I went to Mass (ミサ), as always, on Saturday evening. Usually my husband comes to pick me up (迎えに来る) and take me home. After Mass, I turned my phone back on (またスマートフォンの電顕を入れた）. As usual, there was a message from my husband.
I called him to ask him to pick me up. He answered the phone, but his voice sounded terrible. He said, "I'm sorry. I suddenly feel sick. I can't drive. Can you come home on the bus or the train?"
I was a little troubled (困ってる) because it was raining heavily and I only had a small umbrella. But I walked from the church to the station through the covered arcade, and I caught a bus home. When I got off at my bus stop, the rain has become lighter, and I walked home without getting too wet. I wondered (不思議がる) what was wrong with my husband.
When I opened the door to my house, I could hear terrible sounds from upstairs. My husband was vomiting (吐く) violently (激しく). He heard me coming up the stairs, and he locked the door to the upstairs toilet. I stood outside the door to the toilet. "Are you okay?!" He could hardly answer, he was vomiting so terribly. This continued and continued without stopping, and I was so worried.
Also, I had a private online English class scheduled for 9p.m. The student is a doctor at a big hospital. He lives very near my house.
I messaged him:
He suggested that I call an ambulance.
I went to the toilet door, and asked my husband, "Shall I call an ambulance?"
He said, "No."
I asked, "Shall I call Kenzo?" (Kenzo is our adult son who lives nearby.)
He said, "No." But his voice was very weak.
"Shall I call your sister?" (His sister lives next door.)
"No."
I messaged my student-doctor-neighbor. He encouraged (勧める）me again to call an ambulance.
I asked my husband through the door one more time, "Shall I call an ambulance?"
Finally he answered, "OK."
So I called 119, and they told me the ambulance would come in 10 minutes. I ran around the house in a panic, gathering clean clothes for my husband, his hospital card, insurance card (保険証) and medication records (薬手帳). I left messages with all 3 of my children, called my husband's mother and sister, and put my dog in the living room and shut the door so he wouldn't bother the ambulance staff when they came in. I grabbed a sweater for myself and a jacket for my husband. Then I could hear the ambulance siren approaching in the distance.
I ran outside to direct the ambulance to my house. I saw that my husband's sister and her husband were already outside doing that for me. Also, my student-doctor-neighbor had run over to help.
Three ambulance staff came into my home and went upstairs. My dog barked like crazy. Our stairs are narrow, so the 3 ambulance staff and I walked with my husband slowly down the stairs, and when he got outside they put him on a stretcher (担架)and put the stretcher in the ambulance.
In the ambulance, the paramedic (救急救命士) asked us questions and called the hospital. My husband continued to vomit. He felt so terrible. The ambulance siren started again, the lights started flashing, and we started moving.
I noticed as we drove through the rainy night roads how all other cars on the street slowed and moved to the side to allow the ambulance to pass through quickly. I always try to do that when I'm driving and I hear an ambulance. I realized how important that is! It was also heartwarming that many drivers were considerate (心ある）of a stranger's trouble (知らない人の困り）.
We arrived at the emergency room (救急救命室) quickly. There were no other patients (患者さん) there, so my husband was seen right away. They drew blood (採血) and took him for a CT scan. They told me to sit in a waiting area, so I couldn't see him. But I could hear him vomiting loudly, even when he was in the CT scan room. They put him on an I.V. (点滴）.
Soon my son and his wife also arrived. My son gave me a big hug. My daughter-in-law is a very wonderful woman, and she has a lot of experience with hospitals from when she was younger. She understood the medical jargon (専門語）better than me. It was very encouraging (心強い?) to have them with me.
My two daughters were also messaging me a lot, asking, "How is お父さん?"
And my family in Texas was also sending lots of messages to my phone, with prayers, advice, questions, and encouragement (励まし).
To make a long story short (手短に言えば）, the hospital couldn't find the cause of my husband's sickness. Luckily, his CT scan came out clear. They gave us some medicine and told us to go back home. I was surprised because at first they said that he would surely need to stay in the hospital overnight. He was still vomiting (!) as we pushed him in a wheelchair (車いす）to the car that my son and his wife had brought. My son drove us home.
My husband continued vomiting through the night, but less frequently and less violently. He was too sick to even try to take the medicine that the hospital had given us.
The next day he developed a high fever, but his stomach became calmer (落ち着いた) little by little. He couldn't drink water without vomiting, so I froze some sports drink in ice cube trays, and he could put those in his mouth to get some fluids (水分）.
Last night he slept through the night without vomiting.
This morning he still has a fever. He is sleeping now. He doesn't want to go back to the hospital today, so I will watch him at home. It's raining hard today, so I think it's best to stay home and let him rest.
My family in Texas and my children continue sending messages, asking for updates. My sister-in-law made dinner for me last night (ratatouille-ラタトゥイユ), and she made a gelatin dessert (ゼリー) and bought ice cream, hoping that my husband can eat those soon. My kind student-doctor-neighbor was a great encouragement. I didn't have confidence in my own decisions, so it was so good to have the advice of a professional.
My husband and I are grateful to everyone! (みんなに感謝です！)
I don't know what the cause of my husband's sickness was, but I suspect it was food poisoning (食中毒だろうかな）.
What did I learn from this experience?
Gratitude! (感謝)
It's amazing and heartwarming how people are so ready to rally (結集する?) in a crisis (ピンチ）. It's easy to feel alone when bad things happen, but often people are ready to help if you send out an S.O.S. Thank you everyone for your practical help (実際的な助けて）and moral support (無形援助) !
Have you ever had to call an ambulance
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By the way, do you see how I used the words encourage (勧める）, encouraging (心強い?), and encouragement (励まし). "Encourage" a very useful and common word. You know the word "courage" right? It comes from the French word for "heart", which is "coeur" in French.
The opposite of encourage is "discourage". (discouraging, discouragement)