It's 2:10 am...

...and I'm just getting home from the emergency room. I tell ya, there's never a dull moment around here.

I didn't mention in the last post that my mother wasn't feeling well when she left. When I said that my last guests just left, I was referring to my mom, sister and brother's girlfriend (SIL).

For a few months now, my mom's been experiencing these dizzy spells. Sometimes it's as quick as a head rush, sometimes it's a few seconds longer, but it always passes. At her last visit with her oncologist, she mentioned it to him. He wasn't too happy to hear about it, and immediately gave her orders for a CT scan of the brain. He had just finished telling her that even though she had passed the 5-year mark that usually indicated full remission, the type of tumor she had was a slow-growing tumor, and doesn't usually show itself again for 7 years. So, technically, she isn't in remission yet. Naturally, he was worried that perhaps the cancer had spread to the brain.

Ok, well, the scan came back clean, so no worries. But, my mom kept having these moments of dizziness. She mentioned that a while back, while cleaning her ears, she went in too far with her Q-tip (WTF?!) and hurt herself. There was some bleeding involved. So, she thought maybe that's what was causing this dizziness, or maybe some kind of inner-ear infection. Yet, she never made an appointment to see her GP and have it checked out.

Now, fast forward to today. When the party was winding down, my mom, sister and SIL went out to sit on my deck. I came out a little while later to join them. Apparently, my mother was feeling dizzy but never said anything. SIL made her some coffee, and we sat around chatting. When she said she was ready to go, she finally mentioned that she was feeling dizzy. But now, she was feeling REALLY dizzy. We thought maybe she was a bit dehydrated, between the margaritas and the coffee. I got her a bottle of water, and she took a few sips, but she said it wasn't helping. Every time she tried to stand, she had to immediately sit back down because she was so dizzy. She was also feeling nauseous at this point. We decided that I would just drive her home in her car, and CSJ agreed to follow us in his car, and drive me back home. My sister was pushing her to guzzle the water, since we were sure she needed the hydration.

I went out front to get my mother's car and pull it in my driveway so she wouldn't have to walk far, and CSJ left for my parents' house. When I walked back into my yard, I see my mother slumped over a bucket (actually, it was a big plastic party bucket, the kind you put drinks in). She had been puking her guts out. Well, we all know how I feel about puke! I went in to get her some ginger ale, while my sister and SIL tended to my mother. I guess she tried to stand up again, and almost fell. My sister put the puke bin in my trash can and we tried to get her in the car, but no such luck. She immediately started to heave. Thankfully, my sister got the bucket back in time!

A few minutes later, she thought she was ready to try getting to the car again. My sister and SIL each walked on either side of her, basically carrying her along. She got about 10 feet down the driveway, and had to stop. She then started projectile vomiting all over the side of my house. I ran to get her a chair, and she just sat and puked for a few more minutes. We went in and got her cool rags for her forehead and face, and an ice pack to put on the back of her neck. SIL swears it always helps her when she's pukey.

By now, about 25 minutes have passed, and I realize CSJ is sitting at my parents' house. I call him and tell him what's going on, and suggest he just bring my dad back to my house. I figured by the time they got there, we could get my mom in the car, and my dad could just drive home.

My mother was still sitting in the chair when the boys arrived. It was very slow going getting her in the car. Every time she moved, she felt like she wanted to puke. Every time she tried to stand up, she was overcome with dizziness. We finally got her in the car, but then my dad had to wait for a while for her to settle in before he could drive. I gave her a good, sturdy bag to puke in, if needed, and they finally were on their way. My dad told her that if she threw up any more, he was taking her to the hospital instead of home. While they were waiting around to leave, my brother called my dad, and said he was at my parents' house, so my dad told him to just go in, they were on their way. My sister and SIL were both going to head there, also. My SIL stopped on the way to get Pedialyte and Smartwater.

They all left, I came in, cleaned up a little, and called there about a half hour after they left to check on my mom. My sister said she seemed better, but she was still dizzy. I told her to call me if things changed. I went downstairs to finish cleaning up, but realized I was just too tired. I came back up, put on my jammies and got in bed. I then wrote that last post.

