Why My Husband Rocks
September 20, 2008
Imagine you are Jeremiah for a second and that you have to put up with me all day long. That alone, is quite an awesome feat. Let’s be honest. I am a bit too chatty, spazzy, opinionated and picky. I am spoiled, to say the least. Yet, he takes it all in stride and doesn’t take my role in our home for granted. I love him dearly for that. But, last night, he really out did himself by getting up and running an errand for me in the middle of the night. I am truly blessed with a wonderful husband. Let me explain.
Around 1am I woke up unable to catch my breath. This is not an unfamiliar feeling for me, after all, I have asthma. Nighttime wakings are part of the gig when I’m not taking preventative meds (which I haven’t been this year, stupid me). Realizing I was out of albuterol (emergency meds), I went downstairs to watch TV, hoping the asthma attack would pass on its own. Sometimes this works, usually it doesn’t. And of course it doesn’t work when I don’t have any albuterol for backup in the house! Not only was it not passing on its own, it was getting much worse. My chest was tightening and it felt as though I was wearing one of those lead vests they make me wear in the dentist’s office when I am getting my teeth x-rayed. My body had gone from relaxed to intensely tightened in a matter of minutes. I was starting to feel less annoyed with the attack and more frightened. I went upstairs to wake Jeremiah up and ask him to come downstairs with me. He did so immediately, even without being awake enough to understand how dire the situation had become. Once we got downstairs I let him know I might need him to call 911. Then, it occurred to me that friends of ours have albuterol at their house. So, at 1:30am, I dialed up our friends. (side note: Our friends also completely and totally rock! I am not mentioning names because taking drugs not prescribed to you isn’t exactly legal.) My friend answered the phone and dug through her husband’s things to find his albuterol at 1:30 in the morning! What friends God has blessed us with! Jeremiah went to their house, which is luckily very close to ours, and picked the medicine up. While he was gone, I paced our living room floor and prayed that God would bring me some relief. When he got home, I used the meds and things started looking a little better. While albuterol does start helping immediately, the way it works isn’t really an instant fix. It takes time to clear things up completely. For me, it is usually an hour before I feel 100% better. Since this is not a completely unusual thing for us, Jeremiah knew it would be a while before I would feel comfortable again and he also knew that talking really helps distract me and clear out my lungs. So, he started talking to me about fun things he knew would make me laugh and help me forget the absolute fear I was living in only moments sooner. He stayed up with me until 3am when I finally felt comfortable enough to go back to bed. Then, this morning, he got up with the kids while I headed off to an urgent care clinic to get a prescription for Pulmicort (that I had neglected to take this allergy season due to my old prescription expiring) and more albuterol. Needless to say, I truly love my husband.
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