pocketnaomi

Trying to see if I've got the footer working now.

The short version is that things are getting better between me and cflute. We'll never be a couple again, neither one of us has the slightest interest in being a couple again, but we're making progress toward being able to get along.

Part of that progress is a joint decision to refrain from any public internet posts about each other after this one. Private -- as in, not merely friendslocked by via opt-in filter only -- is still permitted, but I hope we'll both be able to be substantially less bitter in those.

If anyone wants to follow the details of what actually goes on in the course of, hopefully, continuing to make progress, feel free to opt into that tight filter via comment here. All comments will be screened and I will not reply to them, so that they don't come unscreened. I'll just add you without saying so.

To everyone else, thank you for being patient with us, and the issue is now closed.

Two trips to the emergency room in two days is two much.

The first one, Sunday evening, came when the chest pains which had been bothering me on and off for a couple of weeks took a dramatic turn for the worse. Left side of the chest, left shoulder ache, tinglies down the left arm... all the things they tell you to worry about. I told technoshaman to just drop what he was making for dinner, and take me to UW Hospital, stat. I then spent a very frightened six or seven hours while they tested me for everything that could possibly be going wrong with my cardiac system. And prayed a lot: I am an atheist, but that was one hell of a foxhole.

The scariest part was when they told me that my blood test had come back 'mildly positive' for something which might indicate that there was a clot in my pulmonary artery. I remember John Caspell's death from a blood clot; I freaked completely. It took another nurse and twenty minutes before someone explained further that if there was a clot, they could treat it with medication pumped into the IV line that was already set up; it was not likely to kill me. In the end, the cat scan showed no clot, the other tests showed nothing else, it was decided that they didn't know what my chest pain came from (my guess is it's muscular) but they did know it wasn't from anything dangerous, and they sent me home, exhausted.

So Monday I had asked Manny to take the kids for one more day, because I needed to get some rest. Mistake, as it turned out, though certainly not Manny's fault. The kids came to my house for an hour, both so I could see them a bit (and they me) and because Manny couldn't get up here quite in time to collect them from school. When he arrived here, Grace was so enthusiastic about greeting him that she jumped into his arms... without warning, and when his hands were in his pockets. She bounced right off, fell backwards, and hit the driveway concrete with her head. The scream could be heard for miles.

At the time, after the crying and the shaking stopped, she seemed mostly okay, but later at Manny's house she began to show some of the usual symptoms of concussion. I did not, for once, have to argue with him to get him to take her to Children's Hospital, for which I am thankful; if he'd given me trouble about it I would've gone to his house and demanded to be allowed to take her there myself. Instead, I met them there, arriving just as Grace was being brought into the triage room, and stayed with her throughout the visit. They tested her for all sorts of possible neurological problems and told us it was okay and we could take her home. She probably does have a concussion but a very mild one, and we got a long list of things to watch out for and bring her back in case they happen. So far, none of them have. She even tried to go to school today, but didn't last an hour -- the nurse called me and said she was having a bad headache and she felt dizzy when she saw movement. I took her home and she's resting quietly here. No gymnastics or jostling that head around for at least several days, child of mine.

Against all odds, and despite my having had about three hours of sleep last night, I am actually in decent shape. The fibro flare seems to have gone, for the moment, and it couldn't have happened at a better time, given all I've got to do this week. I'm concerned for Grace, yes, but not worried so long as none of the things on that list come up. And I'm looking forward to singing with mdlbear this week; he arrives tonight at 10:30.

Whew. I am profoundly thankful for the results of both visits, but I do not want to have occasion to need to see the inside of an emergency room for at least five years.