August 10th, 2013 Was the day my heart stopped.
I had been diagnosed in 2011 with a pituitary insufficiency due to a Traumatic Brain Injury, TBI, from an event in 1992 that left me with life changing and chronic injuries.
An “Empty Sella” was found in my brain November 23rd, 2011 while I lived in Austin, Texas. This can be a completely benign condition for 95% of those diagnosed with this situation. However, in my case, the water now residing in that cranial cavity right behind our sinus cavity, in our skulls, is now the very factor that the physicians believe is compromising the normal functions of my pituitary and or hypothalamus. A compromised pituitary/hypothalamus axis, P/H Axis, means that the master gland of our body, what our pituitary is most often called: is NOT signaling my body to produce the life giving hormones that are a part of our daily existence.
I went through an adrenal gland test that proved my adrenal glands WILL work when triggered. They imaged my adrenal glands too and determined they are not necrotic or damaged. Every biological system that could be tested was. Every blood test that can be performed – was.
My P/H axis simply does not send the signals. My body CAN make what is needed. The signal to the body to make these life giving components simply does not send the messages out to the rest of my body TO make the needed hormones.
This is not an issue of being a woman in her 40’s. This is a rare situation. I have had emergency room physicians tell me I am the first real life paitent they have ever seen in 30 years of practice. They have read about patients like me before in Medical Journals yet NEVER met one. I have had 26 year veteran Emergency Room Nurses tell me I am the second paitent with this diagnosis they have ever met. I have stumped endocrinologists; the specific area of medicine that cares for endocrine disorders. I have had imaging and blood work done to verify this condition. It is real and it is rare. There are less than 10 specialists across our nation that specialize in this condition and NONE of them are in Texas or Colorado.
PI/Pituitary Insufficiency is treatable. Due to the entire hormone system being in the mix: I am on a daily mix of medicine from pills, compounded creams and injections. Without these medications I can die. I carry an emergency injection kit and pills on me everywhere. I wear a medicalert bracelet on my left wrist I never take off. I have directions in my wallet and injection kits attached to the walls throughout in my house; with the life saving injection inside each kit…just incase…I need ….immediately…. if I ‘drop’.
That is what happened in August 2013. I had moved from Austin,Texas back to Fort Collins, Colorado June 3rd, 2013. We had left Colorado 5 years prior due to my husband’s continued commitment to the U.S Army and a deployment in Iraq for a year long tour as a combat medic. I had called ahead from Texas to Colorado doctors and made appointments with these medical providers. I brought the most recent medical records to prevent any gap in my care. Filled more than one month of medications- as much as my insurance would allow. Obtained pre-authorizations…I had referrals..I did EVERYTHING I could and by the book.
I did exactly as my doctors in Austin told me to do and set up appointments while still in Texas and sent records ahead of our move to establish medical care immediately upon my arrival. Even with all my efforts and actions to prevent ANY gap in my care or medicines: a gap occurred. The Physician’s Assistant, PA, treating me in Colorado did not understand the depth of my condition and was not helpful in securing 3 of the necessary hormones. She was impossible to deal with. She was in over her head and would not pass me on to the general practice physician,GP, in the practice.
The office would not allow me to make an appointment with the GP. The PA had to send me up to the GP and she would NOT do this. So I went without. I did not want to: I wrote letters to the PA, I called and begged to be seen by the GP…went in for appointments..over and over with the PA hoping she would kick me up to the GP. I ASKED her to do just that! She had some ego issue going on and would NOT pass me up to the GP. I did ALL I COULD to obtain these non-narcotic, non-controlled life saving medications once I landed back in northern Colorado and was under this PA’s care.
I was growing physically weak from my deteriorating medical condition and thought I was just emotionally spent. I did not know my physical symptoms were as serious as they were. If I had known I would have gone back to the Emergency Room, as I had been there several times already, and I would have pitched a fit. I was still new to this condition and was still learning to live with it. I had no previous experience to fall back on to indicate I was in serious trouble. BUT- I felt it in my gut. I knew. I was listening to myself..my body, my intuition…. my higher or unconscious self..I felt that I was in “trouble”…real trouble.
I TOLD anyone who would listen that I was NOT doing “okay” and I was in trouble. Big medical trouble. I told my neighbors, I told the local pharmacist, I told my children so they knew to call 911 and wrote up what they need to say to the 911 operator if they ever had to call for me and yes….yes I sure did tell my husband.
I was not listened to. At all.
No one listened. Even with a blood pressure of 176/101 at a doctor’s office here in Colorado recorded in my chart….No One listened.
I made it a little over 60 days through these worsening symptoms and bizarre blood pressure readings.
August 10th, 2013 I woke to a feeling of serous impending doom. I called for my sons and the only one still in the house was my youngest. I have two beautiful, handsome, intelligent, and spirited sons. I had this overwhelming drive to tell him things. I had to tell him how much I loved him and his brother.. what he and his brother have meant to me. I was on a mission and I couldn’t control these urges. We cried together. I held him. I did NOT want to let go. Yet it was a gorgeous summer day back in Colorado, their birthplace..and only home they have known… and he wanted to go play. I had to let go …and let him go…. play….
