Okay. I am a slacker. I'm pretty sure I say that every time I blog. haha. But I am. A lot has happened in the last couple of months, so I am kind of splitting things up. This one will just be about my graduation.
I am actually writing down this story because as word traveled through the grapevine, many members of my family were under the impression that I collapsed while speaking at graduation. I did not collapse while speaking at graduation. Here is what actually happened.
The week after Lilli was born was seriously the craziest week of our lives. No joke. We got home from the hospital on Friday, April 26, which was my birthday. Coming home was a good birthday present. :) The following Monday, however, was finals week. Both Scott and I had 3 or 4 finals each, so we spent the next few days studying non-stop and taking our tests. I am not joking when I say I literally studied every waking minute. Even at 2:30am while I was nursing her, I would go through flashcards. haha. It was kind of pathetic. I finished my last final on that Thursday, a week after she was born.
After finals, of course, was graduation. I was chosen as the "Outstanding Senior" for the College of Health at the U and was asked to be the Undergraduate speaker at the Convocation for our College. It was kind of cool. The college of health includes departments like Communication Sciences and Disorders (mine), Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Parks and Rec, Nutrition, etc. So It was kind of a big deal being chosen. I was very surprised. I got to be up on stage with all of the professors and the graduate student speaker.
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| I would put a picture of my walking with my diploma, but I forgot to tell Scott I was going first, so they are all blurry. So, here is a picture of me sitting on stage. Woohoo. |
So on Thursday, I had to go meet the Dean for the first time and then give my speech to his secretaries so they could see what they thought. Friday morning, I needed to be there early so I could line up with all of the faculty since I would be sitting on stage. So, of course, Lilli decided not to sleep at all the night before and was in no condition to sit through a graduation. ha. So Scott's Mom and step-dad offered to stay and watch her so Scott could go. So Scott, his Dad and step-mom, and my parents were all going.
I left to go early, and found out that the shuttles were not going to be running from our apartment like they usually were. But... the Huntsman Center is only like a half a mile or a mile away from our apartment, so I was just going to have to walk. And here's where I was an idiot. I realized I was not going to make it on time if I walked-- SO, not even thinking about it, I started to jog down. 9 days after having a baby. They tell you not to do things like this. Believe them.
I got there, lined up, and graduation started. I was feeling fine. I got up and gave my speech (though the microphone was kind of freaking out, and I was not quite as prepared as I would have liked to have been since Lilli was screaming the whole night before). Even though it was less than ideal- I finished and sat back down on stage. My department was the first one to get our diplomas, so I went first and then sat back on stage again with the Chair of my department.
At this point, I went to bend over to get my program from under my chair and felt some pretty excruciating pain in my abdomen. Excruciating enough that I could not, in fact, bend over in my chair. So while all the other colleges went through presenting their diplomas, I sat as still as I could. Finally, it ended and I very gingerly walked to the bathroom to make sure everything was okay, but I found that I was bleeding way more than I had been. So I went outside and started up the stairs to where my family was. Stairs were a bad, bad idea. By the time I got to the top, I was in tears. My abdomen hurt soooo bad. I was pretty sure I had done something very bad to my body. Because I rarely, rarely cry because of pain, Scott knew I was really hurting and literally ran back to our apartment to get the car because there was no way I could walk back.
While we were waiting for him, I started to get very light headed. So I sat down. And I was basically a huge party pooper while all of our family members came to congratulate me. I was not in good shape. Then I started getting light headed enough that I literally could not stand up. Finally Scott got there with the car and had his mom and step-dad stay with Lilli at our apartment. My parents, Scott and I piled in and we were on our way to an insta-care. Then I started passing out in the car, and my chest started getting tight. My dad took my pulse, and it must have been low because he told Scott to go to the ER instead. So we did.
We got to the ER, they took me in, and Scott and I were quickly ushered into a room. The pain was still quite excruciating. Every time I moved it was pretty intolerable. They wanted to give me some morphine but had to check my blood pressure first, so they checked it while I was laying down, and then they had me sit up for one minute then checked it again, then had me stand up for one minute then checked it again. Well- I couldn't stand for one minute. I sat down before I passed out, and the nurse quickly took it. AND it made sense why I couldn't stand up. My blood pressure when I tried to stand up dropped to somewhere around 50/30. Very low. My normal is more around 120/70.
Because my blood pressure was so extremely low, they couldn't give me anything until they got it up. So they gave me a bag of fluids, checked it again, and it had gotten better, but still wasn't good enough. So they gave me another bag of fluids. By that time, it was finally up enough that they gave me some morphine (which I actually hated because it made my head feel so funny). They rest of the day they did test after test to make sure that I hadn't done anything very bad.
It turns out that the jogging must have triggered some like super-contraction (seriously worse than anything I felt during labor). Because this was so painful, it sent my body into shock, and that made the blood pressure drop sooooo low and made it hard for me to stay conscious. So I spent form about 11:00am-5:00pm in the ER after my graduation. Lamest graduation day ever. haha.
Even though the rest of the day was not ideal, however, it was pretty cool that I graduated. And that I got to speak. And all that cool stuff. Because the day was so crazy, I only got one picture before I had to sit down as to maintain consciousness. So here is a picture of my mom and I. :) Take that Bachelor's degree!
