The Story-Part One

Here we go with the story of my Christmas vacation, courtesy of Valley and Deaconess hospitals.

I had been building up fluid, and it crept up on me so slowly that I didn't realize how sick I was actually getting. On November 31st, it reached the point where I was so sick Dawn said, that's it, you have to go to the emergency room. I begged her to just let me sleep, I was so tired and sick that all I wanted to do was sleep. Dawn almost gave in, but said no, you HAVE to go. In doing this, she saved my life.

It took me four hours to get ready, since I insisted on cleaning up before I went. You know how important it is to look okay when you're dying. After this bout of pig-headedness, I was done for. Couldn't even make it to the car. Dawn calls the ambulance.

So now I'm loaded up in the squad, and the medic and I talk shop for a minute, then things get hazy. I recall very little of the following, Dawn has given me all the lovely details.

I arrive at Valley hospital, and my breathing gets worse and worse. Each breath is slower to come then the last one, and I keep drifting off. Dawn keeps saying my name, telling me to wake up, so of course I start getting pissy! "Okay, Dawn!" Next thing she's waking me up again saying, "Joey, you're sleeping with your eyes open!" My response? I get all excited and tell her my brother and I tried for years to do that! For all you non-nerds, Gandalf slept with his eyes open in Lord of the Rings. Nice, eh?

Then I stop breathing, period...