Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Not Quite Normal...

Today was a day of firsts.

It was the first time I had a house guest.

It was the first time I was late to work.

It was the first time I called 911.

It was the first time I had an ambulance in my driveway and a firetruck parked in front of my house.

It was the first time I've had on duty first responders in my house.

And I thought it was going to be a semi normal morning...

My best friend flew in yesterday because her little brother is getting married this weekend.  Since we hadn't seen each other in a couple of months and our work schedules hadn't allowed for a Skype date since the last time she was in town in May, she decided to spend the night at my house when she got in.  She wanted to see what I'd done with the place since the last time she saw it was the day I closed on the house.

Everything seemed normal.  She arrived; we ate a fabulous dinner of roast beef, mashed potatoes, and green beans from Aurora's Family Restaurant; we stayed up for a couple hours catching up and talking.  Normal stuff we do every time we're together.

Then we went to bed.

Normally I get up at 5 AM, go to the gym, get ready at the gym and head to work.  And by get up at 5 AM, I mean stumble around my house, grab my gym bag and work stuff and head out the door where hopefully an accelerated heart rate at the gym means I'm awake by the time work rolls around.

Since my best friend had spent the night, and I knew we would likely stay up talking, I set my alarm for an hour later, told my sister I wasn't going to the gym, and went to bed.

It was fairly normal.

This morning my alarm went off.  I stumbled around for a few minutes only half awake and then hopped in the shower... okay so it was more like dragged myself into the shower hopping to wake up.  In case you haven't figured it out, I'm not a morning person.... or a night owl... I just really like sleep.

But I digress.

I got out of the shower and went to walk back across the house to finish getting ready for work.

That's when things became decidedly abnormal.

As I headed down the hallway, I heard a noise in my living room.  My best friend was on the couch and at first I thought she was sobbing.  Then I heard the words, "My chest hurts and I'm having shortness of breath" come out of her mouth while she was breathing rapidly.

Somehow I stayed calm.  I still don't know how that happened.

Short digression.... There is a reason I did not go into the medical field... actually there are several reasons.  Among them are blood, needles, and sick people... I don't normally handle any of them well.

So I did what any normal person would do at 6:20 AM... I turned on the light so I could see in the house.

Then she told me to call 911.  And that's when I really knew she wasn't feeling well.

So I calmly called 911.  And then I calmly called her mother.  And then I calmly called my mom.  And then I opened the door so I could see when the emergency vehicles arrived.  And then I let the firefighters in while my hair was still up in a towel and I was still in my bathrobe.

And I was still calm.

I will admit, I looked away when they stuck the needle for the IV in her arm... they didn't need two patients to work on.

By the time they took her away in the ambulance, she was starting to feel a little better.  I called a couple more people to let them know which hospital they were taking her to and then finally got dressed.  I grabbed my stuff for work, texted my boss that I would be late, and headed up to the hospital.

I saw her for a few minutes at the hospital, told her she should feel privileged that I was there since I HATE hospitals, and left her in the capable hands of her parents while I headed off to work.

Where I sat in my car for a good 10 minutes to decompress.

The doctor ended up attributing it to something like a panic attack and she was released from the hospital before lunch.

But there are a couple of things I need to point out in this story.  Ways that I see God's hand so clearly in everything.  So bear with me, because I'm going to make a list.  Because I really like lists.

1. I didn't go to the gym.

My normal routine is to head to the gym.  God, in his wisdom, said, "You're going to stay up later than normal talking and decide not to go to the gym in the morning."  If I had gone to the gym like normal, I wouldn't have been home when this happened.  I would have been getting ready to hit the showers at the gym.  That's a God thing.

2.  I live 5 minutes from the hospital.

My friend's family is a lot farther north than I am.  If she had been at home, she would not have been nearly as close to the hospital as she was at my house.  The decision to stay at my house was a spur of the moment idea late last week.  That's a God thing.

3. I was coherent.

Normally, even after a morning shower, it takes me a little while to wake up.  I was awake and alert enough to do what needed to be done in the moment.  That's a total God thing.

4.  I still had her parents' home phone number in my phone from when we were growing up... that's a God thing.

5. I remained calm.

Since I normally don't deal with medical stuff well... well, that's for sure a God thing.

6.  She's perfectly okay.

Do I really need to say it?  Okay... GOD THING.

7.  I had a quiet day at work.

There was no drama.  There were no fires to put out.  There were happy people not crabby people.  There was laughter.  There was computer work that I could just put headphones in and work on.  And after the last few weeks, that, my friends, was a God thing.  Because I needed to decompress and be quiet and be still.

I am seriously amazed at how God works.  The little ways that he constantly shows up.  The ways that he changes our routines and normalcy ahead of time in order to provide. And I'm thankful for the way he reminds me to look at the little things, to take time and reflect, and to see what He has accomplished.

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