He left my bedroom to go outside with his new neighborhood friends. I did NOT want to be alone. I was alone upstairs in a newer bigger house. I was so weak going up and down the stairs that I would make the trip once down and once up a day. This was an incredibly difficult labor to accomplish. I would stay downstairs until I HAD to go upstairs or vice versa.
I made it downstairs to an empty house. I felt as if I was being driven out of our house and unto my front porch. I sat on the stoop. I was alone and did NOT want to be. I did not know where my husband was. The truck was gone. My SUV parked in the drive. He was off somewhere. I had no idea where or when he would be home and due to the strains I felt between us I did not text him to find out where he was or when he would be back. We just moved back into living together after being apart for 2 years. It was the boys and I alone for 2 years. For many reasons. It was a tough time. I didn’t feel as if he wanted me around. I felt very isolated. I was scared for so many reasons. August 10th, 2013 I was beyond scared and sensed that I was in a really bad way.. and all alone.
With all the remaining energy I had I mustered enough mental clarity to call an appointment phone line to schedule an appointment to see the local doctor the upcoming Wednesday. I bypassed the PA diversion tactic in the scheduling center and booked my first appointment with the Doctor that would later become my medical savior. To my left.. looking north… I noticed a neighbor’s garage door was up which was an indication she was home and willing to visit with me or the other neighbors. It felt as if I was at the 22 mile wall marathon runners speak of. My legs were jelly and I was so tired I could barely speak even though I had just woken up an hour earlier. The 5 inch high curb looked like a huge gorge I had to navigate. I was afraid I would fall just stepping down into the street. I had to go north by one house and then cross the one street to make it to the neighbor’s open garage.
I made it. I collapsed into a chair. I sat there alone in the shade of her garage. A little bit later she came out and realized I was there. I was too weak to call for her or even text her that I was now sitting in her messy inside carport before she popped out of her kitchen into the garage. We exchanged brief pleasantries. She would talk a lot. So my lack of talking was not an indication that I was in trouble. I am guessing I came across as my polite self.. I let others speak: I can be quiet. We waved to the gal across the street as she tended to her front yard.
She was her upbeat active self preparing for a day of hiking with her daughters. She fussed about talking about this and that….about her plans for her and her two girls.. gathering their excursion supplies and calling out snack suggestions as she prepped for their outing. It was my cue to go back home. I had no idea how I would do that. I did not have the ability to explain to her what was going on. I rose up from the chair and exited the shade of her garage into the mid-morning, mile-high, hot hot hot late summer sun and right then as I approached her mini van I put my left hand the door to steady myself….I felt fuzzy headed and weaker..and then..just then…
I dropped.
I “came to” with her face in mine. Her previous happy smile gone and replaced with an expression of full and total terror. Her once soft and gentle voice was now like a screeching bird’s cry of distress. She was upset. I was a bit confused and did not know what I had done. Did I damage her vehicle? What did I do?
She rolled the chair I had previous been sitting in over to me and helped me sit. She then rolled me back into the shade and safety of her garage. Thank goodness she had extra office furnishing in her garage. I was never so happy to have a chair on wheels. I began to speak ..well I tried… I was not able to articulate…she called out across the street for our other neighbor who just happened to be a registered nurse, who had been in her front yard directly across the street working in her garden. The RN came running with a medical supply bag she kept in her car, as she was a “home visit nurse” , and had a whole plethora of medical supplies stocked in her Jetta.
Next I knew a pulse oximeter had been put on one of my right hand’s finger and a blood pressure cuff was slapped on my upper left arm. I couldn’t keep track of what was going on. It was a blur. I remember the RN telling her son to find my boys and their father and he dashed off towards my house. Next I knew and saw was the imposing figure of their father, my son’s, walking confidently towards us, right in the middle of the intersection, a T-shaped intersection, to us in the garage. No hurried pace..almost as if he was strolling…I began to fade out. I heard the RN shout at my husband ” she has no pulse” and I was gone from my earthsuit. I left my body.
I was dead.
I had died in the presence of a Veterinarian, the owner of the garage I was now dead in, a RN, the gardening neighbor, and my even my husband, the Father to my two sons, and a Combat Medic for the U.S. Army.
This is where my Near Death Experience, NDE, really begins.
This is when I met, what I now call, “Our Source”..
Please make a mental note that this is no creative writing piece. Nor is this a”False Memory”. This is not a fantasy. Or even wishful thinking. This was and is real. My body stopped. My heart stopped. I had died.
Please make another mental note that there were three adult witnesses ALL with medical degrees in attendance. I was attached to medical equipment that records our vital signs. The alarm from the pulse-oximeter sounded an indication alarm that I was not registering any vital signs. There was no more oxygen in my blood for the pulse-ox to record because I was no longer breathing.
My body had died.
And I was simultaneously reborn before or unto.. our Source.
I was now in a separate dimension….a different reality….perhaps a new realm… than our Earth life exists in.. ……that unlike anything we know while being alive and in our bodies….as we all our currently “in”.
This is all I can share right now. Yet, I will return, and detail my NDE further.
Jade T. Hunter