Before eating the boys played in the bouncy house (while I talked to a friend of mine that also lives in the neighborhood) and then we checked out some of the businesses advertising, which included a cupcake shop! The cupcakes were not all up for grabs, but the sweet lady at the stand thought the boys should each have one. They were thrilled, of course.
The topping is always the best, I guess!
Then we waited in line for our grub and sat down in the shade at one of the many tables. Nathan and I posing for a picture. (These are the few I pics I have that I got off of Facebook. Thankfully, I had posted on Facebook up until this day.)
What happened shortly after this is kind of a blur. But I'll do my best to be accurate. We were all sitting and eating and as far as I could tell up until this point, I felt completely normal. Then all of the sudden I felt incredibly tired. Instantly. Like I was talking and normal and then all of the sudden I felt myself fighting to stay awake. I felt a brief wave of nausea as well and I told Matt that I was really tired and felt like I couldn't stay awake. He went into "let's hurry and get home" mode, but wasn't overly concerned.
Then I remember him telling me that my hands just shook (like a tremor).
I said, "I did?" It was as though I briefly lost consciousness and came back. I still felt exhausted and said I needed to lay my head down.
So I did and the next thing I recall is being surrounded by a ton of people all looking at me. They were asking how I felt, what my name was and then they walked me over to a shady spot on the grass by the basketball court. They continued to ask me questions and give me water as I tried to figure out what had happened. The next thing I know, an ambulance and fire truck pull up and the paramedics come and check my heart, pulse, blood sugar and blood pressure. They also are concerned as they ask me questions as well. By now I'm feeling more with it and can answer their questions well. Matt knows I must be feeling better when I ask him if he got a picture! ha ha!
Poor guy. I meant even just with his phone, but he pulled out my camera and took a pic. I lost that photo with the computer crash, but realized I took a picture with my phone of the back of the camera to send to my mom. So, so you can visualize the arrangement:
Also, imagine a big fire truck and ambulance in the background. It felt unreal. I'm afraid I caused a scene.
Our neighbors were awesome as nurses stepped up to help me when they saw me go down, and a lady and her daughters stepped up to help out with Nathan and Josh. They kept the boys occupied and kept it from feeling scary for them. I think she took them over to the fire truck. What's more fun than that? I was very grateful for our neighborhood and the kindness of those who love here that day.
Everything the paramedics checked seemed to be normal. I do remember one paramedic telling me, "this is definitely not normal, though." And they encouraged me to go to the ER, although they felt fine not taking me via ambulance. There was speculation over dehydration, or blood sugar (although my blood sugar was normal when checked), or heat exhaustion. The paramedic that walked me to our Jeep to drive home said it doesn't take as much to take someone of my size down like it would for him (he joked). He finally said that we could give it a day if we wanted to see if I felt better before getting checked out further.
I was so exhausted, I was glad to hear that. I went home and rested. Nathan was super sweet and compassionate with me. He knew something wasn't quite right. Also, when I collapsed I fell right into him so he was kind of a part of the scene.
Matt's recollection of what happened was that after I put my head down on the table, I actually sat up again and my hands and arms shook once more...but for longer. About 30 seconds. Then I just collapsed and fell to my right...where Nathan was sitting. Thankfully, he was sitting forward so I just fell behind his back and the back of his seat. That kept me from falling onto the ground and I didn't knock Nathan onto the ground either. Nathan was startled and just didn't know what happened. Matt said that my eyes rolled back into my head but he didn't think Nathan saw it because I had sunglasses on.
The boys didn't want to leave me and take naps right away at home, so I read to them on the couch. We talked about the ambulance and the fire truck, of course! One of the pics Matt took showed the ambulance we were pointing at in the book, but this is all I have since I at least put it up on Facebook before the computer crash.
That night, I thought I was pretty good so we went to Fox Run Park for a bbq with our small group. It was a fun night and I tried to take it easy and not be overly active as I still felt a bit out of it. Matt kept feeding me and hydrating me! I think I had a nice juicy hamburger that night and felt pretty good! Here's a few pics of the barbeque:
Grady is definitely and athlete!
Yummy! I love this group.
Crew!
Dylin! Just a few weeks old!
And he's out :)
Sunday I was really tired and also very sore. I guess from my muscles contracting? My neck was probably the worst part. Going into Monday I was still sore and not feeling like I was firing on all cylinders. Mentally, I was just having a hard time thinking clearly and making decisions. On Saturday, I almost found it all comical, but by Monday, I started to feel scared when I didn't feel like myself yet. I remember trying to make some simple decisions and planning or coordinating with the boys and just being unable to do it. I remember crying on the phone to Matt and asking him if he could just take care of it because I couldn't think through it.
After consulting with his mom and calling local urgent cares and ERs we decided to go in on Monday night. I needed the peace of mind that there wasn't something more serious going on. We were going to have someone watch the boys but when that fell through we just brought them with us and it ended up working great because I was the only patient at this new ER and they had things to entertain them. It was a good experience! (That we paid dearly for later...ouch! ) But at least the night went well. Here's some pics from my phone of our evening:
Josh checking out my IV.
Nana had just sent out some toys for the boys so Josh is enjoying his new tractor! Good timing.
All tests came out clear. They found nothing in the CT scan. So I was relieved. The doctor did diagnose it as a seizure, although we really don't know for sure. It could have been a perfect storm with my lack of sleep, anxiety about an upcoming photo shoot, dehydration and heat. It's hard to tell. But I was relieved that evening. And after being filled up with the IV, I felt the best I had since it had happened.
The rest of the week was up and down. I did that photo shoot on Wednesday night and it went great! I'll post pics of that next probably. And on Friday we went to the zoo with the Ortiz's. I know I still wasn't feeling up to par because I remember a few times at the zoo grabbing for some quick sugar and water as I would feel a bit faint pushing the stroller up the hills in the heat. Even driving the boys home scared me a bit as it was the first time I had for a longer distance after the episode. So again...sugar and water. Just in case it was a blood sugar problem or dehydration!
It took me a full week at least to start feeling like myself again. And it might have just been my body recovering from whatever happened exactly. We really don't know. I can say that now, in mid-October, I totally feel like myself again and haven't felt that same way since. So I am grateful for that!
I'm so glad to have that long post finished!
1 comment:
Wow, Sonya. That must have been a scary time for you and your family. Have you had any other episodes?
Take care of yourself your boys need you alive and well.
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