I'm home!

"Circe" wrote in message
news:%dlPa.744$u51.628@fed1read05...
All things considered, I'm amazed. Monday, I was at death's door and today
I'm home with my family. I am so incredibly blessed. And grateful to have
a
second opportunity to be a better wife, mother, daughter, and friend.
Thank
you so much for caring.

I'm glad you are back home with your family. How scary!

Best regards,

--
sharon, momma to savannah and willow (11/11/94)

Barbara, it's wonderful to have you back and to hear that you're doing so
well!

- Jen

"Circe" wrote in message
news:%dlPa.744$u51.628@fed1read05...
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I got home from the hospital
about 90 minutes ago and have been reading all your posts and well-wishes.

First, let me say that I'm utterly humbled and *very* grateful to you all.
It is amazing to have such an incredible network of people you've never
even
met who are caring about you and pulling for you. I really just
feel...humbled, maybe even a little embarrassed.

I know there've been some questions as to how I got myself into this mess
in
the first place, and the truth is, it was a bit of complacency on my part
and some really bad luck. I've been treating my asthma symptomatically for
years, and I knew what I was doing was not THE BEST treatment, but three
kids and a full-time job and the thousand other medical events we've had
'round here (big baby heads, broken arms, etc. ad infinitum) just kept
pushing that visit with my doctor off. And since I was not symptomatic
often--I could go literally days without problems--and since the albuterol
and serevent seemed to work well when I WAS having trouble, it didn't seem
like a pressing matter. Things obviously changed Monday morning.

Honestly, we don't really know what triggered this event, but I went from
a
very mild asthma attack to feeling like someone had literally shut the
door
between my upper airways and my lungs in under 10 minutes. It was
LIGHTNING
fast. I had my albuterol and my nebulizer, but because I couldn't get ANY
air into my lungs at all, they weren't helping.

The plan at this point is to get me on Advair as a 2x daily preventive,
with
plenty of albuterol as needed if I'm having trouble. I'm also scaling down
on oral steroids and taking an antibiotic prophylactically for a few more
days. In addition, the pulmonologist who saved my life (bless him) gave me
a
prescription for an epi-pen. If I had had one of those on hand when this
event started, I might have been in a bit better shape when I got to the
hospital, since it might have opened my airways enough to allow the
albuterol to get in and do some good. As it was, the only way to get air
into me was to intubate me and force it in there--and believe you me, my
lungs *know* they were forced to breathe against their will!

As we've been discussing this whole event, it has occurred to us that my
father's asthma worsened significantly when he was my age. He thought it
was
due to having his nasal passages "roto-rootered", but given that he was
39-40 and I'm 39, it seems entirely possible that our asthma triggers are
just designed to get worse at around this age. I am much more fortunate
than
he in that there are much better medications available these days to treat
asthma preventively, though!

All things considered, I'm amazed. Monday, I was at death's door and today
I'm home with my family. I am so incredibly blessed. And grateful to have
a
second opportunity to be a better wife, mother, daughter, and friend.
Thank
you so much for caring.
--
Be well, Barbara
(Julian [7/22/97], Aurora [7/19/99], and Vernon's [3/2/02] mom)
See us at http://photos.yahoo.com/guavaln

This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop:
"Loose weight, feel great!" -- fair booth sign

What does it all mean? I have *no* idea. But it's my life and I like it.

Circe wrote:

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I got home from the hospital
about 90 minutes ago...

Felicitations!

--
Sara, accompanied by the spit-bubble-blowing barnacle

I check this e-mail account infrequently

Circe wrote in message
news:%dlPa.744$u51.628@fed1read05...
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I got home from
the hospital about 90 minutes ago

I am SO glad and relieved to hear that you are home again. I hope you
are resting comfortably, and that having a preventative medication plan
in place will mean that you never have such a frightening ordeal again.
There are too many people who you are too important to!
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 2 yr., 3 mo.
And a boy, EDD 4.Sept

Cleaning the house while your children are small is like
shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing.

