Life Vs. Death: What Would You Choose?

Yesterday, at our school’s staff meeting, we had a representative from Alberta Health come in to discuss allergies and anaphylactic shock. Of course, this came with training on how to use an Epi-Pen.

Growing up, my sister had extensive allergies. She always had one Epi-Pen at school and one at home or rather near her at all times. It was a no-brainer that she needed it incase something did happen. It wasn’t even a choice. She always had 2.

You would think that all families would treat this issue the same. But unfortunately, working in a school has shown me otherwise. Some parents will not buy their sons and daughters Epi-Pens. This boggles my mind. A school is a place where so many children come from so many homes carrying so many different items. Sometimes, people will develop the allergies. So even if they had no idea they were allergic to something before, they could come into contact with something later in life that they have an anaphylactic shock to because they have developed an allergy to it. You never know.

Now, we do have a Peanut-Free environment at our school that we enforce. But we cannot control what children were in contact with before they came to school. So it’s a very hard thing to ever make 100% sure.

So, here’s the deal. For the parents who refuse to buy Epi-Pens, we aren’t supposed to give their children a generic one if they need it even if we have it. We could get in a lot of trouble. We cannot administer medication that does not have their name on it.

So let me ask you this: Do you sit by and potentially watch the child die while the paramedics are stuck in a traffic jam or somewhere further away in the city? Because you’re not supposed to drive them to the hospital yourself either. How do you do that?

The decision basically boils down to this:
#1: Do the legal thing and don’t give the child the generic Epi-Pen you have on hand. Best-case scenario, the child is able to make it long enough for the ambulance to QUICKLY get there and handle it from there. Worst-case scenario, the ambulance cannot get there quick enough and you watch the child struggle for each mini-breath and die.
#2: Risk getting fired/sued by the family, but at least know that you did what you could to save that child’s life by administering the generic Epi-Pen you have on hand. It could literally save a child’s life; that’s what they are made for.

I am really interested in hearing what you would do. It’s a tough situation. Leave your answer in the comments below!

Winter and Bicycles

What are your thoughts about riding bicycles in the winter? Personally, I’m all for environmentally friendly methods of transportation, but when you live in Canada where the winters are bitterly cold, snowy and icy, I don’t think bicycles are a smart move. Mix that with living in a city where daily accidents already occur to inexperienced or careless winter drivers and the conditions of the roads themselves, you have a toxic combination.

This all stems from something I saw on my way from my chiropractor appointment one day. There is a crossing of two roads where it should be a 4-way stop, but it isn’t. The corners are not the easiest to see ahead because many vehicles line the streets, so most drivers naturally slow down where the roads cross just incase, even though there aren’t any signs or lights telling you to do so.

As I was driving out of this community, going through that same intersection, on the opposite side of the road, I saw an ambulance. However, I only saw one vehicle. Upon looking closer, I also noticed a bicycle and a rider on the ground with the paramedic bent over the rider. Oh my goodness! I didn’t see any blood or anything, but I can’t imagine how scary that must have been.

I don’t know. I just feel like I can barely trust other drivers when I’m driving in my own car, let alone on a defenceless bicycle. I do think bicycling is good for you, but definitely not in winter, and maybe not in a huge city. What do you think?

You Just Never, Ever Know…

I had already written this blog post once, believe it or not. As I sat crying, I poured out my heart on this computer. But just as I was finishing, my computer decided to glitch and it was all lost. I didn’t have the heart to write it again. Except this time, I’m not crying my heart out and writing in a different manner.

You see, normally I don’t work on Fridays. Well, I do, but from home. Last Friday was different as my grade 6s and I had a PAT scheduled for Friday morning. So therefore, we had to be there.

The PAT went alright, and most of the students had rides to leave right after, the others had soccer practice. I had a few of my students from last year come to visit me and study for their upcoming exams. I was able to make practice questions for them so that I could help them if necessary.

While they were studying, I received the most unexpected message from my mother. It was news that one of my friends had just died. By “just”, I mean within the half hour. It hit me like a deer in headlights. I didn’t believe it for a second.

