Cordelia's Mom, Still

What is it about full moons?

Friday had already started off bad.  I was a week overdue for my Remicade treatment, and I was having some serious issues from my ulcerative colitis (don’t worry, I won’t go into details).  I was so happy that I would be leaving work at 1:00 pm to get my treatment.

Work was a madhouse.  A co-worker had a death in the family, and both she and her daughter (who also works with us) had to leave.  The big boss was struggling to put out all the fires caused by the staff shortage, and the big boss was stressed.

An associate had emailed me instructions on a file which he had, and on which I had neglected to do a number of things mainly because I didn’t have the file.  OK, no excuse – I should have looked for it, I admit that.  But what made the shit hit the fan was that the associate included not only the big boss in the email, he also inadvertently sent the email to the client.  Big boss totally flipped out and basically threatened both our jobs.

No sooner had I returned to my little closet after that confrontation than my cell phone rang.  My family knows not to call during the day, so I suspected it would be something bad.  Sure enough, I learned that hubby had just received a call that our youngest was being taken by ambulance to the hospital because she had blood clots on her lungs.

Now, I had to go back and talk to the big boss.  While waiting for her to get off an obviously annoying phone call, my cell phone kept chirping with incoming texts.  Normally, I keep the phone off during work hours, but had forgotten this day.  Big boss started waving at me when the phone chirped for about the fourth time, and then angrily stood up behind her desk.  I mouthed “I have an emergency!”

Well, big boss does care about her employees.  She put her caller on hold, I told her what had happened, and she told me to go and they would take care of whatever I was doing workwise.  Meaning, of course, that most of it would ultimately fall on her.  I do appreciate that, believe me.

Before putting the car in gear, I called hubby to let him know I was on the way.  He told me our daughter hadn’t arrived at the hospital, she was still at the imaging center where a CT scan had disclosed the blood clots, and the center staff had called the ambulance.  The imaging center isn’t too far from the office, so I decided to go there.

Being me, I wasn’t 100% sure where I was going, so when I got to what I thought was the right corner, I ran into a different medical building and asked for directions.  Following those directions, I went the wrong way, and then had to call Cordelia to look up the actual address of the imaging center.  Naturally, by the time I got to the right place, the ambulance had already picked my youngest up and taken her to the hospital.

By now, it was the appointment time for my treatment.  Hubby was at the hospital with my youngest, and I really needed my Remicade because I was already getting sick.  I called hubby, and he agreed that he could hold down the fort – he had spoken with the EMTs and with my youngest, and things, while serious, weren’t as dire as they had seemed.

The infusion center where I get my Remicade has several treatment areas – one very large room with 5 chairs, and several individual rooms.  Normally, I am placed in one of the individual rooms.  Not today – today I was escorted into the big room, which was full, and I was stressed and nearly in tears.  Everyone was looking at me odd as I explained what had happened.  My blood pressure was 156/101.  The nurses agreed to re-take the blood pressure after I had been in the chair awhile and after the Benadryl had taken effect.  Blood pressure came down to 140/81.  I wouldn’t stroke out and have to be taken by ambulance to the same hospital as my kid – yay!

The good news was that because my blood pressure was so high, those veins popped right out and the needle went in on the first try.  Woo-hoo!

After the Remicade, I drove to the hospital.   Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but after getting IV Benadryl, I’m not the greatest driver in the world.  Normally, I head straight home and climb into bed.  But not today.  I did, however, refuse to help hubby retrieve my daughter’s car from the image center parking lot – he got Cordelia to help with that.

By the time I got to the hospital, my youngest had been admitted to a room, and I was happy to see her sitting up in good spirits and minimal pain.

A little background – the week before, my youngest had called me early in the morning to say she had a severe back ache, she thought from over-exercising, and hubby took her to her primary, who sent her for a kidney x-ray and then prescribed muscle relaxants.  If a chest x-ray had been done at that time, the blood clots might have been found sooner.  This does not make me happy.

Anyway.

To make a long story shorter, the doctors think the blood clots were caused because my daughter has been on birth control pills since she was 18.  Apparently, this is very common with young women these days.  She was put on blood thinners, blood tests were taken, her legs were sonogrammed, and she was seen by a pulmonologist.  She was kept overnight and released the next day, to be followed as an outpatient by the pulmonologist.

Once again, I got to know a daughter’s boyfriend in a hospital setting.  I really must stop doing that, if only these girls could cooperate.  Like the last time, I found my youngest’s boyfriend to be someone we can welcome to the family, and I was very comfortable with letting him take her home and take care of her.  Lord knows, my weekend had already been fun enough.

Come the next full moon, I think I’ll just stay in bed.  Some days it’s not worth getting up.

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Image by Cordelia’s Mom