Scary Day

Wednesday of this week was a very scary day. Catie had been running a fever the night before, so that morning I called her pediatrician for an appointment. They could actually see her in about 40 minutes, so I rushed to get us ready and get out the door.

I locked the front door and ushered Catie to the driveway, suddenly noticing that the car was completely and heavily frosted. As I buckled Catie into her car seat and started the heat running, I realized that I didn't have my gloves and decided it would take too much time to get them, so I started scraping the windows bare-handed.

We started down the road, my fingers numb and aching, my body stressed from rushing, when suddenly I did NOT feel good. I desperately started praying and looking for a place to pull over, and then sighted a driveway just as my vision started to blur. I pulled in, put the car in park and pulled the emergency brake, made sure the doors were unlocked, laid my seat back, picked up my cell phone and pressed Brian's speed dial number. All he heard me say was "I need help..." and then everything went black.

Sounds came rushing into my ears as my senses regained consciousness a few minutes later. I still couldn't move or open my eyes, but I could hear Catie talking in her car seat, my fingers still hurt, and I was cold and sweaty all over. I opened my eyes and found my phone where it fell from my hand into the seat. I shakingly forced my fingers to press Brian's number and wedge the phone between my face and the seat. I could hear his fractic voice and he was speeding down the road towards home, where he thought I was. I managed to tell him our whereabouts, and drifted in and out of some twilight zone until I saw his face a few inches from mine, calling my name.

Suddenly our next-door neighbor, who is a paramedic, was there with the ambulance, shocked to find out it was us. I later found out that I had been called in as a 71 year old female... :) He and the firemen literally dragged me out of the car and put me on a stretcher, then into the ambulance. It was nice to have someone I know starting my IV, taking my stats and staying in the back of the ambulance talking to me the whole ride to the emergency room. Brian and Catie followed us to the hospital.

I spent the next several hours being poked, prodded, x-rayed, EKGd and many other things. I'm still finding sticky tape residue on parts of my body. All the tests came back normal, but they did say that my blood pressure was very low when they picked me up, and that it fluctuated a lot while I was in the ER. They set me up with an appointment with a cardiologist next week.

And how did all of this affect Catie?

Later that afternoon, after we'd returned home and I was laying in bed still feeling awful, Catie climbed up beside me. She gently patted my face and said, "Mommy be alright?" It broke my heart. She then launched into a long story, obviously telling me about the day from her perspective. I understood "carseat" and "firetruck", "Mommy owie", "go to doctor" and she ended with stroking my hair and saying, "You be ok!"

I love my little girl. She was a real trooper all that day. And yesterday I did manage to take her to the pediatrician, who said she has an ear infection. But still, two days later, every now and then she'll come pat my leg or take my hand and ask, "Mommy alright?"