Breaking the radio silence

My right forearm filled with cold, and I began to shiver. No matter. I had a deliciously toasty warm woven blanket, a comfortable bed, and baseball on TV in a quiet room. This is the life, I thought. Just then the ER nurse came in and hooked up my second bag of IV fluids.

So remember that time I was all, I don't ever want to talk about food or water again? Things went downhill not long after that. That's right, my little moment of bliss took place in a room of the Naval Hospital ER. Folks let me tell you. The Naval Hospital is where it's at. I had two ER visits for some sweet draughts of fluids; for one of those trips there were only two people ahead of me and for the other I was the only soul present.

It's amazing what a couple liters of saline seasoned with electrolytes—not to mention a vial of Zofran—can do to revive a dehydrated patient. When Noah and Ethan came to pick me up (the nurse told them my treatment would take a couple hours) and I smilingly expressed my improvement, euphoria flashed across Noah's face as he relived the time he was given four liters in hospital during a severe case of mono back in college.

Anyway, long story short is I'm doing much better, although a brief walk or trip to the pharmacy still takes it out of me. And very happily, my first ultrasound last week revealed a healthy single pregnancy (high HCG hormone, which can lead to the extreme symptoms I've had, can indicate multiples, which is not the case here). Perhaps this time it's a girl.