I woke up yesterday, feeling just normal. Did my morning routine getting ready for work. I had let the dogs out and thankfully not locked the front door after Shannon had been out to potty.
The time must have been just before 6am. I came out of the bedroom and it was like a lightning hit my head. Before I could react it all went black. That’s all I remember. My next memory is that people are moving me around. I hear voices around me, rabbling vitals and medical history. I slowly start to realize what had happen. But who are they? How did they know?

I am always very thorough with letting people know if I am late or not coming as agreed. Well, there I was on the floor, passed out and time was ticking. Thankfully my coworkers understood that something was wrong when it got closer to 7am and I wasn’t there. The medic that came off shift, Seth, decided that he was heading home to me to check. Hoping that I was just a big mess, crying and just couldn’t make it to work. Instead stress and grief had taken me down and he found me unresponsive on the floor. Again.

Christus EMS took me to UT Health Athens. It was a major concern that I had a bleeding in my head since the last thing I remember was the sharp pain in my head. A pain I have never had before. They couldn’t see anything on the initial CT scans. The doctor decided to do a spinal tap. She needed to know if there was something going on in my head. Due to my pacemaker an MRI couldn’t be performed. Even thou my pacer is compatible with MRI they did not want to take the risk. The spinal tap was unsuccessful. She tried and tried and tried. We went through 5 attempts. Not a drop came out. One last option left, CT with contrast. Next hurdle… I am allergic to contrast. So now I had to wait for hours until I could get prep for this procedure (Benadryl) and another hour before it could be done. I had now been at the hospital for over 10 hours with nothing to eat or drink. I had been poked, tried to be a good patient in all the ways I could, hoping that they would discharge me. Tried to figure out how I was going to get home from Athens. But that was not going to happen. Time went and suddenly I heard a familiar voice in the hallway. It sounded like my coworker Alex. The nurse was in my room and I asked her if that was him and she went to look. Sure enough, a minute later he popped in his head in my room. At this point I was beyond Hangry. But Alex came to the rescue and went to the break room and stole some crackers and drinks for me and confirmed with the doctor that I could have it!

The best crackers and cookies ever! The doctors decided that I needed to be monitored over night, just as precaution. But Athens didn’t feel comfortable with admitting me because they didn’t have cardiology over the weekend. So they contacted Mother Frances where I had my pacemaker. And at 1 am I was finally transferred to my cardiologist in Tyler.

I got a couple of hours of sleep and just when it was time to discharge me my heart showed what it has been doing for a while. Popped in and out of SVT a couple of times. I am so glad that happened just when it did so they could see what I have tried to explain. Medications was adjusted and only 1.5 hours later than expected I could go home.

Blessed to have friends and coworkers that helps me all the time! Seth, who found me yesterday came and picked me up from the hospital and brought me home.