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Virgil

What A Horrible Night

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by
Virgil
, 11-27-2007 at 03:57 PM (2647 Views)
The Lord Giveth and the Lord taketh.

What a day yesterday. It deserves its own blog entry. First I had a major presentation to upper management on my project. This was my first presentation as project manager of a major project. I've made presentations where I've been a manager of a subset to a major program, but this is my first where I'm in charge of it all. And this is in the top three or four developement programs we have going, and so there is a lot of high up visibility and scrutiny. First let tell you it's not easy standing up in front of an audience for more than an hour (it went almost an hour and a half) of old haggard engineers and managers, especially where there is one guy who loves the blood thirst of making you seem foolish and trying to show how smart he is. By all accounts it went well. It wasn't perfect, and it couldn't be given I had to present our technical difficulties and the fact that we're behind schedule and over budget. But I mixed the successes with the problems and layed out a vision of getting to our objective. It lasted a half hour longer than scheduled, mostly me batting down questions, some innane, some of which I anticipated and some of which I had to dance on my feet. As somene at the end said after he patted me on the back, "you didn't whither. There are guys who whither under it and you held you're ground."

Well that was the good part of the day.

When I got home I stopped at mom's and the mild bronchitis she's had the last week or so seemed to have gotten worse. I had taken her to the doctor on Friday and he prescribed her antibiotics and she seemed to improve on Saturday during the day but bad at night, again improve on Sunday during the day and regress at night, and all day Monday she said she felt terrible: chills, constant cough, no sleep, her hip hurts, headache, feels week. The doctor had told me on Friday to take her to the emergency room if there were any signs of her getting worse, since it could develop into pneumonia. Just the other day, our Granny here at lit net was in the hospital for pneumonia, and I don't fool around with serous illnesses, especially with older people. So, my wife and I took her over to the local hospital E.R.

Well, I couldn't have picked a worse day to go to the E.R. Hospital E.R's around here are notoriously slow and over extended, so I anticipated it would take about three or four hours. Apparently this was one of the worse nights ever. It had been raining all day and with fog , so apparently there were quite a few accidents around, and apparently a lot of people are sick right now. The security guard said he hadn't seen a night like this in ten years. We signed in at 7:07 PM and didn't see the traige nurse until 9:12 (two hours!) and then didn't get into the emergency room until 2:55 AM. What a horrible night just sitting around (I had a book but I couldn't read) trying to get my mother to stop coughing and walking her around so that her hip wasn't in so much pain, and trying to occaisionally doze off.

Well, finally in E.R. we had another hour wait until they took a chest x-ray and drew blood. And then we waited for results, and we didn't get that until after 6 AM. As it turns out she's fine. No pnumonia on x-ray and white blood count is actually low, which means antibiotics are working. She got discharged around 6:40 and didn't get into the car to go home until 7 AM, a full 12 hour misadventure. I don't get much sleep as it is, and going a night without any really has wiped me out. Of course I was in no shape to go to work, and I've cought a little bit of sleep this morning, but I'm still wasted. At least it turned out ok.
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Comments

  1. Weisinheimer's Avatar
    wow, what a nightmare. I hope your mother's doing ok now. Get some sleep.
  2. mtpspur's Avatar
    Had me going for a bit. But I'm glad she weathered thru. One problem I have always had with God is His attitude on taking loved ones out of your life. God treats death as a blessing because for Him it's a reunion of His children to Himself but this cranky old mudball of flesh takes it as 'Do I have to go now?!! I wasjust getting the hang of things.'

    Bottom line I'm glad your mother is doign better and you are a better son to her then I have been to mine.

    In prayers, Rich
  3. 's Avatar
    But America has the BEST health care in the world. Virge, that day sounds just awful. You must have been burnt, completely wiped out! Ugh! that's what I call a Stay-home-the-next-day-to-recover-Day (!) especially with the fatigue coming out of that presentation to add to the stress of it all. Sounds like you did well, overall. Those bumps will always be there, and consider that normally we're our own worst critic. As far as mom, how I'd like to see all moms invincible and independent as they were the days we were growing up. The sad truth is we're getting up there, some sooner than others, slowing down, breaking down. We'll have our day too. Being there for her is where you are now...and that's good. Hope she feels better, and you catch up on some of that lost sleep!
  4. Janine's Avatar
    Oh that is a shame about your mother. I have been there many times to the emergency with my mother and I know the scenerio well. It is truly a drag and takes countless hours, not to mention infinite patience, and it is par for the course, that they send you home with no real problem being detected; however, you made a wise decision to go, because had it been worse, it could have been very dangerous for her. About 6 - 8 hours is normal, where I live...ugh. I shy always away from going to emergency room, especially after a holiday or a weekend, but sometimes it can't be helped. I guess this happened on Sunday, right? Well, I hope she improves everyday with the antibiotics - I know those can make one feel awful too and weird.


