Ah ... Poop!

Today was one of those days! Mark woke up just fine, but after I got Alex off to school and was getting Brendan fed and ready for preschool, he came down with severe pain in his chest and down his arm. We called 911, and within minutes our living room was full of medics again. Brendan, still in his jammies, stood right next to Kaitlyn, who was home sick, and just watched. One of the medics asked Mark if he had gotten ink all over his hands. Another, who has run on Mark before, said nope. That's just his regular color. Anyway, they took him off to the hospital. Kaitlyn changed her mind and went off to school. I packed a lunch, changed out of my torn jeans (since I'd been planning to go work in the community garden), grabbed a book and hit the road.

The tests, of course, revealed nothing. It took several doses of Dilaudid to get the pain somewhat under control. They also had to treat the nausea and then, eventually, the itching that he gets as a result of the narcotics. They also gave him Valium after a couple of hours.

I was hurting pretty badly today and after a couple of hours, I HAD to lay down. Obviously I wasn't going to lay down on the floor! So I put two chairs together, got three blankets out of the warmer, rolled them up and put under key achy spots, propped my feet up on the garbage can, and ... voila! The thing is ... I fell asleep! Mark asked me for something (ice?), and I just couldn't get up. I remember surfacing several times and noticing that he was having arrhythmias and that he was having shooting pain with each irregular beat. I knew the nurse came in and was concerned. And still, I couldn't get up. As it turns out, the arrhythmias were just PVCs, which are generally benign. Why they were causing him pain is anyone's guess!

I finally did manage to shake myself awake when they started talking about releasing him. I got home in time to pick up Bren at Becca's and then Alex at school. And then I had a lovely chat with Joellen, who always comes over to help out while I'm gone taking Mark to the pain center. (Obviously, he didn't go to his visit today.) She stayed until 6:30, when I left to go put in some time at the community garden.

See, the thing is ... when I signed up for the community garden, I pictured planting cute little seeds, showing up to water and weed ... I didn't realize that we all get to help take down and put up fencing and do little things like ... spread manure! Dang, that's hard word! Either that, or I'm a total wimp, but I did notice that the gal who was working with me was also walking like a robot by the time we rinsed out the wheelbarrows and put the tools away.

This gal that I met ... Anita. She seems really nice. Her husband fought brain cancer, but has been cancer free for five years. He can't work, however, and so is on disability. I felt an instant sort of bond with her. And even better ... she goes to my church! Of course, so do about 2,000 other people, which just might explain why I've never met her before. Hopefully, I'll see more of her as we work our little plots this summer.