Last Wednesday was supposed to be the first of my new weekly "Breath Away Wednesday" posts. I promised friends that I would begin blogging more and that I would post about at least one of those moments that take my breath away every week and I even invited some of my fellow bloggers to join me in my new Breath Away Wednesday.
Well, last week....I sure had no clue what kind of week I had in store for me, and while I did have a few of those "moments"...I sure didn't have time to post on Wednesday.
It all started by visiting my parents last Sunday. My mom had been sick with an upper respiratory infection for a few weeks and was FINALLY feeling better that day. We were there for most of the day and we had a really great visit.
On Monday, our day started just as any other...but something quickly changed. About 45 minutes after Eagle was awake, he began complaining of a stomach ache. Then, I noticed that he was having what seemed to be an allergy attack. His eyes were red and swollen looking and watering, his nose was running like a faucet and he was sneezing repeatedly. I asked him if he wanted some Benadryl, as it was obvious something had him all stirred up. He declined and said he was cold and went to sit on the heat vent. He fell asleep sitting up with his head rested on his med pac. After about 20 minutes, he got woken up. When he got up, he looked awful! He said he didn't feel good and he went to lay on the couch. Within 30 minutes, he was running a 102 fever and 30 minutes after that he was complaining of an excruciating headache. I suspected that he may have the flu. I offered him some liquid Motrin in a medicine cup and he said "I can't take it". When I asked why, he said he couldn't lift his head. I called the doctor to get him an appointment and they wanted me to bring him right in. When I went to get his coat on, his fever was up to about 104. I put the Motrin in a syringe and tried to give it to him, but he couldn't even swallow all of it. He was rushed to the doctor without even putting any shoes on him. We left the doctor with a diagnosis of an ear infection, thrush (from his lung med and previous antibiotic he took for his ear infection), strep throat and the Flu.
Now, they weren't going to test him for the flu because his strep test was positive, so they assumed that's all he had. I pushed for a flu test because we were with my parents the previous day and if he had the flu...we needed to know, as I was so worried about my mother! Now, if you don't know me personally, then you wouldn't know why my mother was such a concern. Nearly 4 years, my mother suffered a massive heart attack and well, that's a whole blog post in itself...so let's just say, that honestly, my mother simply shouldn't be here today, but as you will someday learn, she is an amazing fighter! So, each day we have with her is truly nothing more than a miracle. With that said...her health is very fragile...so, for her...something like the flu could very easily be life threatening.
Eagle, because of his lung condition, was the only one in our house to get the flu shot and oddly enough, he was the first one in our family to get the flu. He has made it through his illness, with no effect to his lungs! I ended up in the emergency room with three sick kids and in the doctors office one other time that week, all while being down with the flu myself...and believe it or not...this is not what took my breath away last week...
Remember that wonderful visit with my parents last Sunday, well, we unknowingly exposed my mom to the Flu that day (as the flu is contagious 1-2 days before onset of symptoms). On Monday, before we left our own doctor's office, I was on the phone calling my mom's doctor's office in an effort to get her a prescription for Tamiflu. I called them at 4:17pm...their office closed that day at 4:00pm. So, I was on the phone the next morning. Later that afternoon, they finally called back and they wanted my mom to wait and see if she ended up with symptoms of the flu. At 5:05pm, I received a call from my mom, who was crying. She said that about 30 minutes after she had hung up from me earlier that day, she got violently sick and had been continually sick and unable to call any sooner. Later that night, she was much worse. Now, anyone who knows my mom, knows how she loves hospitals (input sarcasam here), but that evening she told my dad that he needed to get her to the hospital because something wasn't right. In an effort to reassure her, he took her blood pressure. Unable to get any reading at all, he called 911. She was admitted into the ICU with severe dehydration, kidney failure among countless other things...and you guessed it, the Flu. Unable to get a blood pressure on her, she had surgery the next morning to have an arterial line put in, so that they could monitor her blood pressure that was too low to be obtained through a blood pressure cuff.
Still in the hospital, she is very slowly improving! I'll spare all of the details, but I will say this...she never ceases to amaze the doctors and nurses that take care of her! Her blood pressure was 32/20!!! Her doctors can not comprehend how she never lost conciousness. Anyone in the medical field will tell you that a blood pressure of 32/20 is simply not compatible with life!
But yet, somehow, she always defeats the odds just one more time...
To say we are blessed that she is still here is an understatement...
Not just this time, but so many times over the course of the last 3 1/2 years...
it is truly a miracle that my mother is still here.
32/20 and she is still here.....now, that takes my breath away!
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