The journey to the hospital...

   So after I passed out in the boat, Dale and everyone else in the boat realized there was definitely something wrong. The boat raced back to the cabin where Dale's friend Bryce carried me into the cabin and laid me on my bed. Dale stayed with me and tried to keep me awake (everyone's initial thought was that I had a concussion.) He was asking me all the classic questions, "how many fingers?", "follow my finger", "can you feel me touching your foot?", "do you know where you are?". I was apparently answering appropriately until I suddenly went completely unconscious and was unarousable. Dale knew this was a serious problem now and immediately called 911. The nearest hospital was about 30 min away and was a small hospital so Dale's initial thought was to load me in his truck and drive me himself rather than to wait for the ambulance. The ambulance dispatcher cautioned against this and much to Dale's disapproval he had to sit there and wait while he watched his sister lay there unconscious and throw up in the back of his truck.
     I can't imagine how scary this was for everyone there! I still get chills thinking about it.
I'm sure it felt like an eternity, but the ambulance finally got there, loaded me up to take to the nearest hospital.
     Luckily my Dad arrived back to the cabin from another boat that was out on the water just in time to see the doors of the ambulance closing, only to be told that it was his little girl. I can't even imagine what was running through his mind. "What happened? Is she okay? How bad is it?"
    Ashley rode in the ambulance with me  to answer the paramedic's questions about what happened as she was with me all day. Dale and my Dad were going to follow behind the ambulance in Dale's truck. No one knew exactly what was wrong yet.
    I was taken to Ashern hospital to be stabilized. After I fought the paramedics all the way to the hospital I'm sure they were more than happy to hand me off to the nurses. The fighting didn't stop there. I didn't hold back on the nurses either. In the treatment area of the emergency room it looked like a vicious cat fight, there were nurses being pushed, curtains flying. Now when we talk about it, Dale and my Dad say it was a pretty funny thing to watch. I'm sure it wasn't at the time, however.
    You are all probably wondering why I was in so much pain and fighting like a madwoman. My intercranial (inside my skull) pressure was through the roof. A normal pressure is between 15-18mmHg. Mine was over 65! I can't even begin to describe the pain. Your head basically feels like it is going to explode. Any touch to your face feels like that is what is going to be the cause of the explosion. Luckily your body has a pretty cool defense mechanism which makes you forget that type of pain. I will get into that in later posts.
     Medically when you have a brain injury, the intercranial pressure causes you to be combative. These were certainly the symptoms that I was exhibiting to all of my unlucky victims.
     Where was I... oh ya, fighting. Like I had mentioned, I didn't hold back on who was my next victim. After the nurses, it was the doctor's turn. (they finally realized it would be a good idea to restrain me. Although, they only restrained my right hand because in the paramedic's assessment they found that I had no feeling or movement in my left side. Another bad mistake haha.) The doctor started his assessment, and when it came time to look in my ears with that cool light it was his turn to become the victim. He put it in my ear, only to get a left hook in the face by me! (sorry Doc) I think I overstayed my welcome at Ashern hospital, because they did enough to stabilize me to put me back into the ambulance to move on to the next hospital. Health Sciences Centre here I come... (luckily for the paramedics I was heavily sedated this time.)