...In Sickness and In Health....

Would you believe me if I told you that in the past 3 1/2 years that we have been dating we have now been to the ER 16 times? Would you believe me if I told you that we will have each had surgery while dating by the time we get married? Would you believe me if I said we have had one ambulance ride and 2 spinal taps? Would you believe me if I told you that combined we have been in 5 car accidents? It's all true. :)

I have a feeling that when that phrase, " in sickness and in health" comes up in the vows, you will hear snkickering throughout the church. Probably from our families the most! Who knew that the two of us would be so accident proned but it has now turned into our trade mark. We have grown accustomed to hearing, " Hey, you guys should open up your own ER that way you will just be there in case something goes wrong." or " Why don't you just get married in the ER....it probably has the most meaning." On our defense though...everything that has happened as been a great story...and we have a huge collection of hospital bands!

Now, I know most of you are wondering how we find ourselves at the front door of the ER or in the OR or without a car ( I didn't mean for that to sound like Dr. Seuss) so many times. I'll fill you in with some of the highlights...

Let's start back at Concordia, our first year of dating...Trav had no idea at this point about my medical history of asthma and neither of us knew that my heart would start acting up. I was still blinded by the fact that Trav really is not a good driver but this would all soon change...

* Our first ER visit was when I had a massive asthma attack at CUI and my dad had to rush to school to pick me up and take me to the ER because I literally could not breathe. I remember sitting in the car, I couldn't feel my hands, and Trav kept texting me thinking I could text him back but I couldn't...I don't really think he knew what was going on but when he saw me, he figured it out pretty quick. For the next couple of days he wouldn't let me do anything or go anywhere and when we would hang he would just stare at me to make sure I was breathing. I knew right then that this guy would stick by my side forever. :)

* Soon after Trav split open the middle of his nose in basketball and we both should have known this would be the beginning of 3 years of basketball injuries to come our way!

* Next comes the "famous" car accident. It was a rainy morning and Trav and I were driving to work an event in Huntington Beach. I have no clue why we were in seperate cars but we were. Trav was following me and we were driving down this hill, headed towards the beach...well, the roads were slick, I lost control and slammed into the center divider....wait, I shouldn't say slammed...my car jumped up onto the center divided as if it was trying jump over a hurdle...but failed. Now this gets good. See Trav was still behind me when this happened and instead of slamming on his breaks or swerving into the other lane and pulling up next to me, he did the unthinkable. He jumped the divided and slammed into the back of me! I would like to think he did it because we stick together and he figured, " Hey, if she is going in...then I am too." But to this day I can't figure out why he followed my car! I would have loved to been in his head while he made that mental decision...."ok, I'm going in!: Yeah, try calling our parents to tell them this story. They didn't laugh at first like we did.

* 2 weeks after this accident, Trav was driving again in the rain on the 405 and a car hit him from the side, sending him spinning in circles across the freeway till he smashed into the side wall. Yup, his car was totalled after that. That civic held up untill the end. Trav was fine with no injuries but, neither of us like driving in the rain anymore!

* Ok, last car accident for a few years. The day after I got my car back from being fixed I was at the bank waiting for a parking spot. This SUV begins to pull out of the spot and I was waiting to pull in but the car never stopped pulling backwards. I start laying on my horn and the next thing I know, he slams right into me! Oh man...how in the world am I going to explain this to my dad after I just got the car back! Luckily, this was not my fault so it made the call a lil bit easier!

* Ok...we will skip thru some events and head to probably the scariest one we have had. Trav had been really sick, gone to the ER and had a spinal tap for meningitis. HE came to CUI with my parents to watch me perform in a show. I was getting ready and about 30 min before going n stage, I receive a text from him telling me he is going home because he doesn't feel good. He explained what was happening and I rushed out to his car to find him collapsed over the side. I realized his shirt was soaked from sweat and he had no color in his face. he draped himself over me as we walked down the hill to get him inside. When I laid him down on the phone he started talking randomly and I realized something was seriously wrong. I called everyone in my family and his to ask what to do but no one answered! Finally, I got a hold of Heidi and she called 911. The paramedics came and Trav told them he was wearing new white underwear his mom bought him....they were cracking up and Trav had no clue he was saying what he was saying. Well, I then watched them put him in the ambulance and drive off and I had to go step on stage and perform...not knowing what was happening to Trav! It was the longest 45 min of my life! Well, Trav ended up being ok...after his spinal tap his CSF was leaking from the site, causing a whole bunch of complications. But the put a patch to close up the hole and Trav was good to go after that! Now whenever he gets awful headaches I freak out that something is wrong again!

