Nervous Girl

Going to my left

So, I haven't posted in a few weeks. I was having a really good couple of days. Obama won the election. My birthday was warm and sunny and friends made me cakes and took me out to lunch. Then it was my dad's birthday and I was sad because I missed him, but I was okay. Things felt more hopeful than they had in a while.

Then, in the middle of the night, my husband passed out. He woke up sweating and said, "I feel lightheaded," and he passed out. He was unresponsive for about a minute. This had happened in the past, when he jumped up suddenly out of bed to tend to a crying baby and his blood pressure dropped. But this time he just woke up and passed out.

I called 911. The paramedics took him to the hospital, amazingly without waking the kids. I thought he'd be home in a day or two, but it was four days, a stress test, several EKGs and a heart catheterization before I got to bring him home. No evidence of a heart attack, heart enlargement, arterial disease. Vasovagal syncope, the doctor said, and scheduled him for a tilt-table test.

The object of the test is to see if the patient can be made to black out again. He did. He also flatlined for 25 seconds. The doctor said: pacemaker. There's a kind designed just for this sort of thing. Not too many restrictions with the pacemaker, the doctor said. But no chest massages. No problem, I said, I don't do chest massages. Then I remembered.

There's a spot right over my husband's heart where I like to lay my head when I hug him. I tilt my head to the right and burrow right there, on his chest, under his chin.

No problem, I said again. I can learn to go to my left. And I am.

Nervous Girl Speaks: Election Day

I am very excited about Election Day. Both of my regular readers will recall that I eagerly drag my kids with me to the polls encourage my kids to participate in the democratic process. Usually, they are reluctant, but this time, they're pretty psyched, too: my daughter, an early McCain supporter, has switched camps and is now rooting for "Rocco Bama."

She says he has a better tax plan. I'm not kidding. She's six. I did not tell her this; she heard it on the school bus. The school buses around here are definitely higher in tone than the ones where I grew up.

Anyhow, here's an audio clip of me talking about my plans for Election Day:

Cool, eh? Wouldn't you like to do the same? Wouldn't you like to hear other moms, all over the country, talking about how it was for them to vote, and what their kids thought of the whole thing? 

Here's how it works - very simple, easy and fun:

1) Join TheMotherhood.com (if you're not already in there) and be sure to put your cell phone number in when prompted during sign-up. 

2) Join the Moms CALL IN the Vote circle http://www.themotherhood.com/circle.php?l=8734 and make it your Mobile Circle.

3) Go to your polling place to vote. 

3) Pick up your cell phone and call 412-282-1182 (tip: add that number to your phone's contacts ahead of time.) 

4) Give us a live, on the ground report. Tell us about voting, how you feel, what the experience is like and any other election day coverage! What did the kids think?  Find your inner Couric and maybe even interview some others who are voting for more great coverage of the day. The recordings will show up immediately on TheMotherhood.com in the Moms CALL IN the Vote circle http://www.themotherhood.com/circle.php?l=8734. 

5) Take the embed code from TheMotherhood.com (it will appear directly underneath your recording) and embed your voice -- and other recordings you hear there too if you like -- on your own blog.

6) Listen to (and save for posterity) grassroots, citizen mom journalist coverage at its finest on this most historic day.