He's Not 20 Anymore

On Sunday afternoon, my husband, feeling the need for some exercise, went to play softball. He was going to play with a group of guys that he had never met before. What a great opportunity to meet new people and maybe interest a few in coming to church. He hasn’t really played softball in several years, although after golf it is one of his favorites. His first at bat he hit a double, but because he is male and thinks he is still in his twenties, he tried to stretch it into a triple. As he rounded second he heard and felt a pop. That pop was his hamstring. He limped his way home to some Advil and ice. A couple of hours later with Tylenol added to the system he was still in A LOT of pain. Seeking some stronger drugs (yes I just called my husband “drug seeking” – it goes along with the “sexual predator training” that he attended last month!), we headed to the ER. Thanks to Mom who came down to stay with the kids, it was just Mike and I – kind of like a date, only not.

They checked him over, took some x-rays, and declared his hamstring torn. They gave him drugs (a morphine shot and some percocet), a pair of crutches, and told him to go home and rest. The whole thing took less than two hours. Except that as we were leaving the triage room, Mike started to not feel so good. I quickly stuck the wheelchair underneath him as he started to slump down. The nurse came over, and wheeled him back into the room, gave him a bucket, and a cool wash cloth and tried to find a pulse. Yes I said tried. He couldn’t seem to get one, and Mike was starting to lose consciousness. Two other nurses came running in and they lifted him onto the bed, gave him oxygen, stuck an IV in (speaking of which if I ever need an IV I want them to do it – it took less than 30 sec. When I was giving birth to Morgan it took four tries and almost 30 min!), and started rubbing his chest telling him to “stay with us”! It was like a scene out of ER only this was my husband!!! His pulse actually dropped to 26 beats/min! It’s suppose to be close to 100! They elevated his feet to my nose height, and his head by my knees. While the whole scene was very scary, they said it was normal. (I don’t know how they can call that normal!) Apparently, since the pain was so intense and his blood pressure was low, when he stood up the blood all rushed to his feet and legs and his pressure wasn’t high enough to pump it back up to his heart and head. Thus the reason for the elevated feet. As for that normal thing, apparently it often happens to little old ladies. I tried telling him he wasn’t in his 20s anymore – this just confirms that! He was also a bit dehydrated, and that didn’t help matters.

Needless to say, after three hours, they declared him fit to leave again. We managed to get home at 3am, and after getting everything settled, I crawled into bed at 3:45 still with some emotional adrenaline from all the “excitement”. As I had sat there watching his monitors for a couple of hours with tubes and sensors all over him, there were a lot of thoughts running through my head. Not that this was a life threatening situation, but what if God asked me to live without my husband. Could I do that? What would that look like? How would I explain that to my children? All of the emotions from watching my sister, Joy, hooked up to monitors came flooding back. Watching the blood oxygen number and the heart beat – it was just more emotional than my tired body could handle. Sundays are always draining, and this was the exclamation point.

All is well now, although I’m not caught up on sleep and playing nurse maid. Mike is doing better – he even drove today (against my advice), but seems to be improving quickly. He drove like a little old man with the bad leg running the gas pedal and the good one running the brake! He’s only taking Aleve now, so the pain seems to be subsiding. He’ll see an orthopedic/sports med doctor on Monday to start some physical therapy. I think he’s hoping to at least be able to play golf in two weeks. We’ll just have to see about that! I do think that he has learned that he needs to stretch out more before anything physical and that he should be content with a double! Now I’m ready for a boring few days!!!