R
Rachel_1
Guest
On another thread someone wanted to ask me about my near death experience, so as to not get off topic in that thread, I suggested starting a new one… and here we are. 
I think also that this thread could be a place where others that have experienced this can relate their experience as well. Ok this will be split into two posts as I went over their character limit here lol
My experience:
In Oct 2005 I was 37 and my husband and I were married… in a pagan handfasting. We were both pagans/witches, and I had been for years. My husband had become pagan after attending a protestant, evangelical church and according to him, finding that most going to the church he went to weren’t really serious about their beliefs, so he left and became pagan (which is what his dad is (note, his mom was raised Catholic)). We lived our life as married witches for 2 months, until Dec 26, 2005.
On that date, I had to work, so I drove into work feeling fine. When I got to the parking lot and parked, it suddenly felt like someone had punched me in the tummy and all my air just went away (no pain though), and my first thought was “wow, I’m out of shape, I need to hit the treadmill after work”. I walked in and the same thing happened again. I was confused but it didn’t hurt so no big deal.
I worked through the day with it happening over and over and towards the end of the day my chest started to hurt a little bit, but more like if I had a cold or something and my lungs were congested, so I figured maybe I was getting bronchitis or something, and then I decided against running on the treadmill and just went straight home.
I didn’t have to work the next day, so my normal routine when I had the next day off was to stay up and game or have a lan party (yes, I’m a geek lol). At about 11:30pm I was feeling so worn out and stuff that I just decided to go to bed, which was highly unusual for me. I seemed to sleep good through the night, I didn’t wake up or anything, I guess I was just completely exhausted and I slept for almost 12 hours.
The next morning Dec 27, 2005 I woke at 11am-ish, I could not breathe at all, it felt like my lungs had collapsed or something and my chest felt like it was on fire. I woke my husband and told him “something’s wrong, I can’t breathe” and he said he was going to call 911. I’m the type (or was the type) to not go to dr’s for anything so I said “no, it’ll go away in a minute” and after like 10 seconds I said “it’s not going away just drive me to the hospital.” I figured that maybe it would go away in route or something. I went to stand up and get dressed and was so dizzy that it was near impossible to stand. At that point my husband called 911.
It seemed like forever for them to get there, while I was waiting, my medical training (CNA and my mom was a LPN) kicked in and I thought, these are symptoms of a heart attack maybe. When they finally got there I mentioned to them that maybe it was either a collapsed lung or maybe a heart attack in between trying to get my breath. The EMT immediately said that there was nothing wrong with me which floored me because obviously something was very wrong, I had pain and couldn’t breathe. I had to talk him into taking me to the hospital and in route to the hospital he yelled at me several times because he couldn’t get a BP on me. By the time we arrived, I was in tears from him yelling at me and demeaning me the entire way.
As I sat in the ER the EMT that had yelled at me stayed and waited on the DR to come in. When the DR got there they joked about me with me right there, and the EMT told the DR there was nothing wrong with me and he thought I was faking. The EMT left and then the DR gave me an ativan and said I was just having a panic attack and that I was far too young to have a heart attack. The ativan helped my breathing somewhat, but didn’t make it completely go away and did nothing for the pain. He asked how I was feeling after about 20 min or so and I told him that the breathing was a little better but the pain was still there. He said “yep, it’s just a painic attack, here’s a prescription” and sent me on my way home.
Throughout the day I popped ativan like candy whenever I couldn’t breath. I tried to game, couldn’t focus enough (probably cause I was high on too much ativan lol), and so we did mini rituals throughout the day to try and make me feel better (witchy stuff), which didn’t work at all. Sometime in the middle of the day my memory gets fuzzy (which later I found out was a stroke).
Sometime around midnight Dec 28, 2005 I apparently passed out on the floor ( I think for only a minute or so) and my husband said he was calling 911 again when I woke. I agrued with him and said “no way am I going through that again” and told him that if I’m going back, he’s driving me. He went into the other room to tell his friend who was staying with us and it suddenly occurred to me, that I was dying. I tried to ignore these thoughts that I was dying, but I KNEW I was dying anyway. He got me into the car and as I sat there waiting on him to get something from the house I thought to myself “I’m not going to make it to the other hospital he’s taking me to, I better go to the one from earlier because it’s only like 2 miles away”, so he got in the car and I told him that.
