I had the Monkey with me all weekend since it is the last weekend before I move to Alabama. It was a great weekend with him, spent giggling, playing and doing the things that we have fun doing. All with the under current that we both didn’t want to say out loud – it was the last time we were going to see each other for a while. While the Terrorist and I LOOK just a like, I think the Monkey and I are more a like in our temperaments, sense of humor, etc.

Friday night we grabbed some take out and came home to watch all the shows that had piled up on my TiVO this week. It was a nice, quiet, lovely evening together.

Saturday I had to work all day (haet!) but then we got dressed and headed out to dinner with the BDITU, his fiance and their friend at Dave & Buster’s for dinner. That was 6 hours of pure, unadulterated fun and stupid belly laughs. OMG, I had such a good time with him. We had a blast. I didn’t want it to end.

Today, I got him up and after breakfast, we headed to Best Buy to let him shop for his birthday present. He picked a Star Wars game for the Wii and a cool controller add on that turns the Wii-mote in to a light saber (which is very cool). We picked up his birthday cake, came home, picked up the Terrorist and headed to my mom and dads house. We ate dinner (omg spaghetti – yum) and had cake, then it was time to leave.

It broke my heart. I hugged on him several times, kissed all over him and said good bye 100 times. I held it together though until I left the folks house. Once in the car, I sobbed on the Terrorists shoulder. And she let me. She was actually a good kid today, fun to be around, no attitude. I was so grateful to her for that. And I told her so. Her response? “I know Mom, you are going to miss him. I will too.” That just made me sob harder. Ugh.

So, the sad is obvious. The good is that the Terrorist was not a twit today. And now? I’m going to go watch the show Firefly on DVD since I bought it today while I was at Best Buy.

How did this:

Turn into this:

Happy birthday my love, my life, my little pain in the ass.  I love you with all my heart and can’t believe you are 15 today!

I just talked to my mom.  She sounds 100000% better than she did on Tuesday.  Like her old self again.  They have finally determined that there was no stroke, but they are still mystified as to why the entire right side of her body is still much weaker than the left.  It IS getting better though.

Her sense of humor and smartassness (its a word) are still intact.  When I asked about the pain she was having in her neck (in the ER she was weeping from the pain she was having in her neck), this was her response.

“It’s gone.  Oh wait, no.  You are still here.”

Smart ass.    It’s looking like they are going to probably going to let her go today.  She can stand and walk around and all her mineral levels (potassium, magnesium, etc) have finally bounced back to normal.

So, I ask you.  If you were puking constantly, would you wait EIGHT DAYS to go the doctor?  Because that is what she did.  Me?  On day 2, I’m at the doctor begging for a script for phenergan.

My grandma just called from the hospital.  After being on IV replacement fluids all night her blood pressure is still pathetically low.  It was 94/48 when my grandma was in there a bit ago.  Mom still can’t stand up or put any pressure on her feet/ankles.

Over night they ran more tests and determined that in addition to her critically low potassium level, she is also suffering from a critically low magnesium level.  Now they think that is what might be causing all her pain.

She will be spending another night in the hospital, at least one more night.  Grandma said she didn’t look too much better this morning than she did last night.  They are monitoring her heart every few hours to check for damage.  It’s scary – this type of mineral deficiency is what ultimately caused the brain injury that Terry Schiavo suffered.  Her potassium was low like my moms and it caused a heart attack and because of that she was without oxygen for too long and damaged her brain.  After hearing the nurses tell me last night that mom looked like a cardiac patient when she came in and then knowing this…..it’s scary all over again.

But, for right now, she’s at least as comfortable as she can be and in her happy place due to the demerol they are giving her.

So, there I was, sitting at my desk after lunch today when I heard my cell phone ringing in my purse (Bad Things by That Dude – the theme song for the show True Blood on HBO).  By the time I got to it, I had missed the call but saw that it was from my Grandma & Grandpa’s number.  I was about to call back when my phone rang in my hand.  I answered it and the following conversation took place:

ME:  Hello?

GRAM:  Oh My GOSH!  Your mother was just….aalskdjfhagklnadf (incoherent babbling)…..and it was scary….akdapoioihag;lakd…….and you need to come NOW.

ME:  Um.  What?  Start over.  (Clearly she was upset and clearly it involved my mother)

GRAM:  Yourmotherwasjustrushedfromherhousetotheemergencyroom…….{{{deeep breath}}}……byanambulanceandyouneedtogorightnow.

ME:  Wait. What?  Slow down.

GRAM:  Your mom, taken to the emergency room by an ambulance.

