January Blur

Blur Sample
Duration: 7 days
(Cast: Panda - my wife; Dwarf - household help; Taxi Driver - taxi driver; Jeannie - Rapunzel, Digbijoy - my son,  sundry others)

I came back from a meeting to find Panda in rivers of sweat, shivering, complete disorientation - hypoglycemic coma, last tuesday. The dwarf and I ( I must use as that as a title one of these days) stuck a spoon of sugar in her mouth and bundled her into a taxi and headed for the hospital just down the road. Panda protested. She insisted that we go to a shopping mall instead. Also just down the road. The taxi driver (we have a neighbourhood taxi stand) sympathised with her and said:  You were fine just yesterday. Her blood sugar was 7 in the emergency ward. They said if we'd brought her in half an hour later, she'd have been brain dead. Wednesday they threw her out of the ICU into a room. Disoriented, she'd yelled for pizzas, biscuits, sandwiches, her glasses, a book several times during the night. So they very kindly informed me. She settled into her room well with a centerline drip for glucose and other yummies like antibiotics and stuff. By saturday they'd completed tests on blood, thyroid, other bits and pieces that they hadn't done earlier. Then they let her loose again, in pretty good form. She's coming off steroids, her sugar levels fluctuate, so either the dwarf or I play darts with her arms with the insulin pen-injection before meal times. The neighbourhood ironing lady who has a little lean-to shack just outside our flat is fascinated and wants to play to, but Panda's a spoil sport - won't let her.

I remember other bits as December/January flashed by: my birthday (really moving cards from Panda and Digbijoy); two other trips to the hospital; Digbijoy taking complete charge of the paperwork, efficiently and carefully; Digbijoy planting himself in the hospital room for his night shift with his own blanket like Linus; a warm family get together at my brother's home in between; playing with my new camera phone and being horribly diappointed with the results; calling one of my best friends, in January and in February both times on the wrong day to say Happy Birthday; getting my favorite nieces' birthday right; tearing up my business plan and working on it afresh; finishing the painting and woodwok in the house just before Christmas; and finally, today, chilling out at a client's plush restaurant with my feet up on a windowsill overlooking a sunlit winter garden, strangely peaceful in spite of all the drama.

Thanks Jeannie. Its all coming back now.