Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day ... & More

Lots has been happening here the past couple of days.  On Friday my husband surprised me by stopping at a used car lot & buying a van.  This is one of the lots owned by the dealership that had been working on dad's van.  It's a 2006 Dodge Caravan.  It seems to run well, has a 2-year warranty on all the major stuff, & has just enough wear & tear on it that it still looks nice but we can haul bags of dirt & trees from the nursery & pieces of furniture & other things without worrying about "messing it up."  They actually allowed us $1000 as a trade-in for dad's van & they waived the money we owed them for the work they had done on it & that was a real blessing!  The hardest thing was having to go to the main lot to empty dad's van.  When you open the doors it still smells just like it did when dad had it.  I cried as I took out our personal things & said my goodbyes but I think dad would be pleased that it served us for as long as it did & that it helped us get a new van a little cheaper.  

After making several attempts to contact that man who mowed our hay last year to ask if he would mow our overgrown yard, I gave up & went out to continue mowing myself.  There was a 50% chance of rain & the clouds did toss out a few sprinkles a time or two while I was mowing but I prayed for God to please let the rain pass us by & it did   : )   It took a long time making overlapping cuts but I managed to get the left side of the yard mowed.  Today I will be going out to mow the right side which won't be as bad because it did get cut a month ago before the riding mower broke down.  No rain in sight today ... hooray!  I'd like to get the side & back mowed too but that might be stretching it a bit, especially since I also want to do some planting.  Bought a few new plants recently & need to get them in the ground before it starts raining again   : )

Last night I climbed into bed & within a couple minutes went into a-fib.  I have paroxysmal atrial fibrillation which has been under control with medication for a long time (my last a-fib episode was 2-1/2 years ago).  I couldn't understand why it was suddenly breaking through like this.  After about half an hour I told my husband we needed to go to the emergency room.  When we got there, they took me back immediately & hooked me up to all these monitors & did all these scans & asked me all these questions & I'm thinking "just make me better & let me go home."  I did tell them that the last time this happened I had been injected with something that should have helped but didn't & I was then put into ICU & had to remain in the hospital for a couple days.  Shortly thereafter the nurse came in & gave me an IV of amiodarone.  Within 10 minutes my heart rate was coming down & within 30 minutes I was back to normal.  They kept me for a little while longer to make sure I stayed that way & then released me.  It was 2 a.m.  Like I said, I couldn't understand why this had happened.  I told the nurse that I had been taking my a-fib medication as directed & the last time I had taken a pill was that evening at about 8:30.  Well, on Sunday mornings I always put my pills for the coming week into my pill minder box.  I started doing this & realized that I had refilled a few prescriptions last week but had never taken them out of the bag when I returned from the pharmacy.  I was busy with other things & figured I'd take care of them today.  I did not remember that my a-fib medication only lasted me through Wednesday night.  I had made a note on my old pill bottle to put more pills in the pill minder starting with Thursday but I totally forgot to do this!  This means I had been without my a-fib medication for 3 days!  No wonder I ended up in the emergency room!  Thankfully I'm fine but I caused my poor husband so much worry   : (    

Last, but not least, I wish a very Happy Mother's Day to all my blogging friends!  Cherish your children ... & I pray that they will cherish you & one day rise up & call you blessed (Proverbs 31:38).         

1 comments:

Laura said...

OMG Shirlee, be careful!!
I'm glad to hear that you're fine now, but please.. be careful!
My dad has a transparent weekly pill-organiser.
As he is followed by my mother, by a caregiver and sometimes by my brother and my sister, we must be sure that each day he takes all his pills and the transparent organiser is really helpful (just to give you an idea: if you click here you can see the picture http://www.farmaciamontera.it/Portapillole-Settimanale-Farmacare.html)
Take care, :) :) :)
Laura