Wow! What a week!

So many things happened to my co-workers, good and bad. When we left work on Friday, we breathed a sigh of relief that the weekend was finally here.

Last weekend, Donna's daughter got married. This was something was expected and the closer it got to the wedding date, the bride became more nervous (as well as the mother of the bride!). Overall, the wedding went well, and all of their planning paid off.

Monday, we came to work to find that Marion's husband broke his ankle. Being Father's Day last Sunday, he was playing with his new "toy", a remote control airplane. They had planned to take the plane to the park to play with, but he couldn't wait. While playing with it in the back yard, it went over the back neighbor's fence, and he jumped over the fence, and as he landed, he fell wrong and broke his ankle. He's spent some time in the hospital along with having some surgery done on his ankle.

Thursday, Isabel found out that her sister's husband committed suicide. Her sister just got married less than a month ago. She left her house and moved to Michigan to be with her husband a few weeks ago. They were planning on coming back to Houston to sell the house and move/sell furniture in August. Who knows what possessed her husband to kill himself? Isabel had the hardest time trying to get a plane to Michigan. She finally found an available flight on Thursday night.

Friday, Cecelia, one of our custodians, came in to clean, and she told me, in Spanish, that she wasn't feeling good. She said that she skipped lunch, but she had coke. I immediately grabbed some crackers that were in my drawer and told her to eat them. (She's diabetic). She refused. However, I can tell she was very agitated, and she was very cold. I watched her as she was cleaning, and then I lost track of her. There was so much activity going on in our office. Then Donna went to the restroom and came back a few minutes later, yelling my name. She said she didn't understand Cecelia and needed an interpreter. I told everyone in the office that she was diabetic as I ran to the bathroom. Donna had found her leaning over the sick, and she wasn't sure if Cecelia was sick and throwing up, cooling off with water, and cleaning the sink. That's when she told her to go sit down on the chair that's in the bathroom while she went to get me.

When I got there, she was very pale. I grabbed her wrist to see if I can feel a pulse, but couldn't feel one. I went to find her coratid pulse in her neck, and still couldn't feel one. I told Donna that I need to get my glucose monitor to check her sugar since she told me that she didn't eat. I ran to get my monitor and told everyone in the office what was going on. They started making phone calls, one of which was to the 911. I took her blood sugar level, and it was 134. Not too high, and definitely not something to worry about if you skipped a meal. By then the EMT arrived, and I let them take over, except they didn't speak Spanish, so I had to interpret. I told them what we knew, and at that point they started asking her questions. (She told me later she doesn't remember what they were asking her). They took her vitals, including blood pressure. She started complaining of a headache and chest pains. They kept asking her if she wanted to go to the hospital, and she kept refusing. Then the ambulance arrived, and they took over. (There was a lady and a man, and the lady spoke Spanish). Throughout this whole time, they kept asking her questions and asking her if she wanted to go to the hospital, and she refused to go. I also talked to her daughter and her niece on the phone, and gave her niece directions to the hospital when she finally agreed to go to the hospital. They finally wheeled her away to the ambulance. (Cecelia told me later that she was so out of it that all she can see where shapes and figures). They loaded her up in the ambulance and it took awhile before they left. (Cecelia said that they did the paddles on her during that time). They finally drove her away, and we just looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief at the end of long week.

Cecelia came back to work on Tuesday, and she came to thank everyone for their help. She said she was in the hospital for two days, and was discharged on Sunday. The doctor ordered several things for her, including eating smaller meals throughout the day. She said that she thanks God for giving her a second chance in life, and this was considered a warning for her.

Having taught CRP/First Aid, I felt confident to help her. I had taken my pocket mask and gloves just in case I had to use them. But most important, I remembered basic life saving skills to help Cecelia until more advance help arrived. This is the kind of thing that they teach you when you learn CPR/First Aid. I don't think learing it just once a year is good enough. If I hadn't taught it, I wouldn't have felt comfortable performing it. It takes practice, and if you continually practice it, it could save someone's life. I encourage everyone to take CPR/First Aid, not because it's required for work, but because it could save someone's life.

Wow! What a week!