Last Thursday, I went to the Emergency Room as the bronchitis I've been fighting for over five weeks became just unmanageable. I couldn't get my breathing under control, and was experiencing some pretty scary stuff. DH was on his week of vacation and I already felt horrible for "ruining" it - this was supposed to be a fun time of decorating and getting ready for our Annual Halloween Hijinx party! I'll skip the gory details, but after a contrast CT, I was sent home with a dx of pnuemonia, and scripts for an inhaler and more antibiotics.
Friday evening, friends came over to help do party prep. I am eternally grateful to my co-hosts for that night as they slaved over the Jello shots and DH worked on food. I made the pumpkin bread cake. It looked like this, if I hadn't been feeling so bad.
Mine looked a lot crappier. It mimicked how I felt. We had a sick pumpkin bread cake. At least it was tasty, even if it wasn't as pretty as the one above.
Saturday night came along, and the party with it. I'm told everyone had a blast. I sat outside in the cool air trying to breathe, my spendy custom costume gone to waste, my makeup about the same as the Sick Pumpkin Cake instead of what I'd envisioned. I told my guests goodnight and went upstairs about 11pm, the last partygoers were kicked out around 3am when I told DH I needed to go back to the Emergency Room.
I was running a fever of 105.4. I've NEVER run a high fever before, and I hope never to again. I was in so much pain. At the ER, I thought all was well, my Xrays were clean, they said my lungs looked good, the on call doc wrote me a scrip for painkillers, cough, and a different antibiotic. My temp was down - WAY down to 95.8. And then.. the discharging nurse noticed that my O2 was hitting the 80's when I dozed off. There was so much crap in my lower lungs that my autonomous breathing wasn't giving me enough oxygen without me forcing deeper breaths while I was awake and in pain. I was admitted.
Admittance brought more pain - lots of needle sticks. We'll again skip the gory parts. The good part was - MORPHINE! Yay, not so much pain. The bad part was... well, everything else including the food. DH made sure I could have caffeine and sugar and brought me the most delicious Starbucks I've ever had. It was sooo good. And made me hack and cough and yanno because it was hot and relaxing.
I came home Monday afternoon - almost against medical advice, but they agreed to discharge me. However, no narcotics. This was going to suck, but I was going to be here for the kids' Halloween. I've never missed one yet, dammit.
So I'm on a ton of meds, but I'm home. On bedrest, and with a ton of decorations to take down.
Did I mention that next Monday we have both our daughters' first IEP/ARD meetings at the new school? And then on Tuesday, our kitchen starts getting ripped out and has to be completely empty?
*Deep breath*
*hack wheeze gasp*
One day at a time. That's the only way we're gonna make it through this right now. Oh, and the kids are doing science projects, too. So. Much. Fun. *screams*
Bless my littlest Batgirl, who told me to put on my big girl panties and deal with it.
backlinking to OrgJunkie
My GOODNESS!!! When you 'do it up' you do it well... Take care of yourself!! When they rip out your kitchen, be sure to wear a mask when you go in there for awhile... until the dust settles. You don't need to add that to your plate... take it from one who knows...
ReplyDeleteI brought home several masks from the ER lol. I'm not sure if they are rated well enough for the dust storm, if not, DH will run to Lowe's or wherever for me (he has Mondays off, thankfully).
ReplyDeleteWe did get all the Halloween decorations boxed up and the kitchen started on. The boxes are sitting in the garage until I'm well enough for a trip to our storage building (we need to rent a smaller one, actually, and then move this stuff in there so it will be a yucky trip probably NEXT Sunday).
Tomorrow I am sitting down and helping the kids on their Science Fair research during the day, then in the evening DH will work on the kitchen and I'll kind of tell him where to put stuff lol. I have to setup the coffeemaker up in our bathroom O.o that's the only place I can think to put it where there's room!
Sunday I will again be sitting down and while DH works in the kitchen with the kids emptying cupboards, I'll be printing out and filing and such for the ARDs Monday. So I have a lot to do, but I have a plan and a process (thanks Laura!) and I WILL be taking it as easy as I can.
Please, please let me survive this renovation... LOL we've never done anything like this before!
I'm sure this advice is going to fall on deaf ears (it would be if I was the one receiving it :) but make sure you TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF! You will never get better if you don't actually take advantage of the bed rest your were prescribed.
ReplyDeleteAs mothers we tend to put ourselves last but sometimes we just need to give ourselves some grace and accept some help. This is where you call your girlfriends and tell them you need some serious support to get everything done.
Take care - I can't wait to hear how the remodel goes. We did our kitchen a few years ago and absolutely love it!
No deaf ears here :) My husband did most everything and is a sweetie. I have spent a LOT of time either in bed - sleeping, even! - or just sitting down and taking it easy. So much so that I feel guilty :X
ReplyDeleteThe kitchen is cleaned out, the halloween stuff is all in the garage, and my daughter just finished her background research and emailed it to her teacher by the deadline. Yay!
I still have some prep work to do for our IEP meetings tomorrow, but it's all sitting here at my desk and there's not too much left to do; what there is left is hard mentally, but not physically.
Unfortunately, I don't have much of an offline support system. There isn't any backup to call in when I "go down".
After paperwork is ready for tomorrow, I have a nice long, hot bath planned, a footrub, and several glorious hours of sleep :) And DH just brought me a lovely and tasty decaf coffee drink that is yum and warm.