I woke early because I still had a pretty bad headache. Since I couldn't sleep because of it I got up. It had been hot and sweaty the day before, but I put all my dirty clothes on thinking I would take my shower after the others are at church. (That was not a good idea!) I took Baby Michael downstairs with me so that he wouldn't disturb Edward. Before doing anything else I took 3 ibuprofen. They had not been helping much, but I was afraid to not take anything. Maybe they would at least take the edge off. I made my cup of coffee and settled on the recliner with my Bible to have my morning devotions. One by one the others got up. It was a lovely summer morning. Joel had sore throat and fever, so he was planning to stay at home with me. Some thought I should go to church with the baby so that we can show him off! :) I probably would have considered it if I would not have had this headache and besides, Joel was sick, so I knew home was the best place. While the girls made breakfast I checked emails. Sunday mornings are always more relaxed, so it was later than usual when we sat down to eat. We sang our usual Sunday morning song and prayed. I don't remember exactly when the pain started, but all of a sudden I got this pain in my chest. I dished out my food and got Rhoda's ready thinking it might go away, probably means nothing. It didn't go away and I said to Edward I have this pain in my chest... It was getting worse so I handed the baby to Irene and went to lay on the couch. I thought maybe it's like a panic attack or something and if I relax it will go away. It didn't. Instead it got worse. I couldn't lay down or relax. I asked Edward to come pray for me, which he did. I said maybe if he would rub my back it would help, but it didn't. It wasn't long till he asked, "Should we go to the hospital?" I said, "Yes I think we should, or call the ambulance." He decided to drive, so Annetta quick grabbed the baby and the car seat. By that time I was feeling somewhat out of breath and nauseous. As we were leaving, Simon anxiously called after us, "Do you think it's her heart?" Edward called back that he doesn't think so. After all, I was only 40 years old. Why would I be having a heart attack?
The roads were almost empty, but we passed every vehicle we came upon. One tried to drive in the middle so we couldn't pass. Maybe after a while he realized we might have an emergency?!?! Whatever, he pulled over and let us pass. At 80 mph it didn't take long to drive the 17 1/2 miles to the hospital in Atlantic. By that time I was feeling a little bit better, but Edward said since we are here we'll get it checked out. As soon as we came in they took me back to a room while Edward stayed at the desk to fill out paper work or whatever. Nobody fooled around. They put a heart monitor on me and did an EKG. Dr. Atkinson was there when the results were printed out. "There is definitely something going on with the heart," he said. "You need to get to the city as soon as possible. Where do you want to go, Omaha or Des Moines?" By that time Edward was also in the room. We chose Omaha because that was only half as far from home. As I lay there I wondered whether we would drive in ourselves or if they would take me in the ambulance. Just then the doctor came back and told us the helicopter is on the way. When we expressed our surprise he said, "Time is heart. The sooner the problem is fixed, the less damage to the heart." The seriousness of the situation was beginning to sink in. All this time Annetta was in the waiting room with the baby, not knowing what is happening. Is Mom dying? Are we going to be motherless? It was pretty traumatic for her. They soon let her come into the room too. While waiting for the helicopter they worked on getting me stabilized with aspirin, nitro pills under my tongue, morphine, oxygen and IV. It was interesting how the nitro pills immediately took away most of the chest pain, but just as fast I had a pounding headache (on top of what I already had), side effect of nitro. The second EKG they did was normal. Dr. Atkinson was puzzled. My mind was reeling with shock. How can this be happening? We always tried to have a pretty healthy diet. I was only 40. I had a newborn and 8 other children that needed me etc. ect.
Soon the flight crew from the Mercy One helicopter came in. They transferred me to their stretcher. I wasn't even allowed to get out of the bed. They just slid me over. The stretcher was very narrow and they strapped me on. They wheeled me over to Edward and Annetta who was holding Michael so that I could tell them a teary good bye. And then we were off, leaving them on the parking lot gazing into the sky. My husband had the presence of mind to take a few cell phone pictures.
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