The Day I Almost Died

this is about June 8th 2001 (the day of my surgery)
The Day I Almost Died
There I was sitting in my hospital room, minutes before going downstairs for surgery. My life had taken a drastic turn; I had almost died and I was supposed to leave for vacation in four days. All I could think is how could this happen to me? and why me? My dad was sitting next to me when the nurse came in and said it was time to go downstairs. Terri, an adult friend from church, had just left to go back to work. She had told me that she would pray for me and everything would be fine. I began unhooking myself from all my machines, while my nurse unhooked my IV. Unhooking myself had become a routine the past day and a half. I wasnt allowed to go many places with all the wires hooked to the annoying machines. The only place I could go was to the toilet they had that was hooked up under a sink so you didnt have to walk too far. I hadnt eaten that much, mostly just the fluids that they had pumping into my hand, so I didnt have to go to the bathroom very often. The farthest that I had gone from my bed was a bathroom where I was allowed to take a bath and wash with this special soap where I was going to be cut. When I was finally unhooked and re-hooked to portable machines, I sat back in my bed and was rolled down to where I would be having surgery. As I was being rolled downstairs, my heart started pounding and I began to remember everything that had happened the morning before.
Katie, time to get up. Come on Katie, you need to get up for your appointment, said my mom two days after school let out.
Im up, Im up, I said to my mom, dreading the fact that I had to take a stress test that morning.
When I actually got up and started getting dressed, I remembered that today was the day that radio stations were giving away concert tickets and I was determined to win. I turned on my radio and listened for how they were giving the tickets away. The DJ said that you had to listen to a medley of *N SYNC songs and then call in. I was so excited. I knew that I could do that with no problem, and I figured that they wouldnt be doing it until later that afternoon. I was set; I would go take my stress test, come home, and listen to the radio.
I finished getting dressed in my flag pajama pants and a blue tank top. I was ready to go and get it over with. When I got to Kosair, I checked in at the front desk. They gave me a paper medical bracelet and told me to go up to the 8th floor. When I got upstairs, the nurse took me into the room where I would wait for the doctor and then do the stress test. My mom and brothers followed me as I followed the nurse. In the room, there was a big soft bench next to the window where we sat until they were ready to hook me up to the machines that would measure my heart rate. Finally, the nurse started hooking me up; I was starving but wasnt allowed to eat before the stress test so I just wanted to do it. She hooked me up to the machine slowly, one sticker after another, wires one by one. I sat there and waited for Dr. V. When he came in, it was time to start the test. They took my blood pressure and checked my heart rate; everything looked great. They told me to get on the treadmill. They had one rule- do not just get off. Tell them when I couldnt go any further and they would turn off the treadmill at a slow pace so that my legs didnt cramp up. I got on the treadmill and they turned it on. Every three minutes, the treadmill got a little faster and a little steeper. From the moment I got on, my legs felt sore, but I thought it was just my nerves so I ignored it. I felt fine until about seven minutes into it. Thats when I started to feel out of breath and tired.
I told the doctor, I dont think I can go much further.
Keep going until you need to stop, he said.
So I kept going. Eight and a half minutes after I started, I needed off. I told Dr. V that I needed off and put my head on the bar that I had been holding. He and the nurse both told me that I had to get my head off the bar and to keep going because they needed to listen to my heart and get my blood pressure. As I picked up my head, I started to fall backwards; I had no strength to hold me up. It had been another 30 seconds when they finally turn off the treadmill, but it also took 30 seconds to slow down to a stop so I could get off. With help from the nurse, I made it over to the bed.
As I sat down, the nurse said, You need to lie down.
Between gasps for air, I said, Ill be fine, just give me a second.
