebs since the night before. Oh My, check out her heart rate "No, really?" I thought. I was now on a continuous duo neb and was literally buzzing off the gurney. Oh Joy. The nice little paramedic said that I may have to be intabated (SP?) on the way. "OH NO YOU DON'T! I SCREAMED, I AM NOT THAT TIRED!!!!!!" I wheezed. I think he decided that if I could shout that loud and mean at him I could probably keep breathing as long as it took to get me to the hospital. I admit to not being a very nice patient this time around.

I spent the next six hours in the emergency room trying to get Shad to go back home and visit with his Mom. My parent's came and sat with me with huge looks of pity and helplessness. One of my best friends and her children were on their way to my home to have dinner with us that afternoon and I was in the emergency room.

I am sure that my friend and my Mother-in-law had an exasperated good hearted laugh over the situation. Invite everyone to dinner and make the company cook all the food themselves! The ER Doc pressed to admit me to the hospital. I said it was unnecessary since I could do everything he was doing at home on my own. He pressed again, I said "Nope, I don't think so." Since, by now, I was feeling better. (Still like a humming bird on speed but not as wheezy) I figured I was good to go home. "Over the hump" as they say. I sent Shad on ahead to get things settled at home and my parent's had me home by the time the horsd'oeuvres were about gone. Yea! I made it home! I still got some spinach dip! We had a nice dinner and evening. We played games and I stayed VERY Quiet and VERY good on the couch doing nothing. Ha, make the company cook the dinner AND wash the dishes!!! That was horribly hard for me to do.

I had another rough night. It started about eight. I was so bloody exhausted from trying to breathe and so sick from the meds and the steroids I didn't know what to do. I called my mother at five am and asked her to take me to the hospital so that Shad could stay with the kids and his mom. I was right back on continuous nebs and IV steroids and after a nice high spike in blood pressure while buzzing off the bed in albuterol and atrovan hell I was admitted immediately. Oh joy, I have company, kids and hubby at home and I am now in the hospital, AGAIN!

I am now known as the woman that left the hospital so she could eat Turkey. The ER Doc made a bet that I would be back the same night I left but I showed him. (ok, I showed him by a matter of hours but it was NOT the same night) Why that even matters to me I don't know. I think it's a weird aggression thing from the high steroids. There are times when Shad simply does not appreciate my stubborn sense of humor. I can not be expected to be sane during situations when this many meds are involved.

"The woman that left the hospital for a few hours so she could eat Turkey." Ha, Ha, very funny. It was my mother-in-laws pecan pie I was really after. Anyway, my husband, children and mother-in-law had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. I spent a couple of long nights on Morphine. Even the morphine couldn't cut through the steroid buzz and let me sleep. I was released from the Hospital three days later. I am still not well. I am on enough steroids to kill a horse. I have no vocal cords left and I am beyond exhausted and raging hungry from the steroids. Quite frankly I AM CRANKY.

Oh yea, the afternoon that I was released from the hospital we had a giant snow storm (at least for this side of the mountains) and the power went out. Since I was still wheezy and had strict instructions per my hospital release to keep nebulizing myself, my hubby had to take my butt up to the fire station (which still thankfully had power) with my little nebulizer machine and meds so that I could sit in the fire house and take my medicine. Man was that embarrassing, but all you nice firemen have my sincere gratitude!!!

So I had one last day at home to visit with my mother-in-law. She continued to cook and do dishes and babysit. I bet she's ready to come back and visit again real soon! (: Then my hubby had to take her in the middle of an ice and snow storm at 1:00 in the morning to SEATAC airport so she could be there at four am for her six am flight. On all levels, it is just wrong to be required to be at the airport at four am. Off she safely went and fortunately my hubby made it back safe and sound.

I am not out of the woods yet but I am determined to do exactly as I am told and NOT end up back in the hospital this week! At least if I do it is not for the lack of doing everything I was suppose to do.

I do want to say a couple of quick thank you's...

Lea: for always having a sense of humor given ANY situation.

Audrey: for simply being a mom at her best.

Colette: for rubbing my head all night at the hospital until I fell asleep and not allowing the nurses to kick you out.

Shad: for sneaking me in spinach dip and a piece of pecan pie. You are an amazing man!

Mom and Dad for always being there when I need you.