Last Sunday, 1-18-15, the wife woke me up around 4:30am crying with horrible back pain. I asked her if she had taken a pain pill and she said yes. Then I asked if she had a pain patch on and she said she did but it was time to put on a fresh one. I gave her a back rub and she seemed to relax some so I went ahead and got up. Fixed my coffee and breakfast and started some quesadilla ingredients. Sometime around 10:30 I heard a loud thump (like someone falling) and indeed she had fallen so I managed to get her up and back in bed. I figured that was the end of that but she got up and fell 3 more times (didn't break anything, thank God). Around noon she called me and I went into the bedroom and she was trying to get up again. She seemed a little confused at that time so I told her if she got up again I was calling 911 so she tried to get up and I called 911. The EMT/Etc in this area is the quickest respose team that I have ever seen. Before I could finish talking to the 911 operator there was a knock on the door. The Paramedic came in and started on her vital signs. The only thing that wasn't ok was her BP which was 218 over 187 by this time 5 other people had arrived along with a fire engine, an amblance and 2 EMT Suv's. They transported her to ER in Conroe Regional Hospital and by the time I got there she was sedated and on a ventilator with IVs in both hands and both bends of her arms at the elbows, plus 2 BP cuffs. I WAS SCARED THEN At that time I knew she was in trouble so I went to calling her son's and family and my family. They did blood work, CT scan, EKG and some other tests before moving her to ICU

She stayed on a ventilator for 3 days and when she came to, she couldn 't communicate. Nothing she said was audible plus her tongue was real thick. At that time they also had a feeding tube in her nose.

She slowly improved each day and by day 5 we could communicate pretty good but she still had some recall problems. On day 5 they moved her to a regular room and then on day 6 I got to bring her home. The Neurologist diagnosis was that she had accidentally forgotten to take the old pain patch off when she put the new one on, therefore, she had an overdose of Fentanyl that kicked her over the edge. After all is said and done we were blessed that is what it was and not a stroke or heart attack.

We've been home for 2 days and she is doing very good. It took a little while for her to learn to swallow good because of the 3 days with that ventilator that was in her throat but all of that plus her recall is coming back slowly but surely.

I don't mind telling Y'all that for 2 days I didn't know whether she was gonna pull thru and for 4 days I wondered if we would ever be able to carry on a conversation again. I am a Christian and my take on this is that God answers prayers and she had plenty going up for her. Thanks to HIM she fought the good fight and I now have her back in our home and will never take any of that for granted again.

Sorry for the short novel,
Em