The Hug that saved the Week

What a week.

I really enjoyed my Mobility Classes this week. Our teacher/coach for this class has 10 children. You read that right. 10.

I have her as my weekly and sometimes twice a week coach for work outs to challenge my 'bones' with recommended workouts for people with severe osteoporosis. 

One of her daughters stayed with us at the gym to do Mobility on Thursday evening. Her name is Gracie. Her mom said she could do the movements with us but had to be in a separate part of the gym as the class was for adults.

I'm a sucker for cute kids that are well behaved. Gracie and I ended up near enough to each other to chat while her mom was busy helping some of the other adults.

I made faces when the stretches were hard and Gracie giggled. Hah! Captive Audience.

At the end of the class, the adults gathered to put on their street shoes and get ready to leave and talk. Gracie sat on the couch next to me. I talked to her while I put on my shoes. She jumped up to show me how she could bend over backwards and walk. 

Ahhh, to be 9 again and as flexible as she was!

I stood up and we were all getting ready to leave while the coach's older son ran around and tidied up the gym and got things ready to close up.

Gracie ran across the small entrance area and wrapped her arms around me in a huge hug. It was a true hug. You know, the kind that takes you by surprise and spreads warmth through your heart and soul.

Friday was a whirlwind day. Hubby had his PT class and hadn't been feeling well for his last one. I told him that he had to go with me either to do his class or to see a doctor. His choice was to just quit and go back to bed for the day. I wouldn't hear of it.

Dyspnea means short of breath-difficulty breathing-air hunger-feeling of suffocation. He described it as feeling not quite right, he figured it was the change in meds doses that did it and insisted that he just stop taking a bunch of medications. 

In short, the PT people decided that he was in enough crisis to warrant putting him in a wheelchair and taking him to the ER. 
After a few hours of testing and treatment for dyspnea caused by a COPD Exacerbation, he was released.

I had to explain to him what the doctor had told him a few times. I think he understood when I was a bit more blunt than the doctor. 

He refuses to do his nebulizer because the meds make him a bit jittery. However two sessions of Nebs in the ER brought him right out of his crisis.

I reminded him that when he chose not to do the Neb, and he had an episode of not getting his breath, that he was killing his heart off in chunks. I demonstrated that by making a stabbing motion and an ugly face.

I didn't explain the lab reports that were concerning but expected with his stage of COPD. My job is to make the rest of his life as comfortable as it can be for him. 

Gracie's hug saved the week. The memory of it still makes me smile and feel good inside.