Where I have been for the last week...

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

Sorry I haven't been around lately. My Mom, my daughter Montanna and I went to a family reunion in Chetek, Wisconsin on Thursday July 2nd, and FINALLY came back to Minnesota on Wednesday July 9th.

Just since Tuesday AM we have had 2 911 calls for my Mom, she was admitted to the hospital in Rice Lake, Wisconsin (ironically where I was a paramedic 13 years ago... it is a hospital based ambulance service) Tuesday to Wednesday afternoon because of difficulty breathing.

She was discharged about 4p Wednesday after being diagnosed with "new onset asthma" and put on home oxygen therapy for at least the next month.

About 4p we set out for home, and by just before 7p she was in her 2nd ambulance in 36 hours only this time she kept "forgetting to breathe" . She was supposed to be going to the University of Minnesota hospital ER in Minneapolis about 15 miles away from my house in Shoreview, (where her primary care doctors are & where she usually goes here in the cities) but en route she completely stopped breathing (even with O2 at 15 liters per minute by mask, she dropped her O2 sats to the 60's and under), so the paramedics diverted and went to the closest hospital with her as "a respiratory arrest" She is currently in the ICU at a hospital not far from my house.

My Mom is doing better today, and is off ICU status although the hospital is full, so she is still in the unit. Which as far as I am concerned they can keep her for awhile! This hospital says that she does NOT have asthma or any type of COPD that they can find, so she will not need to go home on oxygen.. Woo Hoo!

Amazingly my only allergy problem this week was on the 4th of July, I couldn't go watch the fireworks with my family because of people charcoaling and burning in their backyard fire rings... shot of Epi and some benadryl and I was all better... amazing huh? None of the 911 action this week was mine... don't all fall over laughing at once now!!

Later today (1300 to 1500) we are having Montanna's 6th Birthday party here at home (she actually turns 6 on Tuesday the 14th). So I ran around doing stuff for that all day Thursday & Friday, (in between keeping in touch with all the relatives and the ICU staff about how Mom was doing.)

Even though we sent out like 30+ invitations for this party, we only expected about 10 kids or so to actually show up, but so far there are 21 kids that have RSVP'd that they are coming... have I lost my mind??

We will have at least 21 4-6 year olds running around our house today... I needed a little more stress in my life this week I guess. Thankfully even before all this stuff with my Mom happened, a few parents were planning to stay.

We are playing a bunch of games...

Pin the tail on Scooby Doo (which Terry drew free hand, it looks AWESOME)

Guess how many bowtie pasta are in the box... 291

muscial spots on the floor (like musical chairs & the carnival cake walk wrapped up into one)

Beanie baby toss into a hoola hoop

guess which baby picture belongs to which kid contest.

That should be enough stuff to keep the kids busy for a little while, plus hot dogs, chips, veggies & fresh fruit trays and of course Birthday cake and ice cream. We were going to just do the veggies, fruit, dip and cake & ice cream thing, but my friend Dawn thought we needed to feed the kids too, even though it is a party from 1p to 3p. Whatever I am confused / tired at the moment and agreed with just about everything yesterday I guess. So all I have to do now is go pick up the "Princess Cake" at Costco, cut up the fruit and cook the hotdogs. Hopefully that will all go off without a hitch later this morning....

This was supposed to be the semi abridged version of my week, but I seem to have runnth the fingers... Hope everyone is having a good weekend, and I will chat with you all after the party if I survive.. ha ha!

If anyone wrote to me specifically over the last few days, please write again because I erased everything in my mailbox so the messages are gone.. way too many to try to read and catch up on...

Love Always,

Anne