weekend crisis

Not all went smoothly over the weekend. My friend with the camera had suggested we go thrift store shopping on Sunday. It sounded lovely. I heard a news report that said one of the reactions to depression is to go shopping. Thrift stores at least keep the budget in control. I said we could go if first we tackled my closet and made a pile to donate so we could justify the trip to the thrift store.

In the middle of sorting clothes, Riley calls out "I have a bloody nose". Well, its on the list of no no's. We have him lie on my bed with tissue and hold his nose. He holds his nose for a few minutes, then we decide to check it. He pulls out a saturated tissue. For a moment it seems to have stopped. He sits up and imediately blood spurts out. I meen squirts out. It hits my white comforter in a nice splatter, pumping firmly. We have him grab his nose in a pinch and hold it again. I run for an ice pack. I call down stairs for Tom and we go on a frantic look for "the file" with all the emergency numbers Dornbecker's had given us.

Tom must have read something on how to controle potential nose bleeds from the hospital, because while I am looking for the numbers he has a clock on the bed and is timing the nose bleed. We have a couple of minutes on hold while the operator tries to find our account on line and find out which doctor is our on call doctor for the weekend. When the doctor picks up his first question is how long has it been bleeding? Tom says ten minutes because he has been timing it , thank goodness. The doctor says to do another ten minutes and ice it at the same time
while holding the nose closed just below the bone, akward, but doable. The doctor says to call back if the bleeding continues.

It is both a slow and fast ten minutes. The nose stops bleeding. The crisis has passed. As a result of that moment, I tell my girlfriend we wont be going out to the thrift store, perhaps we can find another project to do around the house. Which is how we ended up working in the garage for a couple of hours.

I forgot to mention Riley's silver lining at the hopital. After the bone marrrow biopsy on Tuesday, he woke up from surgery kind of high and very chatty. He told the nurse he didn't mind too much being sick because his warts on his hand and foot had begun to fall off and die.
He liked the idea of the warts going away. The nurse told him there is always a silver lining.
I guess getting my house cleaned and organized is my silver lining.