Saturday
Today was the day…
I had a bit of a wake up call (literally) and it had me thinking about the sense of having 83 steps to our front door. The view is the pay off and may have clouded our judgement! This morning’s sunrise…
We have always said a funicular is the answer and I’ve wanted one in the next five years but a little episode this morning made me think that we should start working on one sooner rather than later. These things happen so quickly and unexpectedly. Fortunately, it was minor but it gave me half an hour of stress and it all had to do with my 70 year old wonderfully healthy husband.
After a good night’s sleep, he woke up at about 7am and sat on the edge of the bed and said, “oh, I’m not feeling well.” I asked what was wrong and he said he was dizzy and very nauseous. He lay back against his pillows. I said I’d take his blood pressure and went into nurse mode. As I started taking his blood pressure, I was struck at how pale he was. He looked dreadful. And, he was sweating profusely. Now I had a 70 year old, nauseous, cold and clammy male patient with terrible colour. To me this looked like heart attack territory. I took his blood pressure which was slightly raised for Mike but nothing serious (150/90). I took his temperature and that was normal (36.1). His oxygen was 99% and his pulse quite low at 57.
I kept asking if he had pain and his answer was always no. I thought maybe it was a serious episode of vertigo. I got him my go-to nausea tablet – Stugeron – it’s for sea-sickness and works perfectly for nausea and dizziness. After giving it to him, he lay down to sleep a bit and I started Googling as one does in this day and age. It seems vertigo like this may happen if someone is dehydrated. I cast my mind back to when Mike had last had anything to drink and it was more than 12 hours before. I got him more water. After about 4 glasses, he started feeling better. The pill soon kicked in and it suddenly went from a bad start of a day to a normal day. He said he was feeling fine and got up, got his running kit on and started planning on going to the beach. I wasn’t so sure, but he had made a remarkable recovery. There was no heart attack here. I rechecked his blood pressure and it was 130/ 80, so he was back to my super-human 70 year old husband. I suggest he just take a walk today – ‘yes, maybe, or a slow jog.’
He’s had a great day and is fully back to normal, but it did get me thinking. What if I needed to get him to a hospital? He couldn’t walk down the stairs. If we called an ambulance, how the heck would they stretcher him down the bottom of the stairs? The only solution? A funicular. This is not straight forward, but we need to start thinking about moving it from a 5 year plan to a 2 year plan.
After that unexpected episode, the day was wonderful. We went to the beach where the tide was super low. Just a little water in the rockpool.
Stand up paddler with his two kids on board. The sea was like a pool…
The shark-spotters and shark science team were swimming to raise money. It was overcast and there were a few showers.
The tide was so low and the sea so still, swimming was wonderful. The only thing is, it was cold. Like 15C. I swam for about 45 minutes and just loved it. Out by the barrel it was so easy to see below the water line. A whole lot of rocks and kelp forest that is usually too deep to admire – they were suddenly visible and sparkling in the morning sun. It was really refreshing. From the sea, I looked for Mike and sure enough, there he was jogging along.
When I got out, I was freezing. It took me most of the rest of the morning to warm up. Mike was 100%.
Then we shopped and I’ve cooked dinner. Friends are about to arrive, so I thought I’d get this posted. The sun is now shining and the wind has turned from north-west to south-east. Tomorrow will be sunny.
Galatians 5:22/23
The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
The best is yet to come – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