She finally convinced my to lie down, because I had no strength to fight back. Dr. V hadnt been able to listen to my heart clearly and the machine couldnt read my blood pressure, so as I lay down Dr. V tried to listen to my heart. He could still not hear clearly, but I didnt sound good. While he was listening, the nurse told my mom to come help hold my legs in the air. It had been a minute since I had gotten off the treadmill and I was gasping for air as if it would be my last breath. Between gasps I was begging my mom to put my legs down because they hurt up in the air like that. The nurse told my mom not to put my legs down because I needed that blood closer to my brain to help me from passing out.
As my mom was trying to calm me down and convince me I would be okay, I felt like I was going to be sick and said I need to go to the bathroom and I think Im gonna be sick.
Dr. V had the nurse call for more doctors and nurses. He told her to get someone to give me an IV and someone to put an oxygen mask on over my mouth and nose. As more and more doctors and nurses poured into the room, someone took my mom and brothers into another room. They put in an IV and I started crying, tears of fear and pain. I didnt know what was going on. I had nurses and doctors holding my legs in the air and massaging them; I had other nurses and doctors trying to calm me down. All at the same time, they were telling me what they were doing.
Then a man with a surgical mask came over to my left side and whispered in my left ear, I have to put another IV in this hand.
As he stuck the needle into my left hand, I squeezed the bed with my right with all the strength I had and started crying a little harder. On the other side of the room, I heard Dr. V and the man with the mask talking about putting me to sleep.
If her heart doesnt start beating normal, we will need to shock her. I would rather shock her with her asleep instead of awake. Its safer. Said Dr. V.
With the limited vision I had at that moment, I saw the man nod in agreement. When he came over to my left side and started talking to me, an actual hospital bed was rolled into the room. With the help of all the doctors and nurses, I was moved to the other bed. I had a bag of fluids being pumped into each hand through the IVs. They tilted the head of the bed down to the floor and the foot of the bed up in the air so that I was at a perfect diagonal. The nurses and doctors that had been holding my feet up put them down on the bed and started doing different things. The man in the mask went back over to Dr. V who was trying to call his partner, Dr. A. She was the doctor I had been seeing since I moved here in January. They both decided that it was time to shock me.
As they were talking, I heard someone say; Her heart rate is slowing.
They all seemed relieved. It had been about 10 minutes since I had gotten off the treadmill and I was finally being wheeled downstairs. Still almost clueless about what had happened, a nurse told me we were getting on the elevator. As we hit the opening to the elevator, my head started to hurt really bad. They wheeled me into the room where I would remain until I was released. They leveled out my bed a little bit because I was getting a headache from all the blood going to my head. They finally brought my mom into the room, while my brothers stayed with hospital volunteer. I started crying; I was so scared and I had no idea what had just happened to me. I still had doctors and nurses around me trying to make sure that I didnt have any problems. They were pinching my toes and fingers to make sure that blood was flowing into them. I was starting to get my color back. My mom told me that I had been white as snow and that I had almost passed out. My blood pressure was getting better and my heart rate was slowing. I was going to be okay. I was still crying lightly when my doctor came in and asked to speak with my mom. He wanted to tell her exactly what happened. My mom came back after talking to the doctor and sat down at my side. Within the next hour some of the doctors and nurses came by to see how I was doing. The man in the mask came in and asked how I was doing and told me he hoped I felt better. In that same hour, I had my blood pressure taken every 5 to 10 minutes and my heart rate checked every 15 minutes. A woman named Barbara asked if I was ok. I told her that my day was ruined, all I had wanted was to win concert tickets. She asked me what band and how was I planning to win them. I told her that I was determined to win *N SYNC tickets that day through the radio stations and after that she left. Not long after that, Dr. A and Dr. V came in and asked how I was. They told my mom that they thought I might need a special surgery so that if something like this happens outside of the hospital, I will have a better chance of living through it. They also told her that another doctor would be coming by a little later in the day to talk to her about it and to check me out and see if I really needed it.