This girl and I were on the same basketball game in high school, were in the same classes, and even though it had been awhile since I had seen her, we had been very good friends.

I maintained control as my mother began to tell me more details of the car accident, the head on collision, the fact that her baby and her were in the one vehicle, and a woman in the other. Both the baby and the other woman had been sent to the hospital as code 1 which means the ambulance is travelling fast with flashing lights as the passengers have serious injuries. However, my friend went code 2, which meant deceased and nothing they could do, so no rush, no flashing lights.

I just couldn’t believe it. Even now, the emotions are starting to rise again, but for the first hour, I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t think of anything else, but I managed to have a small conversation with a cousin of mine who also know my deceased friend. We discussed how the tiny town (population around 100-200) we came from never has anything like this happen. We discussed how we take it for granted that everyone we know will just be there when we go back to visit. We discussed how we really need to realize that anything can happen anywhere. And that’s when it really started to sink in.

Now, being at work was not the place I should have been. But I managed to hold it all back while the students were still there. It was when they decided to leave that the tears started to fall. I didn’t full out cry just yet, but managed to keep it still mostly contained. My husband showed up early from work to pick me up. I kept it in until I let him in the door and we got back to my classroom. I couldn’t even answer him what was wrong without starting to bawl. It sunk in so deep.

I cried and cried and cried, my husband not really knowing what to do. He helped me to pack, and took me home. I continued to cry and cry and be upset and wonder why these things had to happen. I knew I’d deal with this whole situation, but I didn’t want to have to deal with it. I went through the deep of emotions of how life is unfair and how her 8-month old baby is left without a mom. I was in a deep, dark, painful place. And that’s where I was originally writing this blog.

You see, just like I knew in my head the whole time, I would learn to deal with it. Loss is a thing that unfortunately occurs in life, sometimes way too frequently. You can’t avoid it. But you can learn to deal with it. And that’s what I had to do.

I cried myself to sleep. I slept for quite awhile. When I awoke, I had a huge headache, and had the eyes of an alien. But my husband asked if he could take me to a funny movie, just to help any he could. I agreed, and in order to not rush me, we planned on going to the late movie, and he went out to the gym for a quick workout so I had time to get ready at my own pace.

Fortunately with an extra application of some good Mary Kay make-up, and a good hair tease, I was able to mostly hide those alien eyes and the fact I had cried for hours. My husband and I went out, he was very caring, and made sure I had the best time possible at the movie.

We came home, I went straight to bed, and was able to wake up this morning (still with a headache), but ready to begin again. The tears may be gone, but the pain I feel for my friend and her family is not. A life is not something that can be replaced. This sweet smile will not be seen again. But the memories we hold of her, the pictures that capture the moments of her life, and the baby that will forever be a reminder of her are left behind. I don’t know the update on her baby. He’s still alive and I’m assuming he’s stable. The extent of his injuries are something I don’t know. But what I do know is that he has an extensive, caring family that will be there to raise him and to remind him of the wonderful mom he had.

You just never know what will happen. A life that could be here one minute may not be here the next. Really, there is no time to fight, there is no time to hate, there is only time to focus on making sure the people you love know that you love them. Make sure you’ve made them a priority in your life. Love them, spend time with them, and go to bed each night knowing you’ve done your best. You honestly just never, ever know.

April 3, Part 1: The Night My Husband Saved My Life

Tonight was unexpected. Tonight was scary. Tonight was the night my husband saved my life.

It all began as my husband was changing the alternator in our Audi. That blessed Audi that has continued to break down on us over and over again. This was the final step to getting it running and ready to be sold! I cannot wait! We’ve had a few people interested in buying it. So excited to sell it! And so he was putting the new alternator in and had our male dog Dwight outside with him. I stayed inside, was cooking a piece of mahi mahi in the oven, and finishing some spaghetti noodles on the stove.

