Back from Florida

I hope you all had an excellent Halloween. I am still recovering from my trip, but so glad to be back home. I had an interesting experience yesterday, on the my flight from Orlando to Memphis. I was asleep (we had to get up at 12:30 am, Colorado time), when I heard the Pilate overhead say "if there is a doctor on board, we need your assistance". I am not a doctor, but I am an R.N. and I have always thought that the scariest thing would be to be up in the air and have a medical emergency. I went up to where the flight attendance were and told them that I was a nurse. I was thinking that they had things under control and would probably not need my assistance. I was wrong. There was no doctor on board. A Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, me and an EMT were stuck with an unconscious man. He had simply lost consciousness in his seat. When the NNP tried to take his pulse, she could not feel one. We lowered him down to the floor (aisle) of the plane and were prepared to start CPR. The man, all of a sudden, regained consciousness. He kept telling us that he had taken pain medication. We got him back into his seat and he lost consciousness again. With the help of a couple of men, we got him into a row of seats. We were trying to keep him lying down. We started oxygen and I took his blood pressure. His BP was low, but there. He then said he felt fine, but we made him stay laying down and we had paramedics waiting for him in Memphis. I don't know what was wrong. He could have had low potassium, he could have had low blood sugar, I will never know, but I do know that I was scared. The airline bumped Laura and I up to first class and gave us $20.00 in food vouchers for the airport. I came home with a slab of ribs for Tom from Neely's (his favorite BBQ place in Memphis).

A lot of things about this incident have gone through my mind since yesterday. First, I realize how scary flying can be. I asked the flight attendant about their medical training. While they do have some, he confessed to me that they have to rely on a medical passenger being on board.

I realized that I am STILL a nurse. It is like riding a bike and in an emergency, it comes flooding back. That makes me happy.

I realized that I love fellow human beings. I felt so bad for that man and felt so scared for his wife. There was no way I could have stayed in my seat and not helped him. That is comforting to me.

I was proud to show Laura what it means to be an active citizen and she was impressed that I got us bumped to first class.

My visit to Florida was not the best. All I can say on this blog is that my family needs much prayer. There were times on the trip when I thought to myself that I should not have gone. There is so much hurt and pain there and I didn't want to contribute to it. I did a lot of praying and I know God is faithful. As I thought about the man, I realized that maybe that is why I had to make the trip. Maybe I needed to see the situation with my family first hand. Maybe Laura had to learn a few lessons. Maybe all of the above.

I want my family in Florida to know that I truly love them and pray for them. I was happy to see my Mom on her birthday and I think the trip was worth it, if even just for that.

I am back home and will go teach kindergarten this afternoon. I need to visit with kindergarten. It does my heart good to be with them. I am so glad to be back home with my family. I am getting ready to run the "Turkey Trot" and getting ready for Thanksgiving.