Sunday, April 24, 2011

Overload

     The past few weeks have been quite difficult around here. Two weeks ago my husband's aunt had a stroke. She was taking out her garbage and her neighbor found her laying outside with no idea how long she had been there. She was life-flighted to Phila.delphia where her prognosis remained dim. Her daughters were fighting over whether to remove her from life support, which they eventually did earlier this week. She was to be transported to hos.pice care and we have not heard anything since. This is my MIL's only sibling and my husband's only aunt since he has no contact with his father's family.

     Last saturday my MIL called to tell us that Don (hub's stepdad) was in the hospital with what they suspected was pneumonia. He is dia.betic and doesn't take very good care of himself, which always complicates things. I was at a craft show when hub got the call so he had to wait for me to get home before he could head to nj to be with his mother. Later that day she called back and said Don was better and they were going to release him the next day so R didn't need to go. The next evening she called back and said not only was Don not being released, but he was going to need a pacemaker so R hurriedly headed to nj sunday night. Don got his pacemaker the next day and was improving so R decided to head home wednesday even though Don wasn't scheduled to be released until thursday because R had a delivery to make for work on thursday. Plus the whole time R was in nj, his mother kept telling him she "didn't need him." Nice.

     With R in NJ, I was home alone with J, who was in rare form on Monday and Tuesday. He is normally a pretty easy-going kid and usually listens well. Not those days! I was exhausted and several times I wondered if he wasn't possibly coming down with something since he was so not himself. Wednesday evening as we were putting him to bed I picked him up and he was burning hot. His temp was 102.7 so we gave him Ty.lenol and he slept through the night. The next day his temp stayed high and at one point hit 103.2 so I called the dr and we went in. They did a strep test which was negative and said it was probably a virus. Thursday night was terrible-he kept waking up sobbing and screaming and I had to sleep in his bed with him. Not that either of us got much sleep. He seemed better during the day on friday but then went downhill again so I called the dr back and he called in an antibiotic as a "just in case." We started the antibiotic yesterday. He has moments where he is ok but he is definitely a sick little guy. Sore throats are awful and I see him wince every time he swallows. We're trying to push fluids so he doesn't get dehydrated but he's resisting because it hurts. Tonight he had diarr.hea, poor guy can't catch a break. R and I are both feeling awful too, sick bellies also. We were supposed to go to my parents' for Easter dinner but couldn't so my mom packed up our dinner and Dad brought it over. J barely ate his supper but did manage a little bit of cake. I am praying he starts feeling better soon. He needs to sleep to feel better but the throat pain keeps waking him up. He finally got a decent nap today and we are hoping he gets a full night's sleep, though he has already woken up crying once already. I am just exhausted both physically and emotionally. Also I have a job interview on Tuesday morning, more on that to come.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds like a difficult week. I can understand because my Dad had another stroke and a couple of weeks ago, he was in the hospital with pneumonia. It never seems to end.

Good luck on your job interview!

Angela said...

Thank you Jen! Hope your Dad is feeling better now and I'm glad your internet issues have resolved!