    I am very proud of you! Your presentation sounds like it did go very well. I can't talk in front of a group for anything - I am totally shy and have major stage fright. Once my ex-boyfriend said he had told his lodge group I would come over to give a talk on Transferware china which I collect. Oh, my I was having a panic attack and told him 'no way, I would probably die of fright!'....funny since on here I can write tons and tons and I don't appear to be a shy person; I also can talk up a storm....but when I see a group like that I just freeze-up. So I say 'good for you, Virgil; I knew you could do it and do a good job of it. Even your boss said you did well. Kudos for you!
  5. applepie's Avatar
    Sorry to hear that you had such a horrible night. That sounds like it would have been pretty stressful, especially considering that it hasn't beeen that long sinch your mom had surgery. I'm glad to hear that it wasn't something worse, but I'm still sorry to hear it was such an awful time. Get some rest, and I hope things improve soon. Take Care, Meg
  6. Virgil's Avatar
    Oh Rich , I'm sorry. When I said the Lord giveth and taketh, I didn't mean with life. I meant giving me a god moment and a trying moment. Jon - yeah they're getting up there. We didn't have blogs when my father had his long decline (lasted two plus years of hell of hospitals and nursing home) that ended last year, but I guess I could have filled pages of stories then. Best wishes to your mom. And yeah I do think we have a good health care system, what we have is a coverage issue for people who work at small businesses or lose their jobs. I'm all for helping those out as long as we don't have a government run system. But that's for another discussion. Thanks for your kind words Janine. I actually enjoyed the tussle of the fight. You know how combative I can be. It has taken years of having to stand and talk in front of an audience in getting used to it. When i first had to I would get extremely nervous and screw up my talk and forget my points. I just remembered that when I first started my job there was a training class by a professional oufit that tought public speaking and they filmed each class member and critiqued it. I was the worst in the class and the instructer had to really dig to find some positive feedback. But that class did help me as I thought about my weaknesses over the years. I still get that panic if I get into a brain lock moment, but now I've developed the skill of jumping to something I easily know. Once in college when I had to do a presentation I actually passed out for a breif second, sort of like Marie Osmond just did a few weeks ago on that reality dance show. I'm actually pretty comfortable now up there. Practice does it. And yes it is best not to take chances with an older person's health. Red flags should jump up at you when something happens. Pneumonia is a red flag that is extremely dangerous for older people.

    Thank you all for your comments.
  7. kiz_paws's Avatar
    Congrats, Virgil, on your major presentation. Sounds like you did a very good job indeed. You have my sympathies for the hospital ordeal.... the frustrations of waiting and not knowing, coupled with dealing with the coughing and exercising the hip with an elderly fragile person -- wow, very stressful. Your mother is fortunate to have such a dedicated son. Hope that she is feeling better real soon, and hugs to you both, Kizzo
  8. B-Mental's Avatar
    Wow, what a hectic day...unbelievable. I'm glad to hear that your mother doesn't have pneumonia. It sounds like an awful night at the hospital. I guess you have to look at the bright side. Your mother is really quite lucky you are so near.
  9. ampoule's Avatar
    Boy, those twelve hours were a 'dirty dozen' weren't they? Glad you persevered and your mama is okay. It's a worry for sure. Hang in there.
  10. andave_ya's Avatar
    oh gracious, how awful!! I hope you're feeling better today!
  11. Countess's Avatar
    Well thank-GOD your mother is okay - so perhaps it was worth it? I'm sorry you had such a rough day - those are days when you fall in bed, and it seems the most exstatic thing you've ever experienced in your life. At least it's over!
  12. littlewing53's Avatar
    what a great post!...glad to hear you made it thru yr presentation, i can only imagine how exhausted u probably were already....you described it so well...glad to hear your momma is well...sounds like you need a nice warm toddy...a day off from work...and a soft bed...
  13. Virgil's Avatar
    Thank you all, especially you littlewing. That was a nice comment. She's slowly improving. I still have a scratchy throat and it's been at least three weeks since I got this. I probably gave it to her, by the way.