#MicroblogMondays: An "interesting" weekend...!

It's a long weekend here (civic holiday) -- and it's been, ahem, "interesting."  

Saturday was relatively quiet.  Yesterday (Sunday) I hosted a book club Zoom chat -- I'm one of the co-hosts for the book club on the Childless Collective community, and we try to pick books where motherhood, pregnancy, babies, etc., are not a focus (and NO MIRACLE BABIES!!  lol). Our book was "The Hollow Sea" by Annie Kirby (reviewed here), who is a member of the community, and she joined us for a second hour to chat and answer our questions -- so we had more people on the call than usual. Between hosting the call, asking discussion & interview questions, monitoring the chat,  watching for people with raised hands who wanted to speak, etc. etc.,  I was kept hopping! -- but it went very well! 

Younger Nephew's birthday was also this weekend -- he was 32 (!) -- and we were invited over to their townhouse on Sunday afternoon for cake & coffee. Because of the book club event, I wasn't able to go at 2-2:30, when everyone else was coming, but dh went then. It's not that far, less than a 10-mimute walk, and as soon as I was done the Zoom call (at 4), I locked up and headed over to join them all. Unfortunately, Little Great-Nephew wasn't feeling well  :(  so he, his mom & dad stayed home  :(  but BIL & SIL were there, and Little Great-Niece kept us all entertained. She actually said, "Aunt Lori" and wanted to sit on my lap (and for me to pick her up), and shared some of the bits of cheese and strawberries her mom had cut up for her with me!  Needless to say, I was tickled!!  :) 

We had a fun visit with birthday cake & snacks, and then we started walking back home shortly after 5, I think. It was very warm & humid, the sun was out and there's not a lot of shade along the way -- and my husband walks very fast. I will admit I'm not in optimum shape (erk!), and I have trouble keeping up with him at the best of times -- and today was clearly not "the best of times."  I probably hadn't had been drinking as much water as I should have either, because I'd been so busy talking and visiting and taking photos of Little Great-Niece (and Younger Nephew, the birthday boy! lol).  I was getting VERY winded. 

We were within 100 feet of our condo building -- and I told him I had to stop for a minute. There was a bus shelter on the corner and I managed to make it in there, sat down on the bench -- and almost passed out. :(  I may have actually passed out briefly, for a few seconds anyway, I'm not sure. I was VERY woozy. In retrospect, it was kind of like when I fell down the stairs at the zoo two years ago  -- although I was a lot more alert then, more stunned than sick or hurt.     

Dh was frantic. :(   He was calling my name & slapping my wrists and I was not very responsive. I do remember him calling me, but it was difficult to respond. By some sheer stroke of luck/providence, a young registered nurse who lives nearby was passing by in her car, saw us, pulled over and came rushing over to offer assistance. (She told us her first name, but I wish we'd gotten her contact info, so I could send her flowers or something!) Luckily, I had taken an unfinished bottle of water in my purse with me -- I sipped some when I could, and she recommended pouring some of it on my head & neck!  THAT was a shock to the system! -- but it did kind of wake me up a bit! 

She recommended I get checked out immediately, and offered to call 911 (and did). Kind of embarrassing -- you know, "don't make a fuss, don't draw attention to yourself" -- all those things "good little girls" (of my generation, anyway) are not supposed to do...! --  but one showed up a few minutes later, and the two guys in it were wonderful. I was able to (slowly!) climb into the ambulance with a little help and they checked me out then & there. The truck was air conditioned and THAT helped me start feeling better almost immediately!! 

The EMTs took all my vitals (blood pressure, ECG, blood sugar test, etc.) and all was fine, which was a relief  -- but they recommended going to the emergency room just as a precaution. Dh said he would feel better if I got checked out too -- so, off we went.  I had hoped that ambulance trip from the zoo two years ago would be my first AND last... oh well...!  I was in a seat, not a stretcher for the trip this time around.  Once again, dh was not allowed to come with me in the ambulance -- and he said he was in no frame of mind to drive himself -- but he called BIL & they got to the hospital not too long after we did. We were there 2-3 hours, and out of there shortly after 8 (and it was much cooler outside by then).  Not bad, especially for a long weekend!  They repeated all the tests the EMTs did as well as some bloodwork, put me on a drip while the bloodwork was processed (which took about an hour & a half), and it was all fine, thank goodness -- although, on top of the embarrassment of winding up in the ER via ambulance, my veins are both deep and small and they had a heck of a time tapping one for the bloodwork and saline drip!  I've known for many years that I'm a difficult case ;)  but THREE different nurses tried!  They wound up tapping a vein in my hand -- with a baby needle! (ouch!) 

They discharged me once the bloodwork came back -- and confirmed that everything was fine.  The nurses told us I was far from the only person they'd seen that day with heat exhaustion!  Lesson:  take heat & humidity seriously, make sure you're drinking lots of water and carry it with you if you do go out!  

I was exhausted when we got home, though! -- and I'm STILL exhausted today!  I didn't sleep very well -- I had to keep getting up to go to the bathroom, after drinking so much water to try to rehydrate! -- and then I was hungry, so I got up at 4 a.m., had some toast and then went back to bed!  

Then we got up at 7, because we were going with BIL & SIL to visit Older Nephew and Little Great-Nephew. (LGN's mom had to work, even though it's a civic holiday here today.)  We hadn't seen them since early July, before we left for our vacation out west. It was fun, but both of us had two-hour naps when we got back home!  I'll probably be in bed early tonight too. 

I hope your weekends were less eventful than mine...! 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.