Life is Fragile and It Keeps on Coming, Too

This weekend was very interesting. I must remember to ask my friend Audrey if Mercury is/was retrograde.

Friday night I was the person designated to get my neighbor, Julie, to her surprise birthday party. It was quite a struggle because I had 3 things to do, all around the same time. My daughter had to get to her first high school football game by 6:00 pm. My Mom had to go to the doctor by 5:30 pm and the neighbor had to be at her party by 7:30 pm.

For the better part of the day I was in a staff retreat that went really well but, kept me from the high level phone use I needed to coordinate this madness called my Life. Feeling stretched in a hundred different directions I started to decide what had to be lopped-off.

The baby girl still hasn't forgiven me because, after 5 calls to other Moms, I couldn't find anyone else going to the game that could bring her home. I promised that I would move heaven and earth for the next one.

Mom called and left a voice mail (that I didn't pick-up until too late) that informed me she was driving herself to the doctor. Unfortunately, she gets turned around very easily and, it turns out, she was headed to the wrong office. If I had listened to the message I could have gotten to her in time. But, I was trying to speak with her directly so I kept calling her w/o checking voicemail. She, on the other hand, never answered the phone. Not 1 out of the 5 times I called that day.

When I finally did listen to the messages, she was shouting at me on the last one to listen to the messages! "I'm driving myself, you can go get baby girl and do whatever else you need to do. I will get to the Cooperville Office on my own." I'm not sure why she was so frustrated, probably the stress of deciding to go it alone. I tried to call her to tell her that she was making a mistake, but she didn't answer. By the time I got home she was livid, having missed her 5:30 pm at the Southgrove Office.

Then, Julie was being completely uncooperative. She didn't want to go out, she wanted to stay at home and play Rummikub. I worked my butt off to convince her that we needed to go out. I talked about my successes this week and how I just wanted to go out to a nice place and have a small bite and a few drinks.

Meanwhile, my secret plan was to have my baby girl take Julie's youngest for a walk then call me to say she (my daughter) had twisted her ankle. This would give me a good excuse to drive my neighbor to the pool area where we were staging her party.

Finally, something was going to go right. We ladies were nicely dressed and ready. The kids had started off on their walk. She went upstairs to her bathroom to put on a little make-up and I went out to the car to pass her husband (who had just driven up) the wine.

As I closed the car door I felt a little pinch on the middle toe of my right foot. Thinking I got caught by a mosquito I kept walking to hand off the wine. In the 3 minutes that it took to put the wine in the back seat of their SUV and walk back into the house I could feel that something was wrong.

My lips were tingling and then they started to hurt. My ears were hot and my entire head began to hurt from the inside out and the feeling was moving to my arms and chest. It was under the skin and everything was burning and hurting and hives began to appear. I could feel my eyes and mouth swelling and when I ran to the mirror I was treated to a sight that I can only describe as Will Smith's scene in "Hitch". Only, it was a lot funnier in the movie.

I called out to Julie to see if she had any Benadryl and thankfully, she did. I took 2 quick dissolving strips (the doctors later told me that they prefer the quick strips to the tablets) and hoped that I wouldn't explode before they had time to work. While my breathing never became labored, I could feel myself on the verge of hyperventilating from the stress of it all. This is when all that meditation comes in handy. I did the deep breath, Zen thing and kept myself calm.

Just as I walk over to the sofa to sit down, my phone rings. It's my baby girl, right on time. I couldn't help but laugh (to myself, of course) and sent my neighbor off to scoop up my falsely crippled child and enjoy her party.

Having seen my condition, Julie wanted to come back to her house and see about me. I managed to convince her to send someone else back with my daughter and immediately called my health care provider. The very pleasant nurse practitioner told me to go to the hospital immediately. She stayed on the line with me until my daughter arrived and I got in touch with another neighbor to take me to the hospital.

By the time I got there a good bit of the swelling had subsided but, they wasted no time before stabbing me 4 times in unsuccessful attempts to start an IV. It was at this point that I looked around, read the signs and realized that I was in a teaching hospital for nurses. Yep, I was a pin cushion.

I believe the term they used was infiltrated, when the pain in my arm became so severe I thought I would shout a mouthful of cuss words at the next medical staff person to pass by. Finally, they took the damn IV needle out and advised me that I would be there for a few hours of observation.

I'm guessing the look on my face (and my adamant pronouncements to the contrary) made them change their minds because within 15 min I had discharge orders and my freedom.

Now you might think that all's well that ends well but, the next day my daughter had a hair appointment to get the tips of her locks dyed.

All I will say is this - orange, yellow, tears and two dye jobs at home to correct it.

Life...
You gotta Love it!