Monday, September 7, 2009

Not An Ideal Labor Day


Somehow life manages to always smack you along the side of the head and change your plans whether you want them changed or not. A three day Labor Day weekend sounded absolutely great. I planned on doing my shopping early on Saturday, getting Mom what she needed at the store and then the rest of the weekend was supposed to be dedicated to doing art work. As Marvin the depressed robot in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” moaned, “Life. Don’t talk to me about life.”

Saturday evening around 10 PM a cry of panic came up the stairs from my Mom. Rushing downstairs I found my brother collapsed against the breakfast bar, breathing very shallowly, white as a ghost, barely conscious. My Mom was trying to struggle to get him seated, get him awake, get him to respond. I took over and got him in a seated position rather then face up against the wood. He responded somewhat while I ran to the phone to call 911. I was rather curt with the man wanting an ambulance sent first then I would answer all the rest of the questions. It was an emergency damn it get help now then ask your questions. My brother was trying to say he was okay. I told him an ambulance was coming and that was final.

Because all of us have worked at the hospital, they let us sit in the consulting room while we waited to see what was going on with my brother. Unfortunately in the room next to us was a raving foul mouthed drunk whose favorite word started with “F”. Three hours we had to endure listening to that man scream, swear, insult the police, doctors, nurses, rave about waste of resources, etc. I was so tempted to go in and tell him he was a waste of life. My mother was scared to death and she didn’t need to hear that garbage. Fortunately they let her into the room with my brother for much of the drunk’s tirade so she was spared the worst of it.

Two thirty in the morning Mom and I pulled into home. My brother was kept in ICU overnight for observation. Mom insisted that she had to put the dishes away before going to bed. I let her because she needed something mindless to unwind. We don’t know for sure what happened but suspect a seizure. More tests will be done providing the insurance company will okay them. Welcome to the wonderful world of health care.

My brother thanked me this morning for supporting him. I was the one who insisted he was going to the hospital via ambulance like it or not. I may be half his size but don’t mess with us little ones especially if we are red heads with tempers. My brother and I are worlds apart politically but he is still my brother and I was going to do what was necessary to help him. I kept his daughter and three brothers informed as to what was going on. I have tried to make sure that the stress this has caused my Mom isn’t going to lead her to start having more heart problems.

One of the contributing factors the doctor thinks to my brother’s collapse was injudicious mixing of over the counter medicine with his prescriptions. If anything comes out of this maybe he will now start being more cautious. You can’t mix NyQuil and Tylenol PM with blood pressure medicine. In this world of drug companies pushing their products all over the media we need to make sure that the public realizes that over the counter medicine is still medicine and it has side effects.

The rest of the weekend has been spent trying to fight off a migraine intensity headache. I can’t imagine where it came from. I did do a couple of pictures this weekend. One for my Mom of her favorite subject, Pixie and one with a space theme because I needed to get away from reality for a bit.

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