I am exhausted and traumatized.

I found Sheri this morning unresponsive, eyes wide open, pupils dilated, and her whole body twitching. I called 911. They had me move her to a safe place and lay her on her side. While I was moving her she asked what was happening and where was she. By the time I got her to the floor she was unresponsive again. She does not recall that conversation.

I got back on the phone with 911. She asked a few more questions. I told her the emergency squad was here and I hung up.

Sheri was conscious by this point, could hear me on the phone and was calling out for me. I sat with her and held her hand while the paramedics where getting their gear and coming in the house. She was dripping with perspiration.

They checked her blood pressure, blood sugar, heart rate, and I think a couple other things. It all checked out normal. She was feeling normal. They said they could take her to the hospital, I could take her, or we could call our family doctor and see what he advised. We decided to call our family doctor, who we love, and go from there. Sheri was still laying on the floor, and the paramedics wanted to check her blood pressure while she was standing up before they left. He could not get a reading and she started to feel faint, flushed, and get tunnel vision again. She was getting transported to the hospital.

I was keeping it together pretty good. I can do that when I have a job to do. While they were getting ready to move her I thought to call my boss and tell him I probably wasn't going to make it to work today. I started to lose it on the phone. I got out what I had to say and heard him say don't come in and then I hung up.

Once they got her in the truck they sat there for maybe 10 minutes getting her ready for the ride. Fortunately I remembered the one paramedic telling me it would take them a while to get things wrapped up so I had some time to get ready. While the truck was just sitting there in front of the house my mind started working too much and I didn't know what was going on in there. I was going to go knock, but I remembered they said it was going to take a bit. I couldn't do anything anyways if something bad happened. I also got panicked as I was following them in the car because they were not going fast enough. "What is wrong? Why aren't they going faster? Did something happen that means it wasn't an emergency anymore?" I turned the radio up and tried to sing and try to keep things together. I let things get to me a little bit right before I got to the hospital, but I pulled it together by the time I got there.

I thought about calling the Moms but decided against it because there was nothing they could do and I didn't have any answers yet. It would have put them through needless agonizing. I probably would not have had the most comforting voice either.

They had a one liter bag of saline dripping into her FAST. The arm it was going into was cold from all of the room temperature solution filling it up. One of the first things they suspected might have been at least a contributing factor was dehydration. She only had an iced coffee and half a glass of diet soda yesterday.

They did some blood work, an EKG, and a CAT scan. All came back negative. The doctor came in to tell her the good news and discharge her. "Any more questions?" "Where is the bathroom?" "Right around the corner." She stood up, and while the doctor was tying the back of her gown she started to get tunnel vision, flushed, light headed, and dizzy. Back down.

He decided to let another liter of saline drip into her. She tried over the next 30 minutes to either stand up or simply sit up several times. Each time the same reaction.

After a while she gave up and fell asleep. I think she was out for maybe an hour. By noon she was still asleep and I had not eaten or drank anything all day. I snuck down to the coffee shop in the hospital and had a pre-packaged chef's salad and a diet cola. I also checked the two messages we had on our voice mail and bought another news paper. By the time I got back to the room the nurse was there filling out the discharge papers. She must have came in minutes after I left. Sheri had successfully stood up and even bent over to pick up the shoes I brought for her. No dizzy. She looked and sounded good. The extra fluid and the rest were very helpful.

Right before we got home I started to let the trauma of the morning fully hit me. I didn't have it together until after I had been in the house for maybe five minutes.

Sheri is also exhausted and has been sleeping. I am tired but too restless or something to sleep. Maybe getting this out of me and written down will help. I just can't get the image of how I found her out of my head. I think that is the worst part. I also have a headache which doesn't help.

I want her to get in to see our family doctor as soon as possible for a follow-up. I think she said she is going to call tomorrow.