best way to Provo

.....So I was strapped to a gurney and loaded into the ambulance for a ride to the airport where a plane waited to fly me to Provo. It was on the ride to the airport that I realized I could not have made the ride in a car. Every single bump in the road caused pain in my chest and made my breathing difficult.

It was almost midnight before we flew out. So I saw nothing out the windows from my gurney except the lights on the tail of the plane. The nurses took very good care of me yet I remember that I kept wondering how the altitude would affect my ability to breathe. I guess I  am very thankful for pressurized cabins, because I noticed no changes as we ascended. 

I remember distinctly wondering what it would be like to die and if this was going to be my time to go. I wondered if darkness would close in around me and if I would see a light far away as if at the end of a tunnel. I wondered who would be there to meet me and if it would be painful or painless. 

I wasn't in much pain due to the morphine, but I didn't sleep at all. Just watched the monitors and the lights out the window. It took about 45 minutes to fly to Provo, where we landed at the airport and I was transferred to another ambulance for the ride to UVRMC.

It was interesting to look out the windows of the ambulance's doors and see signs and buildings and know exactly where in Provo we were and what road we were on. I was admitted to the ICU unit upon arriving at the hospital and a dr., not sure if he was a pulmonologist or an internist, saw me and checked me, explained what they would be doing for me then I was left in the care of a nurse for the night. 

In the morning an ultrasound was done on my legs to try to determine where the embolism had originated from. The most likely place for them to find clots is in the large veins of the legs, or the pelvic area. The ultrasound showed no clots in my legs, leaving us still wondering where the clots came from. 

I spent a day and a half in the ICU and a day in a regular care room before being released to go home. I was taught how to administer the Lovenox shots on myself. My poor stomach was a bruised mess. I was really squeamish about it at first, but I learned how to do it with little bruising and little pain beyond the initial prick. The needles themselves were very fine gauge and not hard to pierce the skin with. The hardest part of using the lovenox was the cost. About $50 a shot and I needed to do two a day. That adds up quickly and we have a very large deductible.  My mom helped with the cost of the meds. It didn't take us long to reach our deductible at that rate, either.

Stacy came up from Price to pick Curtis and I up, since the flight up was only a one-way trip! She took us to Price and Mom met us there and brought us back to Monticello. 

On to the 'new normal'....................