We meant to do our work today....

Or yesterday, or whatever.  Once again, real life interrupts the schedule.  I asked the HG in the midst of part of it, "WHY can't our family just be normal?"

Wednesday night she learned that there was a supply of frozen donor milk available in a town where the HM sometimes works, about 90 miles from our house.  The Striderling has a runny nose and isn't feeling the greatest, so she wanted somebody to go with her Thursday to pick it up so she could sit with him in the backseat.  I volunteered.

We headed north where we picked up the milk, did some grocery and thrift store shopping (sausage, .99 a pound, jeans for the FYB, 3.00 a pair).
The Little Boy's mother texted me and we had this conversation:
 "the boys want to know if they can come over this weekend.
Me: sure
Her: Do you want me to bring them today or tomorrow?
Me (thinking, 'um, Thursday is not the weekend'):  Tomorrow.
Her: Okay.  I was wondering if you have plans tomorrow morning?
Me:  Well, we are having a singing tomorrow night, so we will be getting ready for that. 
Her: I have a doctor appt at 8:00 a.m. and needed somebody to watch the boys.
Me (defeated): Okay, if you need to bring them tonight to make that easier, go ahead.
Her: Okay, thanks.

So I called the Progeny at home to tell them the Little Boys would be there, and I picked up some easier (and totally unhealthy snacks) for the singing.=)
I also fielded a long distance discussion about playing the Wii and watching a movie (yes on the Wii, no on the movie).


 Then we headed down the five acre discount store I've mentioned before (pasta, .50 a pound, fruit bars .10 each, and much more)- then we scientifically loaded down her car with our bags stuffing things into every nook and cranny.

Meanwhile, back at home the HM, who had this week off, helped the FYG get her driving permit (Hooray!), and took a gas powered power washer to The Rattery to clean out the basement (which is now empty! Hooray!!).

As the HG and I were approximately 50 minutes from home, we got a phone call from the HM.  It was one of those that begins, "I just want you to know that I'm okay..."

After washing out the basement for two hours, still feeling fine and frisky, the HM wrapped up the power washer and went upstairs and out to the yard to move trashcans.  Suddenly, he did not feel fine or frisky.  He felt.... and he collapsed on his knees.  "Water," he thought.  "Maybe I haven't had enough to drink." and he staggered across the road to a neighbor's house where the neighbor had been out on his porch watching. The HM fell down again in the yard, asked for water, and then called 911 himself and was collected by ambulance.

When he called us he was still in the ambulance on his way to the hospital.  We were about 30 minutes from the hospital ourselves.

There followed a bit of a scramble- Jenny, home alone with the Cherub was somewhat distraught, so the Equuschick (whose babies had gone to bed already) got her babies up and came over to join Jenny.  Granny Tea decided to leave my dad in teh carey of the FYG at her house (the FYG is amazing with him) and bring the FYB to the hospital.  Pip, who works just five minutes from the hospital, got off work and went to meet him at the hospital.  Meanwhile, none of us had thought to call the Little Boys' mother, so she showed up in the midst of it all.  Granny Tea suggested that she not leave the boys, and then asked the girls if they wanted to watch them with everything going on. They said that mom would want them to do right by the boys, so they could stay.  As a matter of fact, Nod is at a point where he does not want to stay and he pitches a fit every time, and the EC told me later that after an hour of his wails and pleading for her to let him stay home with her, she relented and took him back home.  On their way out the door he was talking about coming back this morning with his friend who is also four and lives in the apartment complex.  I have no idea how that will go. right now, we just have Blynken.

When the HG and I arrived at the hospital, there was a technician torturing my husband in the pretense that he was really after an arterial blood draw.  Three people and multiple puncture wounds later, they maanaged to draw blood from an artery and my husband's carbon monoxide levels were at 18%, even though he'd been out of that basement for two hours already. They promptly slapped an oxygen mask on him and drew more blood, did an EKG and a chest x-ray, and then we twiddled our thumbs for a while.

The HG and Pip went home and everybody there helped unload the van.
Granny Tea took the FYB over to the Rattery to lock it back down for the night as the HM had left windows and garage doors wide open and was worried about it.  While there, another 'cross the street neighbor came over to see if everything was okay.  She had already shut the garage door for us, and said she'd been on her way over to help the HM because the neighbor he'd gone to is deaf, when the ambulance showed up.  I do like small towns.

The HM was absolutely filthy from power washing fifty years of accumulated dirt, mold, and debris, and he really wanted to come home and shower. One after another, medical personages learned of his 18% CO levels and hissed, clucked in dismay, or sucked their teeth, shaking their heads all the while and making dark pronouncements about further blood draws and overnight stays. 

Nonetheless, at about 11:00, a nurse came in and said he was free to go provided he took it easy and went to see his primary doctor first thing Friday morning.  So we are home. I am typing this as the household sleeps, including my husband, who is snoring as always, next to me.

This time, however, his snoring sounds really lovely.

Updated to add this clarification: there's nothing particularly wrong with the basement- it was the use of a gas powered washer in the basement that caused the CO poisoning.  He thought he had it ventilated well enough- windows were open and there was a breeze, but we guess the windows aren't large enough and were too high to help.  He also knew the symptoms and would have stopped if he'd had any- but he didn't.  No head-aches then or now.  Turns out some people don't get any symptoms until it's just about too late and he's one of them. His only symptom right now is embarrassment.  He's really, really embarrassed.  We are really, really grateful that he's okay, although further problems can still show up for the next 40 days.'

Updated again: He went back to the doctor this morning for a follow up, and the doctor told him that according to his records, his CO blood levels were actually at 19.2% the previous night.  He's back at the hospital for another arterial blood draw to make sure the CO levels are down to an acceptable level, and when they get the results of that test the doctor will tell him what he needs to do next.