What happened yesterday...

I don't know if this had anything to do with it.

I had a little headache on Sunday afternoon and felt a little blech. But by evening I was feeling much better.

I had a hard time sleeping Sunday, was up at 4:00 a.m. knitting, of all things. Then I went back to bed.

Since my husband was still feeling sick, I was planning on a lazy day, working on a piece I was planning to do for a Healthy Communities meeting tonight. I had a few notes, was a little anxious about it, but pretty confident that as I journaled on Monday, I would come across the thing I most needed to say. I was going to call a few leaders, too.

At about 9:00 I had a feeling of foreboding. Things deteriorated rapidly after that. I hadn't had much to eat, but it didn't matter. I don't want to go into details, but at 2:40, I asked my husband to call 911. I had talked to a friend a while earlier, and she said that I sounded dehydrated, and I should go to the emergency room. I said that I didn't think I could get in the car. So I waited.

At 2:40, I got a ride in an ambulance.

It seems embarrasing to say this now. But I really didn't think I could stand up. The ambulance crew said that my blood pressure was very low. They started an IV with saline water, and that seemed to help some, although I still felt very achy and tired.

My husband said I looked about as white as a sheet.

I didn't have to stay overnight. I was sent home at 6:00 p.m. with a couple of prescriptions. Unfortunately, I waited so long to pick them up that my regular pharmacy was closed. The next pharmacy I went to didn't have the medication. At the third one I waited so long I almost started crying.

To be honest, part of me wanted to stay overnight in the hospital, because I have never stayed overnight in the hospital. But, part of me wanted to go home. I still hoped I could speak my piece at the meeting tonight.

It was a Healthy Communities meeting; did I say that? It was to be about Health Care, but more than that, about Health -- about how our communities promote our health, or not; about caring about not just our own life, but our neighbor's, too. It was for a hope for communities which care for and empower all people.

I'm not there tonight.