September 7, 2014
September 7, 2014 -
Tyler and I went to my parent's house for dinner. He was going to meet my parents. We had only been dating for 1-2 weeks, I had met his family already and I wanted him to meet mine. My sister Rachael, her husband Bryan and son Cale were coming over.
I worked at CVS at the time and I bought my nephew, Cale, two pairs of sandals that were $1 each at CVS. I bent down to Cale and put one of the pairs of shoes on him. I stood up and I don't remember anything after that.
I don't remember anything about my seizure. My family told me what happened.
I stood up and my sister, Rachael, said I had a look on my face like something was wrong. I then had a grand mal seizure. I fell backwards and landed behind our couch. I had swiped everything off of the table that was next to our couch. I started seizing, I was foaming at the mouth and my lips were turning blue. My sister yelled to call 911 and my mom yelled for my dad, who was in their room taking a nap. He thought that something was wrong with him when he woke up. He came out into the living room and thought something was wrong with Cale because he was crying and then he saw me.
My mom was on the phone with 911 as my sister was doing what they said (before they even told my mom what she should do. My sister had taken an EMT course and knew what to do). My family heard the ambulance coming and then the sirens stopped. Tyler said that he ran outside and booked it down the street to find the ambulance. They turned off their sirens because they didn't want to alarm anyone in the neighborhood and they parked in front of our neighbors house to not show too much attention to our house.
I woke up to Rachael saying my name. I had been unconscious for about 5 minutes. I didn't know what to think. I thought I had just had a dream. There were about 8 EMTs surrounding me. I had no idea what was going on. I saw that there was a band aid on my hand. I had cut my hand, my neck and bit my tongue. They put me on the stretcher and wheeled me out to the ambulance. My mom was next to me and I saw my dad as they were putting me in the ambulance. He was standing outside on our lawn.
There was a guy and a girl in the ambulance with my mom and I. I told them that I thought I had a boyfriend and the guy said, "Oh ya, what's his name?". I told him that it was Tyler and he said, "Yep, I know him!". I remember thinking, "Why didn't you just tell me that I had a boyfriend?!". I realize now that they probably were wanting to make sure that I could answer questions. My brain was so fuzzy after the seizure. I was tired, I couldn't remember what happened and right after the seizure I couldn't remember if I had a boyfriend or not. I wasn't sure if I was dreaming that I did or not.
I can't remember if it was before or after I told the EMTs about Tyler, but I just started crying. The girl said something along the lines of, "It's okay, you can cry". I don't remember being taken out of the ambulance or being wheeled into the hospital. I remember being in a room and taking pictures of my IV with my blood because I thought it was cool haha. They did an MRI of my brain and I don't remember that either. In the MRI, they found an AVM (arterial venous malformation). It is a vein that isn't attached to any capillaries and it was HUGE! I slightly remember being in the waiting room with a blanket and my family and one of the neurosurgeons, Dr. Gardner, was in the ER that night. He heard what happened and talked to my parents. He was going to do my surgery.
We met with Dr. Gardner the next day and talked to him about what they found in the MRI. He told me that I had to shave all of my hair off and........ I was totally okay with it. My mom thought I was going to be afraid, but I wasn't. I don't think it hit me in that moment what was really going to happen.
I had another MRI with contrast on Tuesday September 9, 2014 which gave me THE WORST HEADACHE OF MY LIFE! I was laying on my parent's bed trying to sleep so my headache could get better, but I could not fall asleep. A little bit later, I ran into my parent's bathroom to throw up. When I was done I couldn't move my hands or my mouth. My mouth made a permanent "O" shape and my hands were like claws that wouldn't move. As best as I could through my paralyzed mouth I told my mom, "Mom, I can't move my mouth or my hands!". I was having another seizure, but this one I was awake for! My mom yelled for my dad to get the car and we hurried out to his truck, got in and he sped to the hospital. He said he turned on his hazards and flew on the freeway. My mom kept telling me that we were almost there and to hold on. I was SO TIRED! Seizures drain you! I remember sitting there in the back seat looking at my paralyzed hands. It was like I couldn't do anything else and I don't think I did anything else the whole way to the hospital. I don't remember getting out of the car, but my mom said I got myself out of the truck. She called the doctor on our way to the hospital and he alerted the ER, so they were waiting for me.
I was admitted to the hospital that day, September 9, 2014. They moved up my surgery to that Thursday, September 11, 2014. That day brought on a whole new meaning to me.
