Near death experiences and the common cold...

Last night, my uncle and some cousins were in town and we were all supposed to get together for dinner at The Black Angus, incidentally the scene of the most infamous date I was ever on. (OK, not the exact same Black Angus -- then again, aren't they all the same? Isn't that the point?) Anyway, Heather had volunteered to babysit the boys. We were excited. Dinner, out with adults. The boys were extraordinarily excited at the prospect of spending time with their beloved "Hedder."

Per usual, we were running late. So I called Heather to see if she would meet us at our house. She didn't answer the first couple of times I called. Then she did answer but was both confused and belligerent. Uh-oh. Sounds like a reaction. I admit, I got pissed. I figured she was dieting etc. and that was what caused it and that she should have been more careful since she was going to be watching the boys. We got sobs when we told them they had to go eat with us, so I held out hope we could treat the reaction, leave the boys and still have some well-done red meat.

It was fairly quickly apparent that this was no ordinary reaction. Steph did an amazing job helping Heather and eventually calling 911. The paramedics were great -- most of them. (The Milton Fire crew seemed a bit dazed and confused themselves. Perhaps we should have checked THEIR blood sugar levels.) In the midst of this, I was running back and forth between Heather in her mom's upstairs bed and my boys who had fallen asleep in their carseats. It was, for want of a stronger word, stressful. I'm not sure exactly at what point I went from pissed to worried to sorry for her -- it was very sad when she woke up scared out of her mind with a room full of emergency personnel hovering around here. I never thought it would end badly -- I knew once we got some sugar in her she'd perk up. I didn't know it would have to be delivered via IV, but still, I had faith. What scared me was the precariousness of it all. What if she hadn't volunteered to babysit? What if we hadn't stopped by to check on her? You can't live your life with people hovering around you, even if you are a diabetic. She's gong to be alone sometimes. Shit happens. It's just scary to realize how fragile a think life can be. Whether it's an insulin reaction or being hit by a bus, mortality surrounds us and we escape usually without even recognizing how close we came to death. I think that's for the best. When we realize it, it leads to poor sleep and general unease.

And now, on to the real trauma of today, which is that Eddie is getting a monster of a cold. Poor little guy. I hate it when they are sick. I mean, I hate it when I'm sick and when they are sick it's 1,000 times worse. (Truthfully, it would only be 100 times worse if I could know with some certainty that I would not also be coming down with the cold, flu or whatever the hell bug they catch, myself.) Chas seems to have passed his soy challenge, but today he had bumps under one eye and tonight his eyes were red and swollen. It's probably just exhaustion -- no nap and precious little sleep last night -- combined with hands covered with dog and cat dander. But I worry. It's what I do.