[ocgirl]

The Saga of OCGirl’s Near Death Experience

Some of my friends were interested in my recent “near death experience.”
I have been home about a month and am feeling stronger so I’m ok to talk about it now without crying. To all my friends who were so supportive and prayed for me during this difficult time a big THANK YOU!

March 23 started out like any other day in my tos life. My husband went to work and my daughter went to high school. So, it is me and my dog Mitsey, which is our daily routine. The last thing I remember is I was standing in my kitchen at about noon, the next thing I know I’m in the emergency room and people are yelling at me, asking my name and if I knew where I was, and if I knew the date.

I was hallucinating and just could not get my head clear no matter how hard I tried. I was dreaming about my aunt, uncle and their 3 boys. The youngest cousin recently died unexpectantly at the age of 48. The closest thing that I can compare it to is when you are waking up from surgery but 10 time’s worse.

My daughter came home at 2:30 p.m. which is unusual for since she had an
away softball game and had to get on the bus. She found me on the couch (I don’t remember laying down) barely breathing, (green-so she says) and “foaming at the mouth.” YUCK. Not a good visual for your teenage daughter.

She called 911 and she said about 8 paramedics came and they were trying to wake me up and then started their treatment. They went through all of my medications thinking that maybe I tried to end my life. My husband said when she called him at work (an hour away with no traffic) that she was crying hysterically and he could barely understand her. My poor daughter, I’m so sorry I put her through this. My daughter rode shot gun in the paramedic ambulance and she said their sirens were blaring loud. I didn’t hear them al all.

I was in ICU for 2 days (of which I only remember when my parents came to see me). When I went to the telemetry floor on March 25 I was beginning to be more aware of where I was and what happened. I was in the hospital for 5 days.

I asked the doctor who came to see me,” what happened to me?” He said, “you had an asthma attack, you almost died!” When the paramedics came to resuscitate me I inhaled into my lungs and got aspiration pneumonia!

This is still so unbelievable to me. I have had mild asthma since I was in nursing school 30 years ago, but I never really had much of a problem (so I thought…denial) I was always telling my kids to be aggressive in treating their asthma but didn’t think my asthma was bad.

It is not fun having tos and being in the hospital 5 days being treated for pain but doctors who think they understand tos. The nurses did their best to keep me comfortable but the docs didn’t want to increase the IV pain meds as they thought I would stop breathing again. I was having so much pain and I couldn’t think straight enough to ask my husband to bring my special pillows or ask for a heating pad. It was really miserable.

On the 4th day I started having diarrhea and vomiting. I threw up so much and had the dry heaves so hard I thought that was going to kill me; boy did that kick up the tos pain.

My roommate for 2 nights was an 86 year old woman who had previously had a stroke and was so confused. She would scream so loud and I would just tell her everything is ok and she would settle down ( she would woke me up many times with those screams). She was really a sweet woman but I couldn’t take another night of that. Thankfully they transferred me to the medical floor for my last night.

My dear friends, I think most of us who live in severe pain contemplate ending it all to stop the misery. I would beg you not to put your family through that experience. I have another memory of the ER, and that was seeing my daughter and my husband crying because they thought I was going to die. I really feel bad for putting through that terrible experience.

I am still on antibiotics for the pneumonia and they said it takes a while to recover from pneumonia. I’m still very weak and unsteady. I will see the pulmonologist (lung doctor) in May and I’m really nervous about the asthma. The docs said my chest tightened up, my oxygen levels went way down and carbon dioxide levels went way up. I just blacked out and ended up on the couch.

In my recent research on asthma the literature said that all asthma has an allergic component to it. I am kind of afraid to go to sleep as I ‘m afraid I won’t wake up.

I reduced my pain medication almost in half because I’m afraid of respiratory distress (even though the docs send me home on the same dose of oral meds). It will take sometime for me to get over this experience emotionally, but I do feel a new closeness to my husband, and my daughter also.

So my friends, never take asthma lightly. It can kill you.