It really could have been a better day...

To start, yesterday T and I overslept, woke up just before 9am and missed his swim class. We NEVER sleep that late, typically being up around 6:30-7 so that was just unusual. And to miss a swim class really disappointed both of us since he has been making such great progress and enjoying himself.

We had an 11:30 lunch date with my friend Katherine and her adorable baby James, at Nordstrom's Bistro Cafe which should have been lovely and fairly uneventful. However, we ended up being late, as the morning resulted in a series of time-outs due to tantrums and poor behavior which drags out the getting ready process. Initially visiting Katherine was great, she is just so thoughtful and witty and always has a great perspective on things. She is currently performing in the Marquee show for SJCMT called "When You Wish" that my Mom and I had the pleasure of seeing this past weekend. It was an amazing show, and Katherine's solo of Mulan's "Reflection" was not short of incredible!

Our lunch was delicious, however at some point through lunch, T began to act-out in ways that are very out of character for him. We eat out in restaurants enough that he is generally in good behavior, cooperative, and content. But yesterday was different and I am not sure why. He stood on the seat many times, a big no, knees are appropriate which he knows. He had periods of being unacceptably loud, and worst of all, absolutely would not listen to me. He became deaf, he would stare at me as I told him sternly to show me the right behavior or quite honestly, to knock it off. Stare. Blink. Sly smile.

In general in this situation, it would have been most appropriate to leave the restaurant, but my struggle with this was that Katherine is only in town for a sort time, lives in LA, and it is a big effort for any Mom with a small baby to go anywhere, let alone have a nice lunch, so I really would have felt badly and bummed out that I would cut lunch off short because of T being difficult. To top it off when we were leaving lunch, T was rude on ornery, and refused to say goodbye to Katherine and her baby, which is a BIG NAUGHTY NO. This made me just so sad. What is up with my son? I have to say the last week or so had brought about a very different T...he has been whiny, tantrummy, DRAMA, appears to be deaf to my voice, and behaving very uncharacteristically.

To top off the day, I had been feeling slightly light-headed(you know where your head feels heavy and drowsy) recently most likely from my severe allergies which have resulted in an insane amout of head, sinus, post-nasal drip and ear congestion. So I drop of T to my Dad's and head on over to work which is less than 10 min. from my parent's house. On the way, I had episodes of dizziness - when it seems like everything is moving and spinning, and had to pull over a few times on my drive to let the feeling pass. Got to work, start walking up the stairs, dizziness hits me again, and I nearly faint on the stairs as I pass my friend and co-worker Josie. Ugghhh. The spinning sensation lasted what felt like forever, I don't really know how long, and I was not really in tune to what was going on. At some point many of my co-workers got me over to a couch and started treating me for shock, possibly dehydration, put my feet up and got some orange soda and water in me. I had also started hyperventilating, hands trembling, face and hands tingly, think I had a panic attack. Had them several times before but never had the severe dizziness to go with it. Somewhere around 5:30 when the dizziness subsides, my managers decided as is standard that as a precaution I head over to the ED for evaluation. I tried to argue out of this but for safety reasons and to determine what could have caused me to be dizzy and nearly faint. I reluctantly was brought over to the ED. Where they then triaged me over to urgent care where I waited until close to 7pm, MD ran an EKG and did a general work-up.
End result - MD believes I had vertigo/dizziness due to an inner ear problem from the large amount of drainage from my allergies. The inner ear, specifically the labrynth is very sensitive to changes in pressure and a slight alterations in fluid that if affected can send a signal to the brain altering the sense of balance and equilibrium. Add to that the fact that I had symptoms of dehydration, the heat, and only ate one meal yesterday, he says it was bound to happen if I kept on that track. And I had a panic attack.

Great. I missed a day of work because I almost fainted, am now feeling embarressed at all the attention this apparently got at work, pissed that I didn't work at all, spent 3 hrs in the ED, and today feel drained but better. Still have head congestion but now am on decongestants and antihistamines to dry up the fluid. And I am making a better effort today to drink lots of water and eat.

Here's to looking at a better day ahead.