Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Lifetime Movie - Part II

Well, there's been drama in Lewis Land. 
If you missed the first post, you've got some catching up to do and you might want to
CLICK HERE
to get up to speed.
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Enter the EMS guys with the Ambulance Serivce. Nice as can be. More questions.  More of the same questions.  Heart problems? Diabetes? High blood pressure? Family history of any disease? Drugs?
No. No. No. No. and NO.

They were checking his vitals, blood sugar etc. and still trying to get him to respond...and he actually did.  He just kept telling them that he was just so tired and he must've had a bad dream. Ha. 

One EMS guy asked him if he knew todays date.  Iain actually answered January 29th, which in my opinion was pretty impressive since that was the date when he fell asleep the night before.  What cracked me up was that when Iain answered ~ every one of those 6 guys looked at their watch or their phone to see what the date was.  NONE of them knew the date.  Ironic and pretty funny.  I asked him what day it was and he answered "Friday."  Again, that was the day before.  I knew he couldn't be too far gone.  He also knew that Nate's birthday party was at 2pm that afternoon.  Go figure.

There were a few reasons I wasn't completely freaking out at this point.
1. His breathing remained normal throughout the ordeal.
2. His color was really good....not flushed, or drained, or yellow, bluish or gray.
3. He occasionally made sense and was semi-lucid.
4. My 18 month old was in the house.
5. The EMS guys seemed more puzzled that worried.
6. One of the guys assured me it wasn't a stroke.

They asked me what had been happening in the last 24 hours and what was different.  Obviously the sleeping for 18 hours was a pretty big difference, but mainly it was the snoring thing.  He's snored before.  It's gotten bad lately.  The more tired he is - the worse it gets. But that night/morning it was HORRIBLE.  I heard it from the kitchen.  I actually videos some of it so he could see it when he woke up and understand how bad it's gotten.

"What hospital ma'am?"
One who think that would be an easy question. There are three - all about 20 minutes from our home. One of the guys helped me make the decision. St. Pat's -- it's closest. 
"Are you going to meet us there, ma'am?"
Are there really wives that don't go to the hospital?
"Yes sir.  First I have to get my baby taken care of."

Watching my husband being rolled out of our home on a gurney was too much.
My baby!  I run back to her room where she greets me with the sweetest, "Hi Mommy!"
I break.

Dana dresses her for the birthday party.  Thank heavens she was going too.  That'll be a good diversion.
I run around frantically packing diapers, food, clothes - wondering all the while when I'll see this little pumpkindoodle next.  I just don't know what's coming.
I buckle her in her car seat, kiss her and send her off with Dana.
My stomache knots.
I'm alone.

Dana takes our van, I take Iain's car and start driving to the hospital with my head spinning, tears spilling, prayers flying.  I thought of a dozen people I could call.  I call my brother. I knew he'd answer, be calm and call the right people.

He called me ten minutes later to ask where I was. (Twenty minute drive.) He and my dad were already at the hospital and had made it there even before the ambulance.

As I pull up to the E.R. and am running into the hospial, one of the nice EMS guys spots me and told me he'd take me right to Iain.  I barely nod to my dad and my brother and make it to the ER room just in enough time to have the curtain quickly drawn in my face.

"You'll have to wait a minute." the nurse says.
Dear heavens, what happened? What are they doing?
I'm stunned.

Some young girl behind a laptop down the hall catches my attention.  She says,
"Mrs. Lewis?  You can come here. I need some information."

I just want to see my husband. She knows my name.....she must have information.
"Yes, what can I do?"
"Mrs. Lewis, does your husband have a living will?"
I gaped in awe and felt as my eyes would open any wider, they would surely pop out of my head!
 THAT's the first question?  Did something happen on the way over here? Is he in worse shape than I imagined? Are you kidding me?
I stood in disbelief.
I couldn't answer her.
I had to assess the situation:   No one was running around the ER in a panic. There were no horrible sounds. I realize that this poor girl looked calm - so she couldn't be sitting on a big secret of my husband's condition.  Okay...she must just be from admitting. Breathe. Answer.

After dealing with her questions, and giving myself whiplash from craning to see if I could get into my husband's room, the nice EMS guy waited with me until I could go in.

It turns out that they had to catheterize him which is why they closed the curtain. Would've been nice to have know that as it was happening.

Finally get to see him. He's groggy, but can open his eyes and talk - sort of.

Me: "Well how are you feeling?
Iain: "I'm just tired. I had a bad dream and I have to pee."

Me: "Babe, don't worry. You've got a Foley in and it'll keep your bladder empty."
Iain: "Oh. Okay. I just have to pee."

I asked the WONDERFUL male nurse if the Foley is going make him feel the urge to urinate.
He says it will.  I explain this to Iain.  His response, "Okay....if I could just pee I'll be fine."

Out of the three hours we were in the hosptial, about 2 hours and 45 minutes of them were filled with comments about how he had to pee. Iain remembers none of this.

Oh...and in between the comments about needing to urinate, there were occasional random utterances.
He did keep telling me he loved me and he was sorry.
Then he shook his head and muttered, "I always knew I'd be the first to go."

I had to chuckle - even though it was a little concerning.
"THE FIRST TO GO? I don't know where the HELL you think you're going -- but I can assure you...this is NOT the end for you or for us Do you understand me?."  He shook his head and semi-smiled.

Bloodwork. Cat scan. Consultation with the doctor.  Nothing.
Everything was checking out.
The doctor was puzzled.
More bloodwork.
Nothing.
Bizarre.

CLICK HERE to read Part III
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Okay, I have to end it for the night.  I'll finish the rest of the saga tomorrow.
(Just so you know, Iain's continuing to do really well.)

5 comments:

  1. Please, please, PLEASE finish this saga tomorrow! Glad to hear he's continuing to get better!

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  2. I'm glad he's continuing to get better!

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  3. I'm on the edge of my seat here- hope all is still well and that you have some answers!

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  4. I hope he is better. Oh, what a crazy weekend you've had. Lots of prayers coming from McKinney : )

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  5. Reading these kind of posts reminds me of just how technology truly is something we cannot live without in this day and age, and I am fairly confident when I say that we have passed the point of no return in our relationship with technology.


    I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside... I just hope that as memory becomes less expensive, the possibility of uploading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about all the time.


    (Posted on Nintendo DS running [url=http://quizilla.teennick.com/stories/16129580/does-the-r4-or-r4i-work-with-the-new-ds]r4i dsi[/url] DS SKu2)

    ReplyDelete

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