later that evening i watched an old clint eastwood flick with the roomies. the outlaw josey wales will change your life forever. no, not really. i probably would have fallen asleep if it was for a call from nature. apparently my bladder was full. tmi? sorry. this is a blog about my body and it's failings. everybody pees. that's the worst of it. read on.
so i get up and run to my bathroom up stairs. i go. as i finish my brain alerts me to something odd in my chest. my heart was pounding harder than i knew was possible. each pump felt like it was gonna knock me over. feeling the oncoming rush of sensory overload i lean against the wall to my left. "this isn't good."
-blackout-
"guh!"
i don't remember falling but i do remember the sensation of my lower back smashing over the edge of the tub behind me and my head hitting the built-in shelf. i half-way remember yelling as my breath was forced out of my lungs from the impact. felt like days had passed in a second and at the same time like i was frozen in time.
-back to black-
bzzzzzzzzzzzz...
as i started to come to my body was buzzing with the sensory overload i sensed was coming earlier. not sure if it was from hitting my head or my back or if my heart and my brain were in cahoots against me. it felt like i was on fire, drowning, paralyzed, and being electrocuted by microscopic icicles all over my body. dramatic? ok, a little. maybe not drowning or totally paralyzed but definitely felt cold, electrified-heat all over.
i remember the core of me fighting to get up. my lower back bent over the tub wall. my shoulder blades driven into the tub floor like fence posts. my head pinned up against the inside of the other tub wall. chin on my chest, arms flailing, the icy-hot-electricity starts to subside and i'm finally able to pull myself up. i oh-so-carefully get myself downstairs and sit down. bob and ruth look at me.
"u ok?"
"i think i fell and hit my head. not sure what's going on right now."
"u wanna go get checked out?"
"um, gimme a minute."
"k. u look super white."
"do i? i'm sweating like crazy. maybe i should go in."
"ok."
a few moments later we're on our way. phoning the parents and friends was handled by ruth. driving was handled by bob. i tried to not throw up. we went three for three. good job team.
checked into the ER. doctors, nurses, pregnant women, various staffers, and a strung out druggy all going about their business. some needing help. others helping. good stuff.
i think my initial bp was something like 189 over 89 with a pulse of 107 or something crazy like that. so i get hooked up to the heart monitors and get a cat scan and all of that good stuff.
they gave me a power size I.V. with a free anti-nausea boost. man, a jamba juice sounds good right now. anyway, i sucked that down in no time flat. a few good, close friends show up. that was sweet. a couple hours later the doc says i'm good to go. no concussion, no obvious heart damage, and he promised me that the chest hair they had to shave away for the heart monitors would grow back. he was right about the hair at least.
so just over three hours after my heart freaked out i was released from the hospital. i popped an aleve with i got home and slept like a baby.
thanks to everyone who helped out in various ways: to jake for leading sunday morning, to my ER friends and roomies for staying with me despite the fact that you all had to get up super early and were gonna lose an hour of sleep due to DST, to those of you who prayed, to God for listening to those prayers and keeping me alive.
my head and back are still killing me and i've gotta go see my doc about my heart. i'll keep y'all updated as things progress.
life is crazy huh? time to go play in the snow...
be well,
-k
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