Here I Am!

I’m still here, I promise. I have so much to share with you since I last posted. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that our last time to visit was January 21st. Where does the time go? Everyday I think to myself, “I must share this on my next post!” Here we are almost a month and a half later.

Today, I’m going to share my crazy evening last night. I still can’t believe it happened.

Tomorrow, I’ll do a post to catch up on what else has been going on and announce the winners of my book give away. Forgive me for taking so long on that little project!

Yesterday was my second day to be under self-quarantine. We just returned from a trip and we were around lot’s of folks, so I thought for safety I would stay in. I have my long list of things to get done that I’m anxious to accomplish during this time. Speaking of…..isn’t this a scary time? We will talk about that tomorrow. Back to my crazy story…

Since I am staying in, I have told myself, “No eating out!” So you know what that means…..back to my cooking mitts. Which, so sorry, isn’t my favorite thing to do. But, I’m positive and I’m going to change my ways.

I was so proud, I put my chicken out to thaw yesterday and then I marinated it and put it on a grill for dinner. By the time my Jim got in, it was ready. I set our little area on the bar where we usually eat when I cook and began eating as we caught up on the day. After I took my first bite of the chicken, I think I was talking at the same time…I can’t remember. All I do remember is getting the hiccups and my chest hurt terribly. I sat there for about 5 minutes trying to breath slowly as Jim was talking away. He then said, “are you okay?” I held my hand up and shook my head yes and got up to walk around thinking that would help my food go on down. Well, it seemed to get worse. It was lodged in my chest and it hurt like crazy. I was getting scared as I have a HUGE fear of not being able to breath. I have nightmares about it a lot. Anyway, Jim kept wanting to help me, but there was nothing he could do and I was trying to stay calm and I thought relaxing would help. It didn’t. After 20-25 minutes, I was thinking, “I’m going to die.” Jim kept telling me I was okay, to just relax and breath. I then was able to say, “Call 911!” My hands were tingling so bad I couldn’t hold on to anything and my face was starting to have that same tingling sensation. I couldn’t swallow. I felt like my air was harder to breath.

Let me just stop here and say, If you know me very well, you know that I am terrified of anything to do with a doctor, hospital, needles, etc.! I don’t know, I’m guessing a couple of things when I was a child that happened has made me paranoid. I have trouble breathing when I have to go to the hospital to visit someone…it’s bad. I seriously could have an anxiety attack when in hospitals or doctors offices. I know, I need counseling. I have no idea how I had two children…Anyway…

The paramedics arrived in about 5 minutes. The entire time I was sitting down with my eyes closed. I couldn’t open them. Jim kept saying “look at me.” I could hardly hold my eyes open. I was quoting scripture in my head:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
 Give us this day our daily bread.
 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

My other favorite scripture when I get in a pickle is:

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

I was also saying, “Lord, you know I’m scared of choking and not being able to breath, give me strength for this!”

By then the paramedics were checking my vitals? Is that what they are called? They said I was getting plenty of oxygen and that I needed to get to the emergency room as it was lodged in my esophagus. I could barely stand up as they put me on the stretcher. I felt very safe as I knew if my breathing got blocked they could help.

Of course also going through my mind was the CoronaVirus. As they held my hand they had gloves on and I remember thinking, “Are those gloves clean?” Anyway…

As they pushed the stretcher out on the porch to head to the ambulance…..it happened. I’ve never thrown up like that before. Usually when you have to throw up, you know it and you are waiting for it. Bam! I threw up all over myself and I heard one of the medics say, “There it is!”

Lord have mercy! I was so embarrassed and relieved at the same time. I wanted to just cry. I said, “Hallelujah!” I’m sure they thought, “we’ve got us a real winner here!”

They said “let’s get her back inside so the neighbors don’t have to watch this!” Long story short, I’m in my entry way on a stretcher with throw up all over me and they are taking my “vitals” again. My blood pressure was pretty high but they said that was expected for what I just went through. They were the nicest guys. Did I say that already? I was wearing my leggings with a long sweat shirt type thing. They asked if I could take my sweater off to do the blood pressure, etc. Thank the Lord I had the presence of mind to say, “I don’t have a shirt on under this.” Can you imagine if I said, “Okay!” Which I have a story about that one, but another day!

They left and I got cleaned up and put my jammies on and talked to my kiddos on the phone to let them know that my time was almost up but I made it. They are stuck with me a little longer.

Thankful for my Jim who helped me not panic any more than I did! He was patient, a bit scared and kept me safe! If he wouldn’t have been home, I probably wouldn’t be writing this right now.

One more lesson from this:

As they were taking me to the ambulance another thought went through my head:

“I’m so glad I got up this morning and took my shower, put my make up on, fixed my hair and even put jewelry on as I was hanging around the house for my 2nd day of self-quarantine.” Can I get another Hallelujah!

Let’s hope Day 3 of staying home isn’t as eventful.

FYI….As of Thursday, March 19th, late afternoon, my comments are now working. I know so many left some sweet comments on my FaceBook page, so feel free to leave a comment here as well or you can always email me, too!