Life Lesson

Honest to God, I thought I had already learned this but evidently we sometimes forget our life lessons. Here it is: NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT A VOMIT BAG. Sigh. Poor Ernie has had a rough week. I keep thinking how lucky we were that he felt fine for the trip to Iowa. I don't know if Mark was looking down on his little brother or what, but I am definitely grateful we had that little moment in time.

Yesterday morning Vasireddy had told Ernie he could increase his pain medication because the one pill suddenly wasn't touching it. By the way, when I messaged his office yesterday morning to explain what was going on with Ernie, I had a response within 20 minutes and they were working on getting authorizations for MRI's and sending a prescription to the pharmacy. Impressive. I thought Ernie had taken two pills earlier in the day but in hindsight it must have been one. In the afternoon he took two of his pills. Later we headed over to Boo and Doug's to catch up, have a drink and a few nibbles. Lord, the two of us are quite the handful as guests. I had Little Guy (the walker) with me so Boo thoughtfully had me go through the garage to the back yard as there are no steps (their back yard is gorgeous by the way). Before we could even get to the back yard Ernie was struck with a wave of nausea. He went to use their bathroom and came out a bit later looking pale but ok. We sat and chatted, it was SO nice to see them. After a bit though Ernie wasn't looking too good. He headed back inside. The three of us chatted but they could tell I was anxious so Doug went to check on him (as there were steps and I didn't have Joe). Doug really is the quintessential gentleman. We are so fortunate to have the friends we do. Ernie eventually came out and looked utterly horrible. Sweating and pale. We all immediately realized that Ernie and I were leaving. I drove home, pulling over when he had to vomit.

Opiates, people, opiates. They are not pretty. We got home and he was sick as a dog, soaking wet from sweating. He finally came and sat in the media room with me (of course he refused to go to bed) and mostly dozed on and off. I turned off the tv and did some work so the evening wasn't a total loss.

So, back to one pill today which he tolerates fine. Pain though. Sigh. We see Vasireddy tomorrow morning. We have to be there at 6:30 am for the blood draw, thank you very much.

Remember folks: vomit bags. And try to remember your own life lessons.

Onward.

Top photo: detail from Pocahontas, Iowa church