The day Emerson saved my life

It has taken me over a month to write this post about the event that transpired on June 5,2011 due to a combination of time in the hospital, physical limitations and probably some mental blocks of not wanting to relive the experience. As it is good therapy to  type, I shall give it a go.
It was a Monday, my EDO day. so Em and I were home together  I had a Doctor's appointment in the morning, but chose to take her with me rather than drop her off at daycare We usually spend my EDO days together, so was not out of the ordinary by any means.
The day began normally. We went to my appointment which was quick as I was just refilling prescriptions.
I was feeling positively normal .We came home I noticed I was having trouble  opening the front door, like my hands wouldn't work properly. I managed to get the door open, and Em and I went inside.
Once inside, I laid down on the couch as I suddenly felt overwhelmingly tired. Em went and played on my computer. A few minutes later, I tried to sit up to take a drink of water and I couldn't  all of a sudden, I could hear myself making moaning noises and I was aware I was making them, but I could not control it. Em heard this and became quite panicked. I knew I needed help, and fast.I heard Em crying and saying over and over again that "Mommy was going to die"  I wanted to comfort her. to tell her I was OK. I rolled off the couch to help but all that did was put me face down on the carpet. I still could only  moan and make generally scary noises but Em, who now was asking me what she could do for me. I kept trying to say "phone but it was not intelligible, despite my efforts.Thankfully, she figured it out   and she brought me a phone. I picked up the phone and managed to dial Keith's work, praying the girl answering would understand me.She answered, and I kept repeating Keith's name  When he came on the line, I repeatedly said to "come home" until I   knew heard he understood me.Keith was home within minutes and called 9-1-1

At this moment weeks later, we still have no diagnosis the working diagnosis is a stroke, but the head Neurologist , does not feel that is the case, rather a condition that mimics the signs of one was in hospital for 9 days had too many tests to count and I am on sick leave while we wait for more and a diagnosis I am slowly getting better, just taking it one day  at a time. I Thank God  that I kept Em home and that my 5 year old had the courage to help in what had to be the most terrifying of situations What if I Had sent Em to daycare? I would have been alone until 6PM My baby girl saved my life

***********Please forgive typo's am am just starting to be able to type and it is oh so slow

The one where I went to the hospital

March 5, 2010 was an interesting day. Highlights included being taken to the hospital via ambulance, with my naked, fat bootie hanging out.

I'll start at the beginning.

Thursday night, I was planning to start a new medication, so I took my usual evening med (a blood pressure pill) earlier than normal, as I planned to add in the new med later that evening.

Evening went normally. I remember this part particularly clearly. As I took my pill before bed, it clearly had 100 imprinted on it. Great, except my new med that I was supposed to be taking should have read 40 and seeing the 100 should have triggered something...like "HEY MORON THAT'S THE WRONG PILL!" Alas, if it had, we would have missed the fun ahead...

Fast forward to the next morning. I have absolutely no memory of this, but Keith tells me he heard a loud bang around 6 am (normal wake up time for me) Keith tells me that he came upstairs , and I was laying beside my bed and the wall. He assumed I fell out of bed. Worried that he couldn't wake me, he called 911. If he was thinking of my pride, and the Emergency workers vision, he may of wanted to throw my nightgown on me as I had taken it off as I slept as I kept getting tangled in it. So there I am, fat, naked and probably blinding those poor workers or causing some stress leave.I'll say Keith was probably not worried about that when he more concerned I wasn't conscious.

I came to at the hospital. The Ambulance worker was asking me questions like the date or my birth date, and I could not answer his questions.

Long story short - I was released that afternoon and I am currently undergoing testing to rule out a seizure and to confirm I just passed out due to taking 2 blood pressure pills by accident. I still have to have an MRI and then hopefully we will have answers.

Regardless, have learned two important lessons: 1) use my pill box so I know what I have taken. and 2) Don't take off my PJ's at night 'cause that's when your naked butt will be the focus of Emergency worker's nightmares.

Again, like Mother, like daughter...

It's no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am a klutz. Since Sept 2007, I have had 2 broken bones and had a number of other falls that should have resulted in broken bones.

