Monday night I went to bed as usual when it was Pops turn to drive. Everything seemed ok and normal.
He awakened me at 4am by calling my name in such a way that I knew instantly something was terribly wrong. I jumped up and he told me that he was bleeding and in pain. I could see blood all over the place. His clothing was soaked. The seat had blood and there was blood on the floor.
He wanted to try to Catherize himself to see if it might help. So I took the dogs out and quickly got dressed. After he used the catheter, he felt a small amount of relief although there was still blood coming out.
I began the drive to our delivery. We were 70 miles away from Dallas.
After just a few minutes he began crying out in pain and that quickly turned into screams of agony.
I pulled over and checked him and he was soaked from sweat and blood was all over the bed.
I wanted to take him to the hospital and even tried to make arrangements to do that but then he told me to keep driving.
I called Chad, our preacher. He answered right away. I know he prayed for us but honestly, I cannot remember a single word from that conversation.
I was crying and didn't know what to do. Pops just said keep going.
I finally made it to our destination and there was someone there to unload us. Usually this part falls under Pops' share of the job, but I knew there was no way possible he was going to be able to.
I didn't even know for sure what we had on other than it was a hazmat. I didn't know how it was secured, I wasn't sure about what paperwork o have signed or which parts were ours or theirs. Plus, I was a big mess from the stress.
I opened the doors. I backed the truck into the dock and got out a chalked the wheels and looked to see if I needed to dump the air from the airbags to get level with the dock, but that was ok. I grabbed the clipboard with the paperwork and headed to the dock.
It didn't have steps but a ladder to get up on the dock. And just as soon as I got up there, right there on the ground in front of me was a penny. God telling me, "Don't worry, I'll take care of you."
So I picked that penny up and put it in my pocket.
I removed the load bars that were securing the load and the dockworker unloaded the three containers. He signed my paperwork and I gave him a copy of each, then I put the load bars back into the truck and pulled the truck forward to shut my doors. Then I removed all the hazardous placards from the truck and then the best part, drove back through Dallas to the truckstop without using any GPS, just my memory.
I was very proud of being able to do all of that with all that was going on.
Pops did not feel any better and things didn't look better for him either so I looked on the Internet and located a hospital. But Gypsy (our GPS) would not give me directions for the loosest one. So I decided on the second closest which was 19 miles away.
About half way there I called Starla to let her know what was going on. Pops was screaming in the background and that scared her. Then I called 911 to try to get help from them. I told the lady where I planned o go and that we were from Pennsylvania and didn't really know the area and that we were in a big FedEx truck. She located me through my phone's GPS and directed me step by step to the hospital and already had someone from there coming out with a wheelchair to get Pops. She was so comforting and helpful.
The hospital was Renaissance Hospital in Terrell, Texas which is a rural suburb of Dallas. It was a very, very small hospital.
They got a catheter into Pops to help relieve some of the pressure but weren't equipped to do much more for him because of their size. So they made arrangements to have him transferred by ambulance to another hospital.
They were very nice there and allowed me to leave our truck there and they made arrangements for me to be able to ride with Pops in the ambulance.
Sit was about a 45 minute ride in the ambulance but the young man that was driving was very kind and easy to talk to. I learned a lot about him during the ride.
We got to the emergency department of Parkland Hospital which is right downtown Dallas. Once through the doors we had to be stopped by a police officer and scanned for weapons, they even did that to Pops who was laying on the stretcher in a hospital gown. And then they scanned me and the emts and even went through my purse. Wow, that was security.
He was pushed back the hall to the emergency department and talk about. Bustle of activity. There were people everywhere. It looked like a lot of drug addicts and prisoners in prison garb with armed guards. And many others.it was busy.
There were no available trauma rooms so Pops was pushed up alongside the wall and there he stayed all day. Of course they did pull a privacy curtain around him when they treated him but there really wasn't too much privacy.
Tate and Shirley showed up to be with us. That was so very kind of them and brought me tremendous comfort.
Because seeing how much blood he was losing and all the sights I was seeing and being far from home and worrying about our insurance an about Pops and wondering how the dogs were, and taking phone calls and messages, and not having anything to eat or drink ALL day long and starting the day at 4am. I WAS OVERWHELMED! And I just lost it and began to cry. And the more I tried to stop crying, the more I did cry. At one point a nurse asked me if I was ok, she told me that I looked worse than Pops did. So I rooted through my purse and found the pills that I keep with me that I take only in my worst cases of anxiety and I took half of one.
It is not magic, but in just a little while I did calm down. I went into the bathroom and washed my face and put on some eyeliner. When I got back to the hallway, I was starting to feel a little better. So I leaned up against the wall and stuck my hands in my pockets and I felt the penny. Instantly I felt like God was telling me, "I'm still with you."
The morphine was working on Pops and he was a lot calmer now too.
Around 5pm a very young man came and introduced himself as a urologist. He was going to take care of Pops. So within 5 minutes Pops was taken into a real room with a door and the Dr explained that he was going to flush out his bladder. So he took the Foley catheter out and put in different one. With this one he could use a huge syringe to insert water into the bladder and then pulled back on the stopper and sucked fluid back out.he did this procedure over and over again until he used 3 liters of water. Pops was in excruciating pain the whole time. Gobs and gobs of blood clots were coming out of him. I could not believe how much there was and how big some of them were. At one point he even asked me to help him. I am not Squimish at all so I did. I asked him dozens of questions and he thoroughly answered each one. I really liked this young man. He did not stop flushing until he wasn't't getting anymore clots and the fluid was coming back out lost clear.
Then they set him up with a drip catheter which pushed fluid into and right back out of his bladder all night long, a constant flushing.
Once they had Pops comfortable again and found a room for him upstairs, I left the hospital with Tate and Shirley. They drove me back to the truck and they stayed at a hotel only 3 blocks away.
Once back at the truck I left the dogs out and then began to clean up all the mess from the morning. I found myself something to eat. And then the events all began to settle in on me and I started to cry and cry again.
I turned the radio on to the Christian music channel and they played the Kutless song, Even if the healing doesn't come. It seemed like it was meant for me. It was beautiful and it is my feelings exactly and it was perfect timing.
I returned some phone calls and texted with Drew for awhile and then, being exhausted decided to go to sleep. As I was climbing into bed Something on the floor caught my eye. It was the penny, it must have fallen out of my pocket when I changed clothes.
Thank You, Lord. I love You too.
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