The Strange Phone Call...My Dance With Death

A true story that happened this month. I recently experienced a very unusual experience on 8/5/11. This was like something from The Twilight Zone

Sunday, July 31st...the day was a bad one...I almost died. Blood wouldn't stop flowing from the artery that had burst in my nose. I called 911. Ambulance took me to the closest hospital. In the E.R, nurses, doctors and aids were in a panic, afraid I was going to die. I could see the fear in their eyes. I don't scare all that easy, but I was scared now!

With my son in Alabama and my daughter in San Francisco. I had no family near. I was trying to be brave, even joking with the doctors. But, to tell the truth, I too was afraid. Not afraid of dying... afraid of dying alone. Creighton University hospital was the first hospital they took me to. After 3 hr's They could not stop the bleeding. There was blood  everywhere. I was covered in it. The room was covered in it.

They called around for emergency Neuro-surgical brain surgeons and E.N.T Dr's. They are hard to find on an early Sunday evening. They had given me 2 liters of blood, the E.N.T Dr. they called in, was not being able to get the blood to stop. They called the ambulance, as they decided to take me to another hospital, The Nebraska Medical Center, in Omaha, Ne.

By now the bleeding had been going on for over 5 hours. I was very afraid. I called a friend... I asked him to please come and be with me. He came as immediately, as soon as he possibly could.

Laying on the gurney in ER, covered in blood, my thoughts were,

" I haven't had time to prepare for this. I haven't had time to finish things, to say things to people who mattered to me!

The curtains pulled open and eight doctors in blue surgical gowns came in. It was almost comical in nature, like something right out of the movies. A good feeling in one sense...in another, not so good. The Neuro-surgeon said brain surgery was required to stop the bleeding. I said "What?".

"We have no choice", he said, "Either that or you'll bleed to death". Then he said, "I need to tell you the possible side effects. You could end up paralyzed, have a stroke or have mental side deficits from this surgery". Again, I said... "What"?

Now... a bit of panic set in! I lie... a LOT of panic set in!

After 5 hours of surgery, I awoke in the ICU at 12:00 pm In Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Ne.

The next day, I was taken to a room on the neurosurgical unit. Surgery was temporarily successful! BUT...

Three days later, Wednesday August 3rd, at 2pm, they decided to remove the packing in my nose that they'd sent all the way to China. It seemed as if everything was going to be okay. Until 9pm that evening, when the bleeding started all over again. Again...they couldn't seem to get the bleeding to stop. This went on for another 3 hr's.

 

They put yards and yards of packing up my nose... to China again, plus a splint of some sort, that looked like a giant Tampon and a catheter.

I was gagging on blood clots in my throat. I'll tell you... having three babies by natural child birth was a piece of cake compared to this. Three hours later bleeding subsided. I wanted a bath, clean gown, clean sheets; blood was all over me and my bed. My dear friend came down to the hospital again...slept in the chair by my bed all night. What a true friend and a comfort he was. He also told me my son was flying in the next day.

When my dear son Aaron came in, I felt like I was seeing an angel...Of course he is one. He stayed by my side all that day. At seven pm I told him to go to my home and get a good night’s rest, as another surgery might be necessary the next day.

August 4th, my son called me on my cell phone to say he was on his way to the hospital

The phone beeped in and we were disconnected. He called back. After we hung up I checked to see who had called. It was a familiar number 402-668-2872

I thought to myself I recognize that number, and then I realized it was my ex-husband Rick's telephone number, a number I'd called thousands of times.

His parents had it for over 20 years before he took it over after moving in their house after they passed away. But...the eerie thing was, it had been disconnected after he passed away September 21, 2009. I called the number; the automated voice said "This number is no longer in service"

My mind was rather... shall we say "Puzzled", yet somehow calmed by the pure magic of it all. I called his brother in Tennessee to make sure I had remembered it right.

I said, "This is Rick's old telephone number isn't it"? He said yes it was.

It was from a phone company in a tiny little town in Verdigre, Nebraska, population of 463 people.

I felt truly blessed. I told his brother, "Your brother Rick called me today, now I know he's alright... thought you'd like to know he is to."

Miracles are just that... MIRACLES...no explanation necessary, just acceptance.

He was my angel looking out for me.

My angel Rick, who I loved then and in a very special way, always will. I know he's waiting for me on the other side, when it's my time to go... I guess this just wasn't my time.

As Jim Croce says in his song "Time In A Bottle" ...

 

“There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do, once you find them.

 I've looked around enough to know, that you're the one I want to go through time with".

 

I say to all who read this:

 

"Cherish the one you love, tell them every day, show it in every way, because you never know when the end may come and you have not fixed the things you’ve left undone. Tell them how much you love them… don't wait say it now!

 

Author's Note

A true story that happened this month. I recently experienced a very unusual experience on 8/5/11. This was like something from The Twilight Zone