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TGIM

This post doesn’t fit into any of my usual ‘categories’, but I feel an overwhelming urge to write, because this past weekend was one I will never forget and I need to put it down. It was unreal and scary and I’m shaking just thinking about it. I’ll warn you in advance though, that this post gets a little wordy and I neglected to take any pictures to support the content, but you’ll probably understand my lack of photojournalism if you read on.

Friday started out pretty much like most of my normal long weekends (I have every other Friday off of work), with me shopping for some supplies and getting started on my next home project. I was hoping to have this particular project finished and post about it today, but since that plan was thwarted by other events, I will just go ahead and ruin the surprise to come (hopefully early next week) and tell you that I’m in the process of painting (yes painting) our kitchen counter-tops.

After a bit of procrastination (this one even scared me, and I paint everything!), I got off to a good start and was cruising along by Friday night. I planned to finish up Saturday and seal everything Saturday night or Sunday, but we also had family pictures Saturday evening. Naturally, I spent all Saturday morning dinking around with things like shopping for last minute photo accessories for Vera, a spur of the moment garage sale run when a friend text me a picture of a certain item I’d been looking for (I’ll save details on that for a later post), and gathering together the props I wanted to use our photos. By the time I got around to having time to work on counters, it was too late in the afternoon to start such a messy process, knowing I had to be ready for pictures (as opposed to covered in paint) in just a few hours.

So we all got ready and drove to meet our photographers at the state park we had scouted as the perfect location. It was beautiful and we had an awesome time. I can’t wait to see how they turn out! Vera did a good job, but by the end, she was starting to get a little fussy, which is pretty unusual for her. We knew she was getting her teeth in, so we figured she was just tired and uncomfortable and we called it a night. While driving back to the girl’s car though (they had hopped in with us for picture taking) they realized they had locked their keys in the car. Whoops! So we waited with them for a little while until we knew AAA was on the way and the park security officer too, just for good measure. I felt terrible abandoning them there on their own, but with Vera out of diapers and getting crankier by the minute, we had to get on our way home.

We also had a friend coming over to watch the Husker football game with us who was waiting on us to get home. And this is where our weekend spiraled downhill very fast. We had actually invited her over because we were a little worried. She had been inexplicably acting a little erratic the day before when Brett was with her (they work together), and we just had a bad feeling. She lives alone, so we thought it would just be a good idea to keep her company that night. Turns out our feeling was more than paranoia because she had just gotten to our house and walked up the front steps when she suddenly seized up and fell backwards, hitting her head on the porch railing and falling onto the concrete steps. Brett, who had been standing on the porch to give directions grabbed her immediately and screamed for me to call 911 as she started to convulse in a seizure and her eyes rolled back. By the time I raced down the stairs and grabbed my phone (I had been changing Vera, who I left on the bed when I heard him screaming my name), our friend was foaming at the mouth and convulsing.

She was in a full out seizure and her face was gray as I got the 911 operator on the phone with my other hand on her pulse, trying to remember my rescue training from nearly 10 years ago about what to do if someone has a seizure. I felt like I was in a movie and my voice sounded like someone else as I stated my address and asked for an ambulance. All I could think was that it would end soon and I should let it go as long as she was breathing and there wasn’t anything around that could harm her (This is actually what you are supposed to do, if, heaven forbid, you are ever in that situation. You can roll the person onto their side if they vomit, but you should not try to move the person unless they are in danger, and don’t put anything in their mouth or try to restrain them). While I was on the phone, Brett ran to the neighbors to ask if anyone had medical knowledge and then ran upstairs to get Vera to a more secure spot (her bouncer) so we could focus on the medics who would be arriving soon.

It was another couple of minutes before the firemen got there (they beat the ambulance) but it felt like an hour. The seizure had subsided by this point and she was coming too a little, but had no knowledge of where she was or even who we were.

Surprisingly, they did not take her to the hospital, as she was conscious and had no life-threatening injuries from her fall (although she had cut herself and was bleeding). They essentially told us that she needed to see a doctor as soon as she could, but that the ER wouldn’t be able to do anything more for her that night.

