Two words: chest tube.
It would seem that last week sometime, one of my beloved's lungs spontaneously collapsed. Yeah, it deflated like a balloon. And when lungs spontaneously deflate (even a little bit) they don't reinflate on their own.
No sir. You need the help of a chest tube and a vacuum pump. Think Capri Sun juice pouch and vacuum cleaner. While his cardiac thoracic surgeon might take issue with my gross oversimplification, honestly, I'm really not that far off.
So, Thursday night, I rushed Mark to the ER with chest pains. Thinking he was having a heart attack, they took him immediately - even before the lady with the horrifying head wound. When they escorted me back to see him, he was hooked up to all sorts of probes and sensors. A nurse was asking him questions.
Full name?
Date of birth?
Address?
Emergency contact?
He dutifully answered each question and when she got to emergency contact, he looked at me and smiled as he gave my name and cell number. I took his hand, careful to not disturb his IV.
She continued.
Allergies to medications?
Insurance carrier?
Marital status?
She robotically read the options:
Single, divorced, married, widowed?
Mark looked at me as he answered: Single.
I leaned over and pointed to her clipboard.
Change the emergency contact to his mother, will ya?
I looked at Mark and winked.
Hey man! He said, defensively. There wasn't an option for engaged!
The nurse giggled nervously, unsure at first if we were joking or not. She quickly plowed through the remaining questions and left.
Mark spent a few days in the hospital and is now back home recovering. It was a pretty frightening experience to say the least. When you have a medical scare like that, it really makes you appreciate your loved ones more than ever.
In the end, Mark was discharged on Valentine's Day. When I got him home, I gently wrapped my arms around him to give him a little hug. It was barely even a hug actually. I was too worried about hurting him.
Mark assured me that he'd never turn down my hugs and as I gingerly reached my arms around him, he pulled me closer, tighter. And as I settled my head on his chest in perfect bliss, he made a loud THHHHHPPPPPPPT sound (like a balloon deflating).
Freak.
But that's why I love him so much.
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3 comments:
Yikes! How scary for you both. I'm so glad he's alright now.
Spontaneously deflate! Seriously?
Like we need to worry about the organs that give us breath can just take a brief ‘siesta’ for a bit!
I am glad they were able to re-inflate that sucker…but I am sorry you guys had to experience such a scary moment. Life does like to throw in curve balls periodically, doesn’t it?
I know! It's the weirdest thing. In fact, in the ER, he was a total side-show freak. All of the young doctors kept coming in and asking, "So it just deflated? Seriously, what were you doing?"
Eventually we learned lungs can collapse even when your body is at rest - even when you're sleeping.
They also said that spontaneous collapses are super rare, but when they do happen, it's almost always to a tall, thin guy.
So let's give a shout out for the benefits of being short and fat!
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