Breathe, Baby

Life seems to have been extra busy lately, but this week, in particular, has been downright hectic.

Rachel had an appt. with her neuro on Monday, in Portland, mid-morning, which meant no nap until we'd returned home, and both of us managing the stress that comes along with the hellish traffic in that particular municipality. We're all Oregonians here, but some of us don't seem to handle driving in rain all that well, and traffic was suffering more than usual.

Tuesday we drove south to Eugene, and my rheumatologist, where I thought I had an appt. at noon. I was wrong. It's supposed to be next week, but they weren't very busy and worked me in, bless their hearts, which included getting a steroid injection in a very unhappy finger joint. So, two days of long drives and doctor visits, in the pouring rain. 

Rachel reads with elementary school kids on Weds. and Friday mornings, so Weds. was reading, we had to do a grocery run in the afternoon, and then we had a rep. for a carpet installer come out Thursday evening to measure the house for carpet and linoleum. That meant some extra clean-up had to be done beforehand. Today is Friday, so more reading, and tomorrow I'm driving south again, to help my folks set up wi-fi in their new rental. Rachel will stay home with Dad.

This evening Rachel started having a seizure, and it pretty quickly became apparent that it was going to be a bigger event than is customary for her. It started as a pretty standard complex partial, but then she stiffened totally, her eyes rolled right, and her head turned. She held her breath, and just as her lips began to turn blue, she took a shallow breath. Brett and I were both quietly urging her to "breathe, baby, just breathe." 

I ran to the fridge, and got a syringe with her high-THC sublingual rescue oil, and squeezed a small amount into her cheek. Soon Rachel was breathing a little better, and relaxed. Her oxygen level came back up, but she was shivering hard, and was really out of it for several minutes. Stewie hovered nearby, worrying, and occasionally giving her hand a lick.

Finally, Rachel fell into a more natural sleep, for about 10 minutes, waking long enough to take her evening meds, use the bathroom, get on jammies, and crawl into bed. She asked me to just sit on the edge of her bed for a few minutes, while she worked on calming herself, as her heart was still beating pretty hard, and she was having some anxiety. I was happy to do that, of course, and would have sat there all night, if she needed me, but she told me I could go, so I kissed her head, turned out the light, and came back to the living room, and the monitor, so I could listen to her breathe.