We had a long ride up to Grandma's house that sunny Saturday, October 20th. Finally, we arrived and decided to hang out a little with Grandma before heading out to Occidental for my husband's birthday dinner. I was excited to show Grandma photos from our one year anniversary dinner. I kneeled down next to her to start showing her photos. I got up to get a glass of water and kneeled down next to her again. After about ten minutes of looking at photos, my eyes started to cloud over with a black fog. I looked back at my mom and said I was a little dizzy. Evidently, my parents told me that I was slouching and wobbling like a bobble head. I didn’t even know it because I couldn’t see anything. I heard someone say to call 911. I was being held up, and then my mom asked me to lie down on my back. As I began to lie down, I was able to see again. The ambulance folks arrived along with some fire men. The EMT folks checked to me out to see what happened. They said everything looked ok. They were wondering why everything was ok after I had just blacked out, so they wanted to take me in to run some tests just to be sure. I sat down on the gurney. One of the EMT guys asked if I was ok and ready to go. He then joked that they should put the blanket over my head and freak out everyone in the apartment complex, ha ha.
So, it was my first ride (ever) in an ambulance. It was quite a strange experience. It was a nice, quiet drive through the neighborhood where I found out the EMT folks were fans of HOUSE and very down to earth. When we arrived at the hospital, I told them the only thing better than a man in uniform is a woman in uniform. The woman replied with that’s right!
I spent about 3 hours in the ER. They were just checking me out because there was some concern that I blacked out. Everything else was ok. I was told I have a healthy heart, good pulse and my blood sugar was normal. They monitored me for a while, took an EKG, drew some blood, kept taking my blood pressure and all was ok after my 3 hour visit.
Scary? Oh yeah! I haven’t been in a hospital since my first day on earth, so I was a little terrified to say the least. I kept my cool and had fun joking with the folks in the ER. I had a great nurse who kept checking on me. Our funniest moment was when he said, “If you have any problems, here’s a cow bell.” I said, “A cow bell?” He said, “Oh no, a call bell. Sorry I have an accent, I’m from Texas.”
After all was said and done, the doctor told me that I had something called Vasovagal. I had told him that the night before I had a few drinks and didn't have any water. He said while kneeling down on my knees, my blood vessels did something bizarre. This had something to do with being dehydrated. I had about 3 drinks of water with dinner and a nice, flavorful steak. Hopefully I don't have to see another hospital bed until the day I become a mom.