What followed was an exchange of details about where she was and where I should go.  It dawned on me.  My dad is in Australia on business.  He usually keeps his phone on all the time, but when I called his cell (1pm today my time, but 2am tomorrow his time) it rolled directly to his voice mail.  I called his Admin, identified myself and asked her to please call the hotel he is staying at in Australia and have them call the room to wake him up.  I called him back and left a voice mail.  The Admin calls me back – the hotel rang and he didn’t answer.  Frick.  I then proceeded to try his cell number every 20 minutes or so, hoping that maybe he had turned it on but not checked messages yet.

I let my boss and Donna (because she sits right next to him) in on what was going on, and what I knew (which wasn’t much).  I posted here, I Twittered about it and I was gone (I had to wait for a ride because I’ve been car pooling – which is a long story for another post).

I finally got there, found her room and checked in on her.

I was shocked to my core.  I’ve never seen my mom look so bad.  She was grey and kind of looked like a deflated balloon version of herself.  My grandparents were all there, with my one grandmother apologizing for her incoherent phone call.  The nurse came in and gave my mom some compizine (for nausea) and then demerol because she was complaining of a lot of pain.  The nurse came in and talked to me.

First, she thought my mom was a cardiac patient (she’s only 56 years old!!!) because she looked it and was tachycardic (racing shallow heart beat) with her heart beating nearly 200 beats per minute, but her blood pressure was 65/30.  Jesus.  She was nearly dead.

She’s had the flu (the stomach kind with puking and diahrrea for fun!!!) for over a week.  She hasn’t eaten anything in a week, and she can’t keep any kind of liquids down.  She was severely, nearly fatally dehydrated.  Good LORD.  Coming with the dehydration is a potassium deficiency.  Normal levels of potassium in your body (which you need for continued muscle function – your heart is a muscle people) are between 3.5 and 5.0.  My mom’s was 2.5.  That is what they call “critically low level”.  She’s complaining that her feet, ankles, knees, writsts and neck are hurting so bad she can’t stand it.  The doctor says that it could be the low potassium causing her pains.  They gave her several potassium supplements in the ER and then offered to let her go IF she could stand up and walk a bit.  She is so damn stubborn, she decided to swing around and stand up.  10 minutes later she was finally into a sitting position and was shaking so hard she could barely sit there.  No getting up for her.  She gratefully laid back down, covered back up and resigned herself to spending at least one night in the hospital.

While I was waiting for the EKG to come, a woman came in mom’s room looking for me and said something about “you need to call your dad in Australia”.  I guess my cell wouldn’t ring in the hospital room.  I called and he was freaking out.  Asked if he needed to come home….I told him no, let him talk to mom and then promised to call after I talked to the doctor.

When I did finally call him back, I could hear him packing.  He made me promise not to tell mom, but as soon as he got off the phone with me he had his Admin make new travel arrangement for him to come home right now.  His exact words were “Mom would be pissed”.  LOL

So, mom was admitted to the hospital so they can continue to rehydrate her (she had 3 full bags of fluid while I was there and they were hanging her 4th when I left and she still had NO inclination to pee…she was bone dry) and continue to force potassium on her to get her levels up.  The doctor thinks that once her potassium gets stabilized the pain her joints will diminish or disappear altogether.  Hopefully by tomorrow some time or she’ll be in for a few days.

Nothing like getting that kind of panicked phone call out of the blue in the middle of the day with news like this.  I’m fucking worn out.

I just got a phone call that my mother was rushed to the ER by ambulance a few minutes ago.  Heading out to go to the ER and see what’s going on.  More details as I get them.

It’s been a fucked up night.  The day didn’t start out that way, to be sure, but it ended up that way.

I woke up this morning and took the Terrorist to go try out for the swim team.  She was a lap racing swimmer from age 4 to about 8 years old.  At that time (while we still lived in Texas) she decided to join the synchronized swimming team.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a good synchro team here in St. Louis.  Why?  Oh, yeah, because ST. LOUIS FUCKING SUCKS.  That’s why.

After a year and a half of calling/asking/inquiring/pleading, I got a try out for her for the community swim team.  While she was less than thrilled to be awake at 7am on a Saturday, she pretty happily got up and got ready and we were off to her try out.  She nearly drowned (poor baby) during the required lap of butterfly, but she made the team.  Makes me so happy.  I was a competitive swimmer from age 5 through high school so that apple doesn’t stray far from the tree, yeah?  She begins workouts on 4/15/09.

