WAKING IN A POOL OF BLOOD
Not something that I wished to be talking about, but coming close to death on so many events has caused me to be more cautious than a regular human being.
Cancellations are something that Michelle and I know well. Our honeymoon was a cruise, the Allure of the Seas by Royal Caribbean and the following year on our 1 year anniversary we did an Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Oasis of the Seas owned by the same company. In May of 2013 we needed to cancel our 3rd Anniversary cruise for the week of June 4th because of all that had happened to me that May. We haven’t been on a cruise since or a vacation at all for that matter. Michelle and I do take out insurance on everywhere we book, otherwise we would be charged for the whole trip even though we were not there - every airline, every hotel and it costs us each an extra hundred dollars. The cruise ships that we had chosen to take are too big to travel to New York with all the low bridges so they need to be taken out of Fort Lauderdale, FL. There are ships that can make it up to New York which docks in Bayonne, New Jersey which we will be taking in 2016 if that is possible.
Yesterday was no different, I had bought tickets to go see Steve Jobs the movie that just opened in theatres and the following day we had tickets to a Ranger game which all came to a deadly halt.
Michelle with her jacket on ready to go at 3:45pm for a 4:20 flick had me go to the bathroom one last time so that I’d be okay for the movie which we have done so many times already. I went to this place which seems to want me dead for some reason I’ll never know. As I stood up, pants down, 6 feet tall I came crashing down again face first smashing against the bathroom door side slicing my face beside my right eye (saving it once more) and my upper lip, same side along with my elbow and knees.
A river of blood came shooting out of the top of my face gushing out as I lay there, naked from top to bottom - face, arms, hands and legs covered in blood. Quickly Michelle put a towel for me to hold over my face to stop the bleeding, but because I was still in an epileptic trance, I didn’t hold it well as the blood kept running down. A forehead and face are not the parts of the body you want sliced. As I laid there I lost the second most amount of blood to the train tracks incident (that will be a future blog). I finally came to and held the towel over my face because I had not yet known where the blood was coming from and eventually I noticed.
As I opened my left eye and looked down at myself and the ground it was all red and the blood had even trailed into the hallway and onto the rug. Michelle had called my parents over which had taken more time than usual because my father had just came home from work and had to quickly change. Well Michelle started cleaning me and helped me get my pants up as I sat and waited in the bathroom chair. Amazingly though the bleeding stopped for the most part, so I did not need stiches. Michelle is very good at many things and one of them is being my nurse away from a hospital. As my parents waited for me in the kitchen Michelle and I went into the bedroom to get all of the blood wiped away from my body and I changed my clothes being very careful of all my wounds. My parents waited and were happy to see me return once more okay and almost totally normal again. The only good part of this true story is that it had happened on a Saturday which meant for me that Michelle would be home to take care of me, much better than my mother so that I wouldn’t have to bring cleaning products along with me but I would still wait for Michelle’s return.
Michelle is very good with band aids and lucky for me she’s not afraid of blood or vomit like most wives are and that’s why I have her for a wife, nobody could do a better job of taking care of me when it is needed. God knows!
Although the question is “When will this stop?” You can say only God knows because there is no cure for Epilepsy, not yet anyway. I was so frightened last night that I don’t know how much more I can take so I started ordering books on Amazon just because for some reason it makes me feel better to read books all written by my epileptic friend, Fyodor Dostoevsky as well as I don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring. Does anyone?
My grandparents early that morning before this incident had called over my parents, godmother and my Aunt Lisa over to come at 7:30p.m. and they were calling us down for cake and coffee around 9. I said to Michelle “they must be crazy if they think that we are going down to visit too, I don’t want to be seen covered in bandages”. Michelle agreed. My Aunt Lisa came up, who I always have a fun time talking to, no one else came up until my mother had brought up a slice of delicious cake that grandma had made that looked like the entire cake. After my mother left, they kept calling Lisa back down, bugging her to have coffee and tea. She finally went back down to them, but gave me a hug like no other because nobody knows if they will see me again. I promised her that I would stay strong for her and the rest of the family.
I had Michelle go into our bedroom closet and grab my baseball helmet which is big , strong, new and cushioned, which I believe will work well for keeping my face from ever bleeding again, at least in our bathroom. More easy said than done, but I can at least try not waking up in a pool of my own blood!
