Hopefully, Crisis Averted

Geez, what a whirl I have had! I can't believe it's Friday already! Two weeks ago, Andy went down to Tucson to take the DOC physical training test to be on his way to be a Department of Corrections officer. Preliminary to even taking a step of the course, they did a basic physical to see if he was healthy enough to exert himself on the test and found his blood pressure was through the roof. It was 220/140! This is the first time he had ever had this turn up; his physical last year showed it slightly elevated but nothing to be alarmed about. So he went to the doctor last Friday. They were so alarmed about his blood pressure they refused to allow him to drive himself to the urgent care. I had of course just put the kids down for naps about ten minutes before he called so I had to roust the kids and pick him up. Then it was straight to the urgent care. Due to the urgent nature of his condition he was taken straightaway into a room there and he had left his cellphone in the car. I then spent the next 3 hours waiting there with the kids which was no picnic, let me tell you. By the time I finally saw him I was a frazzled nerve myself and I would have probably have failed my own blood pressure test. After giving him his phone I whisked the kids home; boy were they happy to run around some and play. But the urgent care decided Andy had to go to the emergency room anyway since they could not get his pressure down with the meds they had on hand. So back again to pick up Andy. He decided he just didn't have enough time to screw with the emergency room before work so he went there first thing after work on Saturday morning. They kept him for about 5 hours, then finally discharged him with a prescription. He again saw the doctor two days ago and he now has 3 pills to take. I am also taking his blood pressure regularly and while it is going down, it still is too high for my taste. This morning it was 150/115. I did read the medications take 2 weeks to take full affect, so we'll see. He is feeling better; he doesn't feel so angry all the time and he feels a lot more relaxed while driving so that's all good.

Now, as soon as I walked into the urgent care with the kids I had a bad feeling about exposing the kids that germ-infested environment. I did keep them in stroller the entire time I spent in the waiting room, but I did let them run around in the building lobby. Hey, it's hard for toddlers to spend so much time strapped into the stroller, but they were reasonably good for the whole ordeal. We took strolls around the building and picked a variety of the flowers the building was landscaped with. But despite my care they found a way to get sick. Tabitha developed a fever Monday morning, pretty much on cue with 48 hours after being exposed. Fortunately that was the only symptom and it never exceeded 100. It did make her cranky as hell for about 3 days though. Tommy decided Wednesday was a good time to get the same thing, but I think he caught it from Tabitha from the timing and his lasted only a day. Boy, Tabitha does not like taking medicine at all! It was even the grape flavored children's Tylenol, but she objected so much she actually made herself gag and throw up! Tommy couldn't get enough of it, he was very cooperative. Ultimately Andy had to help hold Tabitha while I gave her the medicine and I followed it up with a drink right away which helped her a great deal. As of today, they are both fine. I have to say it was a strange little sickness, the only sign was the fever and that was thankfully not terribly high or it would have been straight back to a doctor's office.

With all this going on I have had not a whit of time to work on anything; no jewelry, sewing and obviously no time to blog. I did get a nifty new sewing machine on Monday. Since Andy got himself a new laptop the day before I figured it was only fair. It's not a real fancy machine, at least compared to what I could have bought but it is the fanciest one I have ever owned. It is a Singer, with like 30 pre-programmed decorative stitches and Auto-tension. Auto-tension! I have always had a problem with the tension of the machines I have owned and a machine with such a feature seems like a dream! My last machine, a Kenmore, was a workhorse, but very basic and of course it's tension mechanism was faulty. I did have it about ten years, and retiring it is bittersweet since my mother bought it for me and she made sure I knew it was more than she would normally spend on a machine so it has all that mom-guilt with it. Since Monday my new machine has sat in it's box on the kitchen table, but I am determined tonight to take it out and explore it's wonders. I think some new catnip toys would be a great first project to get acquainted.

What a freakin' day

Jeez, the crap started so early this morning. You see, kids woke me up at 6:30 am ( later than I normally get up because I like some alone time before kids in the morning) so I took them out of their cribs to play while I went outside. I noticed an ant. Then I saw a column heading to the back door, and I scanned for a line of ants going inside, but I didn't see one. I grabbed my trusty can of Raid and sprayed the hill and the column. O.K., I thought, that must be it. Back inside, the kids were right by the patio door. When I came back inside, I was horrified the kids were sitting right in the middle of an ant-fest on the floor! Scooping up the kids quickly and depositing them in the highchairs I then proceeded to spray the hell out of the ants on the floor. I was hopping around to keep them from crawling on me and biting! That amused the kids quite a bit. Then while they were having breakfast I mopped up the floor to get rid of the spray residue and dead ants. Egads, what a way to start the day! I have a very large colony of small, aggressive black ants that I have battled since I moved into this place. Shortly after I moved in I found out why the place came with bug spray left by the previous owner. Ants every frickin' where! At least it wasn't for roaches, knock on wood! Just what I needed on top of getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes over the last week since the monsoon rain. They like Tabitha a lot more than Tommy. Poor Tabby has several nasty bites on her arms, legs and even face! Tommy might have on tiny little bite on his leg, period. Tabitha must exude the right scent for them, like me. I was always told they bite me so much because I was so sweet! If I tell Tabby that, it will probably infuriate her as much as it did me, since I actually wanted to really know why. It wasn't a rhetorical question. If they had told me it was body odor I would have taken a lot more baths as a kid!
Me and the kids went to the hospital today to go visit my mom. She seemed a little better, but she is getting a little short of patience with all the tests. She wants someone to come up with a plan of action! She found out today that her kidney function is "not very good" according to the doctor. Well, she has been on the diuretic for about 2 days now and I don't think the doctor is happy about the slow progress because of that. And a test about two weeks ago from CVS's traveling testing program showed her kidneys were fine, and her heart also. Make of that what you will. Anyway, they are now going to surgically drain her excess fluid. I heard the doctor say that myself when I was there, but I have no idea what that really means. I imagine that it's not as simple as poking a hole and putting a drainage tube in, but I could be wrong. I guess I expect something more sophisticated from modern medicine. She was very glad to see the kids and she thought we stayed a lot longer than she thought we would. I felt like I didn't stay long enough, but by now the babies were making their impatience a glass shattering shreik in unison. They hate just sitting in the stroller. It was a shame we all couldn't go to the family play area so the kids could run around while me and mom visited but I can't push a stroller and wheelchair at the same time. Push a stroller and pull a shopping cart yes, but I'm not that talented. My mom didn't want to bother waiting for a transport person (used to be known as orderlies) because they can take forEVer bothering to come. I'll make the next visit coincide with another family member so we can do that easily.
Ah, what a day. I left the house at 2:30 pm and was booked solid until the little ones were in bed and hubby was out the door to work. Phew! All I have left to do is find the livingroom floor and wash the bottles for a new day.