Thursday, November 02, 2006

Because I no longer have a dog to eat my homework

Dear Professor Of-my-required-Friday-class,

Since I've already missed one of our weekly classes, I recognize that it would not be in my best interest to miss another; however, I have not been able to prepare adequately for tomorrow's class. I recognize that it is my responsibility to spread my work out over the week, but my schedule is such, that Thursdays are my most open day of the week.

Except when I spend the entire day in the emergency room.

As I (and my constant coughing in your class) have made you aware, we've had a virus running through our family. Yesterday my wife developed flu symptoms--aches, chills and a fever that wouldn't go below 101 (38.3 in Celsius), even with Tylenol--along with an additional sharp pain along her rib cage. This morning we were advised to go to the emergency room.

After dropping my son off at preschool, I got my wife to the hospital at 10 am. After about two hours in the outer waiting room, we were brought back to the "fast track waiting room." Over the next three hours, they asked a battery of questions and ran several tests. At 4 pm, with a diagnosis of flu, my wife was still waiting, though we didn't know for what. I had to leave and pick up our son.

My son and I returned home a little before 5 and attended to our usual evening routine (including the first food I'd eaten all day), waiting for a call from my wife--which finally came a little after 7 pm. I bundled my son up, loaded him in the car, and headed back to the hospital.

On the ride home, my wife informed me that she has pneumonia. Again. The second time in three years. But this is actually good news, as her symptoms matched a pulmonary embolism.*

Once I got home and settled my wife in the living room and my son in bed, I headed out to the pharmacy for my wife's prescriptions. By 9 pm, I finally had my shower and dinner. And a chance to do my work.

So I may not have read through it as carefully as I should have.

Sincerely,
Mouse

*And they were so concerned about this urgent issue that it only took 9 hours to get through everything.

4 comments:

metro mama said...

Oh no, I'm sorry. That sucks.

moplans said...

She took the words right out of my mouth...
Hope things are looking up soon.

Mouse said...

Too tired to write a whole post, but it's very nice to find your kind words. My wife's already feeling better, so my fingers are crossed that we're on the road to recovery.

kittenpie said...

Glad you were well enough to come out last night - it was nice to meet you, and now your blog, too.