So if you follow me on Facebook, you’ve probably seen that my little sick week ended up with me visiting the ER Friday afternoon. Here’s what happened.
I had been down with a sinus infection for two days. Thursday night before bed I had a pretty bad asthma attack – something that’s commonly triggered by things like sinus infections and allergy problems. So I started breathing treatments with my trusty nebulizer, which in the past 3-4 years has been with me to Europe, Colombia, Mexico, and all over the US. I learned early on it kind of looks like a bomb on the carry-on x-ray machine. It’s a mistake you only make once, my friend.
I woke up Friday morning with more asthma attacks, and each got worse than the last. By Friday afternoon, I was home alone having my biggest one so far, when I texted Mr. Right, who was so nicely out running errands for me, and asked him to “Drive carefully, but come home and get me, we need to go to the ER.”
I got a quick text back “ok,” and then about ten minutes later, he called to check on me. Soon after he was home, and I met him at the door dressed and ready to go. Being the gentleman that he is, he opened the car door for me…
Only it wouldn’t open. And that’s when Mr. Right admitted to me that he’d just been in a wreck.
Awesome. Luckily the wreck happened about 30 seconds before I texted him about going to the ER, so it wasn’t my fault. Ironically, the person he was in the wreck with was on her way to the ER with an anxiety attack, and was in total meltdown mode. So Mr. Right had to quickly exchange information with a frantic woman, then head home to take his other frantic woman to the ER. He deserves a gold medal.
Thankfully nobody was hurt. And after a breathing treatment, a heavy dose of steriods (again) and a chest x-ray, I was back home on the couch, wheezy and agitatated but happy to be home.
A couple of take-aways:
1. Mr. Right is AWESOME in an emergency. He promised me ice cream the whole time we were there. He’s going to make an amazing dad. I was too sick for ice cream but settled for a big Diet Coke on the way home.
2. Going to the ER where you work is really nice, because you know you’re going to get fabulous care. But it also means that your coworkers have to see you at your worst, with no makeup and tears in your eyes. At least I wore a bra.
3. It’s ironic that just one week ago I blogged at work about my previous trip to the ER. It’s even more ironic when your coworkers who are taking care of you READ that blog just a week before (hand to forehead).
4. Between a giant steroid shot in my tushy on Wednesday and a six-day treatment of high-dose steroids beginning Friday, I have discovered that steroids make me an agitated, weepy mess. I cried at the ER (when nobody but Mr. Right was looking). I cried my way through a documentary about Elmo on Netflix. According to two friends who got the same shot last week, it’s normal. I’m normal. At least, that’s what I keep trying to tell myself.
5. During my five days of being home sick, I watched an 8-hour miniseries on the Kennedys. I watched 30 episodes of How I Met Your Mother (my new favorite show). I watched the Elmo documentary. I watched the Five Year Engagement (didn’t love it). I watched 10 minutes of the LOST pilot before deciding it was too stressful. And I watched 3 episodes of Gossip Girl before deciding that those girls are just mean and stress me out. I am SO TIRED of TV. PS–I LOVE How I Met Your Mother – please someone watch it with me so I can share inside jokes with you.
6. Being sick meant I had to miss out on a trip to Oklahoma for my grandmother’s 80th birthday. Boo. Instead I watched 92 hours of television and made a quilt.
7. I hacked into Mr. Right’s Papa Johns account on Saturday and ordered myself a pizza while he was in Oklahoma. I forgot to mention it to him. The next morning he called and asked me, “How did you like your large 3-topping pizza, cinnamon sticks and Diet Pepsi, my dear?” Man, that boy knows EVERYTHING. (turns out Papa Johns emails you a receipt when you order.)
Please say a little prayer for me that I bounce back these next few days. I’m so excited to be going to Portland, Oregon for a work trip on Wednesday – five glorious days in the Pacific Northwest in what I hear is a delightfully funky town. I just need to get my second wind so I can thoroughly enjoy it.