When they left, it took nearly an hour for her to fully come back to herself and she still had no memory of the incident or anything that happened afterwards. I was shaking this entire time, and I’m shaking now as I type this. During that time she was insisting that she was fine and was going to drive herself home, so we were trying everything we could to convince her to stay, making deals that she could leave in an hour, and hoping that would be enough time for her to come down from the loopy state she was in. We also called another friend to come over and help keep her distracted enough to prevent her from trying to leave.

Finally, about 45 minutes later, she suddenly looked at me and said “This is going to sound really weird, but did I just have a seizure?” I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized she was mentally coming back. She agreed to stay the night with us, have some dinner, and let us take her home in the morning.

The next morning, we drove her home and contacted her parents who came in from out of town and made doctor arrangements. We’re still waiting to find out what caused all this, but from other symptoms we’re thinking it may be related to undiagnosed diabetes, at least that is our hope. You never want to hope for an illness like diabetes, but knowing you have a manageable condition is far better than waiting for your next unexplained seizure that could come on at any moment.

When I think about all the what-ifs of Saturday night it is really amazing how things turned out. Thank goodness we didn’t wait at the park any longer before coming home. Thank goodness she decided to come over and wasn’t alone in her apartment. Thank goodness she made it here and got out of the car before it happened. So many things that could have made it much worse than it was.

So naturally, I did not get any more painting done this weekend (and hopefully you understand my lack of photos). I spent Sunday afternoon cleaning up blood stains (oxy clean is an amazing invention), interviewing nanny’s (more on that later), and trying to comfort a screaming baby who, during all this, had also gotten much worse with those teeth coming in, and is now struggling to sleep.

SO, in conclusion, Thank Goodness It’s Monday (never thought I’d say that), and the crazy weekend is over. Even if we can’t currently use out kitchen, I haven’t slept in two days, and I’m only running on fumes and a white raspberry mocha from Scooters (sorry if that comes across in this post). I honestly hope that I never witness something like that again. As it is, I will probably never get the images from that night out of my mind. Oh and just to throw in one photo for all the reading here, here is an ‘in-progress’ picture of the kitchen.

Now imagine that with plates of different colored paints, brushes, glitter and paper towels on top of the stove and a large stack of dishes in the sink and that’s pretty much what it looks like right now. Not cool…not cool.

So… how was your weekend? Lol, oh my. Hopefully better than all that.

-Dawn

5 Comments

  • Ashley @ Design Build Love

    reading this about put me in tears.  I have been having what I refer to as “episodes” since I was 19 years old.  They happened every few months and then suddenly began happening more and more often.  Basically, I would get a variety of symptoms that would make me very weak and feel like I was going to pass out, but would never go unconscious- but the feelings could last for minutes, hours, or days.  Finally, I recently began to press the issue with my doctors, who had run only lab work in the past.  Now, after a slough of tests (and more tests to come), they think that I’m having mild seizures and might be diabetic… I totally get how she feels!  It’s confusing, frustrating, exhausting… everything.  And you just don’t feel like yourself.

    My prayers are with your friend.  Hopefully the doctors can figure out what is going on and get her the treatment that she needs. :)  Treat-ability is always a good thing!

    Reply
    • Dawn Sailors

      I’m sorry that you have had to go through all that, but thank you so much for sharing! Those sound a lot like the symptoms she’s been having also, and that strangely makes me feel better about her finding an answer soon. It’s so much scarier when you don’t know what’s going on, and hearing that someone else has experienced the same thing eases that fear a little bit. I truly hope that you get your condition figured out too so that you can also get the treatment you need and get to feeling back to normal very soon.

      Reply
  • Lindsey

    That is SO scary!  Being a nurse, I have seen my fair share of seizures and they are scary every single time.  The worst, though, was when my son was a year old and I heard him seizing while he was napping and found him completely lifeless and limp as it was coming to an end.  It was so scary until we found out the cause (a high fever of 106 degrees).  I hope your friend finds out what caused it so she can take preventative measures in the future!

    Reply
    • Dawn Sailors

      I cannot imagine my baby going through that! Oh my gosh. I am so glad he’s ok! Terrifying.

      Reply

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