Book Cover #6 and now is the time to PANIC
Book cover #6, without commentary:
Today I tag
purpleink if she has the time.
Had an ... interesting ... day today, courtesy of MiniPlu.
Will had planned a day of yardwork, including shoveling a lot of decorative stone. I was going to help him with this, but I had to work it around MiniPlu's work schedule - she had to be dropped off at Levi's at 9:30a and picked up at 4p. She was not looking forward to the length of the shift. At all. Anyway, when it was time to go, she drove, as usual, while I rode shotgun. As she got off the highway, just up the road from the shopping center, she did some weird thing where she'd looked behind her at oncoming traffic as she was merging, and also stepped on the gas, and basically somehow gave herself ... whiplash? A pinched nerve in the neck, at any rate, or so it seemed, based on where she put her hand in pain. MiniPlu has absolutely zero pain tolerance, so I sometimes have to take her complaints with a whole margarita's worth of salt, but it did seem like a genuine injury, the sort where she was having trouble turning her head to the right. Anyway, we got to the shopping center and she reluctantly got out of the car. I had already made plans to wait the half hour in the parking lot until the store officially opened so I could take a look at a sweatshirt I was considering.
While I was sitting there, reading, MiniPlu texted me about how much pain she was in, and how she was starting to panic about it. I offered to come to the door and hand her some Advil, but she didn't want to trouble the manager to come unlock it for her, and said she'd wait for the store opening. By the time I got inside at 10a, though, she was in tears from pain and anxiety. And then she had a full blown panic attack - hyperventilating, nearly passing out, claiming her hands and feet were numb, and eventually her hands even got sort of spastic. There was absolutely nothing I could say or do that helped - my main goal was to get her to just LOOK at me, and copy my calm breathing. But she couldn't do it. She just kept crying and panicking and begging me not to leave her, even though I kept assuring her I wasn't going anywhere, as well as reassuring her that her numb hands were due to panic, not the pinched nerve. So, meanwhile, she's huddled behind a rack of clothes in the store, and I'm sitting on the floor with her, trying to calm her, while her manager popped over in concern a couple of times. They were the only two in the store until about 10:30a, at which point another salesperson came. And at that point, there was clearly nothing more to be done, so MiniPlu begged off to go home and recuperate, saying she hoped she'd be back by noon. I was pretty frustrated, although I stayed outwardly calm. Took her home, and finally got into my grubby clothes to start - at last - helping Will. And then an hour later it was time to help MiniPlu assess whether or not she could go back to work. She was still in pain but no longer panicking by then, and agreed to put away her laundry as a way to assess her freedom of movement with the pinched nerve. And she reluctantly agreed that she *could* do it, even though she didn't *want* to. She knows that we've been trying to encourage her to push through difficult situations when possible, because sometimes you just have to do that. (Also, a friend was having a gathering tonight and she wanted to be allowed to go, but knew she had to go to work first, to demonstrate her fitness for socializing.)
So, back in the car to drive her back to work, then get a little more yardwork done. I fell asleep on the sofa for a bit while Will ate lunch, so I missed out on some further helping, but then got back to work for a bit until I had to go back to Levi's AGAIN to pick up MiniPlu. She's been fine the rest of the day - at least as far as functioning goes. I'm pretty sure it still hurts, but at least she's emotionally stable. :P And she did later tell me that at least I'd done everything right, even if it hadn't worked. She so rarely tells me that, so I suppose that was a win, kinda?
Oy.
Today I tag
purpleink if she has the time.
Had an ... interesting ... day today, courtesy of MiniPlu.
Will had planned a day of yardwork, including shoveling a lot of decorative stone. I was going to help him with this, but I had to work it around MiniPlu's work schedule - she had to be dropped off at Levi's at 9:30a and picked up at 4p. She was not looking forward to the length of the shift. At all. Anyway, when it was time to go, she drove, as usual, while I rode shotgun. As she got off the highway, just up the road from the shopping center, she did some weird thing where she'd looked behind her at oncoming traffic as she was merging, and also stepped on the gas, and basically somehow gave herself ... whiplash? A pinched nerve in the neck, at any rate, or so it seemed, based on where she put her hand in pain. MiniPlu has absolutely zero pain tolerance, so I sometimes have to take her complaints with a whole margarita's worth of salt, but it did seem like a genuine injury, the sort where she was having trouble turning her head to the right. Anyway, we got to the shopping center and she reluctantly got out of the car. I had already made plans to wait the half hour in the parking lot until the store officially opened so I could take a look at a sweatshirt I was considering.
While I was sitting there, reading, MiniPlu texted me about how much pain she was in, and how she was starting to panic about it. I offered to come to the door and hand her some Advil, but she didn't want to trouble the manager to come unlock it for her, and said she'd wait for the store opening. By the time I got inside at 10a, though, she was in tears from pain and anxiety. And then she had a full blown panic attack - hyperventilating, nearly passing out, claiming her hands and feet were numb, and eventually her hands even got sort of spastic. There was absolutely nothing I could say or do that helped - my main goal was to get her to just LOOK at me, and copy my calm breathing. But she couldn't do it. She just kept crying and panicking and begging me not to leave her, even though I kept assuring her I wasn't going anywhere, as well as reassuring her that her numb hands were due to panic, not the pinched nerve. So, meanwhile, she's huddled behind a rack of clothes in the store, and I'm sitting on the floor with her, trying to calm her, while her manager popped over in concern a couple of times. They were the only two in the store until about 10:30a, at which point another salesperson came. And at that point, there was clearly nothing more to be done, so MiniPlu begged off to go home and recuperate, saying she hoped she'd be back by noon. I was pretty frustrated, although I stayed outwardly calm. Took her home, and finally got into my grubby clothes to start - at last - helping Will. And then an hour later it was time to help MiniPlu assess whether or not she could go back to work. She was still in pain but no longer panicking by then, and agreed to put away her laundry as a way to assess her freedom of movement with the pinched nerve. And she reluctantly agreed that she *could* do it, even though she didn't *want* to. She knows that we've been trying to encourage her to push through difficult situations when possible, because sometimes you just have to do that. (Also, a friend was having a gathering tonight and she wanted to be allowed to go, but knew she had to go to work first, to demonstrate her fitness for socializing.)
So, back in the car to drive her back to work, then get a little more yardwork done. I fell asleep on the sofa for a bit while Will ate lunch, so I missed out on some further helping, but then got back to work for a bit until I had to go back to Levi's AGAIN to pick up MiniPlu. She's been fine the rest of the day - at least as far as functioning goes. I'm pretty sure it still hurts, but at least she's emotionally stable. :P And she did later tell me that at least I'd done everything right, even if it hadn't worked. She so rarely tells me that, so I suppose that was a win, kinda?
Oy.