Life's Roller Coaster...

Yesterday was our 42nd anniversary. Claude and I have spent two-thirds of our lives together. Absolutely amazing.

Since we just did the cruise and since we really, really, really don't need anything now, we opted to just have a nice dinner and evening together. That was the plan and we were sticking with it.

Claude had three meetings during the morning and early afternoon. When he finished the third one he came home and I was ready to leave.

We enjoyed an early dinner at the Chuy's in Lexington. I totally enjoyed watching this lady making tortillias. How she ever gets dough to roll that thin I'll never understand. Our server spoke way to fast and ran his words together. He was a nice server but we really could not understand what he said. At one point I believe he asked if we wanted more to drink and I nodded yes to that and Claude said, "What?" and off he ran to get Claude another soda. But the meal was delicious and we enjoyed it.

Then we headed to Office Depot and Best Buy for Claude to look at laptops. He is really needing to look at replacing his and we thought last night would be a good time to pause and start finding what was out there and making a list of what features were important to him.

Between Best Buy and Office Depot is a Bed, Bath & Beyond. When I washed my breakfast window curtains the other day (well more like a month or two ago), the crocheted lace on the bottom of one panel came completely off and dissolved. Since I purchased them 7 1/2 years ago when we moved here, they are not for sale any where I have checked in stores or on-line. So, I needed to replace the entire set. I parted ways with Claude as he headed to Best Buy and I entered Bed, Bath & Beyond to search for breakfast room curtains.

I found something similar to what I currently own and reached to get the 6 packages I need to have 12 panels. Hmmm...only 2 packages in there and one of those had obviously been purchased and returned. I searched for a sales person and one was called for and confirmed they had others in their inventory according to the computer but none on the shelf or in the back. They also didn't have enough at the Bed, Bath and Beyond across Lexington. She said she could order them and have them sent to our home and I could purchase what was in the store to get my 6 packages. Yep, that would work just fine. She put the order in the computer and deducted delivery charges because they didn't have any in the store and had to order.

I headed to the front of the store with the 2 packages in hand. I was to have the customer service desk print the 2 copies of the order, one for me and one for the store, and then pay for everything. I was told a cashier could also pick up the printed orders and I didn't have to wait at the service desk if there was a line there.

I got to the service desk and there was a young man there with a box and some broken dishes in it. It was definitely from a wedding present judging by the gift wrap in the box. They were waiting on someone to come with replacement plates so the customer service person went to retrieve my printed documents. The young man's bride (I found this cute since Claude and I were out for a 42nd anniversary) came back with her arms full of replacement plates. I moved over to a cashier who could help me while they young couple sorted through to replace broken plates.

My cashier could not get the order documents to print. They called management to help with the printing. We finally got the two copies of the order and the cashier started to ring me up. She rang up to the order for 4 packages of panels first. Then she started to scan the label on the two packages I was getting from the store. The package that had been returned had no labeling on the package to scan for price. In the process of her opening and taking out the two panels in the package to look for pricing lables I noticed, thankfully, that these panels were a creamier color than the newer, never opened package which was decidedly white. I told her I needed six packages all the exact same color and asked if she could change the order form she had worked to get printed to be for 5 packages instead of 4. Nope, couldn't do that. I had to go back to the person who originally placed the order.

Back to the back of the store to find the girl who really didn't work in the drapery department in the first place. She was eventually located and I explained that I had to have six packages all the same color. Could she delete the first order and create a new one or add another package to the first order. Nope, couldn't do that. She did create a new order for one more package and removed the shipping charges. I left her with an order for 4 packages, an order for 1 package and one real package in my hand. Back to the front of the store.

I found the cashier waiting for me with no one in line. Yippee. I explained what was done. She asked why it wasn't all on one order. I could only tell  her it couldn't be done. She checked the printer for 2 copies of the new order for one package. It was retrieved. Then she charged me twice for the 4 package order and wasn't using me the one package order. Geez!!! I explained again that there were now two sets of orders, one for four packages and one for one package. There were also two copies printed of each order. She would need copy of each order for her records and she should give me the other copy for my records. The total I should be charged for was 6 packages. She grinned and said, "It's a good thing I learned how to correct these charges this morning isn't it?"  At this point it was laughable.

The charges were made and my bag was filled with my one package and two orders.

