Saturday, February 23, 2013

Ain't nobody got time for that!

It has been quite the week here at Casa de Reidy.

Let me sum it up for you:

Tess had a a seizure. Wait, let me rephrase that. Tess had a fourteen minute seizure, then had about eight or nine smaller seizures over a twenty-six minute period which prompted an emergency call to her pediatrician who asked me, "How hard will it be to get her off the island?" I responded with, "Well, kind of hard. The last ferry left about fifteen minutes ago, but it's a nice night." My last comment clearly confused the poor man who sort of laughed and said, "A nice night? Are you planning to swim across?" Love a doc with a good sense of humor. So I explained that in "island terms", referring to the weather as "nice" simply meant that we still had other ways to get Tess off the island if need be. Plane, lobster boat, or God forbid, Lifeflight.

Long story short, the meds finally did their job and she stopped seizing while the doc and I were discussing what to do next.

Phew! Another crisis narrowly averted.

Next in line in the Week O'Crap:

My laptop crashed. Just...boom. Gone. Only a creepy grey screen with a confused little question mark blinkety blink blinking on the desktop. My beloved, less than three years old MacBook Pro was gasping for breath.

Now, everyone who knows me knows, I LOVE my laptop. I am on it way too much (but that is a problem for another day) and I just panicked. All my hubby's business information is on that laptop. All of our last three years of photos. A lot of important documents. My one saving grace is that our local, awesome (hero in this story) computer tech (and high school computer teacher) had convinced me when I got the laptop to always back up to an external hard drive when I do the hubby's books. And I faithfully did. Thank you, God. Then I wrapped up my poor, sick little Macbook in it's little carrying case and handed it over to my computer doctor with a whimper on my lips and a tear in my heart.

He valiantly tried to breathe life back into it and even managed to revive it and hand it over to me...with nary a program or photo lost. As my fingertips danced over the keyboard and the screen came to life, I was so happy. We were back together. Reunited and it felt so good. Then, an hour later, my laptop gasped it last breath and died.  The computer doc is coming over again today for a last ditch effort at saving it.

Say a little prayer for my poor laptop, won't you?

So, just about the time I was thinking to myself, "This week has sort of sucked.", my house almost caught fire.

You read that correctly.

The pellet stove in our house malfunctioned and the sparks from the fire (that should not have been burning because the stove was OFF) were shooting out into the house along with an ungodly amount of smoke. Did I mention it was ten o'clock at night, the power had gone out, it was blowing about forty miles an hour and it was maybe 5 degrees outside with the windchill?

Through the hazy beam of the flashlight I quickly deduced that this was bigger than either of us could handle on our own. The hubby on the other hand? He was in some sort of shock or just major denial because he kept repeating to me, "It's fine. It will put itself out in a minute." I shined one last spotlight on the fire inside the pellet stove and the smoke billowing out of it and ran to get Tess dressed, emergency supplies for her packed, and told the hubby to get her the hell out of the house!

With a final directive to the hubby of, "Please, call the fire department!" we were off to my mother's for the night. (she conveniently lives about a two hundred feet up the road from us). Ellie and her boyfriend had met up with us as we were fleeing and very calmly accepted the situation as "just another day at the Reidy's" and helped me out get Tess to my mom's.

After pounding on the door and scaring my mother half to death, we got Tess back in bed and Ellie's boyfriend was just about to leave when the phone rang. It was the hubby. "I've called 911 so you'll be seeing firetrucks coming by."

Alrighty then.

It was quite a show to watch,  and was even more anxiety producing because I couldn't go and see for myself because I couldn't leave Tess.  So I did what any awesome parent would have done in my situation... I sent Ellie and her boyfriend out as my scouts to go talk to the firemen and make sure my house wasn't burning to the ground or that the firemen hadn't found the hubby lying on the floor overcome with smoke inhalation.  By midnight or so, it was all over. The firemen helped get the stove out of the house, and the only damage was what was done by lots and lots of smoke and a fire extinguisher being used. Two days of kids and family and even Tessie's nurse washing all bedding, furniture, curtains, floors, walls and windows, along with throwing or airing out stuffed animals, rugs and other odds and ends, and my house smells okay. Sort of like a woodstove has been lit. Not great but let's face it, it could have been a whole lot worse.

And last, but certainly not least, I finally got the date for Tessie's hip surgery. Either May 16th or June 25th. I can't even talk about it right now.

And this is what saved me this week because it is just about the most awesome interview I have ever seen and I laugh every single time I see it.

 Sweet Brown sums it up perfectly..."Ain't nobody got time for that!" 

So...how was your week?



10 comments:

  1. This blog really, really needs to be a BOOK.

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  2. I am so thankful that all of you are okay!!!!!!

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  3. I love that you maintain a sense of humor through all of these 'little' life events!

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  4. Why can't my life be that exciting?

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  5. PLEASE.....COME AGAIN. i ALWAYS LOVE SEEING YOU. :)

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  6. Good grief, Joanna! When you have a week o'crap, you have a WEEK O'CRAP! I cannot imagine how worried you were for Tess during the seizure. I am sorry your laptop died - I never realize how much I use mine until something like that happens. And I am soooooo happy your house did not burn down. I cannot even imagine that happening on top of everything else you have going on. And the surgery date is on the calendar - whichever one it ends up being. I will be praying and praying for you and for Tess. Here's hoping the next many, many weeks are totally and completely boring for you! :)

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  7. Are you writing a screenplay cuz this would win something! Glad to hear you're ok. It's all a story to tel, right? Good grief.

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  8. Yes, Lana, when we set out to do something, we go all the way! I'm praying things quiet down as well!

    Thanks Treesie! You never know ;)

    And Heather, screenplay isn't a bad idea either! haha!

    Thanks everyone. :)

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  9. Good lord! What kind of crazy-ass week is that?!?! Okay, "bad things" happen in threes, right? So you should have reached quota. I winced reading about your daughter's 14 minute seizure - I know that experience all too well. My (now 17 year old) daughter would go into status epileptus, seizing anywhere from 15 minutes to 70 minutes straight - dramatic grand mal for that long!! She began this at 16 weeks of age and it's never stopped :(... though with age and meds her seizures are shorter, thank God.

    I am wishing you a change in the wind so that black cloud of bad fortune leaves your head. Oh and that video - I LOVE Sweet Brown- she made me smile! :). One of my favorite bloggers actually quoted her on her own blog this week so it was nice for me to watch the video and figure out who the heck Sweet Brown was!! :) (PS found you at Love That Max :) )

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  10. Hi Alicia. I hope you enjoy this blog.
    Seizures are scary beasts, aren't they? I'm glad to hear that your daughter's have gotten somewhat better as she has gotten older.
    And yes, Sweet Brown always can make me smile! :)

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