Wednesday, September 30, 2009

My Last 24 Hours

My little Zachary has been very sick. Yesterday, as I mentioned, he was coughing and just plain miserable. I headed to the drug store to stock up....Mucinex for kids (the wonder drug for coughs), Vick's vapor rub, Motrin, cough drops, chicken noodle soup, orange juice, and I grabbed some "On Sale" chocolate on the way out!!
I came home to find Zach doing much worse. He seemed to be struggling to breath. Like it was a fight, almost, plus he had a fever. Sweetheart felt he just had a cold and his nose was stuffy. Give him the medicine and he will be fine. So I did....plus I grabbed the Symphony bar I bought. The stress was building. After the candy was gone, I made my decision. I called the doctor, who was booked, of course, but told me to go to immediate care with Zach. Off we went....my neighbor, Cindy, in tow. Thank goodness, cause what happened next was awful. Zach had a low (92) pulsox (oxygen level) and the doctor agreed he was struggling to breath. I knew I was not over-reacting (though I have been known to do that). He needed a breathing treatment. They got it going and when it was almost done, Zach began to feel "shaky". I assured him it was the medicine, but he went from calm and almost sedate, to frantic. He was pulling at the mask and yelling "GET THIS OFF OF ME". Cindy helped me hold him while I opened the door and called the nurse. I told her I thought he was having a bad reaction to the medication. As soon as she came in the room and I got those words out, my little Zachary passed out!! That was the scariest moment! Oh the fear I felt....was he reacting to the meds?....was his little heart in trouble?....would he come out of this???? All those questions and more went through my mind in those few seconds, that seemed like hours. Several doctors and nurses came rushing in and Zach came around pretty quickly. He evidently panicked and hyperventilated, causing him to faint. His pulsox came up to 97 by the time we left.... a nasal swab to check for flu, and 2 chest x-rays later. It was either the flu (Swine Fluid, as Zach calls it), or bronchitis with possible pneumonia. Antibiotics, and an inhaler were picked up and we went home. I immediately grabbed my Hershey with Almonds!!!
Zach needed to use the inhaler every 4 hours, as he continued to have trouble. I put his mattress in my room and "watched" him sleep most of the night. He slept good. His breathing seemed stable and his wheezing was gone. He did not cough more than once or twice and not enough to even wake him up. I fell asleep about 4 am. At 5:30 he woke up coughing a very wet cough. This is good....his cough had been very dry and non-productive. He was also having trouble breathing again. Cough meds and a puff of inhaler, and he was fine within seconds.....except for the HORRIBLE bruising around the corner of his mouth!!!! What the heck was that???? I looked at it and could not figure it out. He said it did not hurt and had no idea what he had done. I stripped him down and check the rest of his body....no bruises or petechiae, which can happen with a virus, and would need immediate attention. I had rubbed it a bit and it seemed to lighten up....was it circulation?....lack of oxygen, which turns the area around the mouth dark??? I was baffled, but knew it was not good. After a while it seemed to go away. Zach laid back down and fell back asleep. I called my mother (the head of the HEC medical group, as Sweetheart calls us....H. E. C. are the initials of my mother, sister and my own last names....get it?) and my mom felt I needed to call the doctor as soon as they came in. I agreed. She told me to go check him again....I did. He was laying on that side of his face so I rolled him over and it was BACK! Now I knew we were in trouble. He seemed to be breathing so well....I had him propped up on several pillows....and how could he be having such a lack of oxygen to turn dark purple around his mouth?? Maybe I needed to just take him to the ER, or call an ambulance even. As I was discussing it with my mom, I looked down at Zach laying on his pillow and it hit me!!!!!That is the pillow he was laying on. His favorite one! He had that side of his mouth on a dark triangle and had been drooling!!!! Yes, the fabric had bled onto his skin making it look like a dark bruised area around the corner of his mouth!!! I was WAY too relieved to feel stupid! Whew!! Thank You Jesus, and by the way, WHAT was I suppose to learn from all that?????
I went downstairs and grabbed my coffee and a Butterfinger bar!!!
Today is better. Immediate Care called and Zach does NOT have the flu. He is still coughing, but it is wet. He is using the inhaler more like every 6 hours now. He has, however, had a rough morning. He did not get his ADHD meds (they have side effects similar to the inhaler and I did not want to double up), and the inhaler makes him even MORE hyper. He has been a handful to say the least. I am still waiting for him to crash. Not looking like it, though I feel ready to myself. I made him his favorite lunch, grilled cheese, and I grabbed an Almond Joy!

