Life in Schusterville: February 2007

We had a great morning. The boys went to kidcare at the JCC so I could take my friend Sheila's class and they had a great time. Then we went to Monica's to get our hairs cut. Then we went home and took naps. Then we went grocery shopping. And through it all, my babies were wonderful. Mason left his "shirtie" at home when we went out, which is a HUGE deal (he says when he is 4 he won't need it any more....now if we could just get him to give up the thumb too) and neither one had any major fits.

Well, working out was my first mistake. Going to Monica's where she has a dog was my second mistake. Going grocery shopping in the cold rain was my third mistake. All of this added up to one big lovely.....visit to the ER. I used my inhaler maybe 6 or 7 times today and that is not good. What is even worse is that it wasn't working. So by the time Wolf got home at 7, I was trying not to panic, which of course, makes things worse. I didn't feel like this was gonna get better though so Wolf got mom to come home from work to take care of the kids and he rushed me to the hospital.

3 hours, 2 breathing treatments and 1 60 mg tablet of prednisone later, I am back at home feeling like the herd of elephants is no longer sitting on my chest but the mac truck that hit me has left tire marks. I'm exhausted but the prednisone and breathing treatments got me wired. I took cough syrup with codeine which may, or may not, help. It is now 11:40 and I want to sleep but can't. Luckily I am ordered to stay home tomorrow and the boys will be taken to school by Wolf, so I can just lay here and not to anything (something I very rarely do). It's a good thing Wolf bought me a new game for our wii. Woohoo.

And what is almost too scary is that 10 years ago at the end of this month, I almost died from asthma. The day was very similar to today in that all day I was taking my inhaler and it didn't work. Unfortunately at that time I was far less aware of my body and my asthma and I kept ignoring the signs. And Wolf and Toby did not know any better either. They assumed that I would know when I couldn't handle any more and something more drastic needed to be done. The problem was that I got so bad I began storing all of the carbon dioxide in my body and my body began trying to preserve itself by shutting everything down. Oxygen was also cut off to my brain and I was unable to think clearly. To make a long story short, 911 was called and when they arrived I said "you better hurry" then proceeded to pass out. I will be eternally grateful to those paramedics that saved my life (and I will forgive them the horrible track marks left on my arms). Wolf was told in the hospital in a not all that pleasant way that if he had waited 5 more minutes to call 911, I would have died. Nice, huh?

So, to think back on that and to realize how close I came to dying and how close to the anniversary date I am, kind of all creeps me out. Well, I did not get close to dying tonight, Wolf knew what to do better than I did and all is well. A little beat up but alive and breathing.

Gonna go watch some trashy tv and try to fall asleep.

I want to tell all of my family and friends that you are in my heart and even if I don't talk to you on a daily basis, I am thinking about you always.