When It Rains, It Pours

There is a saying that goes “When it rains, it pours,” and that has been true for us both literally and figuratively this week.

At 6:30 a.m. yesterday, EJ messaged me that he had felt very dizzy at work so the wife of the owner of his company was driving him to the hospital. She is a retired nurse who now works at the company. Since we only have one vehicle, which was still at work, I didn’t have a way to get to the hospital. Our nearest friend lives two hours away, which wasn’t helpful in this situation. The wife asked her husband if someone from the company could take me to the hospital, but with her and EJ gone they couldn’t spare anyone. So instead she arranged for her mother to take me, which was unbelievably gracious. Actually, the mother dropped me off at the company and I drove our truck to the hospital. The wife stayed with EJ until I reached our truck which wasn’t all that far from the hospital.

Thank goodness for GPS because I have a horrendous sense of direction. I can get lost ANYWHERE. So the GPS got me to the hospital, which is actually a complex of several buildings, but there it ended. It didn’t show me where the entrance of the hospital was or how to traverse the halls of the hospital. I wasn’t sure where the front entrance was located. From the parking lot, I saw an entrance that didn’t look like the primary entrance. It had a sign that said “Patient Drop Off” so I thought it might lead to the ER room or something. I eventually learned that that was the correct door. I wondered how I’d ever find my way to EJ through the twists and turns of hospital corridors, but the person at the information desk helped me. Seriously, I need an app to help me find my way into and through buildings and not just near them.

I found my way to EJ in the Emergency Department. He told me that he had had a CT Scan, and the results were good, but since he was still very dizzy, they were going to admit him for more tests and observations. They suspected he had had a mini-stroke. We waited for several hours until they took us to his hospital room in the Heart Center of the hospital. It was actually a nice room with a beautiful view out the window of a huge castle-like building that had once been an asylum and was now a bunch of little shops. EJ’s room is on the upper floor of the hospital and as we look out the windows, we mostly see forest spread out beneath us. A person wouldn’t even really know that there was a city under the trees with busy streets lined with stores. Here’s a photo of the view out the window that I took yesterday.

In addition to anxiety about EJ, I had to drive home through pouring rain. All summer long we haven’t had all that much rain, but yesterday it rained all day–and not just a light rain, but a deluge. We’ve heard that some areas got 5 inches or more. There were flash flood warnings everywhere. Fun fact: Not only am I severely directionally challenged, but I don’t enjoy driving in a downpour where I can’t see far ahead. It’s especially difficult if I have to drive through a rainy night because lights reflect on the wet road. Furthermore, there was construction on my route home. EJ’s co-worker told him that one evening it took him four hours to drive home. So we thought it best for me to go home before rush hour traffic and before the roads flooded.

I didn’t have trouble with traffic jams but the drive home was hellish because the rain-laden clouds made the day gloomy and dark. There were periods of downpour which made the road difficult to see. Some roads were already beginning to flood with water creeping from the sides and splooshing as cars drove through. I was exhausted and stressed and I almost got in an accident. When I got home, my son called and I burst into tears. He would have come to help, but he’s out somewhere on the Great Lakes on a ship. He would have sent his girlfriend to help, but she has no transportation right now because the transmission in their car is ruined. My son is working on the ship to earn money to buy a new car.

Through the evening, there were occasional periods of booming thunder. I thought, “All I need to complete this day is for us to lose power.” Thankfully, we didn’t.

I chatted with EJ’s one nice sister after I got home and she said she’d asked her husband if they could drive over the next morning (a 2+ hour drive) to take me to the hospital because they have a very high truck that can easily get through flood waters. I felt relief at the thought of help. I didn’t find out until this morning that her husband said “no” because he didn’t want to leave their dog home alone all day. Our families are emotionally abusive and I’ve learned through the years that I can never count on them to help when we need them. Not ever. I can’t even count on the few (one) nice family to help. I muttered to myself “family totally sucks” as I burst into tears. I’m tired of always having to be strong without support.

Then I wiped away my tears, got into the truck, and made my way to the hospital. I got lost. The route home is very uncomplicated but the way the GPS wants to take me TO the hospital involves an intersection that is really quite tricky to navigate and people easily get sucked off in an unintended direction. I didn’t feel up to dealing with it. So after checking with Google Maps before I left home, I turned down a road that was easier and more familiar. That began a battle with the GPS, whom we call VIKI after the evil computer in the movie I, Robot. I was hoping that if I turned down the familiar road, VIKI would recalculate the route to the hospital. However, I suspected that VIKI kept trying to get me turned back toward the tricky intersection. So I kept half ignoring her and half following her instructions until I got thoroughly confused. At one point, I pulled to the side of a quiet street and called EJ. He didn’t answer because there were medical people in his room doing tests so I left a message, “I’m freaking LOST!” Being lost to me feels like standing at one of those “You are here” kiosks. But it’s as if the whole area is erased and the only clear place is where I am at currently. The streets are all unfamiliar, I don’t know how or where they connect, and I don’t know where I am or how to get where I want to be. I started driving again, and it turned out that I wasn’t far from the hospital. VIKI finally guided me in and I made it to EJ’s room.

While I was trying to drive to the hospital, EJ underwent a bunch of tests. We don’t know the results of many of the tests but we know that EJ had a mini-stroke and that there are signs that this isn’t his first. Periodically someone would come into the room to test EJ. One asked him a bunch of questions to test his memory. One took him on a walk down the hall to test his balance. He did very well on the memory test and has only a slight problem with his balance. He will be scheduled for physical therapy later at a closer easier-to-drive-to hospital. Everyone said that they’d approve EJ’s discharge. We had expected EJ to be discharged this morning, but we waited and waited and waited through the day and heard nothing. I asked a few nurses if they had any idea if/when he’d be discharged. They said they had no way of knowing. They said there is probably a wait for all the test results to get in. Also we’d have to wait for the doctor, who only seems to visit in the mornings. I didn’t know whether to stay or leave. We just knew that the moment I left EJ would be discharged. Finally, I left at 6 pm because I had to drive home before dark and I also had to get Hannah Joy cared for and shut the chickens safely in their coop before the night-time predators came out.

I hated leaving EJ behind and he is bummed that he wasn’t discharged today. I told him I’ll take him home the moment he is discharged.

We are both concerned about how we will pay medical bills. We are already stretched to the limit financially, pinching every penny. We don’t know when EJ can return to work, which means no income. I’ve saved as much as we can, but it’s not much. And we’ve got other concerns.

We’ve had a deluge of rain and also a deluge of trouble.

When it rains, it pours.