What a Day

After opening my eyes to the cold and dark I checked on Emily. Her hands were cold. They've been on the cold side for weeks now. We warm her hands with mittens and cover them with her blankets.

Once Emily is snuggled to my satisfaction I can drink my cup of coffee and read my Bible. I'm at the section where Joseph has been sold into slavery and taken to Egypt. His older brother Rueben is just beside himself with grief because the brother's sold Joseph. God has a plan though!

I went to check on Emily again and she was sleeping, something unusual for her at 6:30am. I turned on the computer and began to talk with my mom. I love technology! I get to talk to my mother every morning via the internet. She lives two states away from me but with internet it seems like she is right there with me.

At 7am our interim nurse arrives. She is awesome. We only get to have her for a couple of weeks as she has another client that she works for. We talk about Emily's evening, and about her medications. Emily begins to stretch and is starting to wake up. She gets a breathing treatment, and her overnight urine cath is removed. The nurse reports that the catheter wasn't in the stoma all the way and Emily's clothing and blankets are wet.

Time for the bed-bath. I rolled up my sleeves and helped the nurse get the wet clothing off. Emily is freezing now because all the blankets are removed. The wash basin with warm soapy water is close-by and I wash her arms, back, and chest. We quickly towel dry the girl and cover her with clean blankets. Part 2 - wash the rest of the body.

Once Emily is clean and dressed I go to the edge of the stairs and call Grace. She isn't up yet, which is a miracle since she gets up early every morning..... I have to call her a couple of times before I hear groaning and movement from her room.

Jered appears. He has been at work all night and is ready for food and probably a nap. Although I called Grace she isn't downstairs yet. Jered goes to the stairs and calls her. Her medicine is in the kitchen and I'm getting it ready for her when I hear a blood-curdling scream.

Grace is screaming which in turn makes me scream..... "What? What?" I'm yelling. Grace is running down the circular stairs and I'm terribly upset because of the way she is screaming (and the thought that she will fall down those circular stairs). When she reaches me in the kitchen she is shaking. Trying to get the words out of her about why she is crying and screaming was nearly impossible. I'm thinking she must have seen a spider. But I've never heard her scream so wildly for a spider! After a good hug she calms enough to tell me that there was a RAT upstiars and it ran across the floor right in front of her! I'm thinking, "A Rat?" Then she shows me the size, which is noticably smaller than a rat would have been, and she tells me that it was probably a little mouse.

OK, "Jered, we need your cat!" I'm just about laughing by now at the thought of a big rat upstairs, one that is really very tiny once Grace showed me how little she thought it was. Jered is complaining that his cat probably won't know what to do. "Mom, I've spoiled him. He won't know how to catch a mouse." HA! I'm laughing now. "Jered, cats don't unlearn how to go after mice!"

I'm back to Emily's room and checking on her when she starts a seizure. She starts and stops several times and she is startling very easy. Once she starts the seizure in ernest the nurse gives her medication to her to stop the seizure. We wait and wait. She's still seizing.



Its time for Grace to get on the school bus, and I need to feed the horses. So I leave the nurse in charge of Emily and Grace and I head out the door. The horses are calling. Since I got off schedule by screaming and then a seizure the horses have to wait till Grace gets on the bus for their breakfast.

The ground is frozen. Jeff filled the water container last night so I only have to kick the side of the bucket to break the ice on the water. After two or three good kicks (why didn't I use a rock?) my foot hurts and the ice finally breaks apart. The horses get their alfalfa and they are happy.

Once back in the house my glasses fog up. I have to take them off so I can see Emily. She is still seizing. Its been nearly 30 minutes. We opt for another dose of medication. The seizure lasted 40 mintues. This was a long one. Generally the long seizures last 25 minutes, and the longest was 35 minutes. So today she set a record.

When it was all done I called the pediatrician and gave information on this episode. Emily has an appointment on Thursday so we'll see if there is anything else going on.

So the dishes didn't get washed this morning, and I didn't vaccuum yet, but Emily is sleeping peacefully. I hear the clothes dryer is done so its time to get back to housework. But isn't it lunchtime? Maybe housework can wait a few more mintues......