It’s Tuesday morning and my eldest daughter, who is 12 at this time, is home from school. I am upstairs resting in bed. My younger daughter is in school and my wife is on her way to work. I hear a strange thumping noise from downstairs but don’t think much of it. I just thought that my daughter was playing in her toy and game area. In general, it was quiet in the house except for this strange noise. She uses her headphones to drown out unwanted sounds and also for watching her tablet. The strange noise continued so I decided to go and check on her. As I went down the stairs I looked out from the landing to see her sitting in my leather chair shaking. The strange noise I was hearing was her legs knocking against the table. I quickly rushed to her and found her covered in blood. She was having a seizure and was bleeding from her mouth. My heart began to race.
Since it took me a bit of time to know she was having a seizure from being upstairs, I determined that this seizure was lasting longer than 5 minutes which is the trigger point for calling 911, which I did right after calling my wife to let her know what was going on. I stayed on the line with emergency services describing my observations of what was happening with my daughter’s seizure. The dispatcher had me continue to converse with her after I explained to her that I had just had a heart attack 4 days earlier and was feeling a bit distressed. I sent a DM to our neighbor across the way and she came rushing over to see how she could help. I heard the sirens faintly and then louder as I continued to converse with the dispatcher. As the first responders began to arrive, I had already opened the front door for our neighbor to come in and it was still open for them to come in. Other neighbors began to come out to see what was happening knowing that I had a heart attack just 4 days earlier. When the paramedics came into the house the neighbor who had been by my side during my event was helping to make sure I was staying calm. Another neighbor came running down from his court to see what was happening. I met him outside and gave him an update. He gave me a very big hug now knowing I was ok. I think he could be a good friend in the future.
The paramedics observed my daughter as she was beginning to come out of the seizure while I was outside taking deep breaths and working to balance my stress. I had left my neighbor inside the house to help so I could take a moment to get myself together. I knew that in a few minutes I would most likely be going to the hospital together with my daughter and I needed to be calm and composed for this journey. Based on their observation, and the ER communications I believe, it was decided to transport my daughter to the hospital for further observation and treatment. I am always amazed at how the paramedics establish immediate communications with the hospital for further consultation on next steps. My daughter was put into the ambulance and I joined her for the ride to the hospital. This ride was a bit slower than mine the other day and took a different route. My daughter was a bit scared but was in good hands. Our first responders and the medical system is one of the best here in Northern Virginia. During the ride I began to recall another time I was being transported to the hospital which was before the pandemic, and it was for something I classify as a “really dumb” thing.
I am a “Do It Your Self” type person. I like to build things I design and I love experimenting with simple woodworking builds in our townhouse. One weekend I was working on a newel post that I was building in a craftsman style that incorporated our existing metal stair railing, you know, the ugly metal ones. While working on the newel post I was holding a piece of wood in place with my left hand while preparing to nail it into place with my pneumatic nail gun. I carefully positioned the nail gun where I wanted the nail to go and pulled the trigger.
OMG, what did I just do? I felt a sharp pain and looked in amazement at what I had done. I had just nailed my thumb to the wood newel post. Now, you might think that I could just pull out the nail and then go to urgent care to get treatment. Well, that was not going to happen. The piece of wood I was holding was between to other pieces of wood with a small narrow gap so my thumb was inside this narrow gap with the nail spanning between the two outside pieces of wood creating the gap. So, I was now nailed into a locked position to the two outside pieces of the newel post where the nail could not be removed or even cut, and I was standing in a position facing the newel post. This didn’t look good for me. This is truly a “WTF did I do moment”. Topping this off was that my phone was in the kitchen some twenty feet away, and I am not going anywhere from this newel post which I am now attached to. I am in the house alone bleeding, not profusely though, into the cavity of the newel post. WTF do I do now…
“Thoughts on this part of my story. Please share them with me in the comment box below”