Hours later, about an hour before my mom had to leave to catch her flight to Arizona to take care of my grandmother, Dr. S came to talk about having the surgery. I started crying. I didnt want surgery I just wanted to go home, but I didnt have a choice. Dr. S promised that even if I had this surgery, I would be able to go back to California as scheduled. I finally agreed to the surgery, but I knew no matter what my choice was, I was having surgery. My mom left the hospital. Later my dad came back with some things to keep me busy. He also brought me some clean clothes.

As I was reminiscing of the past day and a half I heard my nurse say, Ok Katie, here we are, as we arrived downstairs no more then five minutes later.
I snapped out of it and asked to go to the bathroom one last time. My nerves where making me crazy. One of the doctors that was going to run some tests before surgery said that I could use an actual bathroom. She grabbed a hospital gown and led the way.
When we got to the bathroom, she handed me the gown and said, I need you to change into this. This is all you can wear.
I was about to cry. I didnt like the feeling that I wasnt allowed to wear anything but this gown, but I obeyed. I went to the bathroom and changed. When I came out, we walked back to the surgery room and my nurse handed my clothes to my dad. I climbed onto the table as the five women doctors and nurses started getting everything ready. Since I already had an IV, they pumped the anesthetic into it.
As the started putting me to sleep, I started crying, I want my mom.
Someone responded, You can see her after you wake up.
No I can't, I said. She is in Arizona, taking care of my grandma.
They gave me some extra anesthetic to calm me down and told me, We have to keep you partly awake so that if this heart catheter gets stuck, we can have you cough and loosen it. So if we tell you to cough, cough hard.
Ok, I replied.
It wasnt until the next morning when I woke up. I was so thirsty. I didnt know where my call button was, so with the little strength I had, I called for the nurse. She finally came and I asked her for a drink. She went and got some apple juice. When she got back, she opened it for me and left. I gulped it down; it tasted so good and was cold running down my throat. Not more then 2 minutes after I drank the apple juice, I was sick. I started calling for the nurse again. When she came in, she took off my top blanket and replaced it with a clean one. I went back to sleep for a few hours. I woke up to the day nurse checking my vital signs. She told me I was doing great and asked if I wanted anything. I told her I needed to go to the bathroom. She told me that I couldnt go right then but she would take the catheter out and then get someone to help her get me to the toilet. She took the catheter out and helped me put on some clothing. I couldnt believe I wasnt wearing anything, I had totally forgotten that I couldnt wear anything for surgery. I got up and went to the bathroom then got back in bed. My shoulder was killing me so I couldnt get comfortable. My dad finally showed up a few hours later. He told me the story of the night before. He told me that they had to do my surgery twice. The first time they did the surgery, the Implantable Cardiological Defibrillator worked fine, until they sewed me up. Coming out of surgery, they checked it again and it didnt work. A nurse had just gotten my dad and brought him back to where I was. By the time he got there, the doctors and nurses where taking me back into surgery to change the implanted piece. My dad told me that the associate pastor from my church had come and sat with him while I was in surgery. He also said my mom had called asking how I was doing.
Around lunchtime, the nurses brought me some mashed potatoes and my dad went down stairs to the McDonalds to get himself some lunch. As soon as I started eating, a male nurse came in to check the implant and make sure it was still working. He ran the machine and checked everything. He told me it was working fine and left. I ate some more mashed potatoes and my nurse from the past couple of days came in and started talking to me. She was the coolest nurse. She was so caring and comforting. Sitting in the hospital for the 2-½ days was so scary but she helped me through it. She told me I was the oldest one in the Critical Care Unit and that I needed to set a good example, and I did. My dad was back in the room with me, eating his fries. I asked my nurse of the day if I could eat some of the fries. She had told me earlier that if I couldnt eat solid foods without getting sick, I was not allowed to go home. I had held down the Popsicle and the mashed potatoes I had eaten already.
She told me that it shouldnt be a problem. I turned to my dad and said, Hand them over. I ate the fries like there was no tomorrow. Food never tasted so good.