My mother-in-law called and so I began talking to her for awhile. During the conversation, I noticed a tickle in my throat that led me to cough. After about the fourth cough, I figured I just needed a drink and to eat something to get it out of my throat. During this time, I had walked over to the window because I heard the Audi running. I kept my mother-in-law informed as I sat in the window and nervously watched my husband take the jumper cables off the Audi, and the Audi continued to run and the battery light turned off! My husband even looked up at the window to yell at me and tell me the Audi was running which we were all excited for. Of course, during the whole time, my mother-in-law begins to ask me if I’m ok or if I’m fighting my “winter cough”. I told her this definitely wasn’t my winter cough, but I wasn’t sure if it was what I was cooking or what was causing this irritation in my throat. She let me go to get a drink and so I began to sip away.

Meanwhile, my husband has closed up both vehicles and I hear him coughing down the hallway. Upon entering the apartment and quickly shutting the door, he rounds the corner, Dwight coughing and sneezing, and my husband looking like he was deadly ill: coughing horrendously, saliva pouring out of his mouth, tears flowing down his face, and unable to respond to me right away about whether he was ok. I got scared.

After he gathered himself together, he told me specifically, “We need to get the dogs and get out of here NOW!” Of course, I’m sitting here like, “Oh I’ll just stuff a towel under the door, where else would we go anyways? I’ll just open our two windows and air out the place…”

I can honestly say that I’ve never been more thankful for his stubbornness. He told me to immediately shut the windows as it was drawing the air from the hallway in, and that he wasn’t sure what the gas in the air was but that if it was something like natural gas, the building could explode and we needed out right away. I gave in and we put the dogs in their cages, I put our skinny pig in his little cage, grabbed my purse, and opened the door to the hallway. What happened next was entirely awful.

When the air from the hallway hit me, it was like hitting death in the face. That little tickle in my throat became an instant burning. The coughing became constant. The tears rolled freely. Our noses were running incessantly. My husband went behind me, telling me to just head for the front door, to just get to the front door. It was honestly the most awful thing of my life. So awful in fact, that the only things I can remember from going down the hallway, down the stairs, and out the door was just focussing on trying not to breath, trying to go fast without falling or dropping my babies, and the sounds of coughing from my husband, my dogs and myself.

Hitting the outside air was the greatest breath of fresh air I’ve ever had. As soon as we got outside and had a chance to take a breath and gather ourselves from the mess we had turned into, some fellow tenants were coming out on their decks asking about the coughing and if we thought it was better to leave. We advised our neighbours to get out.

My husband went and got the car, we loaded up and drove a few streets away. I called our rental company’s number to report the emergency to which he very concernedly called a landlord and the fire department right away. I also called the fire department to be sure.

The response time was within a minute! It was incredible timing! We had around 10 fire trucks and an ambulance surrounding our building, blocking entrances to the street, and lined up along the road. I took one quick picture before we walked up to see what they had found out.

In this picture, you can clearly see 3 fire trucks, but ahead of this line up was another 2 fire trucks and an ambulance. The rest were on the front of the building, the other entrance of the road, and the back. We were clearly being taken care of and I’m so very thankful for these people.

After we parked on the side of the road (just behind where this picture was taken), we walked up to see what was going on. The firemen were everywhere, many with oxygen tanks on and ready to use in order to enter the building.

For the next little while, little was said about what happened. The tenants were gathered outside with their children and pets (cats and dogs) waiting for news. Many of them just ended up leaving, but some stayed and waited. We spent our time walking back and forth from the car to check on our animals to the apartment to find any updates. Growing up with a fire chief in the house, I knew to avoid when they were obviously busy, but to answer questions quickly and efficiently with plenty of detail when they ask. They came and talked to me once about what had happened, but nothing really came of the whole thing.

Eventually, they brought out their air vacuum fans and put them at both entrance doors to draw the air out. There was no confirmation as to what it was, but they cleared the building and allowed us back in.

It may seem like nothing now, but can you imagine what could have happened? What if it was a natural gas leak and the building did combust? What if it was a poisonous gas and I was too unclear in my thoughts to leave and had done irreversible damage to myself and my pets?

I’m so thankful for my husband who was able to know what we needed to do, and was willing to drag me out if I didn’t comply (he told me this after). His demonstration of protection and care for me was definitely shown tonight. I love this man and have never been more in love with him then now. His care for me surpasses all expectations.

Tonight, he saved my life.