The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back blinking myself back into awareness in our conference room. Now, when I say awareness-- that's a loose term. I was still pretty out of it. Let's just say I was no longer unconscious. Lindsay Payer, who is a board member and also an RN, rushed over to me and started asking me questions. I, however, was absolutely terrified and clueless as to what was going on. I'm not sure that I can even tell you the thoughts that were going through my head; all I really remember were the emotions I was experiencing. Aghast, frozen, alarmed: those are all very appropriate words but I'm still not sure they quite describe the immense confusion I felt when coming back into consciousness face up on the floor of that conference room.
Anyway, Lindsay starts talking to me and I imagine myself looking something like this:
or... 
It's ok to laugh. I mean, the pictures are kind of funny. The picture on the left is actually from a kid's reaction to his mom blowing her nose!
FYI- the events from here on out are mostly things that have been relayed to me after the fact since my memory is a little spotty within 30-45 minutes after the seizure ended.
Anyway, Lindsay comes back over and asks if I want her to call my mom. I start blinking back tears and just nod yes (still can't talk at this point). She grabs my cell phone, attempts to activate Siri and says "Call Mom". What's really scary to me, as I learned later, is that all of Lindsay's attempts were futile. I will discuss why in a future blog post!
However, fortunately, many of the board members knew that I was dating Matt and some of them had his phone number so they were able to call him. Matt was playing pickleball during the board meeting but fortunately got the hint that there was mayyyybe something important happening after the second or third call!
Back to me- Still dazed and confused, is Lindsay still talking to me? I think so. I'm pretty sure I'm crying at this point. For some reason I remember lying on the floor and wiping a lot of tears. Don't remember what the heck was going through my head, but I remember I was terrified and I remember crying.... "Oh, hey look! They took one of the tables out of here, and, like, a lot of chairs...Oh snap, what the heck happened to me?!"
--lapse in memory--
The next thing I remember, and this is kind of sappy (don't say I didn't warn you!)- I'm in the back of the ambulance and Matt is FINALLY there. He JUMPS in there, out of breath (like he was in a hurry to get there or something) and I just reach out my hand for his and burst into tears. I was so scared and now I'm just so relieved. I can let go of that huge gulp of air that was clenched in my chest. Now that he's here, I know that everything's going to be all right. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty darn scared; but it's going to be okay.
I remember the paramedics start asking Matt questions about my medications (another thing I'll write about in a future blog) and he does his best to answer them. Then we head off to Coffey County Hospital's Emergency Room- and Matt follows the ambulance in his pickup.
We're at the ER for a few hours so they can monitor me, do blood work and all that good stuff. Matt calls my parents (at some point- before we get there? after we get there? Don't ask me.). I'm starting to get back into my brain after a bit and act like a regular person. My head hurts like someone drilled me with a fastball, and I'm pretty worn out; but good!
Jared, the friendly paramedic comes back to chat with us periodically. We all know I'm going to Topeka, it's just a matter of when. Apparently it was a pretty good seizure I had. There's a patient in more critical condition the next room over who also needs to go, but they can only take one of us at a time. We wait for the staff to stabilize him for a while, but then they decide to go ahead and take me since I'm ready and he's not.
We arrive at Stormont-Vail around midnight and I chat it up with Jared for most of the ride up there. Trooper Matt grabs some essentials from both of our houses and then follows us up there. He calls my parents again when we arrive and I think we're able to go to bed fairly soon after arriving. I tell Matt to get a hotel or find a couch but he insists on sleeping on the crappy recliner next to my bed. Stubborn man. That sweet, stubborn man.
Anyway, Lindsay starts talking to me and I imagine myself looking something like this:
or... It's ok to laugh. I mean, the pictures are kind of funny. The picture on the left is actually from a kid's reaction to his mom blowing her nose!
FYI- the events from here on out are mostly things that have been relayed to me after the fact since my memory is a little spotty within 30-45 minutes after the seizure ended.
Anyway, Lindsay comes back over and asks if I want her to call my mom. I start blinking back tears and just nod yes (still can't talk at this point). She grabs my cell phone, attempts to activate Siri and says "Call Mom". What's really scary to me, as I learned later, is that all of Lindsay's attempts were futile. I will discuss why in a future blog post!
However, fortunately, many of the board members knew that I was dating Matt and some of them had his phone number so they were able to call him. Matt was playing pickleball during the board meeting but fortunately got the hint that there was mayyyybe something important happening after the second or third call!
Back to me- Still dazed and confused, is Lindsay still talking to me? I think so. I'm pretty sure I'm crying at this point. For some reason I remember lying on the floor and wiping a lot of tears. Don't remember what the heck was going through my head, but I remember I was terrified and I remember crying.... "Oh, hey look! They took one of the tables out of here, and, like, a lot of chairs...Oh snap, what the heck happened to me?!"
--lapse in memory--
The next thing I remember, and this is kind of sappy (don't say I didn't warn you!)- I'm in the back of the ambulance and Matt is FINALLY there. He JUMPS in there, out of breath (like he was in a hurry to get there or something) and I just reach out my hand for his and burst into tears. I was so scared and now I'm just so relieved. I can let go of that huge gulp of air that was clenched in my chest. Now that he's here, I know that everything's going to be all right. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty darn scared; but it's going to be okay.
 |
| My knight in shining athletic shorts 💓 |
I remember the paramedics start asking Matt questions about my medications (another thing I'll write about in a future blog) and he does his best to answer them. Then we head off to Coffey County Hospital's Emergency Room- and Matt follows the ambulance in his pickup.
We're at the ER for a few hours so they can monitor me, do blood work and all that good stuff. Matt calls my parents (at some point- before we get there? after we get there? Don't ask me.). I'm starting to get back into my brain after a bit and act like a regular person. My head hurts like someone drilled me with a fastball, and I'm pretty worn out; but good!
Jared, the friendly paramedic comes back to chat with us periodically. We all know I'm going to Topeka, it's just a matter of when. Apparently it was a pretty good seizure I had. There's a patient in more critical condition the next room over who also needs to go, but they can only take one of us at a time. We wait for the staff to stabilize him for a while, but then they decide to go ahead and take me since I'm ready and he's not.
We arrive at Stormont-Vail around midnight and I chat it up with Jared for most of the ride up there. Trooper Matt grabs some essentials from both of our houses and then follows us up there. He calls my parents again when we arrive and I think we're able to go to bed fairly soon after arriving. I tell Matt to get a hotel or find a couch but he insists on sleeping on the crappy recliner next to my bed. Stubborn man. That sweet, stubborn man.
↞↞↠↠
Next time on This Epi(lepti)c Life you are in for a treat, my friends! A guest star! We will be featuring the same story, told from another's perspective-- Won't that be fun?! I will keep this writer anonymous for now. Because, I mean, I have to keep a little suspense here 😉
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