Gettin' personal...

Have you ever felt the Lord completely take over you and make His strength perfect in your weakness? 

This past Christmas, I was able to grasp an entirely new picture of Father's strength.  I debated on whether or not to write about this on the blog but since I am convinced that there is only a handful of you that read it anyways, I shall proceed.

I mentioned in my recap of 2013 that this past year was full of physical attacks.  The week we were in Nahunta for Christmas was definitely a period where those attacks climaxed.  So here is an overview of what happened...

On the Monday night before Christmas, we all headed to bed as usual except for my daddy.  He has a lot of trouble with heel spurs and this Monday night he was in a lot of pain.  My daddy rarely takes medicine but he had a prescription (which he has taken sporadically in the past) specifically for his heel spurs.  He took the medicine, ate a tangerine, and headed to bed only to break out in hives within minutes of being in bed.  Obviously he was having an allergic reaction to something but at the time - the ONLY odd thing he ate that day or did was consume the tangerine before bed.  My mom called a friend that is a family doctor and she asked if he was breathing okay, etc.  She said he needed to take Benadryl immediately and stand in a cold shower in order to relieve some of the itching.  Unfortunately, my mom realized she was out of Benadryl and proceeded to call my cousin Brooke who just happened to be at Walmart at 11pm at night.  Coincidence?  Nope.  She was at the house within 15 minutes.  After a few hours the hives went away and were completely gone by the next day.  It was sort of a mystery as to what caused the allergic reaction but my dad just decided he would not be eating another tangerine!

Fast forward to the Thursday night after Christmas.  Before going to bed, my daddy ended up taking another pain pill for his heel spurs and headed to bed.  At 3:30AM, he woke up, threw the covers off and realized he had broke out in hives from head to toe.  He immediately jumps up out of the bed to grab the Benadryl but becomes so dizzy that he asks my mom to grab it because he knew he needed to sit back down.  Within seconds she gives him the Benadryl and a glass of water and as he is swallowing the second pill, he drops the glass of water and falls backwards on the bed and begins gasping for air.  At this point is when my mom screamed at the top of her lungs for someone to call 911.  I grabbed my phone immediately without even knowing what was going on and called 911.  As Rance, my brother and I all headed to my parent's bedroom - it only took one look to see that my dad could not breathe and it wasn't good.  I ended up handing my mom the phone to answer a million questions with 911 (and to distract her b/c she was panicking) and Rance and I got on each side of my dad on the bed.  I began praying fervently.  Rance and I were talking to him and trying to keep him conscious and begging him to breathe but he was gasping for air with each breathe probably only getting a 1/4 of what he needed at that point.  Rance and I decide to sit him up to see if that would help him get more air and as we are sitting him up - his entire body turned blood red from head to toe and his body started having convulsions.  In that moment, I was convinced my daddy was having a heart attack.  I have never seen anything like it in my entire life nor have I ever felt so helpless yet so incredibly calm at the same time.  I was begging the Father to rescue him and to free his body.  As his body jerked he then became extremely stiff, began foaming at the mouth, and it was as if his airways were closing up to the point of no return.  He could get NO air.  In that moment, I thought he was dying and that there was absolutely nothing I could do.  His eyes shut, he completely stopped breathing and his body became limp...absolutely lifeless.  I looked at Rance and said 'is he gone?'  Both of us had NO emotion in that moment.  My mom was screaming and shaking him and begging him not to leave her.  It all seemed surreal yet it was SO REAL.  I kept giving my mom orders to keep her distracted and focused and told her to grab a wash cloth and start wiping the foam out of his mouth.  His tounge had swollen so much she stuck her finger in his mouth to open up any airway she could and began breathing in his mouth.  At this point we let his body slide down to the floor.  It felt like an eternity but out of nowhere he let out a breath.  In that moment, my cousin Brooke came running in the house and she was like a guardian angel on the scene.  The three of us (her, Rance and I) worked together doing everything we could think of.  You could feel NO pulse at all on his wrist at that point.  My mom grabbed fans because his entire body was pouring beads of sweat.  We were asking him to open his eyes and look at us and you could eventually tell he could hear us but could not respond.  He still was fighting for air.  When the ambulance finally arrived, his blood pressure was 78/0 - rock bottom.  All I knew to do was to pray...

As the ambulance pulled out - Rance and I got dressed and headed to the ER.  Fast forward to an hour or so later and the doctor called all of us back to see my daddy.  We were told (before any testing was even done) that my dad had had an allergic reaction to the pain medicine for his heal spurs.  The doctor said had my daddy not taken the Benadryl when he did, he would have died.  Basically, after those convulsions when he completely stopped breathing had to be the time the Benadryl began to kick in to cause him to have his next breathe minutes later.  The doctor said there are usually 3 happenings with allergic reactions - the first time, was like Monday night - treatable.  The second time it happens, you can die and the third time, you will die.  He said typically when those reactions happen in your sleep that it's too late by the time you wake up and that you are already gasping for air.  The fact that my daddy woke up just in time to be able to get Benadryl in him is a miracle.  Not to mention, the reaction on Monday night is what allowed Benadryl to be at the house in the first place. 

Of course my family was so concerned about me being pregnant and through some major trauma but I could not make anyone understand that I was okay.  Yes, I see those images in my head everyday.  Yes, I'll probably never forget what I saw.  But let me tell you what I am confident of, the girl on the bed that morning at 3:30 am WAS NOT ME.  For anyone that knows me, I do not respond to a trauma scene, I always flee but that Friday morning the Lord did the impossible in me.  My teammate in life (Rance) and I worked together and were able to stay calm and think clearly in the middle of one of the scariest situations we have ever been in in our lives.  My weakness is a situation like this yet the Lord made His strength so perfect in my weakness and enabled me to respond well.  My daddy ended up staying in the hospital all of Friday and part of the day on Saturday but then was able to come home.  I am grateful Rance and I were at home with my parents when this happened and I thank the Lord for His graciousness through it all.

By the way - ALWAYS HAVE BENADRYL CLOSE BY.