A Really Awesome and Really Awful Time

This past Saturday was such a momentous day. 

My Kauai cousins sent me a photo of their participation in the No King's Day protest. I consider it a celebration of our freedom to protest what we see as a danger to our democracy.

They sent me this fun photo. My cousin is on the right.

I texted back that I wish I could have been there with them.

But that same evening, we had a birthday party for mom to celebrate her 96th birthday. My cousin, Arnold made a special trip to our house bringing with him a huge platter of exquisite sushi that was almost gone by the end of the party. He had to leave early to avoid being with too many people before a trip he was taking.

The sweetest, most wonderful gift was the time he spent with mom talking and listening to her. Auntie Grace was Arnold's mom and the sister mom was closest to because they were closest in age. And Auntie Grace was such a vibrant person. Arnold knows quite a bit of Japanese so he could communicate with her easily. Since the party was late starting and mom eats normally at 5:00, we had to give her meal earlier while Arnold kept her company.

After Arnold left my nephew, Shawn sat next to mom. She was overjoyed that he could be at her birthday party since he has a busy schedule performing around the island.

It was a joyous night. You would not know that three little kids could run amok around the house and create such a loud cacophony of happy celebration and activity.

Unfortunately, at the end of the party when family were leaving, I began to feel that terrible omen that I could be having a vertigo attack. 

Art rushed upstairs to get me a meclizine pill.

But it didn't work.

A half hour later, nausea hit. I tried the Epley Maneuver but it seemed to make it worse. I couldn't walk. I couldn't move.

Art rushed downstairs and got mom's walker with the seat. 

He got a bowl to hold in front of me, helped me onto the walker seat and wheeled me to the bathroom. Everything, and I mean everything I ate in the day came out of me from both ends. It was a nightmare.

After a couple of hours when nothing else was left in me, Art wheeled me back to my office/bedroom and had me lie down on the twin bed I have there. He slept on the other twin bed to watch over me. I couldn't take a shower and slept in the clothes I wore all day.

He and my brother think the vertigo might have been triggered by all the noise, activity and stress of putting the party together and making sure everybody got what they wanted. And yet, they are family and they all pitched in to clean up and organize left overs. 

I don't know what caused it. I've written my doctor and listed all my episodes just so he has a record. I'd kept notes since 2021 of each attack hoping to figure out what was going on.

So it was truly a day of ups and downs. 

POSTSCRIPT:

Remember my doing Photoshop in my last blog post? I learned how to do it from my brother who is the Photoshop magician. One family member wasn't able to join us until after our group photo was taken. My brother therefore took a photo of that late comer when he arrived and magically added him to the group photo. I wonder if you can tell which person it was. 😄