What does the rest of the day hold??? I have no idea, but I DO have a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup in the cupboard, just in case!!

Be Blessed!!!

Bren

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

A Quickie & A Sickie

I have a few minutes for a quick post. The days here are flying by. I am working on the Basket Case, quilting all the setting triangles as I go. I have 4 more baskets and 3 more setting triangles to do, and after the four corner sections the quilting will be done!! In the meantime I am preparing other Christmas gifts for the hoop. I can show you this one, because it is a dud!Yeah.....I know. You would think after quilting for 16+ years, I would have a clue!!!! Nope, not so much. I did complete 3 others that turned out beautiful. Here is a "peek" at one of them. These pieces are SOOOOO tiny.I said it would be a "peek"!!
I am back to making meals....I did not cook much those 2 weeks I was on restriction.Sweetheart was so wonderful during that time, along with my mother, and church family, who all made sure we were taken care of. It feels good to be able to "do" my life again. Thank you for all your warm regards concerning my upcoming surgery. I have a temporary fix for now and look forward to just getting it all over with. I need to decide if I want to wait til after the holidays, which I am leaning towards.
For now, there is only room for one sickie in the house.....Mr. Zach-Attack is just miserable! Cough, cough, cough.....and he is so dramatic about it!!! I heard him say, (to no one, as he was alone in the room), "When is this going to end?!"
A pair of jammies, hot from the dryer, a warm quilt, a dose of cough medicine, a bottle of OJ, a box of kleenex and the movie Chicken Little, and he is set for the morning!!!
I am off to homeschool the girls.
Blessings!!!!!

Friday, September 25, 2009

A Clean Slate

My mom appreciated all your wonderful birthday wishes for her and says "thank you". She had a great day! Breakfast with a friend, lunch with her sister, and then.....well, she came to my house to take me to the doctor. Yes, I will be 49 in a month or so and I needed my mommy! She opened her gifts from us while she was there. A large cut crystal with a rod iron stand (she loves all that shimmers and sparkles) and a sunflower candle holder for her kitchen. She loved it all, but said her blog post was the best gift ever! We had a bunco night last night too, so the lady partied from morning til bedtime!!!
I have not shared on my blog the health issues I have been experiencing, but now that I know the outcome, I will share that I will be facing a hysterectomy in the very near future. I am feeling it will be a great relief in my life and am trusting God in this situation.
I was able to get to the opening day of Acorn Quilts.The fabrics are incredible!!!! Look what I got. 1/2 yard cuts of these pretties for use in upcoming gifts.I was quite disappointed that there were no hand quilting supplies. We need very little, but what we need is very important. Little did I know, the owner was just waiting to speak to a hand quilter to find out what we would want her to carry!! WOO HOO!!! I gave her my list and she will be getting those things immediately! LOVE IT! I plan on taking my camera in and doing a post on Acorn Quilts....the owner was thrilled with that!
This morning was a "no school" time, so I decided to clean up the sty my sewing room/office had become. No before pics, but believe me, it was as bad as it had ever been. FILTHY and the dust was so thick you could write in it!....really. No floor space was empty, as my mess from sorting scraps was still everywhere. My cutting table, computer table, and ironing board were loaded with clutter. The closet....well that has been bad for quite a while. I started there....the closet. Now organized and neat!You can walk right into the room and not trip on anything!The cutting table is cleaned off, and Pine Ridge is split between the design wall and the paisley box under the left side of the desk, waiting til those Christmas projects are finished!Fabrics for those Christmas miniatures are set out and ready to be cut up!A clean slate. Ready to begin again!!!!!Thanks for stopping in!! Don't forget to give part of your day to Him.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Happy Birthday MOM

