So I wanted to take a moment to catch everyone up on how life's going. Since I'm having a "Rachel doesn't leave the house" day now seemed as good a time as any. June was one of the most haywire months I've ever lived through. There were highs and there were lows. I want to start with the highs. The best part of this month was that I got to see Alex! Alex graduated from Basic Combat Training for the United States Army on June 26th. We had a great two days with him. He was given an on base leave for Family Day on June 25th. I'm going to be doing a full blog on all the details from Family Day and Graduation. We also had a ton of birthdays this month. Alex's, Clayton's, Mom"s (Karen) and mine were all this past month. There was also Father's day. We also enjoyed those small family moments of craziness that I might not remember later but are like tiny threads weaving themselves into an eternal tapestry. In personal accomplishments I finished a painting. While it might only be a paint by number you would never guess that by looking at it. It took months to finish this painting and I'm truly proud of myself. Also my great friend Claire married a wonderful man named Mack Bowen. I couldn't be happier for the two of them. They both deserve all the happiness in the world and that comes from marriage.
Now for the bad news. This was the month of serious illnesses in our family. On Alex's side his Uncle Keith had his kidneys shut down causing him to be hospitalized. Also Alex's grandmother Inga Bambas had a stroke at the end of the month. She's currently in a nursing home for rehabilitation. My grandmother had to have further dental work and is preparing to have knee surgery soon. My brother hurt his back while at work. Then there was me. At the beginning of month I had this terrible cough I couldn't get rid of. Despite going to the closest hospital twice during May they didn't treat it seriously at all. Finally we went to my hospital of choice Centennial. I was treated for my respiratory distress and an infection. Things only got worse from there. On my birthday June 12th I had an anaphylactic reaction to an apple dumpling. This forced me to go the hospital. I was admitted and kept over night. I got back to stable by the next morning. Then dietary made a deadly mistake. They sent me a fruit cocktail cup in my breakfast that had apple juice in it. Apparently my sensitivity to apples has only increased. I had to have more medicine and a noninvasive ventilator used to aid my breathing. I became stable again when a person was sent up from dietary to discuss more safe food who was coated in perfume. The nurses had to pull the noninvasive ventilator back out. By that afternoon I was stable enough to be sent home.
Turns out that decision was premature. My Mom and I stopped at a Jack in the Box to get some food after leaving the hospital. Someone walked in smelling like they had dumped a whole bottle of cologne on themselves. I made it to the Walgreens next door trying every trick in the book to prevent a collapse. I was unsuccessful. I collapsed in front of a register in Walgreens. I was taken back to the ER in respiratory distress with severe low blood pressure via ambulance. My respiratory distress declined rapidly into acute respiratory failure. Basically my body stopped being able to breathe on its own. My blood pressure also continued to plummet. In case you're wondering why that matters I can explain. If your blood pressure drops too low it means blood is not flowing to vital organs. The combination of low blood pressure and respiratory failure put me in the most dangerous position I've ever been in. I was intubated and placed on a mechanical ventilator for 48 hours. Basically a plastic tube was placed into my throat through my mouth and I was hooked up to a machine that would breathe for me. A ventilator is used when a patient is unable to breathe on their own. Unfortunately I contracted a staph infection in my lungs and I aspirated on the machine. This led to aspiration pneumonia.
While I no longer have pneumonia I am currently fighting some form of respiratory infection. I have an appointment with a lung specialist coming up. Alex has also shipped off to his next training. He will be doing job training till November in Arizona. Needless to say June was truly the best of times and the worst of times. Hopefully July works out a little better!
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