I watched some TV, and just as I was settling in for sleep, my SIL called. "Ok, so there's an ambulance here, they're taking your mom to Christ [that's our local hospital]. She had a really bad attack, and she's been puking her guts out for about a half hour." I tell her I'll meet them there, tear off my pajamas, throw on the first two things I find in my bedroom, and run out the door.

Wow, this is quite the saga, isn't it? Let me jump ahead a bit. They gave her an IV with saline to hydrate her, and something for her nausea. The first doctor that came in (intern?) took the whole history, did and exam, and basically said that given her history of cancer and her age, etc., she would like to do an MRI of the brain because even though the CT scan came back clean, there could be some abnormalities not picked up by the CT, but the MRI would see it. But, they don't do those in the ER, so she'd have to be admitted overnight, and have it done in the morning. Mom didn't like that a whole lot. The intern said she was going to discuss it with her supervising doctor, and the supervising doctor would be in soon.

Well, the supervising doctor completely agreed. They gave her some Valium in her IV, because he said that if it WAS an inner-ear thing, the Valium would help with that. (The intern had mentioned that she did see a scab in my mom's ear from the Q-tip incident, but that it wasn't far enough in the canal to have really caused a problem) If it isn't, it would still calm her down enough to maybe sleep. They also gave her more anti-nausea medication. They got her into a room in the CDU about an hour later, and that's where she is right now. I drove my daddy home, and here I am. I'm exhausted, yet I can't sleep. Holy crap, I just looked at the time! It's now 2:49! I've been sitting her typing for 40 minutes?!?! How could that be?

I have a killer migraine coming on, so I took a couple Advil before I started typing. Maybe they'll kick in enough for me to lie down now. I will, naturally, update tomorrow. In the meantime, feel free to send some good juju our way.

Day 21

Thursday, June 21, 2012
Have you ever "jumped out of your skin?"

Yes, but it was too hard to go on in life as a gelatinous, bloody, oozy, heap of organs, so I put the skin back on.

What the hell? I don't like this prompt. "Jumped out my skin" because I was scared? Or, because I was grossed out? I don't know.

Hmmm, scared...yes, there have been a couple of times I've been REALLY scared. OH!! It just hit me! I TOTALLY remember an incident where I "jumped out of my skin!"

When we were first married, we lived with my mother-in-law for a few months to save up a little money. At the time, she used to keep some bird feeders right on her kitchen window. The feeders had suction cups that kept them stuck to the window, so then you can conveniently watch the birds eat. Sounds great, right? You all know how much I love birds!

Ok, that's not what made me "jump out of my skin," though. The window that had these feeders was right over the kitchen sink, and faced the backyard. One day, I was walking toward the sink, when I a saw something move in the window. Not in front of the window, but IN the window, like between the outer and inner window. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, because it looked like a tail. While my brain was frantically trying to process what the hell it was I was seeing, A MOTHER-SCRATCHING MOUSE started to crawl into the window. A MOUSE!!!!! Oh, and did I mention that the window was OPEN?! Apparently, he was enjoying the all-you-can-eat buffet my mother-in-law set up for him.

That is the first time I was ever that scared. I was literally paralyzed with fear. I was trying to will my body to move, to run, anything, but I couldn't. I couldn't even breathe!

After what seemed like hours, but was probably seconds, the most blood-curdling scream I've ever heard came out of my mouth. At first, I didn't even realize it was happening, or coming from my own mouth. At least it scared the mouse enough to make it turn around and start back up the window.

CSJ came running out of the bedroom since I think he thought I was being murdered. I was still physically paralyzed, and could NOT move, and other than the screaming, I couldn't talk, so I couldn't tell him what was wrong. Thankfully, he must have realized my bugged-out eyes were aimed at the window. He saw the mouse, and slammed the window shut, so it couldn't come in the house.

Then he turned around and yelled at me to "SHUT UP, already!" I think he couldn't decide if he should laugh at me, or be pissed because I was screaming like a baby. But, then he saw how totally FREAKED out I was, and came over to put his arms around me. I was uncontrollably shaking, which then made him feel bad for yelling at me. He then went outside, took down the bird feeders, and who the hell knows WHAT he did to get rid of the mouse. All I know is, it took me forever to get anywhere near that sink again.