(continued)
I think also that this thread could be a place where others that have experienced this can relate their experience as well. Ok this will be split into two posts as I went over their character limit here lol
My experience:
In Oct 2005 I was 37 and my husband and I were married… in a pagan handfasting. We were both pagans/witches, and I had been for years. My husband had become pagan after attending a protestant, evangelical church and according to him, finding that most going to the church he went to weren’t really serious about their beliefs, so he left and became pagan (which is what his dad is (note, his mom was raised Catholic)). We lived our life as married witches for 2 months, until Dec 26, 2005.
On that date, I had to work, so I drove into work feeling fine. When I got to the parking lot and parked, it suddenly felt like someone had punched me in the tummy and all my air just went away (no pain though), and my first thought was “wow, I’m out of shape, I need to hit the treadmill after work”. I walked in and the same thing happened again. I was confused but it didn’t hurt so no big deal.
I worked through the day with it happening over and over and towards the end of the day my chest started to hurt a little bit, but more like if I had a cold or something and my lungs were congested, so I figured maybe I was getting bronchitis or something, and then I decided against running on the treadmill and just went straight home.
I didn’t have to work the next day, so my normal routine when I had the next day off was to stay up and game or have a lan party (yes, I’m a geek lol). At about 11:30pm I was feeling so worn out and stuff that I just decided to go to bed, which was highly unusual for me. I seemed to sleep good through the night, I didn’t wake up or anything, I guess I was just completely exhausted and I slept for almost 12 hours.
The next morning Dec 27, 2005 I woke at 11am-ish, I could not breathe at all, it felt like my lungs had collapsed or something and my chest felt like it was on fire. I woke my husband and told him “something’s wrong, I can’t breathe” and he said he was going to call 911. I’m the type (or was the type) to not go to dr’s for anything so I said “no, it’ll go away in a minute” and after like 10 seconds I said “it’s not going away just drive me to the hospital.” I figured that maybe it would go away in route or something. I went to stand up and get dressed and was so dizzy that it was near impossible to stand. At that point my husband called 911.
It seemed like forever for them to get there, while I was waiting, my medical training (CNA and my mom was a LPN) kicked in and I thought, these are symptoms of a heart attack maybe. When they finally got there I mentioned to them that maybe it was either a collapsed lung or maybe a heart attack in between trying to get my breath. The EMT immediately said that there was nothing wrong with me which floored me because obviously something was very wrong, I had pain and couldn’t breathe. I had to talk him into taking me to the hospital and in route to the hospital he yelled at me several times because he couldn’t get a BP on me. By the time we arrived, I was in tears from him yelling at me and demeaning me the entire way.
As I sat in the ER the EMT that had yelled at me stayed and waited on the DR to come in. When the DR got there they joked about me with me right there, and the EMT told the DR there was nothing wrong with me and he thought I was faking. The EMT left and then the DR gave me an ativan and said I was just having a panic attack and that I was far too young to have a heart attack. The ativan helped my breathing somewhat, but didn’t make it completely go away and did nothing for the pain. He asked how I was feeling after about 20 min or so and I told him that the breathing was a little better but the pain was still there. He said “yep, it’s just a painic attack, here’s a prescription” and sent me on my way home.
Throughout the day I popped ativan like candy whenever I couldn’t breath. I tried to game, couldn’t focus enough (probably cause I was high on too much ativan lol), and so we did mini rituals throughout the day to try and make me feel better (witchy stuff), which didn’t work at all. Sometime in the middle of the day my memory gets fuzzy (which later I found out was a stroke).
Sometime around midnight Dec 28, 2005 I apparently passed out on the floor ( I think for only a minute or so) and my husband said he was calling 911 again when I woke. I agrued with him and said “no way am I going through that again” and told him that if I’m going back, he’s driving me. He went into the other room to tell his friend who was staying with us and it suddenly occurred to me, that I was dying. I tried to ignore these thoughts that I was dying, but I KNEW I was dying anyway. He got me into the car and as I sat there waiting on him to get something from the house I thought to myself “I’m not going to make it to the other hospital he’s taking me to, I better go to the one from earlier because it’s only like 2 miles away”, so he got in the car and I told him that.
(continued)
(subbing)
if that were me, i’d go back and tell him what happened. the fool was trying to diagnose you which he has no qualifications to do so. it’s hard enough for MD’s to do that sometimes. his cruelty should be reported.