The Sentinel, Worst Day of My Life 201116

      Thursday October 19, 2017 the fecal material hit the rotating fan.

      Joyce woke up that morning and could not see well. She had blurry vision and she said it was like looking through a dirty screen door. We called a local ophthalmologist and the office said they could not take her without a physician’s referral. We called our primary care physician but they had no open appointments until late November. They told us to go to the urgent care in Springfield. We did so and found they had no vision specialist, but they walked us down to the emergency room nearby. The emergency room had the equipment to check her out. That part went smoothly and efficiently. We were directed to another area in another emergency room.
      The doctor came in, did a precursory exam and then said Joyce needed to have an MRI to determine if she had a stroke. That was the first sign that things may not be good. At 2 pm the tech rolled Joyce away for an MRI. At 2:45 a neurologist came in to see Joyce, but she was not back yet. He asked about her general health and left, but he said he would be back later. At 3:30 Joyce was still not back. At 4 pm a nurse wheeled Joyce back to intensive care pod A1 where I had been waiting. She had had 3 MRI scans.
      Shortly after that Joyce started screaming in pain, She had a seizure and died. The only good thing all day long was she was just 10 steps away from the central area where the doctors and nurses were. They rushed in, 8 in total. They brought Joyce back to life. You may have heard what happens to a human body at the time of death when bowel and bladder control ceases and it is true. Joyce was immediately sedated after being brought back from death's door. The neurologist said they would operate on her that night for a giant aneurysm in her brain. The ER doctor came in later and said there was no one in Springfield that day who could perform the operation, so they had to get a helicopter to send her to Saint Louis. The doctor also said I should call our daughter Annie to come over because Joyce would not make it through the night.
      So began a nightmare that never ended until into the next year.