Then it was home to do laundry and pack my Monkey up for a week long trip to Washinton, D.C. with my mom and dad.  We were to pack a suitcase and have him ready to go this afternoon.  My paternal grandmother is turning 80 this coming week.  She’s an amazing, spry, feisty 80 year old woman.  I love my grams.  Dinner was Mexican food and it was gooooood!    While waiting for my mom (who was LATE – and she threatened ME if I was late.  Hummmpf) the Terrorist and I took this picture.  I’m told she looks just like me…….

After dinner, we came home and pretty immediately the Terrorist took off.  She’s been fighting with K-Fed and wanted to go to a friends house to catch some teenage consolation about her problem.  I can’t blame her.  Boys SUCK.

I had to send a message to a person tonight whom I’ve been in love with for over 20 years.  He was my first love and has been sniffing around for the past few years.  He sniffs, then disappears.  Sniffs, then disappears.  Well, you know what?  Fuck you.  Fuck you and the fucking sheep you fucked in on.

The message I sent basically told him to FUCK OFF and LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE.  It might have also indicated why I thought every single one of his relationships had failed – he’s an emotionally abusive mother fucker.  He’s done it to me since we were teenagers.  I told him that if he found a woman that was willing to put up with that shit, then kudos to him, but he better not EVER sniff around my pants ever, ever EVER again because I was done with him.  Oh, and I might have also mentioned something about the fact that his current ‘woman’ is an alcoholic might just be related to the fact that he is an abusive fuck – maybe.

I’m thinking that will make him go away from me.

But it doesn’t make it hurt any less, ya know?

Cindy tagged me for a photo meme. Here are the rules:

1. Go to the the 4th folder where you keep your pictures on your computer.

2. Post the 4th picture in the folder.

3. Explain the photo.

4. Tag 4 fellow bloggers to join in the fun!

OMG – look.  It’s the Terrorist when she was not so terroristic (is that a word? spell checker seems to think so).  She was about 8 or 9 years old here, during a synchronized swimming competition.  That would be the reason for those dark red lips. 

Thanks Cindy!  This got me to looking back at all these pictures from this time in our lives.

Okay, so I have to tag 4 people?  Hmmm.  Miss Sodapop, Robin, Hilly & Miss Britt.

(pee ess – My cold settled into my ears and now I’m fevery and miserable.  Heading to the doctor today.)

(pee ess ess – They just yanked that poor sleeping (hibernating) groundhog out of his hole in PA.  Really?  Why do they do this?  It borders on animal cruelty if you ask me – he was HIBERNATING PEOPLE.  It would be different if he actually COULD tell what the weather patterns will be – BTW, the furry little bastard saw his shadow, meaning 6 more weeks of winter….whatever.)

I decided I didn’t want to cook tonight, so about 2 hours ago I began trying to find something to order for delivery.  Tired of pizza and craving a sandwich but listening to the fam whine for Chinese food, I began my quest.  Decided to try Dominoes new sandwiches (which still let me order a pizza for the Monkey).  No matter how hard I tried, the order would just not go through.  Damn.

Next up was Jimmie Johns.  They make sandwiches and make them fast.  Unfortunately they are new enough that there isn’t one near enough to my house to deliver.  Strike two.

So, scrap the sandwiches.  I decided to cave and order Chinese food.  Now, this was easier said than done.  I don’t have any paper menus for Chinese at home, so I figured, “Hey, the Internet has EVERYTHING, right?”  WRONG!  The only chinese food place I could find with an online menu is some place downtown St. Louis, which is WAY far away from my house (ask Miss Laci and Miss Monique – they know).  Finally I just looked at everyone and demanded to know what they wanted.  All Chinese restaurants have approximately the same menu.  So I called one close to my house and placed my order for sweet and sour chicken, kung pow beef and beef lo mein.  SCORE!

Not.  The order finally arrived and despite the website for the restaurant claiming to take credit cards, and no mention of CASH ONLY FOR DELIVERY was made, the little girl at the door said “no credit cards on delivery – cash only”.

Jesus.  At this rate we are NEVER going to get to eat dinner. 

Between the hub and I we had approximately $6 in cash (we never carry cash really – everywhere takes the debit card these days).  Told the girl at the door that we weren’t told no cards on delivery and that their website specifically says cards accepted – with no mention of delivery restrictions.  She finally got the hint that she was going to be driving that food right back to the restaurant (and I would have been forced at that point to order a pizza) so she called back to the restaurant and had them run the card over the phone.  We finally got our dinner.  And learned a valuable lesson.

CASH ONLY FOR THE CHINESE FOOD DELIVERY.