Dan has had his CPAP machine since Monday, making last night the third night he slept with it. The white noise of the CPAP machine doesn’t bother me, and it doesn’t seem to bother Dan, either, though he’s having issues with the fit/feel of the mask. It fits over his face and covers both his mouth and his nose, and is held in place via straps that go around his head.
So this morning he spent a bit of time looking up CPAP mask style and fit options, and found this gem:
First and foremost, that “ventilation” tube looks like a blowhole. Secondly, after looking at it for a couple of seconds, I started giggling my ass off and told Dan that if he winds up getting that style of mask, I’m going to do one or all of the following with that top ventilation tube:
- Pour water down it
- Throw miniature M&Ms down it
- Play Ring Toss with it
- Cork it
I’m going to do my best to blog every single day of this month. But my laptop apparently had other ideas, as it suddenly shut down on me due to alleged overheating. Pfft. And yeah, I have a desktop…but I want to watch the season 7 finale of House uninterrupted.
Anyway…Happy May!
Earlier this evening, just as I was on my way out the door to meet Jason for a special showing of The United States of Autism, I received1 a phone call from our local hospital. When calls originating from XXX come up on my phone, I know it’s either our doctor’s office or one of the other in-hospital-network offices, or the hospital. In this case, it was the hospital. Exactly four months ago my mom was taken to the ER via ambulance because of confusion, high fever, and high blood sugar, and the same thing happened again this afternoon.
Only this time, throw in weird potassium levels (I can’t remember if it was too high or too low – I think too low) as well. According to my brother, Cat (the fifteen year old one who still lives with her), she had been acting weird and out of it for the past two days. Today, when she went down to the apartment building manager to pay her rent, he noticed how bad off she was and called for an ambulance. That was around 2. She didn’t get to the hospital until close to 3, and it was after 6 when she was finally admitted, moved to a room, and then between her and Cat they were able to piece together part of my cell phone number to give to the nurse, along with my last name, who then looked up my info in order to get in touch with me. Anyway, the nurse called to ask me to please come pick up my brother, since he couldn’t really stay and there was no one else to get him.
So, good sister that I am, I dropped my plans (which meant Dan got the opportunity to see the documentary instead – and he really enjoyed it), grabbed Alyssa and Ryan, and drove to the hospital. I spoke to the nurse in more detail. Once again, super-high blood sugar (412 when she got there; 349 while I was there), low (I think) potassium, fever, and the infection/sepsis around her leg is back. Ugh.
After we left, we headed to my mom’s apartment, where Cat got his stuff, we gave their three pets (the female cat I gave her, a rabbit, and a hamster) loads of extra food and water, and because the electricity had been shut off this morning, I took the extra time to grab everything perishable/valuable (dairy products, meats, vegetables, plus a bunch of insulin) from the refrigerator and brought it home (the items are now in our refrigerator and our deep-chest freezer). As an afterthought I grabbed her wallet from her purse (see how out of it she was? She went to pay the rent without her wallet) – she may need her ID, and I’m going to call the electric company tomorrow to find out how much she needs to pay to have her power turned back on.
I’m not sure how long she’ll be in the hospital for. Last time she was in for eight days. This time it could be that, or longer. But Cat has plenty of clothes, he was smart enough to grab his medicine bottles and not just the weekly pill organizer, and the animals at the apartment should be fine for at least 3-4 days. So, that’s that… and Alyssa and Ryan are thrilled to have Cat here for an extended sleepover.
- I initially typed got, but dammit, I know better! ↩
So, even though Dan’s birthday was on Saturday, and I scrambled around on Friday to get all the food I’d need, and went crazy baking and cooking late Friday night and late Saturday morning, we didn’t have his birthday dinner (steak! scallops! loaded potatoes! corn on the cob! BEST HOMEMADE VANILLA CAKE EVER (even if it did take 6 sticks of butter)! random banana whipped cream pie thingy Jason asked me to make!) until Sunday night, because early Saturday afternoon Dan’s job called him and offered him a shift that day, and how could he say no? Once his coworkers found out that it was his birthday, they surprised him with cupcakes, which was sweet. 
I gave Dan a Dalek fish tank ornament for his birthday, and Alyssa and Ryan made him some artsy stuff. I have my eye on two specific things I want to get him as belated birthday gifts, but right now our budget is maxed out for bills and groceries. Happy Birthday, we’re not homeless or hungry!
But Dan’s best birthday present is his CPAP machine. Last week and the week before were spent calling the doctor’s office, insurance company, and medical supply company to make sure they were all communicating with us and each other and knew what to do (order the damn CPAP machine!). This morning I jumped the gun and called the medical supply store so early, they weren’t even open yet (though the nice answering service lady offered to page the on-call person). So I called back, and got quite the surprise: they do in-home appointments! And yes, I agreed to that. The medical supply store is a good 15 miles away… that round trip would take a gallon and a half of gas! So, at 4 today the respiratory therapist arrived with Dan’s new $2,500 CPAP machine, and tonight I’ll be sleeping next to Darth Vader.
After spending my entire morning and early afternoon doing work and network stuff, I did a few local errands, made dinner for the sprogs (Dan went and took a nap with his new BFF), and then the sprogs and I went to Target and Petco to use a few soon to-be-expiring coupons, including coupons for free cereal and free canned cat food. FYI, couponing people: in yesterday’s Sunday paper there’s a Buy One Get One Free coupon where you get a free Gillette Venus & Olay Razor (worth $8) when you buy a 3-ct Gillette Venus & Olay cartridge/blade refill pack (about $16). Target is currently running a promotion where you get a free $5 Target gift card when you purchase select razors and razor blade refills, including the Gillette Venus & Olay! So essentially, you spend $16 out of pocket and get a free razor AND a free $5 Target gift card. So really, you’re paying about $2 out of pocket, since you get that $16 spent on the refill pack back in the form of a $9 razor and a $5 gift card. (Wow…I totally sound like an extreme couponer there. Eek!)
Tonight I took another crack at homemade jalapeno poppers, and fortunately did not end up with another pinstrosity. This time around I used panko bread crumbs (as the recipe calls for) instead of regular bread crumbs, and more importantly I used a miniature-cupcake pan to force each rolled popper (another recipe deviation: I used diced up jalapenos mixed in with the cheese, instead of placing the cheese mixture inside halved jalapenos) to retain its shape and not spread out during baking. It was mostly a success — next time, I’ll make smaller balls!
And now I’m off to enjoy a bit of leftover birthday cake with Dan. And then I’m dragging him to bed, because I’m ovulating and my ovaries are commanding me to do so. 
Words cannot express how happy I am that Dan now has a CPAP machine. As I type this, he’s taking a much-needed nap (three days in a row of early mornings & long hours at work) with it. ♥ As insane as it sounds, I’m even thankful for having to have emergency abdominal surgery. Sure, my exploded-open small intestine could have killed me, but on the plus side all of the medical bills I racked up ($35k!!!) enabled us to have 100% health insurance coverage for six months, effective February 18th, 2013 (the day of my surgery). Hence the CPAP machine that is now in our bedroom.
Sweet dreams, Darth!
Hello! I'm Jenn, and this is my blog. I'm 28, married to a sexy man named Daniel, and mother to an eight year old girl named Alyssa and a six year old autistic boy named Ryan. I'm obsessed with all things hot 
