Today was miserable.
I’ve had a sinus headache for days now; it’s screwing with my sleep. Normally I’m awake by 9- today I barely dragged myself out of bed at 10. I was groggy and lethargic, and didn’t get anything of note accomplished before my step-dad left for his doctor’s appointment at quarter after 1. Less than fifteen minutes later I get a call from Mom- she’s sick, and Mark is coming to get me so I can drive her home. I dress quickly and grab my purse, expecting to hear that she’s been vomiting again and can’t drive home.
We get to her, and she hasn’t been vomiting- she’s deathly pale, except the skin around her nose and mouth is bright red, along with her ears. She’s wheezing and her voice sounds wrong. Her hands are swollen, her palms are red. She tells me she had an apple not too long ago. Normally, she avoids apples- she’s mildly allergic to them, and they make her throat itchy- but she’d tried organic ones very recently and had no symptoms at all. The one she had earlier was supposed to be organic.
So I head for CVS, buy her some chewable Benadryl and water, and head towards home, but as we get into Derby she’s still anxious, and the redness hasn’t faded from her face, so I decide to take her to the ER instead. She’s seen immediately, and the nurse tells me she has to have an IV. Awesome. We’re both phobic, I explain, so she’s going to panic. And she does, worse than I’ve ever seen her panic before. She starts vomiting violently as they’re trying to insert the IV, and the nurse has to put it in her hand, which in turn has me running for the bathroom to puke the moment I know Mom is settled. They give her Benadryl and some steroid, and tell her to try to relax and sleep- they want to keep an eye on her breathing for a while.
But she can’t relax- she’s shivering, even though she’s under three blankets, and she just keeps chattering. Eventually she quiets down, but she’s still restless and cold; I feel her forehead and it feels hot, and I realize that I never found out her temperature when she was admitted. We run cold, so a “normal” temperature to the doctors is a little high for us. I track down the nurse and ask her what Mom’s temp was when we were admitted, and if she could check it again, and sure enough Mom has a 100-something fever. So they give her a fluid drip and Tylenol. By the time she was done with the drip she was looking a lot better, and shortly after the doctor gave her a script for an epi-pen and discharged her, since her temperature was back down and her breathing seemed fine. I think we got home about quarter after six or so. I am damn near ready to collapse.
I did get something to smile about when we got home, though- my package arrived. I collect ball-jointed dolls, and I bought a Musedoll Re-an head secondhand from the Marketplace on Den of Angels. I was super excited to see the package, she looks awesome. I’m waiting for Alys’ head to come back from Washington state, as she’s been away getting a new face-up. One of these days I’ll get pictures up.
Anyway, I’m exhausted. I hate hospitals. So I think I’m calling it a night a bit early!
// Kat