Here are some things about my mom.....
She grew up in an unstable home and had to grow up very fast. She married at 17 and had 2 girls. She is a devoted mom.....words can not express the devotion she has to her children. She will be married 50 years in February, so I would say she is also a devoted wife!When her sister was 11 years old, she took guardianship and raised her with the same love she gave her daughters. Ooops....I will explain later.....here....this is better.She was a wonderful daughter and daughter in law.She has 6 grandchildren, and she has a special relationship with each one of them.She has 4 great-grandchildren and was present at the birth of 3 of them!She is a great friend and has maintained close friendships for decades!She treats her animals better than most people treat their kids!!!!!Now, let's get personal......(insert evil laugh)
It takes several attempts to get a decent picture of her, because she will not stop talking!!!!....or she closes her eyes!!!!
My dad eventually gives up trying to "pose". Finally you get a decent pic of her, but you lost him!!!You DO NOT want to make her mad!!! She gets over it very quickly, but her wrath is not fun!She has a BIG potty mouth and is not afraid to use it!!!
Despite her sailor talk, her favorite word is "neat" and she uses it every opportunity.Her nails and toes are always done in hot pink!!She carries a Tide Pen in her purse. She should by all rights be required to wear a bib, but she opts for the Tide Pen. This day (my 30th anniversary celebration) it did no good....note the large soda stain on her belly.She loves the boats. Casino boats, that is. Give her a row of penny slots and she is content for an entire day!She never fails to amuse her girls. We have a story for every single trip we have ever taken with our mother (and they are many). Most of them have to do with bodily functions things that can not be mentioned here, but when we all get together, there is unmatched laughter at our poor mother's expense!
My mom is all of those wonderful and quirky things. She is a foundation in my life that I do not take for granted. Her very presence brings peace and safety and her heart can be felt by anyone who is near her.
Happy Birthday Mom....I love you!!!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Sorting

No, it is not laundry sorting. It is scraps. I had several boxes of scraps that needed sorting out. This is not stash fabric, but those strips and pieces that are too small to put with stash, but too large to just throw away. I keep anything 2" or wider, myself. I know some people keep anything 1" or wider. I would probably not use it, so I throw those scraps in the trash. I ended up with a box of darks, a box of lights, and a box of mediums.
Also, a large pile for my friend Sue, who makes the most wonderful strip quilts!Sue recently made up a challenge for herself called The Over The Top Challenge. Pop over to her blog to read all about it. She encouraged me to challenge myself also, and though my goals are not a lofty as hers, I am working hard on the ones I have set. I am focusing on the goals that have to do with Christmas, though I do have others recorded. Right now, the Basket Case is FULL priority and then I have 5 miniature quilts to do for Christmas gifts. The minis will be 18 inches square and hand quilted, so I have my work cut out for me. As for the sorting, a log cabin mini may be on that list....not sure yet, but I know that my queen sized log cabin is on my challenge list, so the sorting will help the process greatly! I will share my challenge list later.
The kids all came Sunday to watch the Bears beat the garbage out of the Steelers!!! My son is a HUGE Steelers fan since his early teen years, and Sweetheart is a die-hard Bears fan. It was sweet!! The kids all played nice together...Emerson had to be right in the mix!She wanted to play in my pots and pans while I made dinner.She eventually settled for her toy drawer.....She is a sweet baby and gets sweeter every time I see her. TJ started school today. His mommy is homeschooling him this year for preschool. No, she is not homeschooling him for elementary, but I support them in their choices. They took TJ to get tested for preschool and he tested at a first grade level.....did I already tell you all that? My mind is going!! Anyway, Rachel will work with him at home and he goes to Cubbies, Sunday School, and MOPS so there is enough socialization for him right there. He had a great first day and was very proud of his accomplishments.
Tomorrow is a busy day here. The kids and I will be at the church for a couple of hours tomorrow morning while the staff is at a funeral. We will homeschool there and answer phones and collect food coming in for the funeral dinner that afternoon. Then I plan to go to the BRAND NEW QUILT STORE that is opening just half a mile from my house! Acorn Quilts, Inc is opening it's doors tomorrow. I have been holding my breath. I have told SO many people about it and they just look at me like, "Oh, that's nice." Don't they get it??? A new QUILT SHOP!!! HELLOOOOOO.....ok, so maybe they don't get it!
Tomorrow night is the second week in our new year of Women's Bible Study. We are doing this book.....We had our first meeting last week (we take the summer off and do the Titus Tea's) and I was pretty disappointed. I thought the book study was very dry. I complained only within myself and said nothing to anyone. I prayed about it and was certain that God would understand what I meant. He did not. I got a very clear stirring in my spirit that I was way off. How can God's Word be dry? I was not looking deep enough. So now I look forward to digging in with an open heart and a willing spirit. Must be a big lesson in there for me somewhere and I am bound and determined to find it.
I will come home in time to watch my DVR'ed Biggest Loser with Sweetheart. I love that show and look forward to it each season. I am also a Survivor fan and OH. MY. GOODNESS. There is a player that is out and out EVIL.....His mother did not hug him enough, I am certain of that!!!!!!
Have a blessed day and go hug your kids or they may end up a reality show villian!!!!!