We had a scare this past weekend, which involved calling 911
and taking Aaron to the emergency room.
From about 6 am to 6 pm on both Saturday and Sunday, Aaron was
hard at it in the yard. On Saturday, he
stayed hydrated with water and Gatorade.
He was exhausted that evening.
The next day, he got up and did it all again except with just water, no
Gatorade and hardly any breaks.
Later Sunday evening, we had dinner plans with friends and
really had no breaks in-between yard work and getting ready to go. We got downtown and our food had just arrived
at our table and Aaron said his hamstring was tightening and cramping up on him. Then he stood up and said he was feeling
light headed. Within a few seconds, he
nose-dived into our table, passed out and fell backwards onto the floor and
convulsed a few times in an unconscious state.
I screamed and yelled call 911 and grabbed my phone to call myself.
At this point, several other restaurant patrons had 911 on
the phone and within a few brief moments, Aaron regained consciousness. I still had 911 on the line and he told me to
cancel the ambulance, that he was fine. Typical
man response…Right away, we knew he was severely dehydrated and got him water
and a cold washcloth. I really was more
so in a state of shock of what just happened and trying to figure out what to
do next.
With a little effort, I talked him into going to the
ER. Being right downtown, we were close
to the hospital and on the way there, he commented that his leg was cramping up
again, so I go into full panic mode, rushed him into the ER in a wheelchair and
they started an IV on him right away.
After spending 4 hours in the ER, he got thoroughly checked,
blood work, glucose test, CT scan of his head, EKGs, urine test, 4 bags of
sodium chloride pumped into him, etc.
When he first came in, his heart rate and blood pressure was high. They checked it often and it returned to
normalcy fairly quickly. All tests came
back fine; he did not have a heat stroke but suffered from exhaustion.
Monday was spent taking it easy and keeping the fluids
running thru him. He was pretty tired
and got some extra rest in. This whole
thing shook me up, during those moments, the look on his face and unconscious
state; I really thought I was losing him in that moment, very scary stuff!
When I thought about it, he really had a crazy week. He was in Vegas for work earlier that week,
came back to extra work from being gone and then went straight into major yard
work. He never stops enough to rest,
which I am now more aware of the importance to restore and rest and to stop
pushing ourselves a million miles a minute. Sometimes it is for our own good to
say no to projects, invites, work, and other obligations when we are feeling
overwhelmed. We often need to remind
ourselves that God made a 7th day for rest and restoration and we
need to be more respectful of that gift we are given. As silly as it sounds, it’s not easy for
either one of us to rest and do nothing; we are people who like to be busy bees
so still something we need to work on.
Funny huh, work on working on nothing basically is what we need to work
on J
Lesson learned and to be passed on to others, don’t overdo
it in the summer heat. Take breaks and
let your body cool down and drink not only water, but Gatorade as well. Eat often (he had only had a salad that
day). And if everything doesn’t get
done, leave it for another day; it’s not worth over stressing your body. Our deck didn’t get stained like we wanted to
but oh well; I just don’t care about that silly deck anymore. I am happy and thankful to report that Aaron
is healthy and 100% well now and I am beyond grateful for that!
