Friday, April 23, 2010

Important lessons I have learned in the past week.

  1. Move your legs while traveling, pretend you are nervous and bounce them up and down if you can't get up and walk.
  2. Drink water while traveling, no need to thicken your blood.
  3. If you had no problems while flying and then get out of breath walking quickly through the airport, then you're just not out of shape.
  4. If you are still trying to catch your breath while in the car for the 20 minute ride home, it's not pneumonia. To have pneumonia, you would have a fever and coughing.
  5. Upon entering the house and having a difficult time breathing, it's always better to lose consciousness by the formica counter vs. the granite counters.
  6. When your husband comes in after a business trip claiming that he does not feel well, says he can't catch his breath and looks gray- a call to 911 is warranted. 
  7. You don't have to wait for the faint to make the call.
  8. Cats are big wusses and don't hang around for drama. So when the 911 operator tells you to put your animals in another room, a cat owner can usually skip this step.
  9. Good neighbors are saints and are needed when it's only you and a 16 y/o in the house. Because you can divert the teenager from the emergency while getting another adult in to help with the sick person. (You just never know how critical a collapse can be and a teenager is good for running for extra help)
  10. Having a medical background helped me to recognize a pulmonary embolism as it was occurring. ( blood clot in the lung) At the time, it scared the crap out of me, but I went into tech. stat mode- no emotion, just get the problem taken care of. (crying can occur when you have other people step in to do what needs to get done)
  11. And no, you don't need to call first to get cleared by your insurance company to go to the emergency room when you collapse. When my husband came to on the floor, he actually asked this while I was on the phone with 911.
  12. Brothers are reliable and my brother drove an hour up to be with me in the ER. I called him while waiting for the ambulance to leave the driveway. My brother works in an ER in Boston and I knew that he had the drug knowledge to complement my lab knowledge to make sure we wouldn't miss anything. (plus, we are close and I knew he would be the rock I would need if it got bad)
After a few days spent in the hospital, my husband is home and it's now a matter of getting the coumadin adjusted to therapeutic levels.  It was frightening while it was happening since I knew that he had to get to the ER as quickly as possible. And I googled nothing except Medscape that night, b/c sometimes, it helps to know what you need to know and not all the bad stuff.
Good stuff this week?
  1. We were suppose to go to Montreal this weekend to do a college tour of Vermont and McGill in  Montreal- stayed home instead and planted bushes. Bub (#3 son) is not upset about the change of plans, just going with the flow.
  2. Instead of college tours, I dragged Bub from the video games and we went to see #1 son present at a research conference at his college.  It was nice to see his friends show up to learn about China's navy, a sign of true friendship.
  3. The Bruins' hockey series is exciting and the Red Sox have won two games.
  4. Hubby actually rested this week and read books- his boss refused to let him work from home.
  5. I am not running like I had planned, but going for nice walks with my husband.
  6. Life goes on......
Our new motto: Life is meant to be enjoyed each day, not endured.

4 comments:

  1. Thank God hubby is ok now. Take care of yourself too!

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  2. The slow exposition of what happened was making me NUTS!!!! I'm so glad your scary real-life story has a happy ending! And I think it's terrific that your husband's boss isn't encouraging him to worry about work yet.

    Keep us posted!

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  3. Good thing you knew what do do! I would be horrible in that situation. I'm so glad he's ok!

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  4. Good to hear it all turned out well.

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