Houston, We Have A Problem

Most people know I was a teacher for several years before I got married. I didn't make much money so every summer I had to find jobs to supplement my income. For two summers when I lived in Houston before I got married, I worked with a group called National Youth Leadership Forum. Over 400 high school juniors from all over the country come to Houston for 11 days to learn about the medical field. I was part of their Advance Team which handled logistics (transportation, food, emergency room visits, curfew). This was before the day of high tech cell phones so we relied heavily on long range walkie talkies to communicate. We even had those cool ear pieces and microphones (called whisper mics) that attached to our sleeve like you see the Secret Service wear. I know after reading yesterday's post you might be wondering why in the world I would be doing anything related to the medical field. But my job just involved getting the students where they needed to be in the Med Center. I never actually had to participate.

For liability reasons, if a kid said he/she was sick we had to take him/her to the ER. We couldn't let him/her stay in his/her room. There were five of us on the A-Team so we rotated who had to be on ER duty each day. No one liked ER duty because it took forever and nine times out of ten the kid wasn't really sick, he/she just stayed up too late or ate too much and was constipated. Just keeping it real for you.

Early one morning the students were getting ready to go to the med center and I got a call on my walkie talkie that a student was having heart palpitations. She had recently had heart surgery(!!!) and was a little concerned. A little? What parent in his or her right mind sends a daughter across the country after major heart surgery??? I quickly got dressed. The students had to dress up every day so we did too. Black pants, red jacket. I went to get heart girl and she too was wearing black pants and red jacket. She also had long brown hair and brown eyes. We could have been twins. I get her into the rental car and we head to the hospital which is thankfully right down the street and within walkie talkie range.

Many of you know I am not so good with hospital/doctor related things like shots and blood. See previous post.

On the way there I start thinking that I wasn't feeling great. But I just chalked it up to being a little nervous that there might be something seriously wrong with heart girl. I drive up to the covered drop off area of the ER. I turn to heart girl to tell her to go inside and I would park and come meet her with her waiver paperwork. She looks at me and says, "Are you ok?" At that moment, with my foot on the brake but the car still in drive, I pass out cold. My foot falls off the break and the car starts slowly rolling forward.

If heart girl thought she might have been having palpitations before, she was clearly having them now. Poor thing.

She was only 16 and didn't think to put the car in park. She is screaming and reaching down by my feet trying to put her hand on the brake while the car continues to slowly roll forward. We are in Houston, a city of 4 million people and ridiculous traffic. Do you know how thankful I am to this day to have passed out at the front door of the ER instead of on the 610 Loop???? Someone in the ER saw the commotion and came outside.

Heart girl is screaming right as I come to. They bring a wheel chair to the drivers side and I am trying to tell them that I'm here to bring heart girl to the ER. I'm not the patient. I start babbling about National Youth Leadership Forum and the Advance Team. A nurse looked at me and said, "Lady, are you on something? You just fainted while driving a moving vehicle and you are trying to tell me that you are ok? And why in the world are you two dressed alike?" Clearly, this is the perfect time to discuss fashion.

They get both of us inside and I finally explain everything to them. They did see both of us right away, no triage necessary. :) I go to the bathroom to try to use my walkie talkie to contact the other A Team people to let them know what was going on. But the reception was bad since we were in a hospital so all they got was "fainted, car, moving, help". They showed up in record time!

We were both ok. Heart girl just needed some medicine. After some blood work for me, it turns out that I had a touch of food poisoning most likely from the dinner I had at Boston Market the day before. The way the doctor explained it, at that moment in the car all the blood rushed to my stomach to fight off the food poisoning which caused me to pass out. Like I always say, if you're gonna pass out, you might as well do it at the front doors of the ER.

One bonus - I did get out of doing ER duty for several days.

Happy Anniversary tomorrow to my wonderful husband of 11 years. I love you, Kevin!