A True NaBloPoMo Warrior

Well, I should get a special NaBlo- PoMo prize for posting today!

Why? Because I spent all day in the hospital today. That's right, I got to ride for the second time in my life in an ambulance.

What happened? Well, I'm not really sure. I do not remember anything starting from 9:30 AM, when I got my kids off the bus from bus training, until about 11:00, when they were asking me a million questions in the emergency room.

Yes, I'll admit Saunders was right- I should not have gone to work this morning. My lymph node is still ginormous- somehow, it seemed bigger this morning that yesterday. I felt like absolute crap this morning, dizzy and exhausted. However, those of you who are teachers know how hard it is to be out. I'd already been out 2 days, and I had bus training today, a PLC meeting, and we're getting ready for our Thanksgiving play on Friday, so I just had to go in!

So, I went in to school and worked my butt of this morning, trying to get caught up. I got all my literacy and math centers together, fed and cleaned the animals' areas, graded some papers in a mad dash, and grabbed some oatmeal from the cafeteria for breakfast. I had Calendar Time and taught Phonics, although I'm not sure about the quality of my teaching because I was so tired. Then, we had bus training... I about lost it on the bus, I felt so bad. I do not remember anything after bus training, but apparently I got my kids back to class and got them started on their literacy centers.

Then, sometime just before 10:00, I had an "episode". No one knows (because I was in a room of just me and 20 six-year-olds, and I don't remember a thing, and their stories are confusing) what came first- the chicken or the egg. I don't know whether I had a seizure, which caused me to pass out, or passed out and hit the floor, which caused me to have a seizure.

Either way, my kids ran for help, and by the time another teacher got there (followed soon after by the nurse and principal), I was unconscious on the floor and seizing. The nurse says I had one seizure when the other teacher responded first, and then two more before the paramedics arrived. I was unconscious for about 10 minutes, but I did regain consciousness just as the paramedics were coming in. I didn't know where I was, what day it was... anything. I don't remember any of this, but my principal, the other teacher, and the nurse all came to see me in the hospital tonight, and this is what they said.

I do not remember the ambulance ride, but I do remember when I got to the hospital. Apparently, I lost consciousness in the ambulance and again in the emergency room and had some rapid-eye-movement, but not a full-blown seizure at that time. I was confused for about an hour after I got the emergency room, and I had a hard time recognizing my mom and Jillian right away, remembering what I did yesterday, or remembering if I dropped Katie Anne off at daycare. They ran a ton of tests, some of which came back badly but as expected (giant lymph nodes in neck, high white blood cell count due to sickness), and one that came back weird, which lead them to do a CT scan on my heart and lungs to check for blood clots.

The good news is that, other than my fat lymph nodes which need to be checked on if they don't go down in a few days, the tests came back good. They aren't sure what caused the seizures/passing out, but think it is probably related to my being so sick, the pressure in my neck, and on my feet/rushing around. I'm out of work for the rest of the week and I can't drive for a few days. I'm tired, very sore, and ready for bed, but NaBloPoMo and the blogging world needed to be informed of my day! And Saunders, being a good sport, took those pictures with his phone, so I didn't want to let them go to waste.

That's it- I'm exhausted and off to bed. I hope you all had better days than I did!