The Night from Hell

"Please Lord give me strength..."

By midnight the day of Aaron's back surgery I felt like a homeless person.  I wondered from waiting room to waiting room living out of my purse and a small grocery bag.  I went wherever the nurses told me to.  I stole 10 minutes of shut eye here and there but never really slept.  I had not really slept since Saturday---during the day.  I just wanted them to let me into ICU to see my husband.  What was taking so long?

Then they came and told me to come in.  When I saw him, tears over flowed from my eyes.  He looked terrible.  He was so swollen, white as the bed sheets, intubated, had drains and chest tubes and an art line and many different kinds of drips going. 

I tried to talk to him through my sobs, telling him over and over that I loved him.  I caressed his hair and prayed.  His blood pressure was low, heart rate were high, and spiked a fever.  I prayed and prayed.

At 0300, Aaron went unresponsive.  His blood pressure (through an art line) was 50/30 and his heart rate was in the 160's.  I thought he was going to die.  I thought I was going to loose him.  I had to step out while the skilled nurses worked on him. 

I went to the waiting room and called my mom.  I felt so alone.  "I am trying to be strong," I sobbed to my mom.  "But I just am falling apart."

"You can't be strong when you have no strength left," she told me.  And I cried.  She managed through some miracle to calm me down.  Then she sent in reinforcements.  My cousin Maria was at the hospital with me with in minutes. 

Fortunately, all of our prayers and hopes were answered.  Aaron pulled through. 

Later on that morning, Aaron was extubated and seemed to have turned the corner.  He had feeling in his legs!  It was a miracle.  He was very nauseated and painful but in good spirits.

That afternoon, most of the drips were off and he received more blood (hgb 6.8.)  His mom and dad and a few family members and friends ventured in to see him. 

Then that night, he was transferred out of ICU and moved to the Progressive Neuro Unit (which is like an ICU with private rooms.)  And we were well on the road to recovery.