Those Darn Men!

About a month ago, my friend's husband collapsed after doing a fitness test for his work place. A scary week ensued as they did not know what happened and if it could happen again or can it be prevented. My friend coped very well during that week of hospitalization. I feared for him, for her and their future;the fear coming from not knowing what will happen next. It certainly made me ponder in amazement. This came out of the blue, no warning and your lives can be changed forever.

He will be returning to work in the next few weeks but on a part-time basis. I know that there are far worse scenarios such as a sudden death, however are we really prepared? What I mean by prepared is beyond the will and life insurance. Prepared to live out the rest of our years with someone who has become incapacitated physically, mentally, sometimes both..or even live without that person? I sometimes kid and wish my husband away but my turn had come 2 weekends ago.

At 5 am my husband woke me to tell me he was feeling strange. Strange how? did you do anything? He took some Robax for his back. He had taken some in late June and never reacted to it. In the matter of minutes, his lips were swollen, his face, eyes.. a rash appeared and then he dropped to the kitchen floor because he could not breathe! 300lbs dropping to the kitchen floor is not easy to sit up to encourage breathing. Luckily my son heard something and had woken up to go to the washroom and came to see what the commotion was. He helped me lift my husband so he could breathe and call 911. My cell phone was off but takes a few seconds to turn on. those seconds seemed to take forever. So from now on I keep my phone on at all times.

So he is having an allergic reaction-full tilt. Ambulance says they will be there in 30 to 40 minutes? Are you kidding me? The hospital is a 10 min drive max! And at this time, we could get there in 7!! Finally EMTs show up, they can't find a vein to jab-nothing new for my husband he is tough to tap. Epi-pen it is! That only lasts 30 min. Get to hospital and we play the same game with hiding veins.My poor son has a "thing" about blood and needles so he kindly left to feed and water the animals for me.

So after a Baker's dozen of attempts, they finally found a vein. I think I would have lost it by then being jabbed so many times but tough guy took it in stride. I eventually went home to continue with what one does at home including cleaning up the mess of the Emts and their equipment and boots. It made me wonder what the scene looks like after something more spectacular occurs...Around 1:30pm he was ready to come home, tired and not so puffy but now wiser to his allergy to
Ibuprofen!! An Epi-pen is in his lunch bucket.

All those thoughts occurred to me about being able to live in my home on my own should the outcome not be good. And I believe I am pretty resilient but I will be doing more things for myself in the future. I hope he does the same too.