DSOTM

My assumption is that you’ve never been in an emergency room, wondering if this was the last room you’ll ever see. Until a year ago, I hadn’t either.

When I came home from work that night, I stopped by the grocery store to buy a frozen pizza for dinner. The pizza was the gourmet kind, so I was eager to try it. When the timer went off, I ran downstairs to pull the pizza from the oven. Hurriedly, I cut the pizza, put it on the plate, grabbed a beverage, and jogged upstairs. I didn’t want to miss the show that was playing.

I made it upstairs, and ate my pizza. When I was done, my heart started beating rapidly. It started a little quicker than normal, then continued for a minute. After that minute, it was racing twice its normal rate. I panicked.

After finding my doctor’s phone number in the phone book, I made an emergency call to his direct line. He called me back in 31 minutes. My heart was beating as fast as it was 33 minutes previous. He asked me if I was ok to drive. I, unknowingly, said yes. I drove to the emergency room. Before I did that, I left a note with my parents.

When I arrived at the emergency room, I had no idea what was going on. I felt no pain, only sheer fear. I think all my adrenaline was past gone, and I started to tremble. They immediately admitted me, and began hooking me up to all sorts of monitors. Then they brought out the defibulator. My brain, at that time, was firing all sorts of messages. The most obvious was of survival. But I didn’t know how to survive this. The other messages were of guilt, shock, fear, and clarity.

Clarity? On your death bed? At that time, there was one girl on my mind. I have no idea why I thought of her, but I vowed that I would say goodbye to her before I died. I hadn’t thought of her for months prior to that. I have seen her a couple times since. I haven’t said goodbye yet. I may never either.

Strange thoughts enter your mind if you honestly fear it’s over. We may never know the origin of these thoughts, but then again, we might. Who knows what will happen on the other side. The dark side of the moon. I may find out who killed JFK. I may even meet my Grandpa, before his illness.