Wow, I haven't thought about that incident in a long time. Right now, my heart is pounding just from remembering the trauma of it all. Yikes!! Well, I think that counts as my cardio workout for today, don't you?

What a way to end the year...

I had every intention of posting this weekend, and wishing all my Bloggy Buddies a very Happy New Year. I was even going to gush a little about how CSJ and I got to spend the first NYE together since before Stud was born, and how nice it was, etc...

Yeah, well, the best laid plans....

THIS is the gang just after midnight.

Yes, that IS a hospital room, and my daddy IS in a gown. We spent the entire day at the hospital. After about 8 hours in the ER, we finally got him in a room. VERY long story short, we were told he had had a mini-stroke. Happy fuckin' New Year, right? I'm not up to it today, but maybe I'll share details tomorrow.

One "nice" thing - my dad's room was on the 9th floor of the hospital. This was the view out his window. We had a lovely view of beautiful Oak Lawn. haha! We DID have a beautiful view, however, of the incredible fireworks that started at midnight and went for nearly 20 minutes. We could see firework both near and far, it was amazing. My niece was trying to capture the fireworks, and managed to take about 5 pictures like the one above. They're still pretty pictures, though.

My daddy had a corner room, and the hospital has a glass corridor that connects the East/West and North/South wings. We could see the corridor from his room. My niece went out to take pictures from there of the fireworks, and snapped this picture of me and Daddy watching them.

I'm too wiped out to write anymore, so I'll be back later. I'm off to go see my daddy.

What a day!!

I'm just getting home from a LONG day. I'm so tired, I could cry. I have a killer migraine coming, partly because the only thing I've put in my mouth today was a piece of gum. The other part is that I woke up with my period. (Sorry, boys!)

Let me give you the highlights-

When I was about a block away from school at the end of the day, I got a call from Stud's school. It was the secretary from the Dean's Office. Naturally, my first thought was, "What the HELL did he do NOW!?" She tells me, "I'm just calling to tell you Stud is having some issues with stomach pains, and he's in the library. Are you on your way to pick him up?" I tell her I am, and she says, "Ok, then just come to the front and we'll buzz you in." Hmmm, that's weird, I thought. So now I'm driving a little more aggressively, as I'm trying to hurry. I called my sister to chat, like I do most days on my way home. I tell her about the call, and we keep talking. About 10 minutes after the first call, I get a second call from school. "This is Mrs. L. again. I just wanted to call you back so you weren't alarmed when you got here. We've called an ambulance for Stud." WTF?!?!?! I click back over to my sister, tell her what's going on, and she says she's leaving right now and she'll meet me there. Now, I'm kinda freaking out. While I'm driving like a lunatic, I make the executive decision to call CSJ.

It seemed that every single street I turned down was the wrong street. Construction here, traffic jam there, argh! I was losing it!! Then, I called my sister when I was about 5 or 6 blocks away to see if she was there yet. She said that she had just pulled up, but watched them load Stud into the ambulance and leave. She didn't know where they were going, because they seemed to be going the wrong way. As we were talking, I got close enough to the school to see the flashing lights of the ambulance, and they were, indeed, going the 'wrong' way. They were heading south, when the closest hospital was north, and only about a mile away.

My sister took off after the ambulance, while I tried to call the office. Because it was after hours, no one answered. I decided I'd better stop at the school first and find out where the hell they were going. I screeched into a spot in front of the entrance, threw my door open and ran to the building. I saw one of the deans waiting at the door for me. He told me that the two hospitals that were close were both on by-pass, and so they had to take Stud to a different hospital further away. I jumped back into my car, which I had left running with the door open, and took off down the street. I called my sister to let her know where they were going, which was a good because she had lost them at that point. I called CSJ back and updated him. At this point, I was in the full-on ugly cry. I couldn't believe I had missed them by a matter of less than a minute, and I kept thinking about my baby being alone in the back of an ambulance, probably scared to death.

