Thank God for Doctors & Sneak Peak at New Blouse

Comin' to you pretty late today.  It was a very busy day.  Jerry got up about 6 am this morning, but he was back in bed at 7 AM hurting worse than the last three days.  I was really worried because it is so unlike him.  I asked him what I could do.  He said that Lu -- our store manager -- had told him she thought it was the mold in the walls.  I thought that sounded crazy, but it had to be SOMETHING.  I am the one with all the allergies, and I wasn't having any symptoms at all.  I decided to do some mold symptom research.

About that time my phone rang, and it was Brad, the insurance adjuster.  I told him about Jerry being sick for four days.  He told me that our insurance paid for us to go to a hotel if we needed to leave the house.  Well, I sure didn't want to do that.  I'm not the hotel type unless it includes a large living area, a kitchen and a table big enough to set up a sewing room on.

I called Terry -- the boss at ServiceMaster -- to ask him what happens if you get mold sickness.  He had said he had pneumonia three times and it was all so terribly serious -- so I figured he should know something.  He didn't.  He knew NOTHING! 

I then got the bright idea to call our doctor -- Dr. Shannon in another town about 20 miles away.  As always when I call, she wasn't there.  I asked to talk to her nurse and Mary Ann took my call.  A VERY NICE nurse.  I told her about the mold and asked if they had any mold experience.  She tried to cover up the fact that she obviously thought I was a kook -- but she said they might be able to do something.  She  told me very matter-of-factly that if my husband has been sick and running a temp for three days, I needed to get him to a doctor -- whether he was moldy or NOT!  I asked if there was a doctor who could see him.  She said there was, and she made me an appointment for 11 AM this morning. 

Then the fun began.  I had to get Jerry out of bed, in the shower and to the doctor.  I thought the man was going to pass out between sock #1 and sock #2.  He was so weak, he couldn't sign the register at the doctor's office.  When we went into the exam room, he sat up on the exam table while Nurse Jill -- only her third day -- took his 103 temperature, his blood pressure and asked questions.  I thought Jerry was going to fall forward off the table and onto the floor, so I asked if he could lie down.  The nurse pulled out the extension to make the table longer, and Jerry layed (laid ? -- I never learned that) down.  He was as hot as a firecracker, and I know because I was holding his hand and touching his forehead.  Jerry asked for some Tylenol Extra Strength.  Jill said she would get some.  She must have flown to New York City for it, because I had to ask the doctor about it much later.  The doctor got it in there right away after I asked.

The doctor was a woman named Heidi.  Her husband is a policeman.  I know because she told me she loves to investigate because she does it with him.  Well, THAT she did.  She asked Jerry dozens of questions.  Jerry was no help at all because NOTHING hurt -- but everything hurt.  Nuts!  She pushed on all of his stuff -- even down his pants !!! -- all over his back and his stomach, his neck and his legs.  Finally, she said she was going to take blood and do some tests.  And, she said, she might as well take a urine sample.  Well, good thing she did that, because that is what the problem was.  His urine was full of blood and protein from his kidneys.  When he brought the little container into the lab, anyone with half a pea brain could tell it did NOT look normal.  Sure enough.  Kidney infection.  He has never had one before.

Jill came in with a long needle and a painful potion -- so she kept saying -- and she poked it in his rear end. 

She kept saying, "This is going to REALLY hurt!"  If she had said that to me, I would have pulled up my pants and exited, but Jerry just stood there.  He said it didn't hurt.  I guess the rest of him hurt so much, he couldn't tell the difference.

Jerry is still in bed, but he now has Nurse Joy by his side.  I'm "the meanest nurse" and I have "NO bedside manner at all" according to the patient!  "That's right, Buster!", I told him, "and if you don't drink this entire glass of water, I'm going to bring in the garden hose!" 

I have managed to get three full glasses of water down him and two glasses of Ensure Plus.  He has not eaten much at all for three days.  I took him another glass of water before I came up to post my blog, and I told him I would be back down soon to see if he drank it. 

So after all of that, I got back up in my sewing room and went to work on putting the sleeves and the facing on my Sassy Librarian Blouse.  It isn't done, but I took a few pics of it.  I think it is really darling!  In this pic, it is held on with pins, and the sleeves aren't pressed or trimmed.  You get the idea though.

I love the pleats down the front.  I got the fit pretty darn good using my SFD blueprint to compare to it, and trying it on Lucy.  She stands so much stiller than I do!

And then the most marvelous surprise happened.  Some of you may recall last Summer when I had to clean up my Mother-in-Law's house to get it ready to sell.  She was a major pack-rat and had every piece of clothing she had ever owned from even back in college.  I found darling dresses from the 50's.  Anyway, she probably had 500 blouses.  Since she lives in an Assisted Living Center now with just one very small closet, there was no way I could keep ALL those blouses.  I probably kept 150 of them though.

At one point, I was making piles of blouses to give to Goodwill when I got this BRILLIANT idea.  I decided to cut the buttons off of the real old styles or slightly damaged ones.  The buttons were just fine, and Phylly and I always need buttons.  Phylly and I got together two different times and just cut buttons off of blouses for hours.  It was so much fun!!!  She got half and I got half.

ANYWAY, I need buttons for this blouse, so I got out the box of buttons from my MIL's blouses.  Look at what I found in the box:

They match SO WELL, you can hardly see them in this picture!  What a cute blouse.  I'm going to make it again with a collar, and another one sleeveless.  Heaven knows I need something to do while Jerry is convalescing.  (Hope that is spelled right because I don't have time to look it up.)

Better get back down to NURSE my wonderful husband. 

Hugs, Joy