It was 5pm when Rob was all checked in at the ER. Mainly, it was just lots of back and forth testing and waiting, testing and getting a room, watching dumb shows on the TV, and dozing off in between visits from nurses, ER docs and neurologists. Thankfully, we had 3 great friends who came to the ER to pray, eat and visit with us for a while - Pastor Martie, Heather and Leslie. I ate my Duke Hospital staple: Eel sushi rolls and chocolate/butterscotch pudding. I'm not joking, this is what I eat for dinner every time Rob is in the hospital!
I should note that this night at the ER was supposed to be my second-to-last night working at the Gap. I'd put in notice to my boss earlier in the week that I just had too much on my plate, and I don't know why I agreed to work a PT job in addition to my regular duties. Never again will I try to work more than 45 hours per week. It just doesn't work for me. And if you throw in stress about Rob's health and trips to the ER...you get the picture.
After all the tests were done at the ER, the neurologist concluded that Rob did not have a TIA, or mini-stroke, as they're commonly called. Whew. Big relief. But the docs are concerned about Rob's perpetual low blood pressure. It's been so low lately that he keeps getting dizzy spells at work, around the house, and a few times, he's had to be physically supported by someone (me, or co-workers/customers at work) because his legs will give out while he's working out his dizzy spell. So now we are on a quest to find out why his BP is so low, what he can do to fix it, and how to handle it in the present.
1 week after this ER visit, we celebrated Christmas, which was beautifully quiet and nice. We had a yummy special breakfast that Rob cooked. He made his favorite breakfast recipe, courtesy of his Mom: Eggs Goldenrod. We added bacon to it this time for extra crunch!
After breakfast, we went to First United Antioch Baptist Church, located in one of the poorer neighborhoods of Durham (1.4 miles west of our house). They were giving a free hot meal to anyone who wanted/needed it. This is not a homeless shelter, just a neighborhood church who decided to serve the poor and needy on the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior. I'd spoken to the reverend earlier in the week and asked if we could help at all. He said he'd be delighted to have us help, as they were in desperate need of more volunteers. When we got there, we were told they had more than enough volunteers, so if we wanted, we could just sit with the people and talk to them as they ate. So that's what we did. In addition to that, I read a few books to a handful of children who attended the dinner with their families.
Here's a pic of me reading to a 3 year old boy named TJ. He listened to me for about 4 minutes, but then picked up the "Story of Jesus" book and started "reading" it to me!
After the church meal, we went home to open our gifts. I love giving gifts, and this year's big gift for Rob was so exciting it was hard for me to hold it in until Christmas Day! I wrapped his "big" gift in wrapping paper that said Santa was Here. And instead of writing "To: Rob, Love: Danielle", I wrote, "To: Rob, From: God". Kind of cute, but oh so true. Because God is the provider and source of all things, even Christmas gifts. In the pic I took of Rob just moments before he opened his gift, I find it sort of funny that the "R" and "E" was not visible (so it reads "Santa was He"). It didn't dawn on me until this year, that the idea of telling your children that Santa Claus is the one who brings them presents on Christmas Day is really, really dumb. I won't go into all of why I think that, I'll save that for another blog.
Here's the video I took of Rob opening his big gift. Now that I'm writing this, I remembered that I let him open this gift on Christmas Eve. Sorry it's so dark.
He was so excited about his gift! I love giving good gifts! I can't wait until we have children...it will be so exciting to watch them open their gifts on Christmas (and they won't think that a jolly man wearing a red suit brought them to the house all the way from the North Pole)
Overall, we had a great Christmas and we received and gave many cool gifts. I got some hand-knit socks from Rob's Mom:
and Rob got a cozy hand-knit beanie from his Mom:
and lots of good books to read, for us:
and for the children we'll have in the future:
My bosses gave me Thursday, Friday and Monday off from work this year. It was such a nice 5 day weekend. Praise and glory go to God for providing us with such a beautiful Christmas experience.
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