So, if Emmy turns out to be a klutz like her Mom, she would have come by it naturally.

Currently, we are dealing with a push car incident. Yesterday, Em was playing on her push car and managed to flip it backwards. She ended up with a nasty goose egg on her noggin. We iced it, and did the typical first aid - however the poor kiddo woke up crying at 3 am as her 'neck hurt'. Now, I knew in my head that it was due to the fall, however I worried about everything from the fall to Meningitis, because I am the paranoid mom.

She finally fell asleep with the help of some painkillers around 6 am. Good thing I had today off anyhow. She has been inconsolable at times and just fine other times today. I will see how tonight goes and if we have another bad night - I will have to take a sick day tommorow. My main worry is she is still on meds every 4-6 hours, alternating Tylenol and Advil which I don't want her daycare to have to deal with. So we will see. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Pictures of my ankle (I warned you!)

On Tuesday, my cast was removed and, surprisingly, not reattached. I assumed I would have a cast for 6 weeks. However, that leads to arthritis, according to the Ortho Doc. I have been a bit fearful as I have this broken ankle that I am not allowed to put any weight on for 4 weeks OUT IN THE OPEN. Em hasn't been curious at all, but then, she didn't seem to notice my cast either. I guess we can take 'observant' off the list of skills my daughter possesses! lol

I've managed to not hurt it so far, and am actually much happier without the cast. I was able to soak in the tub last night for the first time in 3+ weeks. If the darn water hadn't of gotten cold, I would still be in there. It seemed to be slightly less work for Keith as well, which is nice. Previously, he had to help me to the downstairs shower, put towels down, help me into the chair that is in the shower, then clean up after me. I pretty much did everything for my bath.

3 1/2 more weeks till I see the Orthopedic surgeon again and I start putting weight on it.

For those not-faint-of-heart, here are some pics of the cast-less ankle.

House O'Stairs

You know, there was always a reason I didn't love this house quite as much as Keith does. There are stairs EVERWHERE. Seriously. Since Thursday, I have been restricted to the living room and the kitchen, since every other room requires some stair tackling to get to. If you just think I am being lazy, come here, I'll break your ankle and you can see how awesome it feels. Or how sexy it feels to use a wheelchair commode since the bathroom is up 14 stairs. The same 14 stairs I fell down and got me into this mess in the first place. Life is fun.

On a much less whiney note, I have been offered a new job. Not only does this new job pay over double what I was making, it is something I have wanted to do for years. I start October 22, and although I won't be healed yet, the office is wheelchair accessible which means NO FREAKING STAIRS! Between my parent's crap, losing Maddie, and breaking my ankle, I seriously thought I kicked puppies in my past life or something. It's not been a stellar year.

The casualty of my injury was my ankle of course, and my former job that I have been working at for the past few months. There are 2 small flights of stairs to manoever which has kept me away. (Oh, and the throbbing pain when my foot isn't elevated. So, I quit this morning. I'm sure I am not their favorite person right now, but what could I do?

My blog is sadly lacking in pictures of my munchkin. Last week she was injured from her fight with the 4 year old at daycare and resembled Rocky, and then of course I broke my leg. However, I will take some new ones tonight.

Injured Jan

I'm broken. Well, at least my left ankle is. It's amazing how integral that one joint is for things such as walking. lol



On Wednesday, there was some crazy crap happening on my baby board. I had gone upstairs to use the washroom and on my way down, I either missed a stair or tripped, I don't recall. All I know is I freaked my child out and hurt my foot something fierce!



We called 911 since I couldn't move and off to the hospital I went. Diagnosis: Broken left ankle requiring surgery to fix. They sent me home (after they cut off my pants!) since there were no beds. For all those with scary visuals right now, Keith brought me some shorts to wear.

I returned to the hospital on Thursday for my surgery, and now here I sit, pretty much immobile. I have crutches that I need to practise with, but Keith keeps hiding them (so I don't injure myself further). I did manage to change Em's diaper today, without assistance, while on the recliner, so I'm not completely useless, just feel that way.