I have a story to tell. But there is one I need to talk about first because it was the scariest moment of my life.
My mom was on her way to visit me, so I decided to take a nap. Taking a nap in a hospital is near to impossible. Everyone and their mother come in every 15 minutes; vital signs, doctors, visitors, nurses, EVERYONE! However, it was a Saturday, so I was safe to take a nap for about 2 hours while I waited for my mom to come.
I remember hearing her walk into the room. I tried to wake up but I couldn’t. Feeling very drowsy, I just could not open my eyes. I knew something was wrong, so I pressed the nurse call button.
“What the hell did they give you, Natalie?!” my mom freaked.
I could barely lift my head. My mother ran out of the room. I could hear her screaming for help and I felt like I was slipping away. My heart was beating out of my chest, I was sweating and I almost felt like I was dying. I say “almost” because I obviously never died before.
When you are in the hospital as often as I am, you learn the codes they announce over the loud speaker pretty quickly. Code grey: violence. Code blue: death. Rapid response: pre-code blue. And there was the announcement for me:
“Rapid response to 3 North rehab! Rapid response to 3 North rehab!”
Before I knew it, the crash cart, which is a giant blue cart that helps revive people close to death (like paddles) was in my room. They were setting up an IV in my arm quicker than you can say, “uh-oh”. And 20 people were in the room, all in my face, “Natalie?!” “Natalie are you with us?” “Natalie, do you know where you are?”
“Her heart rate is 168 and rising!”
And black. I don’t remember anything else.
The last thing I remember was my mother’s face on my right; looking at me as if it would be the last time she would see me alive.
Then I felt the strangest feeling… my hands, feet and legs felt hot. At one point, I had to check if I peed myself because my body was so warm. It was the life (or blood) coming back into my body. They had injected something called Nitro. It is given to people going through heart failure. It took a few hours for me to “come to it” but I made it out!
Here are some pictures from that night & day after (in no particular order)…
Me two days later...
