I found a new and creative way to spend Valentine's Day with someone you love. Tom sat with me in the emergency room at our local hospital monitoring my blood pressure and heart rate. Very romantic.

Last weekend during a dentist office visit I discovered that my blood pressure had shot up. I went to the doctor on Monday morning before work for a quick check up and my doctor decided to start me on blood pressure medicine. The medication was ready for pick up that night, but I decided to wait and take it when I would be off work on Friday. It had several possible side effects and warned that I shouldn't drive until I knew how it would react. Since I wasn't having any symptoms at the time, I thought I could make it to Thursday night before starting the medication. I made it to Thursday afternoon.

I was feeling dizzy and sick to my stomach and had the staff take my blood pressure. It was plenty high enough, so I decided to make a break for it and head home to my medication rather than try to get to our health clinic on campus. I took the medicine at home and called the paramedics to check me out. They said I looked like someone with high blood pressure and recommended a nap. I asked Tom to take me to the hospital that night however since I still wasn't feeling very well. Tom was certainly brave hanging out in the ER waiting room for 3 hours, watching the Carnival cruise ship dock and unload while people kept coming in the ER and coughing their heads off. They all got rooms. I felt like one of the cruise ship passengers. Tom and I  spent all 3 hours in the waiting room. It is not very easy to sleep on an aluminum/plastic chair. But everything seemed fine with my blood work and EKG, so they sent us home.

On Friday the kids were off school and Tom was off work. He and I were both busy trying to pack SCott up for his boy scout camping weekend. Tom ran off with him in the morning to buy new hiking boots. Allison was off to piano lesson. One of SCott's classmates also went camping and his mom came along so she gave Scott a ride to and from the boy scout camp(very helpful). Sounds like Scott had a great time with his new troop, but he is pretty tired from all the work they accomplished. He was working on 4 different badges, including a cooking badge. So he was up at 6am making pancakes for all the scouts!At least some of the program was held indoors in cabins since it got very cold on Saturday night. They slept in tents outside however, but they put them up under pavilions which kept the rain/slush/snow off and that kept the boys dry and much happier! Nothing worse than camping in the rain! I was also glad I did not sign up to help out. I spent most of the weekend in bed. And Tom just doesn't do cold night camping if he can avoid it. Now Scott has been chosen to be a patrol leader which will move him along in his boy scout rank. And Tom can help him out as the patrol coach.

Good thing Scott and Allison don't have school on Monday either. But they will still be staying busy. Allison had to work a couple of nights at the rink this weekend. At least she had Sunday to herself, and they cancelled Field Hockey for the holiday weekend. She is going to help me out by taking Scott to a birthday party at Dave and Busters on Monday while she shops. And then she is going to take him to his Fitness class at the Y.

It certainly is wonderful having another helper who can drive! While Tom and I were at the hospital, Allison took Scott to his swim lesson at the Y and joined one of her girlfriends in the free swim lanes as well. She had a good time. Wish I could have joined them.

I had hoped to make up for our lost Valentine's Day by going to see the Broadway play Flashdance with Tom. And even perhaps have dinner afterwards downtown. Unfortunately, I was having some weird side effects to the blood pressure medication and spent Sunday morning in the urgent care clinic. The recommendation was to stay on the medicine and go to the hospital if things got worse. I felt better about having a second look over before I return to work on Monday. My doctor's office is closed, so I would not have a chance to talk to anyone before going back to work, except maybe at the ER again(way too expensive).  We ended up giving our Flashdance tickets to the neighbors since Allison was too busy studying and Tom did not want to go without me, especially since I was the one who really wanted to see it. Maybe next time.I did get a cute valentine bracelet and some movie tickets from Tom. I picked up Super Bowl shirts for the whole family. Plus I got the kids popcorn buckets with microwave popcorn since we have all given up dessert for lent.

So I will head back to work on Monday. At least I don't have to get up early to take SCott to school. I asked the doctors and nurses what could have caused my blood pressure to shoot up so high so fast. The usual answer is stress! Gee, where have I heard that before? I am sure it has nothing to do with the two new supervisors we have at work! And yes, genetics plays a role in it too. This is God's way of saying "You are getting old!"  I did stop into work for a few hours on SAturday afternoon to catch up on some documentation that I missed when I ran out the door on Thursday. I was out with Allison anyway since we stopped into the Nature Center so she could show off her computer power point presentation about the bird program for Girl SCouts. She may present the program at our local library first as a school project. Good practice.

We did manage to celebrate FAt Tuesday. Happy Packi Day! (Packi=big, fat, jelly filled donuts or cream filled).  I was even more excited to find a Detroit made Sanders Chocolate Bumpy Cake at our local grocery store. It was my last hurrah before lent! And no, my blood pressure was high before the chocolate cake! And I think Allison was pleasantly surprised to have received so many cute Valentines from her Kindergarten class. She even got gift cards for Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks as well as boxes of chocolates. What a great gig! She also passed out cards of her own since I had so many leftover from their younger days. SCott's 7th grade class got a  cookie and out of uniform day.

I also had to go with Allison to the dentist for a panoramic xray to check on her wisdom teeth last week. I am getting tired of all the doctor/dentist appointments, but that is life! I will be back to the doctor on Friday for a blood pressure check and then Cookie needs more shots at the vet. What fun.

So we will try to have a quieter week(I hope). Kathleen