“One foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel.”
It was the most perfect moment, I was finally in Austria, on the mountain where Julie Andrews sings her famous song from “The Sound of Music.” The sun was warm on my face, and the cool breeze ruffled my hair and my skirt. I looked all around me and felt incredible peace. Lush fields surrounded me and the view of snow capped mountains beckoned me to outstretch my arms and begin to sing. “Peaceful,” was the word that kept resonating in my mind.
In an instant the peace was ripped from me as I heard my husband's urgent voice calling my name. It wasn’t very loud at first, and then gradually I could hear it more clearly. As I focused on his voice, my mountains and lush fields faded away and I opened my eyes to the reality that I was not in Austria, but in the ER.
At least 5 nurses were working on me. I could hear nothing but my husband, and his pleading for me to stay awake and focus on his face. I knew deep in my soul that I needed to obey him, though the pain I had had earlier had now spread to more areas of my body. My doctor arrived at the foot of my bed and I was wheeled off to the Operating Room for emergency surgery.
I woke up a few hours later in the recovery room, unable to see anything because they had taken my contacts out, my mouth so dry I could barely talk, and when I tried to speak, hardly a sound escaped my cracked lips.
My husband was waiting for me in my hospital room, impatience and anxiety all over his face. Over the next few moments he described to me how the doctor had come out of surgery and told him that they were able to stop the internal bleeding. I was six weeks pregnant, and at the end of teaching an aerobics class, my tubal pregnancy had burst. It was more pain that I had ever experienced before, or since. Blood instantly pooled to my abdomen, 3.5 liters to be exact. That was over half the blood in my body. The doctor didn’t have time to save my tube, they had to extract the blood from my abdomen and perform a blood transfusion immediately.
The doctor told my husband I had “one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel.” What saved me besides my doctor? My Heart. I have a strong heart. It’s strength is why I had so much blood pooled into my abdomen so quickly, and the reason it was able to keep me alive with even a small amount of blood left circulating through the rest of my body.
Ask yourself this question, “How’s MY Heart?”
The purpose of this blog is to help you strengthen your heart, not just through fitness and correct eating principles, but also with stress management techniques, inspiration of all forms, up to date research information, and proper goal setting strategies. It is a Life Style Change, not a quick fix. Everything worth having in life requires a little sacrifice.
