Me and Ike - The Final Chapter

The Melt Down

Warning: This post is a little long, a little whiny, and a little gross.

As most people around here will agree, the first week of no electricity wasn’t so bad. We were blessed with good weather and it made things very tolerable. It was a bit like camping with all the luxuries of home, except electricity. However, towards the end of the week the weather started getting warmer. Then giant mosquitos took over the outdoors and in our case, the indoors. I made the mistake of opening the windows without screens. They were merciless. As each day passed, more and more people were getting electricity. This generally happened in the evening, after crews had worked on the power lines all day. As each night came and went, discouragement settled in and by the beginning of the second week I started thinking about heading to Dallas again. But my daughter found out that they had electricity back on at their apartment. She and her roommate went home Sunday to clean out the fridge and to unpack and put things back in place. I had a meeting that evening and both they and Hubby had to go to work the next day; so we opted to stay at our house, hoping, of course that our power would be restored at any minute. The night was rough. The three year old developed a fever and she and I were up and down most of the night. She vomited a few times and she couldn’t even keep water down. My stress level climbed as early morning came and her fever spiked again. The last dose of Tylenol had emptied the bottle and it was clear I needed to get more. It was 5:30 am and Hubby was anxious to head to work. The heat, the mosquitos, and the virus on his computer were bad enough, but add to that a sick toddler that just puked on his side of the bed (dry heaves by that time) and he was ready to go. The store didn’t open until 6am. Trying not to bite his head off, I calmly told him to go on to work and that I would take the children (who were sleeping) and go to Kroger when it opened. What a martyr! Not waiting for me to change my mind and tell him how I really felt, he escaped in a flash. As I quickly bathed to get the vomit stench off of me, I had my melt down.

I sobbed clear up until a few minutes before six and then woke my grandson up and asked him to get dressed. I left the baby in her nightgown, and placed her and her brother in the car. I knew she was probably dehydrated so I decided to go to the emergency room for IV fluids instead of the store for Tylenol. I was soon very grateful that I went early in the morning. Although the ER was very full, I seemed to have arrived at the tail end of the night time rush and at the beginning of the day time rush. We didn’t have to wait long, especially after they took a look at her sunken eyes and listlessness. She was sitting on my lap as I was registering her when she suddenly had a diarrhea accident. She has a weak stomach and started gagging at the smell and was soon writhing in pain at the heaving of her empty stomach. She became quite distraught, as did I. As I tried to comfort her, the hospital staff found an adult gown for her and I cleaned us both up as well as I could in the public restroom. My grandson refused when I suggested he come into the ladies restroom with us. “Okay, stay right there, and come in here with me if anyone bothers you.” I understood that he was too old to go into the ladies room, even if it was just us in a single room. He did as he was told and we were soon sitting in the waiting room again. It was then that I decided to call someone to pick up my grandson. As I heard my friend’s voice on the other end of the phone, I started to cry again. I really hate it when I do that! It made it very difficult to explain that although I really needed some help, there was no real crisis or anything. My brave little grandson put his arm around me and patted me as I tried to explain to her where I was and what I wanted from her at this early hour of the day. She agreed to come right away and I was so relieved. Good friends are such a blessing from God and He has really blessed me these past two and a half years. After closing my cell phone, I thanked my grandson for comforting me and tried to convince him that everything was okay. His sister would be fine and I would be fine but I was just very tired from being up most of the night and my emotions were overreacting on me. He seemed satisfied with that and went back to watching cartoons on the television. I begrudgingly called Hubby to let him know we were at the hospital. He was sympathetic, which was comforting. The little committee in my head had convinced me that he didn’t care or understand what I was going through so it was nice to hear him say that he was sorry he couldn’t help. Its amazing how just a little bit of empathy (pity?) from my beloved can instantly change my attitude and endurance level. I also talked to my daughter to let her know what was going on. A few minutes later, we were called back to the treatment area.

All the rooms were full, so they had me carry my granddaughter to a gurney in the hallway just outside of the triage room. My friend showed up shortly after that, carrying a fuzzy blanket for me or the baby to use. It was such a wonderful, kind gesture. She cheerfully greeted us and gave me a much needed hug. After she and the grandson left, the best nurse ever began treating my poor, little, sick grandbaby. She actually worked at Texas Children’s Hospital downtown but was on loan to our local hospital’s ER. She was wonderful and soon had this little three year old cooperating with the needle poke to get the IV in her arm. She cried but held very still. She fell asleep almost immediately and I began my long wait. I hadn’t thought to bring anything to read so I basically just sat there trying not to listen to the symptoms and other personal information being asked by the triage nurse of her patients. It was amazing how many people had diarrhea. I remember thinking that it was probably from the lack of refrigeration and people trying to use up the food that had thawed in their freezers. I called Hubby to let him know how things were going with us and to see how his meeting went with his soon to be new boss and how his sick computer was faring. Since the doctor said we would be there for at least 3 bags of fluids, he (Hubby, not the doctor) offered to come and relieve me so I could go home and change clothes (again) and get something to eat. Yea! He came through for me! I really do love that man! After a long morning and early afternoon, the patient started waking up, fever and nausea free. Her color returned and she was smiling again. Before too long, we were able to head for home.

When I stopped by my friend’s house to pick up my grandson, I discovered that he and my friend’s daughter had found a baby turtle in their swimming pool. They named it Ike. He is currently swimming in a tank in our living room. He’s cute, as far as turtles go. But, I digress. I continue…I had already made up my mind that I was going to take up on my daughter’s offer to stay at her apartment until our electricity returned. I went home, changed the sheets on the bed, and packed our clothes. By this time it was evening and time for dinner. I met Hubby with the kids for dinner at Denny’s. By the time we finished eating, it was around 8pm. We received a phone call with the joyous news that our power was restored. I was torn between the decision to return home or to proceed to Daughter’s home. I opted for Daughter’s home. I wanted to spray the house for mosquitoes before I took the kids back. Hubby decided to go home and we parted our ways again. That evening, we slept in blissful air conditioning. The next morning, we returned home and I started on laundry and cleaning the house. We are slowly returning to normal, whatever that is.