* The next few times at the ER would be for my breathing again. Followed by a sprained ankle for Trav in basketball practice. It seemed that every few weeks, one of us would end up in the ER.

* Let's jump ahead to Trav's eyebrow! He was hit in basketball practice and called me to meet him in the ER. When I showed up I found that his eyebrow was hanging half off! I know...gross...but being a nursing student I was a little intrigued. Trav had to get it sewn back in place with a good amount of stitches and now his eyebrow looks like nothing ever happened!

* One night Trav was at my apartment and was getting a water bottle and asked if I wanted one. It was dark in the TV room because we were watching a movie, so when he threw it to me I didn't even see it coming! The bottle hit me right in the nose/eye and the shock of it sent me into an asthma attack! I was crying...Trav was laughing...then he realized I couldn't breath! I went to use my inhaler and it was empty...great. But I drank some caffeine and I was fine....just had a minor black eye!

* 2 more car accidents happened...along with ER visits. The next big issue would be my heart. I was having these episodes where my heart would race really fast, I couldn't breather, I had chest pain and my arms would go numb. After many dr's visits, tests run, heart monitors worn for a month...I ended up in the ER. It was after my nieces birthday party and I was driving to Trav's house. I was feeling funny at the party but ignored it. On the freeway my heart started racing uncontrollably and it was getting harder to breathe. My arms went from sharp pain to feeling numb and my vision was getting blurry...I thought I was going to black out while driving. I picked up my phone and hit send so it would call the last number I dialed and that person could help me. Well, it was Trav and somehow he got me to pull off the freeway to this ditch by the gas station and wait for him. ( luckily his house was only 5 min away). When he picked me up I was collapsed in my car and he took me to the ER where my dad was there to meet us. After some IV meds and them monitoring my heart for awhile I was good to go!

* After that we went quite awhile away from the ER. Trav proposed and a month later I had my heart surgery. After they gave me a sedative some nurse made a joke and apparently I laughed. They later told me that he said, " at least someone laughs at my jokes!" which I replied with, " it's ok, it was just a pity laugh!" Don't give me sedatives...I guess I speak the truth! My cardiologist inserted catheters into my veins and traced them up into my heart. I woke up during surgery ( I was supposed to be awake during this) to see on the machine that my heart was racing at 260 beats for minute! I thought I was going to jump off the operating table...it felt like my body was slamming against the table but I had no control. I spent 85% of a 2 1/2 hour surgery awake but everyone in there was comforting and explained everything they were doing to me. I wouldn't do it again though.

* I thought we were in the clear until last Tues night. Trav was in the second half of his game against Concordia when a player from their team came down on his nose. At first we just thought he had a bloody nose, but I sent Trent to the sidelines where Trav was getting looked at by the trainer to take pics and Trent came back to say his nose was broken. Now, you couldn't tell from far away but after the game when he walked up it was very obvious that his nose was completely to the left. Let me tell you...it was hard to keep a straight face when talking to him but Trav has such a great personality he was still able to laugh through the whole thing We sat at the ER for a little bit and they took some x-rays only to tell him that they could not fix it there because they didn't want to mess it up. Trav was referred to an ENT ( Ear, Nose Throat) and we saw him on Thurs. Trav was told that the Dr would insert bars into his nose and push it back over and if for some reason his bones have started fusing back together, he will re-break it first. The Dr gave Trav the choice of having this in the office with local anesthetic or in the OR and be completely sedated. At first, Trav chose the local anesthetic untill he talked with some friends who said it was the most awful pain they ever experienced. Trav quick made a phone call and changed it to surgery which will take place this Wed. He has some pretty sweet black eyes right now and we are both just thankful this happened 5 months before the wedding as opposed to the week of.

So, those are pretty much the high lights of our accicent-prone relationship! I think our parents are happy to have us off of their health insurance! Trav and I always joke that even if we don't have a place to live we better have good health insurance, because for us that's what we really need! Keep your fingers crossed that from now until July there aren't any car accidents, surgery, or ER visits from the 2 of us! Lost his eyebrow...


Crooked?

The squiggly things are the catheters in my heart

S/P heart Catherization...He never left my side :)