One may ask why not just quit this at some point. Because I have looked in every store I have entered for the last couple of months for curtains and found none, zero, zip, nada, none that would work. I have checked on line for hours and found none, zero, zip, nada, none that would work. This was the first I found that were similar to what I currently have that I really, really like and it was definitely worth this hassle to get them. Now...let's see what comes when the orders arrive!!!

Purchase made and Claude was back patiently watching me go through all of this and now we were ready to continue on with our anniversary celebrating.

The choice to end our evening was ice cream or a movie. I had printed my Groupons for a movie my friend Valorie had suggested. We decided to go back to Georgetown and watch the movie 'The Vow' and have a candy bar instead of ice cream. This was a good decision. The movie is based on a true story and was excellent. My Junior Mints were great. We got out of the movie and the anticipated snow storm had not arrived so we were able to drive home on dry roads.

Into our stretchy, comfortable clothes and off to check eMails we both went. When I came back upstairs Claude was watching Sherman's march to the sea and I was not interested. I picked up my Sudoku book for the last 15 minutes of his movie and then it would be bedtime.

Just before 11pm I got a call from Papa. He asked if the nursing home had called me. I said, "no". He said they just called him and told him Mimi was having seizures and they were sending her in an ambulance to the hospital emergency room. I told Papa I would be in as quickly as I could get dressed. I poked my head in the living room and told Claude. He got up and we both changed clothes, I put extra Kleenex in my purse, packed my cell phone charger and took my craft bag just in case I was there for a long time. Claude drove my car in case I needed to drive for some reason later on.

We got to the emergency room to find Papa. Mimi had not yet arrived. We saw the ambulance drive in with her. I could see through a window and she looked like she was peacefully curled up asleep. The lady at the window for the emergency room said they would run a few tests and get mom settled before we could go back.

At some point the EMT driver was talking to the lady at the window. He spoke with Papa and me. I asked about the seizures. He assured me they had witnessed no seizures when they picked mom up. He did say she looked like she was having tremors but they witnessed no seizures. Her vitals were all good when they got her as well. I stated my concern when I heard seizures that she may have had a stroke or heart attack. He assured me if that were the case she would have other symptoms that would have directed their care that way. But he didn't believe from what they saw and did that she had a stroke or heart attack.

We were told they were doing a CT Scan on Mimi and we could see her after that was finished.

They called us back to Mimi's room in the ER after she returned. She looked just the same as at the nursing home. She was curled up in her almost ball sleeping position. She seemed chilled but that would be expected. She grabbed onto my hand when I placed it next to hers and she squeezed very hard until she settled down and went into a nice sleep for a bit. Her blood pressure was 161/100. Quite high but, after all she was going through, not a surprise.

After a while a nurse came in and I helped hold up Mimi's arms so they could place sensors on her for the monitor to take more readings.

Later another nurse came and said she was taking Mimi back for a CT Scan. I told her they had already done one of those. She explained this was for her chest, the first was for her head. We unplugged Mimi from the sensors and away they went.

When she returned Mimi to the room, I had her explain exactly what was going with the scans. She explained that when they came in they did a CT on her head and they did a chest X-ray. Since Mimi can't sit up straight the chest X-ray showed a shadow or spot they were concerned about. It may have been a sign of pneumonia. For this reason the CT Scan on her chest was ordered. In a laying position they hoped to get a better image to confirm what, if anything, was going on in her chest. This nurse was going back to enter all the data in the system and the doctor would review it and get with us after analyzing all of it.

The doctor finally came in and told us all the CT Scans and X-rays were normal. All blood tests were fine. The only thing he was concerned about was a possible urinary tract infection. He would prescribe medicine for it. He was also going to call the ambulance to take Mimi back to the nursing home. He didn't feel she needed to spend the night in ER, or what was left of the night in ER. He said we should all go home and get some rest.

After all of this I am very grateful for the timing. I believe a loving Heavenly Father was watching over us and teaching me lessons. Claude and I were able to enjoy a nice anniversary evening together. I was supposed to have had an MRI on my shoulder this morning. It was canceled yesterday because of insurance questions. That freed up my morning today. I also was able to see that my head and heart stayed very clear and calm under pressure. It was amazing to me how smoothly all of this went. Clearly we all felt it could have been time for Mimi to pass. I've wondered how I will deal with this when it happens. Last night taught me I can remain calm and be helpful when this time does come. For that lesson I am grateful.

Such an anniversary and now Valentine's Day. I'll go into Georgetown shortly and visit with Mimi again. Life is indeed a roller coaster.