Watching the Sunset Together (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesaday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by David M. Gasciogne and posted by Elephant's Child.     

    

This week's prompts are:

1. Aghast
2. Snivel
3. Beautiful
4. Magnanimous
5. Frogmarch
6. Spoonfeed

 

And/or

 

1. Shoulder
2. Knot
3. Frenzy
4. Wicket
5. Wriggle
6. Visible

We got into a bit of a sticky WICKET yesterday with Sweetie's oxygen.

Let me back up a bit and make sure i've told all the story straight.  There's a lot on my SHOULDER right now, and i never quite remember what information i've shared with whom.

Last Friday, Sweetie's O2 level tanked.  He'd been sleeping and finally got up and came downstairs.  When i measured his pulse ox, i was AGHAST to see it down at 85.  For those who don't know, normal is 97-100, anything under 94 if you have Covid19 is reason to go to the hospital, anything under 90 is reason to be hospitalized, and under 85 you will start to have organ damage.

Trying not to get in a FRENZY, i calmly told him he needed to go back to the ER.  He resisted mightily.  His first trip had resulted in him being in the ER for 24 hours, where he saw people sicker than himself on the verge of dying, and it scared him.

A call to his doctor's nurse and to my doctor resulted in me finally talking him into going.  After all, as i told them, i can't force a man who is 14+ inches taller and over a hundred pounds heavier than me to do anything he doesn't want to do!  Calling an ambulance does no good, either, as they will not transport someone who refuses to go.

My doctor pointed out to him that they might just prescribe oxygen at home and send him home, and that convinced him.

The odd thing is, that even when his levels go down, he does not appear to be in VISIBLE distress as you would expect.  It is very deceiving to see him sit, calm and cool with no gasping, not looking ashen or having a blue tinge, and have an oxygen level that low.  You'd think nothing was wrong with him.

Then he opens his mouth, and he can't find his words, or he doesn't understand what's being said to him, and you realize he's oxygen starved and not thinking clearly.  Scary.

We went back to the ER, where no visitors are allowed, and it felt like sending a small child to school.  Since i knew from the first episode that i could not trust him to be able to tell them what was wrong, i wrote a note and told him to hand it to the first person he saw when he went in.

The note said, "My name is XXXX, I am Covid positive.  My oxygen level has been at 85-90 this morning, I am confused and have a hard time answering questions.  Please call my wife XXXX at #XXXX."

It worked, they measured his oxygen and called me.  There were two alternatives, hospitalize him and keep him in the ER again because they have no beds available, or send him home with an oxygen compressor if i felt comfortable doing that.  (Exactly as my doctor had said.)

Thanks to my client Ms. S, i know how to run an oxygen compressor.  Send him home, i told them, this is something i've learned to do already.

By the time i got back up to the ER to get him, my PCP had called the ER and convinced them to also put him on a steroid and an inhaler.

An aside, my MAGNANIMOUS doctor called me and said, "If they put him on an inhaler that your insurance will not pay for, text me and I will give you a sample one I have at my office for free."  The insurance would not pay, so the doc gave us a sample of a very expensive asthma inhaler medication that we would never have been able to afford.

They sent us home with a portable oxygen compressor that has a battery, a wall adapter, and a car adapter.  It was a BEAUTIFUL little thing that started giving us fits as soon as i got it plugged in at the house.  It kept reverting back to the battery, and i would have to WRIGGLE and jiggle and unplug and replug, and it would finally work properly on the power cord.

Then yesterday it quit working on the power cord, and the battery was getting low, so i called the company named on the front.  Without getting my knickers in a KNOT, i calmly explained the malfunction and they told me that model sometimes had a power supply cord issue.  They took our address and said they would send a technician.

Meanwhile, the last thing i wanted was for Sweetie’s oxygen to go down again.  He's already having cloudy thinking that might be temporary "covid fog" or might be some permanent higher function brain damage.  No way do i want him to lose enough function that i have to SPOONFEED him for the rest of his life if i can prevent it.

Thinking fast, i changed the oxygen compressor to the car adapter cord, started the engine of GusGus die Fledermaus, got the A/C going and put Sweetie in the car with the compressor.  The unit worked fine on the car adapter and he was able to stay on his oxygen until the technician arrived, which was actually quite soon.

They brought us a large, not at all portable unit, the same type and size that Ms. S has, which is fine and works perfectly.  The technician also set us up with two portable tanks to use if i have to take him somewhere, each of which will last up to 10 hours. He also has a longer oxygen tube, so he can walk further, no more having to choose between picking the unit up and taking it along, or taking off the oxygen.

This whole thing has been stressful, but i continue to tie up any desire to SNIVEL and FROGMARCH it right out the door, it is not welcome.  Things could be much, much worse.

