Black Friday

It was a Black Friday of epic proportions. And I didn't step near the Mall or any store for that matter. The plans I had made for the day was to go to the Animal Care Council and adopt a cat. An adorable calico cat. But no....

I spent the entire day...12 hours long in the ER.

My DH has been having back pain off and on for the last week or so. He's been dealing with it. But yesterday, it got worse. He couldn't lay down. He could hardly walk. So he parked himself propped up by 4 pillows in bed and slept upright most of the night.

This morning, he hobbled out of the bathroom to go feed the horses and I told him that I would do it. And he readily agreed. So, I was about 10 minutes behind him and I figured that he was already outside. But, no, I found him sitting in a chair in the sunporch. Looking very scared. He could not move. He couldn't stand up. He couln't lift his foot without crying, and I mean crying out loud. So I went out to feed the horses at his request. I was just finishing when my cell phone went off. He was calling to tell me that he needed me right away. So I sprinted to the house to find him in the same position but shaking uncontrollably. Get an ambulance right now was the words I heard.

In 15 minutes the EMT's were at the house, the DH was bundled onto a gurney and we made the trip to the ER. We got parked in the hallway. The ER was packed.

The DH was in such pain that every move was excuriating. But he couldn't stay in one position more than 10 minutes. And we waited and waited. Off to the get a lumbar x-ray. The nurse came by and he asked for pain meds. My husband, asking for demoral. This is the guy who won't take an asprin for a headache. About 3 hours later she came by and gave him a shot of something. Didn't touch the pain. Finally, the doctor came and she examined him. He had reflexes, no radiating pain, no fever, normal vitals, the x-ray was ok. HMMM-MM.
So we waited another couple of hours and they decided to let him go, only if he could stand and walk on his own. So he painfully gets up and then gets nauseous and collapses in the nurses arms. Back onto the gurney. They decided to give him an IV of something, they hooked him up to a monitor and gave him another pain shot. And they leave us again for another couple hours. I needed to go home to take care of the horses so I go...and within an hour and a half I am back. They want to keep him, he wants to go home. So the doctor said...if he could get up and walk then she would let him go, although they felt he should stay...
He got up and walked...so we are now home 12 hours later with a mega-dose of ibuprophen and a muscle relaxant.

And me...I was scared and I AM scared. Neither one of us know why this happened or what he did to his back. All I know is that I prayed all day. I could not believe how much I love this man and how much I depend on him.

Black Friday...and my credit card is whole, my husband not so much.