It was a dark and stormy night…
Actually, it wasn’t stormy, but how can you begin a story of
any import any other way? And besides,
it really was dark, so the title is
at least partially accurate.
Perhaps I should back up a little and set the scene. May 4, 2012 was a very productive day for
Jennifer and me. It began for us near Rocky
Point, NC in the home of some of our friends.
We left fairly early in the morning to get a good start on all of the
activities that we had planned for the day.
Our first “order of business” was to secure a room for Wednesday evening
Gospel Meetings in the town of Leland, NC.
In order to do this, we made our way to the office of parks and
recreation in Bolivia (also North Carolina!) and scheduled a total of five meetings. We then headed back to the library in Leland
where we industriously created and printed “posters” to announce the meetings both
in English and in Spanish, following which, we visited various localities
around the town where we hung up the said posters. In the early afternoon, we traveled on to
Marion, SC where we had arranged to have Sunday Gospel Meetings in the month of
May. After verifying that our room was
secure at the Chinese restaurant where the meetings were to be held, we
proceeded to hang up announcements in English and Spanish for those meetings
throughout the town. Finally, weary but
satisfied, we headed for Sumter, SC, our place of lodging for the weekend.
Our activities once we reached our destination that evening
were very few. We all took walks. Mine was shorter than normal after I
discovered that walking seriously irritated my gnat bites. I made my way back to the house when I could
stand it no longer, conscious of the fact that if gnat bites were my biggest
problem, I was in pretty good shape!
After a delicious supper and a nice visit around the table,
I headed to my room to get my things situated before rejoining Jennifer and our
hostess in the living room. While there,
I began to feel uncomfortable and decided to lay down for a little bit and wait
for the discomfort to pass. As time went
on, however, I began to feel worse instead of better. Jennifer came into my room about 8:30 and was
a bit surprised to see me in bed. “Good
for you!” she said. “I’m so glad you’re
going to bed early!” I told her I wasn’t
feeling so good right at the moment but was waiting for the Tylenol I had taken
to take effect so I could come out and join the visit. Our plan was to attend the air show the
following day, so I found the website with information about the events taking
place, and Jennifer left the room to do some further investigation. By the time she returned, about 15 minutes
later, I was in agony. It was clear that
this was not something Tylenol was going to fix. Seeing that I was in distress, after piling
blankets on me to “stop” the chills that had started, Jennifer offered to call
one of our friends who is a nurse. Her
recommendation was to take some Motrin and put a heating pad on my stomach for
an hour. If the pain hadn’t gone away by
then, I should go to the ER. By that
time, I could hardly sit up, but I managed to swallow the Motrin. However, when the heating pad hit my stomach,
I knew that would not work at all. Heat
caused the pain to intensify quite dramatically. I really wanted to “follow orders,” but I
realized quite quickly that it was beyond my level of endurance to keep that
heating pad there. “Do you think we
should just go to the ER?” Jennifer asked me?
“I don’t know,” I replied. At
that point, Jennifer knew that we would be making a trip to the hospital. She knew me well enough, even at that point,
to realize that the fact I hadn’t ruled it out completely meant this was
serious business! She headed to her room
to get ready to go, and I began vomiting.
(Pardon the details!) The lady of
the home came in with a housecoat and some slippers, which I meekly put on with
effort and help. Jennifer told me later
that when she returned to my room and saw me in that outfit, she knew without a
doubt that I was sick!
I remember vaguely the trip to the hospital. I alternated between shaking with chills and
seriously chattering teeth and what I can only describe as hot flashes! Poor Jennifer kept busy cranking up the heat
or the air conditioner depending on my rapidly changing condition! She claims I made at least one nonsensical
statement during the trip, but I have absolutely no recollection of that. J I do remember mentioning at one point that my
hands were tingling. Later, the tingling
moved up further into my arms and also spread to my feet and legs.
When we got to the hospital, I told Jennifer to just park
anywhere; I could walk. However, she
pulled up to the door of the ER, got out of the car and came around to open my
door. My thought was to open my own door
and get on out to expedite this process.
What I discovered was that I couldn’t make my hand move to the door
handle. Interesting! When Jennifer opened the door, I made another
discovery. I couldn’t move my legs. To my way of thinking, that moved beyond
interesting to a little (or a lot) bit scary!
I informed Jennifer of this development, and she headed inside to get
someone to help me out of the car. A
nurse brought a wheelchair and guided (essentially lifted) me into it. Out of the car, I looked at my hands and saw
that my fingers were curled up into my hand and stiff. I couldn’t move them either! The nurse kept saying, “You need to slow your
breathing down. You’re
hyperventilating. Breathe more slowly.” The nurse took me to the registration desk,
and Jennifer parked the car.
If I remember correctly, the first thing the lady at the
registration desk asked for was my name.
Of course, I always have to spell it, so I proceeded to do so. I think by the time Jennifer got the car
parked and joined me, I had at least started on my last name. I couldn’t seem to get the words/letters
out. With Jennifer’s help and the
nurse’s patience, they finally got all the essential information, and we began
our wait in a city ER waiting room at 10:00 on a Friday night. J
We finally got called back to a room where we were at least
able to wait in privacy. Finally a nurse
came in and gave me some meds in my IV for pain and nausea (which,
incidentally, had by now both pretty much passed). I also had blood work done. Then came orders for a CT scan. But first, I had to drink a tasty little
beverage. I took one swallow and told
Jennifer it would be a miracle if I could get it all down and keep it down. Now I was glad for the nausea meds! Despite my doubts, I was indeed able to drink
the whole bottle. Then we waited for
them to come take me for the scan. The
scan itself didn’t take long. Then it
was back to the room to wait for the results of the scan. Do you get the feeling that most of what we
did was wait?! Finally, the doctor came
in and said the blood work showed my white count to be a little high. The CT scan was normal. Looked like I was fine. They’d get the paper work ready for me to go
home. I’m fine?! At this point, bed sounded really good, and I
was feeling better, so I didn’t
argue. And thus ended our night and
began the saga.
If you made it all the way to the end, you're a real trooper. The rest of the upcoming posts should be shorter. :-)
Me drinking the delicious fruity CT scan beverage
(The smile on my face is fake.) :-)
The clock on my bedside table when I finally got in bed.
Approximately six hours in the ER, most of it waiting, to be sent home with no answers - a bit frustrating. But at 4:25 in the morning, I really didn't care.
Modeling my hospital outfit at a later, much less painful date
If you made it all the way to the end, you're a real trooper. The rest of the upcoming posts should be shorter. :-)