Merry Christmas

In less than 24 hours I will be on a plane flying to Guatemala to spend my daughter's first Christmas with her. My husband is not able to go as he has work commitments. It will be our first Christmas apart since the 2002 the year we got engaged. This back pain reminds me of then...

see wavy lines as Rebecca remembers back...

2002 - It was coming up on Christmas with all the hustle and bustle we all know. I was working a minimum of 45 hours a week in the burn unit at our hospital. Alan was 80 miles away at Ft. Leonard Wood. My back was hurting me as it often did, but I made no mind of it this weekend. Alan was coming for the weekend and I had packages to mail and things to do. I was going to be making Christmas dinner this year at my mom's house and all the family in town was coming. Alan and I had only been dating since October and so this season was especially joyful with the thrill of a new and special relationship. It felt like anything could happen. It did. I tried to stretch my back out and it seized up on me. An ambulance had to come and get me. I couldn't move and I was in the worst pain imaginable. On a scale of 1-10 I was at a 10 (I really hate it when someone says on a scale of 1-10 they were a 15. You can't be a 15 on a scale of 1-10! The most you can be is a 10! but I digress...) By the time I was admitted to the hospital I had been given 25 mg of Demerol, 20 mg of Ativan (used to relax the muscle), more Demerol and morphine. Those amounts I don't remember, but I'd been given a lot of drugs and finally the pain was tolerable. Alan had come and stayed with me the whole time. He left around midnight. Some time in the night I awoke to noise all around me. I could hear the nurses say they were giving narcan and oxygen and I thought, "uh oh. Someone's in trouble" Then my bed was moving and I opened my eyes. I was on o2 and they were moving me to another room. I was the one in trouble. They had given me too many pain meds. I had stopped breathing and the nurse aide had found me with an 02 saturation of 35%. Not good. Fast forward to Christmas Eve. I am still unable to move much at all. I have IV fluids and oxygen. Alan was supposed to be coming to spend Christmas with my family, but I wouldn't be there. I couldn't leave the hospital. There was snow coming. We got 2 feet of snow in about 4 hours or so. I was worried because Alan had called to say he was coming before the snow got really bad. It was normally a 1.5 hour drive and 3 hours later he hadn't arrived. I watched the news and saw people off the road everywhere. It had taken my sister-in-law an hour to make it a mile. I was so worried about Alan. He should have stayed at home. Finally he came. Still in his uniform it had taken him 4 hours but he'd made it. My brother and sil left to make it home in daylight. Alan and I watched TV and talked little. (Isn't it nice to have someone you can just be quiet with?) The next thing I know he had climbed over the side rail and is laying in the hospital bed with me. I looked at him like what are you doing, the nurses will kill you. (I'm a nurse. I should know) He looked at me and said Rebecca will you marry me? and pulled out a box with a beautiful solitaire diamond ring. I was so excited and said yes. He put the ring on my finger and kissed me. A few minutes later he was getting out of the hospital bed (they weren't made for 2) and turned to me and said, "That wasn't the drugs talking was it?"

wavy lines as Rebecca comes back to the present

No it wasn't the drugs. lol I meant it then and I mean it now. :) That is my favorite Christmas memory so far.

This is my last post this year as I will be away until after the New Year. From our family to yours we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.

May there be peace on Earth,

Rebecca