(Uncle P continues to improve, against all odds.  Brother-in-Law is still in the hospital, holding steady.)

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Today is:

Alcatraz Day -- the first prisoners arrived this day in 1934

Crayfish Premiere -- Sweden (although they are now available year 'round, it used to be that crayfish could only be sold and served in restaurants the day after the season opens; the actual premiere date is often still celebrated with crayfish parties and lots of schnapps)

Day of Honor for Oddudua -- Santeria religion (cognate of the Roman Catholic St. Clare of Assisi; credited with the creation of humans)

Dog Days end -- yes, supposedly, in this heat

Elvis Week -- Memphis, TN, US (celebrating The King of Rock 'n Roll with lots of special events; through the 17th)

Hari Taika/Haritalika (Teej) -- CG, India; Nepal (Women's Festival, and in Nepal, a special holiday for Female Employees Only, to celebrate marriage)

Feast of St. Attracta -- Irish Catholic Saint (founded a hospice and convents, and supposedly slayed a dragon; Patron of Achonry, Ireland; Men of Lugna)

Independence Day -- Chad(1960)

Ingersoll Day

National Raspberry Bombe Day or Raspberry Tart Day -- whichever one you like best, or both, if that's the way you roll

Perseid Meteor Showers -- this year, peak visibility is tonight and especially tomorrow night; the Celts believed these meteors were due to games being played by Lugh, their sun god

Play in the Sand Day -- as per many internet sites; yeah, like at the beach, nothing like sand in your shorts, i get enough of that on vacation, thank you

Presidential Joke Day**

Royal Queensland Show -- QLD, Australia

Son and Daughter Day -- the day to give your son(s) or daughter(s) the gift of time

St. Clare of Assisi's Day -- (Foundress of the Order of Poor Ladies [Poor Clares] Franciscan nuns; Patron of embroiderers, eyes, gilders/gold workers/goldsmiths, good weather, laundry workers, needle workers, telegraphs, telephones, and television writers; Assisi, Italy; Santa Clara Indian Pueblo; against eye disease)***; related observance

     Fiesta de Santa Clara -- Santa Clara Pueblo, NM, US (Native American celebration of St. Clare of Assisi, their Patron saint, with a corn dance and prayers for rain)

St. Philomela's Day (Patron of babies, children, desperate causes, forgotten causes, impossible causes, lost causes, orphans, poor people, priests, prisoners, sick people, students, test takers, toddlers, young people; against barrenness, bodily ills, infertility, mental illness, sickness, sterility)

Birthdays Today:

Will Friedle, 1976

Ashley Jensen, 1969

Viola Davis, 1965

Joe Jackson, 1955

Hulk Hogan, 1953

Stephen Wozniak, 1950

Marilyn vos Savant, 1946

Joanna Coles, 1944

Anna Massey, 1937

Arlene Dahl, 1928

Mike Douglas, 1925 (Note: he also died on this date in 2006)

Alex Haley, 1921

Carrie Minetta Jacobs-Bond, 1862

David Rice Atchison, 1807

Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, 1667 (Last of the Medicis)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Dream Child(Film), 1989

"Die Harmonie der Welt /The Harmony of the World"(Opera), 1957

Today in History:

First day of the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar, used my the Maya and other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, BC3114

Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation, BC2492

Battle of Artemisium, naval battle of the Greco-Persian War, fought at the same time as the Battle of Thermopylae of the same war; Leonidas, King of Sparta, dies in the land battle, BC480*

Papandayan Java volcanic eruption kills 3,000, 1772

Charles Lawrence gives expulsion orders to remove the Acadians from Nova Scotia beginning the Great Upheaval, 1755

The world's first roller rink opens in Newport, RI, 1866

The first civilian prisoners arrive at Alcatraz, 1934

Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a frequency hopping, spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi, 1942

A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo to Honolulu, killing one teenager and injuring 15 passengers, 1984

NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history, 2003

A new species of a giant carnivorous plant, Nepethes attenboroughii, is discovered in the central Phillipines highlands, 2009

Jamaican runner Usain Bolt wins his third gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012

Scientists officially declare a Greenland shark to be the world's oldest living vertebrate, at over 400 years old, 2015

Michael Phelps becomes the 3rd athlete and 1st swimmer to win 4 consecutive Olympic gold medals in one event after winning the men’s 200m individual medley in 1:54.66 at the Rio Olympics, 2016

*some historians give different dates

**because presidents have a sense of humor, too, as shown this day in 1984 when Reagan thought the microphone was off and joked about Russia being outlawed

***why tv? because when she became too ill to attend mass at the end of her life, a miraculous image of the service would display on the wall of her room