A Wine Called Joy

November 19, 2018, was not an ordinary day. My daughter had been sick over the weekend so I decided to stay home with her that Monday. Most who know me know I do not like to miss work, but I wanted to make sure her fever had been gone for 24 hours. She had one of those mystery fevers that didn't make any sense... perhaps it was a premonition for the following 72 hours.

Monday was a good day - a day I spent loving my daughter.
We had a lazy morning of reading and crafts. We went to FYE to pick up some Christmas DVDs. Even Bubl-cat was excited for the holiday swag we scored.

We went to the Raytown campus to check on the progress, went home for naps, followed by grocery shopping for dinner and a trip to the octopus (the car wash). Ah, and most importantly we stopped by FedEx to pick up my monthly wine shipment! As I made dinner that night I sipped on a glass of Joy. For real, it's called Joy! The bottle came in a festive wrapper and I thought, "heck, why not start celebrating the holidays a couple of days early?!" Cheers to me! I had two glasses that night and after playing a mad game of memory, a whiny game of chutes and ladders, and putting Bippy to bed, I decided to go to bed earlier than normal.

As I laid down, I began to feel pressure in my abdomen. It felt like a normal case of my bloating - and this time it was pressing on my bladder. I went to the restroom and took two GasX, thinking it was just another gas attack! About an hour into trying to sleep, the bloating got worse and the cramping on the right side of my abdomen started to flare up. Sleep was not on the agenda that night as the pain worsened.

Toph was in the basement working in his studio, so I actually called him on his phone to help me. The pain at this point was terrible - not labor and delivery terrible, but terrible.  As I lay writhing and sobbing from the pain, Toph looked down at me and said that I needed to go to the doctor tomorrow. I could have laughed, but instead pleaded with him through tears, "no I need to go now."

So around 11:30 pm we woke Bippy from her sleep and headed to Centerpoint Medical Center for a long three days.