Home After Disaster

Finally home…here goes.

Bus from Le Havre took 3 hours to get to Charles De Gaulle airport. The driver dropped us at Terminal 2G instead of 2A. We hoofed it to the counter where two very kind ladies helped us get our boarding passes. We made it through the security line pretty quick and were relieved to find that our Canadian friends got picked up and expedited through by the airline. Our gate was actually the first one for once. I saw another passenger eating an onigiri and found the store that had them but accidentally got a wasabi flavored one…yuck. We are in the back end of the plane and the lady in the aisle seat refused to get up the entire 8 hour flight. Couldn’t sleep so I watched movies. My leg kept falling asleep. No big deal, right?

Wrong. We got off the plane in Philadelphia and on the way to customs/immigration I couldn’t catch my breath…at all. Kept having to stop every ten steps. I wanted to get home so badly I just kept trying until my body shut me down. I crumpled, passed out and woke up wondering why I was looking at the carpet so closely. Two pilots came over to help mom with me. They called security who called the medical team. They started an IV with fluids but couldn’t get my blood pressure up or my heart rate down. An ambulance was called. I just wanted to go home. Finally one of the medics said, “If you get on that plane, you will die. You’re going to the hospital.”

Luckily the ambulance let mom ride with me. We got to the Methodist Hospital and they split us up. I got another IV, more fluids and the team tried to figure out what was going on. I was x-rayed, cat scanned and EKGed. Mom got to come to the emergency room where I was. Then one of the doctors walked by, looked at the monitor and said, “are those numbers real?” He vanished, my blood pressure was 39/20. I was given some sort of super clot busting medicine because my lungs were full of blood clots. I was suffering from a pulmonary embolism.

Another ambulance was called to take me to the bigger Jefferson University Hospital. Again mom was allowed to come with me in the ambulance. I got put in the ER briefly until they took me to the ICU. The nurses were very kind and after getting a third IV, they allowed mom to sleep in the waiting room. I was checked every hour to make sure I didn’t have a brain bleed from the medicine. My blood pressure improved to 60/40…still terrible though. More tests, two ultrasounds of both my legs and heart, EKG, an IV full of magnesium, blood tests every twenty minutes and another cat scan.

After a day I was released to a normal room. Two days passed until my blood pressure finally stabilized at 115/70. I’ll be on blood thinner for a year. I can’t fly for at least a week. Mom and I are stranded in Philadelphia with no clothes (somehow our bags got home even though we didn’t) no transportation, and no idea what to do. First we thought we’d have to stay the next five days at a hotel before taking the two hour flight home. But then Dad found us a rental car that could be dropped off in Myrtle Beach. So we drove part way home on Wednesday, ate dinner at Cracker Barrel, stayed at Doswell Virginia over night and drove the rest of the way back on Thursday. I missed my turn to lead the Book Club, which I hate. Dad picked us up at the car drop off and got us flowers. I got to the house just before three. Greg and Kyrie both got back right after we did…I’m very lucky to have gotten home at all. I don’t know what I would have done without mom.Read more