Sleepless Night...

 Showing off some of the places that they had wires attached to me.

In this picture, you can't even see half of them.

 Here's all the stickers that were once on my body.

My cool hospital bracelet!

I have never been to the hospital for myself, let alone an emergency room since I was born in the hospital. I take that back. One time, when I was about 12, I went to the emergency room because my cousin accidentally threw a handful of sand in my eye. But that doesn't really count. So, back to the story. I went to bed Sunday night, putting my alarm on for 5:30am because I was working in the morning. Whenever I work in the morning, I sleep quite poorly the night before. So here I was, going in and out of sleep. I woke up around 1:30am and felt a crushing pain in my chest. I tried to move around to see if it would go away. When it wouldn't, and it started to get worse, I got out of bed and began walking around. It was becoming hard for me to breathe. Joe was now out of bed asking what was wrong. I tried to answer but all I could get out was, "I can't breathe." I kept repeating this and he asked if he should call 911. I didn't know what to say because I had no idea what was going on. It continued to get worse to where I was gasping for air and getting dizzy, sweaty and clammy. Joe then called 911 and explained the situation. They told him to have me lay down. So I sat down on the couch and tried to get myself to calm down. It didn't get any better. At that point, the paramedics had arrived and began taking my vitals and asking me questions. "On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst pain you have ever experienced, what is your pain?" I can now say that I understand where Brian Regan is coming from when he says, "Say 8!" If you don't understand this, please educate yourself and follow the link. Anyway, the paramedic who was asking me the questions, Rick, then told me, "Well, I think we'll go for a ride, ok?" Oh, Rick. I began getting shaky and twitchy on the ride there. Rick was literally a lifesaver. He made small talk with me which helped me to feel a little less like I was dying. Once we got to the emergency room, they continued to ask me question after question. The doctor asked if I was usually twitchy. No, no I am not. But I felt a little crazy at that point! They did several tests on my heart, and I had an IV put in me for the first time ever...talk about uncomfortable! Well, after hours of tests that all came back negative, they decided that I was probably having a panic attack. A panic attack! When they told me, I was not surprised at all. I had never experienced a panic attack before, let alone anxiety until I started my job. Since then, I began experiencing anxiety which has continued to get worse the longer I work there, and has now escalated to panic attacks. In any case, this was the first time I've been rushed to the emergency room and the first time that my husband has called 911! While it's a good story to tell, it was one of the scariest moments in my life - and that is not an exaggeration. I am grateful for my Savior in moments like this. It's amazing how amongst the panic, comforting words of the gospel came to my head. I also was amazed at the calmness of my husband. He did so well throughout this whole thing and was by my side the whole time. He didn't even flinch when they put the IV in me - and if you know my husband, you know this is a huge feat! I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for all the tender mercies that came out of this event. And to all of you, my friends and family, who supported me through this. And if you made it through this post, it must have been a more riveting story than I thought.