Fast Track to the Hospital

Well, I'd never ridden in an ambulance before, until yesterday that is. And honestly, it's not nearly as glamorous as it might seem. I couldn't open my eyes, so I didn't actually see the inside but I vaguely remember it being a bumpy ride and wishing the attendant would stop asking me so many questions. Funny the things you remember in crisis.

Let me back up and explain what happened. First, no baby yet. He's fine and is scheduled to make his appearance sometime on Monday (induction begins Sunday evening). That is the biggest relief of all.

Here's the story:

Yesterday I was having a lot of pain in my stomach but I had my 39 week check up, so I went and talked with my doc about it. She did the regular exam and said everything looked fine. We both assumed I was just having contractions so we scheduled the induction and I headed home. A couple of hours after I got home I started feeling really sick and strange. I managed to get McKay down for a nap and thought I would take one too. It was when I laid down that everything happened. All of the sudden I felt so sick and had some sort of attack of horrible nausea, faintness, and pain around the baby. Everything went black and I stopped feeling him move (he'd been very active up to that point). I could feel myself about to faint so I blindly searched for my cell phone and managed to reach my friend Trisha down the street. She came running and literally saved me. I was so weak and faint I don't remember much but we ended up getting a ride in the ambulance. By the time we reached the hospital, I couldn't feel my limbs and my face was numb. They kept asking me questions but I couldn't talk, my face was so stiff and felt like it had been anesthetized. I couldn't open my eyes or move my arms or legs, it was all so strange.

BJ, who had been at school, met us at the hospital and was able to field the questions. Finally they gave me an IV and were able to stabilize things. I eventually regained feeling and consciousness and was able to head home, though the doctors couldn't figure out what had happened. The on-call doc basically said that, according to the lab work, everything should be fine. He said his best guess was that this was the way my body goes into labor (oh great!). Really makes me excited for future pregnancies.

Today I feel weak and tired but much better than before. I just want to say thank you to all the people who literally saved me yesterday, both by taking care of me and helping me but also by helping with McKay while I was gone. We have incredible friends and neighbors and church members who are our surrogate family and who were nothing short of angels to me and my family yesterday. In the words of Elder Holland:

When we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods.[...] Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind.

I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. “[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.”13

On occasions... we may feel we are alone in dark and dreary places...but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.

“I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, … my Spirit shall be in your [heart], and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."

So, thank you to each of my angels.