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Showing posts from November, 2013

Stunned

It's nearly eleven o'clock and I just finished working out. I dusted off the elliptical machine and went back and forth for 35 minutes. I feel a little better. Seventy-two minutes ago I was leaving my therapist a message, asking her to remind me of this moment. Sitting on the edge of Dermot's bed, holding him on his side while I pat his back so the mucus he just coughed up can escape before he aspirates it. While holding him I was monitoring his O2 level and heart rate with the handy pulse oxcimeter we're renting from the medical supply company. I also had to make sure the snot that was coming out of his nose wasn't clogging the nasal cannula that pumps a 1/2 liter of oxygen into his lungs while he sleeps. Then he seizes, body stiff, eyes wide open, his gaze is forced upward. I'm stunned. No other way to describe that moment. I just completed day five of staying home with a sick Dermot. Today I haven't left the house, yesterday I left for an hour to go t