Chapter 8: School's Back in Session

The end of summer vacation means that school is back in session with all that goes with it. Tracy was deeply involved with coaching the cheerleader squad. Cathy was starting her senior year and enrolled in two computer classes along with three college level courses. With Cathy away from the house during the day I was able to get some intense programming efforts going. I had been putting off some ideas I had for real time data analysis software allowing users to make instantaneous changes to the processes. This allows adjustment results to be analyzed in real time. That capability was useful for the aircraft industry to make changes in design and see the results as they happen rather having to wait for a separate analysis program to process the data.

The speed of multi core processors had made great strides in the speed of computations to the point where there was virtually no delay in achieving the desired results. Much of the data processing industry had that capability on their wish list for years and I was making it come to fruition. Of course that meant that the money I made was growing in great leaps and bounds. As a result I was able to get some new computer equipment that rivaled the capability of super computers of a short time ago.

Tracy brought her college cheerleading experience to the varsity squad teaching them a whole new set of routines. Some of them, being rather difficult, were limited to the more experienced girls. Cathy was one of those girls who could handle the more intense routines. With practice sessions three days a week and games on the weekends everybody was real busy. That also meant that I was kept busy making supper several times a week. My old habits of eating out or even skipping meals became a thing of the past.

Things were plodding along and a routine was being established until one day there was an ammonia leak in the air conditioning system (it was a very old system) putting several teachers and students in the hospital. Both Cathy and Tracy were in that situation. The first I knew about it was when I was watching the evening news. Cameras were rolling when I spotted Cathy being wheeled out on a stretcher and loaded into a waiting ambulance.

I quickly called Alex to alert him about what was going on. Then I made a bee line for the hospital. When I got there it was pandemonium with staff running back and forth from patient to patient assessing their conditions treating the most severe cases first. The maintenance staff at the school took the hardest hit since they were in the equipment room at the time of the leak. One man was directly sprayed with the liquid ammonia and was in critical condition.

I searched all over the triage area and finally found Cathy unconscious with an oxygen mask over her face. The nurse attending her said that Cathy got a pretty heavy dose of the gas and would have to spend a couple of days, at least, recovering. I took her hand and even though she was out of it she gripped my hand so tight I thought she was going to pull it off. I placed a kiss on her forehead and she seemed to relax her grip but still held on. I had flashbacks to the train wreck and how I felt when it looked like I had lost my true love. I got my wits about me and stayed with Cathy as they rolled her to a semi-private room on one of the floors.

Cathy was the only one in the room for a short while until they rolled another patient in. I didn't pay too much attention to the other patient since I was preoccupied with Cathy at the time. I was shocked when the other patient called out my name in a very familiar voice. I turned and looked and there was Tracy being moved into the other bed. I reached over and took her hand to let her know I was there for her. I told her that I had called Alex and that he was probably on his way as we spoke. About two minutes later Alex came rushing into the room and straight to Tracy's side.

I informed the nurse that Tracy was gravitas one (her first baby) which made her treatment change. I also advised the nurse that Tracy had just entered her second trimester so they could tell how far along she was. The nurse picked up the phone and called the nurses station to have them track down her OB doctor. The news of the disaster spread like wildfire and the hospital ended up with every available doctor showing up. Tracy's OB doctor was one of them so after a couple of minutes he showed up and started examining Tracy to see if there was any damage to the fetus.

While all of that was going on I was staying very close to Cathy holding her hand. She gradually came to and tried to holler my name but with the mask on all that came out was a muffled "Egg". I stroked her hair and looked her close in the eyes to reassure her that I was there to take care of her. Another doctor came by to examine Cathy and check on her condition. He then took me out into the hall to fill me in on what the situation was. He mentioned that ammonia poisoning is a two prong assault on the body. First is the suffocation threat since the gas would displace oxygen causing the patient's body to start shutting down due to lack of oxygen. There would also be throat and nose irritation. He said that we were past the worst part of that threat thanks to the quick action of the paramedics administering oxygen. The second part is that ammonia, when it hits the moist lining of the lungs produces irritation which will damage their capability to allow oxygen into the blood stream. Depending on how much exposure she had it could take a long time for her to recover.

Later I looked up ammonia inhalation on line and found:

Brief exposure to concentrations above 1500 ppm can cause pulmonary edema, a potentially fatal accumulation of fluid in the lungs. The symptoms of pulmonary edema (tightness in the chest and difficulty breathing) may not develop for 1-24 hours after an exposure. Numerous cases of fatal ammonia exposure have been reported, but actual exposure levels have not been well documented. If the victim survives, complete recovery may occur depending on the extent of injury to the respiratory tract and lungs. However, long-term respiratory system and lung disorders have been observed following severe short-term exposures to ammonia.

That sounded pretty grim and I was afraid of the worst happening to Cathy and my sister. It turned out that they were in the gymnasium practicing some routines while the maintenance man was working on the evaporator coils in the air handler. Fortunately once the leak was detected another maintenance man immediately shut down the system. By then some damage had already been done but could have been a lot worse.

Alex and I stayed right by the sides of our girls night and day. The hospital staff conceded that we were not mere visitors but an integral part of the girls' treatment and recovery. After three days in the hospital the doctors signed the order releasing the girls to go home. Alex took Tracy to their house and I took Cathy to our house. For the rest of a week Alex stayed home with Tracy and since I worked from home anyways I was with Cathy. Alex was pushing the good graces at his work and could not stay home much longer. Alex called and explained the situation to me and without hesitation I told him to bring Tracy over to my house where she could recover. I also told him that he could stay with Cathy and me for the duration until the girls got recovered enough to not need someone there around the clock.

That meant we would have house guests for a while. Cathy and I were used to having relations on a regular basis but with her weakened condition and the audience we would have to put our making love on hold. That's not to say we diminished our love for each other but we were a lot less physical. As recovery progressed and the girls could get out of bed and move around more freely they gradually returned to physical activity almost completely back to normal.

I called a meeting of all four of us to discuss a very important step in the girls' recovery, namely, their involvement in sexual activity. I could sense, as could Alex, a heightening of sexual tension not only on the girls' parts but Alex and I also. Since before the accident we all had led very active sex lives something had to be worked out. I decided to lay the cards on the table and openly discuss what had been going on in my house for some time. Tracy knew but Alex had no idea that Cathy and I were lovers in the strictest sense of the word. Alex also knew of the involvement between my sister and me and approved of what we did. He knew that Tracy and I were very close and shared everything including our bodies before they were married and had no intention of coming between my sister and me. He understood especially since he and his sister were the same way until she was killed in a car wreck at the age of 21.