Ouch

From Imagination Prompt:

Describe the most serious illness or accident that you have had.

I've had a few unpleasant illnesses/accidents in my life.

I was hit by a car when I was seven -- the driver turned a corner too fast but, fortunately, it still wasn't that fast and I was okay, though I still carry a couple of scars on my knees. The woman who hit me would come by often and bring me presents -- her guilt over it went on for much longer than any concern I had.

I had a retropharyngeal abscess once. Don't know, to this day, why or how I got it. I had to have surgery and then I was okay -- and it's not been anything which has reoccurred.

I had a CT scan (for asthma problems) which showed a mass (right above my breastbone) but when they opened me up, it was not there. Artifact (something which shows up on a scan which isn't actually there) or divine intervention? I'll take either one.

All of those were fairly frightening but probably the worst was what happened when my second child was born. I'd been having peculiar contraction-like pains but my doctor seemed to think it was Braxton-Hicks. Long story short, I had a regular appointment on the morning of July 6 (the baby was due July 14) and when the nurse took my blood pressure, I literally saw her jump out of her skin (okay, not literally but close enough). I was put in the hospital immediately where my water was broken -- it was full of blood -- and I was having an emergency c-section within minutes. I had to have more surgery because, in the rushed effort to get the baby out, a suture had gone around one ureter -- so that had to be fixed.

Anyway, this was a placental abruption. I had to have a blood transfusion because I'd lost so much of my own and I don't remember much about that day -- or the days afterward -- I do remember asking Mark if I was going to die -- and, quite frankly, I was so sick, I didn't care if I did. Fortunately, baby Wesley was fine -- but I had to stay in the hospital for nine days. Wesley will be 22 in July and, while there are a lot of things I can't remember, the overall experience still lingers somewhere in the recesses of my mind. Even so, I made the decision to have another baby, knowing another abruption was a real concern. As well it should have been -- but that's another story for another day.

Anyway, this was one of those things which, only fifty years ago -- maybe fewer -- would have probably taken me (and the baby) out of this world. It just shows why so many women -- and babies -- died over the course of history. The abscess would have probably done me in as well, had I not been living in the modern era.

So, yeah, this is why when I say I would love to time travel, I would want the ability to get back to this time period pronto. Because sometimes you haven't got a moment to lose.