The First Time I Died -Part 2

To see part one of this story, please click here.

Continued from last Friday....

I woke up to the doctor giving me a “noogie” on my sternum. It really hurt. I grabbed her arm and asked her, “What are you doing?” She then went on to telling me to breathe deep and “stay with her”. At this time I saw another doctor lead my mom out of the room. Just then they attempted to sit me up again. When they tried to sit me up for the second time, my eyes rolled into the back of my head and I stopped breathing. It’s not strange to me that it happened again, but what I saw and experienced, in the short time between losing and regaining consciousness will always be a very distinct and thrilling memory.

What happened next could be real or it could be fantasy, but there is no doubt in my mind what took place.

I saw everything that was happening. I saw a room full of doctors. I saw me, lying on a bed in the middle of chaos. I was overlooking the room and was probably five or six feet above everyone else. It was if I was looking through a video camera and filming what was going on. Then I saw what has burned into my mind ever since. I saw, at more of a ground level angle, a man from the medical team consoling my mom and telling her that everything was going to be all right. I saw my mom react in a way that I had never seen. She looked panicked. She wasn’t calm. Worse yet, she was crying. I had never seen her, until this point, ever worried about my life. She may have been at times before, but she never let me see it. I always remained calm and collected because she was always calm and collected. When I saw her like this, I was extremely saddened. The feeling of seeing my mom so distraught really hurt me. It was then that I woke up.

This time I woke up to the doctor “fish hooking” my mouth. Apparently there is a nerve back there, that when pressured, causes pain. Well not apparently, I can tell you, it does. It hurt worse than the sternum noogie. When I came to, they were hovering over me with paddles. I guess they were expecting my heart to give out. That was kind of scary looking. I’m just glad they didn’t have to give me “the shock of my life”. The doctor was again yelling at me to stay with her. She was asking me if I heard her and how was I feeling. I actually grabbed her arm to get her attention (and to get her hand out of my mouth). Before answering any of her questions, I had one simple request. I said, “Please go and tell my mom that I’m going to be ok”.

That was my only concern. I wanted my mom to stop hurting. She had dedicated her life to help me avoid pain. Now I felt I was responsible for afflicting pain on her. The doctor sent somebody to go and speak with my mom and I felt a sense of relief. I later spoke to my mom about the whole episode and what I saw, her story corroborated. Can it be all a coincidence? Sure. I look at it as something totally different though. For me, it was a kick in the butt. I didn’t look at it as a wake up call to take better care of myself (although I definitely focused more on hydration as a result), but I knew that I never wanted to make my mom feel like that again. I never wanted to put her in a position to where she had to fear whether I was going to live or die.

There have been other times that doctors said “that was a close call” as well. I have had nurses come up to ICU because they weren’t sure if I was going to make it. My lips have been blue from a lack of oxygen. I’ve coughed up so much blood that fellow campers thought there was a grizzly animal attack the night before. Events like this only do one thing for me. They make me realize how blessed I am to be living and to take full advantage of life. I actually feel fortunate that this kind of stuff happens. It makes me focus even more on my health and gives me motivation to stay healthy. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to dwell on what happened that Friday night however. We still had nine games left on the schedule and I had practice on Monday.

Next week I will be posting a blog written by my mom on what she saw, heard and felt during this traumatic event. So ya'll come back you hear!