Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Best of Times. The Worst of Times


Our weekend started great on Friday night then moved into the frantic mode and a 911 call by late Saturday afternoon. A trip for the first time to the National Fair with your granddaughter is about as good as it gets. Watching your wife all of a sudden get so sick she cannot respond to you is about as frantic as it gets.

I’m typing this on Sunday morning in a hospital room after a not so restful night here but things are definitely on the upswing now.

I have learned a lot about a drug called Phenazopyridine the last several hours. The drug is usually given along with an antibiotic for a urinary tract infection. For most folks it works quite well. For my wife, it causes severe vomiting, dropping of blood pressure and other symptoms until she gets to the point she cannot respond. At least that is my diagnosis of her crisis situation last night.

She had taken an over the counter version (Azo) of this drug on two occasions the last couple of weeks. The first time she got sick we thought she had a virus. The second time, which was worse than the first time, we correlated the sudden vomiting and other symptoms with the Azo. Saturday morning we filled a couple of new prescriptions which included another antibiotic and a drug called Pyridium. We didn’t realize that Pyridium is another version of Azo or Phenazopyridine. Three hours later we had a crisis on our hands which included a call to 911 and an emergency ride in what many folks in the south call “the sick wagon.” I can tell you I was glad they have sick wagons last night and I was glad they have trained personnel riding them.


The great part was on Friday night when we took our 9 month old granddaughter to the Georgia National Fair. Taylor visited the fair with both sets of grandparents this week as well as her parents on different nights. I don’t know who enjoyed it the most – Taylor or the kinfolks watching Taylor.

To see a little girl’s eyes light up in awe as she looks up and sees all the lights is a pretty amazing thing to watch. Last year at this fair we were buying stuff for a little girl who was just being formed in her mommy’s tummy. This year she was there in all her perfectness. And it is hard to imagine it getting any better than that.

Weekend number 41 of 2008 is definitely one I will remember for a while.

It was the best of times and it was the worst of times.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank God Mama is getting better. I've never been so scared in my life. There's nothing worse than a mama's boy finding his mother laying on the ground unresponsive...

I'm sure glad it wasn't my 6'5 (235 pound) Daddy because we would have had a hard time getting him up.

-Luke

Anonymous said...

Thank you to all the people who were praying for me yesterday and last night. It was definitely the scariest times of my life. I don't remember much....things come and go as far as all that happened. But there is one thing I do remember and that was Luke kneeling beside me praying out loud for me. Wow!
Then my wonderful Pastor and his wife came to the ER to see how I was. I remember him praying for me.
Bruce told me this afternoon about all the people who called to check on me. Thank you to everyone who called and prayed. I'm blessed...truly blessed.
Kathy

Anonymous said...

I'm so-o-o glad that Kathy is better. Life certainly throws some things at us so unexpectedly and it makes us pause and think about how fragile life really is. Thank heavens for the power of prayer!
Dixie

southernjoy said...

How SCARY! Kathy, you're in our prayers!

Anonymous said...

KATHY,
HOPE YOU'RE OUT OF THE HOSPITAL AND ALL BETTER NOW. KEEP US POSTED.

LOVE TO YOU AND BRUCE,
UNCLE PAT & AUNT DIANE

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear Kathy was sick. What a scary experience! Glad you are feeling better. LL in SC

KAT said...

Mr. Goddard:
Thank goodness your wife is okay. It could have been much worse but the Lord was with you.

I think that elongated golf cart Houston Medical Center EMS uses- with a mini-siren, advanced life support gear, and two medics- paid for itself.

I saw a man who seemed to be feeling ill receive aid from a bystander as a deputy called EMS and I heard a siren in the background.

The fair has done its homework in special event emergency care.

BTW the "sick wagon" likely comes from the word "krankenwagen" which is a German word for ambulance.