"Circe" wrote in message news:%dlPa.744$
All things considered, I'm amazed. Monday, I was at death's door and today
I'm home with my family. I am so incredibly blessed. And grateful to have
a
second opportunity to be a better wife, mother, daughter, and friend.
Thank
you so much for caring.


Wow. My impression is that you were a pretty good all of those things
already. How scary for your family ... and ultimately how brave, fortunate,
awesome. Welcome back.
--
Marnie
--

"Circe" wrote in message
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I got home from the hospital
about 90 minutes ago and have been reading all your posts and well-wishes.

First, let me say that I'm utterly humbled and *very* grateful to you all.
It is amazing to have such an incredible network of people you've never
even
met who are caring about you and pulling for you. I really just
feel...humbled, maybe even a little embarrassed.
snip

I'm so glad to read this post & know that you're home safe! Make sure to
keep taking it easy for a few more days :-)

people you've never met caring about you. Even my DH was waiting to hear
"status reports" about how things were going with you, and he's never read
MKP in his life!

--
Em
edd 9/23/03

All things considered, I'm amazed. Monday, I was at death's door and today
I'm home with my family. I am so incredibly blessed. And grateful to have a
second opportunity to be a better wife, mother, daughter, and friend. Thank
you so much for caring.

Barbara, I'm so glad to read this post. What a scare you gave us!

Mary S.
mom to the Sproutkin, 16 months

"Circe" wrote in message
news:%dlPa.744$u51.628@fed1read05...
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I got home from the hospital
about 90 minutes ago and have been reading all your posts and well-wishes.


I'm so glad to hear that you're doing well.

Nancy

wrote in message news:%dlPa.744$u51.628@fed1read05...
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I got home from the hospital
about 90 minutes ago and have been reading all your posts and well-wishes.


Barbara --

I am so happy to hear you're home and recovering! I've been very
worried, and thinking about how you really helped me about 5 years ago
when I was pregnant with Sage, and worried about Terbutaline, and
Albuterol, and everything! Thanks again! And I think that your
following paragraph has given me the shove I need to take care of
another medical problem I've got pending:

I know there've been some questions as to how I got myself into this mess in
the first place, and the truth is, it was a bit of complacency on my part
and some really bad luck. I've been treating my asthma symptomatically for
years, and I knew what I was doing was not THE BEST treatment, but three
kids and a full-time job and the thousand other medical events we've had
'round here (big baby heads, broken arms, etc. ad infinitum) just kept
pushing that visit with my doctor off. And since I was not symptomatic
often--I could go literally days without problems--and since the albuterol
and serevent seemed to work well when I WAS having trouble, it didn't seem
like a pressing matter. Things obviously changed Monday morning.


A few months ago, my younger daughter and I were diagnosed with a
bleeding disorder. She's also Failure to Thrive and has a lot of
allergy issues. So while I've been taking her to all of her
appointments and even attending workshops about kids with this
disorder, etc...., I have yet to get a referral to a hematologist for
myself, or even have the blood drawn for a categorized diagnosis. The
more I read about the disorder, the more I realize how it explains *so
many * problems I have -- but still, I just keep an eye on the kids,
the house, and all that. Well, I had a suspicious bleeding episode
this evening, but was again writing it off as not so important.

Needless to say, I'm calling my Doctor tomorrow.



All things considered, I'm amazed. Monday, I was at death's door and today
I'm home with my family. I am so incredibly blessed. And grateful to have a
second opportunity to be a better wife, mother, daughter, and friend. Thank
you so much for caring.


Thank you, Barbara. I'm so glad you're feeling better -- not least of
all because you always help everyone here to feel better and do
better!

Tina.

"Circe" wrote in message news:%dlPa.744$u51.628@fed1read05...
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I got home from the hospital
about 90 minutes ago and have been reading all your posts and well-wishes.

Wonderful news! I'm so glad to hear you are home!

-Sara