Reflections After a Close Call With Death
I woke up at 1 am with sharp, piercing pain in my stomach. My first reaction was disbelief. “This can’t be serious. It has to pass. I was totally fine when I went to bed.”
But the pain didn’t go away. It was relentless. “Worse than childbirth,” I said. Peter and I waited six hours before calling 911 and getting me to the emergency room. Huge mistake. I didn’t call 911 because I couldn’t face reality. Stoic that I am, I thought I could make my problems disappear if I just ignored them. (You can read my blog on how coping styles impact your health here.)
When bad things happen to us, we tend to deny that they are taking place.
At the ER, I was oblivious of everything except my pain. I could hardly speak. When a voice told me, “The tests indicate you have a blockage in the bowel,” I could hardly understand the meaning of those words. The voice continued, “This situation is life-threatening, if the blockage doesn’t clear by itself, surgery will be necessary. We need to wait a while and see what happens.”
The next three days passed waiting to see if the blockage would clear. I was put on intravenous fluids but was given nothing to drink and no food at all. My entire being was a dull pain. When I heard voices discussing getting morphine for me I thought…