Wow, this is WAY longer than I had intended, and I'm exhausted, so I'm going to wrap it up. First, let me tell you that he's fine. The doctor said it was probably just a virus. I guess what happened was, as he was sitting in the library after school, working on a paper, he got a pain in his hip. He said he felt like he needed to lie down, so he did, right there on the library floor. This prompted the librarian to yell at him to get up. But, as he started to try and get up, he felt his stomach start flip-flopping, so he yelled for a friend to bring him the garbage, and he proceeded to vomit several times. By then, the dean had arrived. He tried to help Stud get up, and then Stud said he told him he needed to use the bathroom. He was sweating profusely, and had the chills. He made it to the bathroom just in time to have massive, explosive diarrhea.

Apparently, when he started vomiting, the school decided to call 911. He said the paramedics arrived while he was in the bathroom, and they took him from there. At the hospital, they drew some blood (another post all by itself!!) and took a urine sample. Like I said, the doc said he thought it was just a virus, but wanted to wait for the lab work. In the meantime, they gave him some IV fluids, and some medication through the IV for pain, and the nausea. A little while later, the nurse came back for more blood (Oh, holy mother of God, yet ANOTHER post!!) and we waited some more. The doctor finally came back after about another hour and said everything came back normal, and that it was a stomach virus. He sent him home with 3 prescriptions (2 for pain/cramps, 1 for nausea/vomiting).

The nurse that came to discharge him removed the IV, and put a bandage on his hand. Well, for some reason, when he started to put his coat on, the bandage popped, and blood started spurting. I really thought I was going to have to catch him when he passed out. Instead, he managed to throw himself over the edge of the bed, while she fixed him up. That was the icing on the cake. I may have mentioned before that I DON'T DO BLOOD. Apparently, my crappy-ass attitude has rubbed off on my son. He doesn't do blood OR needles. Maybe I'll bore you with the details tomorrow.

We had plans for tonight to attend a special event for one of Stud's besties. His friend, George, was being baptized tonight at his new church, and had invited us to come about a month ago. For the past few days, we've been talking about tonight, and we made plans to pick up Bro from school, as he was invited, too. Oh, I forgot to mention Bro!

In the windup, he rode along in the ambulance with Stud, so he wasn't alone after all. I love that man!!! I told you a little about him here after the Mother/Son Dance. (George is also in that post. He's the one we snuck in to the dance!) Anyway, he stayed with us at the hospital for quite a while. Eventually, my sister decided she was going to go since CSJ was there with me, and so she took Bro home. I felt terrible that he had been there so long, and even worse that now, he didn't have a ride to the baptism. (Bro doesn't drive for medical reasons.) He said he was going to just walk there (the church is about 4-5 blocks from the boys' school, which is where Bro lives.) but the temperatures were going to be really frigid tonight. I felt awful.

I assumed we weren't going to make it to the baptism, given the circumstances, and I had texted George several times from the hospital to keep him in the loop, but the last few texts said we probably weren't going to make it. He kept saying not to worry about it, and to let him know how Stud was doing, etc. Well, somehow, we made really good time on the drive home, and lo and behold, we happen to approach the church only a few minutes after the event was to start. Stud absolutely INSISTED that we turn into the lot and go to the baptism. I kept telling him that George understood, but he said this was VERY important to George and he wanted to be there. So, we went!

We left the church around 9, but then had to drop off his prescriptions. I also had to get gas, as I didn't want to do it tomorrow. Our temperatures are supposed to drop to below zero tomorrow. By the time I went back to Walgreen's, and got home, it was nearly 10pm. Thank GOD Buster didn't decide to punish us by using my kitchen as a toilet. The poor baby hadn't been out since 7 this morning!

Oh my holy hell, it's now a quarter to 11!! I HAVE to go to bed. I still don't know whether Stud is going to school tomorrow or not. They didn't say he couldn't, and he's insisting he wants to go because he's working on some art project he REALLY wants to finish. (Yeah, how shocking that it isn't an English paper he REALLY want to write!) I'm afraid he may have a repeat of the vomiting, or, God forbid, the explosive diarrhea. I guess we'll have to wait and play it by ear in the morning. In the meantime, I'm going to go check on my baby, and then put my exhausted self to bed. I'm really feeling the effects of the adrenaline crash!