This was last night …

It was 3 a.m. Ed was coughing. He wasn’t reaching for the tissues. I spoke to him, no answer. The coughing continued, then he started groaning and, it seemed, growling which turned out to be his effort to talk and he wasn’t able to. His eyes were open, the groans continued, but otherwise, no response. He managed to point to the phone. Earlier in the evening he had complained he couldn’t see to read the titles on the TV screen – parts of the words were missing. I finally realized he wanted me to call the EMTs, which I did. They got him into
the ambulance and checked him out. I started to dress.

A medic came to the door to say Ed was on the verge of a diabetic coma –his sugar level was 53. They got him on to an IV and drove him to the hospital. I followed as soon as I could, and by the time I got to him in the ER, he was alert and talking. He said he had been a prisoner – cognizant but unable to talk or move. What a nightmare. Trapped in a non-functioning body. He was also frustrated when he couldn’t make me realize what was happening. This was a close call.

After stabilizing him, they lent us an oxygen tank and I drove him home around 9 a.m. He wanted to leave the borrowed tank in the car but I managed to persuade him this was a bad idea because the unit in the house had been turned off and I wasn’t sure I knew how to get it going again. Also, there was a mess in the bedroom and the EMTs had moved furniture. We have odd angles that make it impossible to roll a gurney through, so they got him to the ambulance by carrying him in the sheet he was lying on. He sat up in a chair with the borrowed tank, while I cleaned up. Juan, the visiting nurse. called and came within 20 minutes and put him right with his own unit. Now that I know what to look for, I won’t be so obtuse if anything like this happens again. Ed was also scheduled to have a physical therapy session today but I canceled it. Ed said not today, please.

Sol hadn’t been on hand because she had driven to a Naples hospital for a 10:30 appointment. She had a 45-minute job interview that she thought went well and is now waiting to hear if they will offer her a spot, probably in the med-surg unit. She will have to wait for her preferred job – ICU or ER or Cardiac ICU because they don’t give those slots to recent graduates. She was very upset to not be here. But all’s well that ends well. Naples is only an hour away.

When Sol got here around 1 p.m., I was able to leave and drove to Publix to pick up an anti-nausea med and batteries for the diabetic test kit (which Ed hadn’t been using) and a fried chicken and more raspberry lemonade that he asked for – his wish list is being honored. He wants it, he gets it.

Jean, our paralegal friend considers me her honorary mother. She said she doesn’t care what time it is, I am to call her if anything of the sort happens again. But it is not something I will probably do if I can handle things. I mean waking people up in the middle of the night is awfully invasive, isn’t it?

Thanks to adrenalin, I was functioning, but around 3 p.m., I keeled over for an hour. My own BP is through the roof. Bummer.

xx, Teal