Josh's Emergency

We were supposed to be at a family reunion with Josh's family this morning, driving to the coast, this very moment I believe, and then to the Tillamook Cheese Factory (with heavenly ice cream).

We were going to start the long drive at 3pm on Wed, but at 11:30 Josh called and told me he was feeling really rocky. He said he felt really dizzy, nauseated and had actually be lying on the ground in his office because he thought he'd pass out every time he tried to sit up. He didn't think it felt like food poisoning or anything he'd ever felt before. I told him he needed to come home, lay down, and find someone else to do his work for him. He's a very conscientious employee--which drives me nuts sometimes--and said he had some big deadlines he had to get work done for. I wish I had some power in convincing him to take it easier sometimes since I'm sure he's shaving years off his life, but I never have any luck.

I took the kids to the library and got a call at noon and he said he called the dr and they wanted to see him and he also needed to come home soon but couldn't drive. I let the kids pick out the movies we went to the library for (to use on our roadtrip...), which was pretty fast, when he called and said his office manager was threatening to call 911 so to hurry and get him.

When I got to his office he actually needed me to come in and help him, so I brought the kids in and there were three sweet ladies who had been helping him, none of them attorneys, and they'd managed to keep it quiet from anyone else in the office. I was so glad they were there. I went in his office and he was still on the floor, it was really strange to see--Josh will do just about anything to prevent people from seeing him in physical pain so I knew it was bad. And then he needed someone to help him out of his office, but all the guys he felt like asking were out of the office, so I just helped him out and the ladies brought the kids and his bag.

We went home, I had a friend come over and watch the girls and I took him to the dr. He had to pay $85 for a co-pay and he was a little bothered he was there and paying that much since he was already feeling much better and started wondering if it was really that bad after all--which I assured him it was.

The dr asked him all sorts of questions and then started testing him for a stroke, and that's when I became anxious. He had him do lots of little exercises like touching his nose, pushing against the dr's arms, etc. Then after more qs and testing, he determined, hallelujah, it was not a stroke, but Benign Positional Vertigo, something that happens more in older people. I guess a piece of calcium broke loose in his inner ear and just messed up the way his brain thought things were happening, hence all the spinning.

The dr said he shouldn't be driving in the next few days or going to work and gave him some practices to do at home to help his brain readjust. Pretty wild! He got much better and quickly, but with me feeling sick and not up to driving much either, we broke the news to the kids who were totally bummed about not going on our trip.

We opted to do a mini vacation over night to Vacaville, CA where we spent points to stay at a Residence Inn--which is awwwesome and we love it there. On the way we stopped in Pleasanton for dinner and were surprised to find a monthly street festival happening that was totally fun and we had a great time. The next day the kids went swimming with J while I slept and then we went to the Jelly Belly Factory and left with loads of jelly beans. I was not a fan of the booger, baby wipe, or skunk beans.

I'm relieved, to say the least, that Josh's thing was just a random occurrence and nothing too serious. Also a good wake up call for us in a few ways, one including maybe a way to have us not go on such a long driving trip that after talking about all this we realized may be harder on our family overall than just spending some vaca time by ourselves relaxing rather than doing so much driving, esp since Josh is still working despite drs orders:).